The Weekly eDrash

Most Recent Teachings

 

Parasha: Nitzavim, Va'yelech

Circumcise Your Heart

Tags:  circumcision, heart, inner nature, pride, repentance, stubbornness, uncircumcised

Moses predicted that when God restores Israel, He will circumcise our hearts. The Bible uses the term "uncircumcised heart" to refer to a person whose stubbornness and pride makes it impossible for him to obey God's commandments. The uncircumcised heart does not submit to God's will. A person with an uncircumcised heart is a person whose flesh (physical inclinations) dictates his will. A person with a circumcised heart is one
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Parasha: Ki Tavo

Good Karma

Tags:  actions, blessing, consequences, curse, deeds, disobedience, obedience, punishment, reward, success

All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 28:2) Have you ever heard of karma? The word karma is a Sanskrit word that was originally used in Eastern religions (like Buddhism and Hindu) to express the concept of an action or deed begetting consequences in the future. A similar English concept says, "What goes around comes around." It is the
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Parasha: Ki Tetze

The Least of the Commandments

Tags:  commandments, compassion, emotional pain, empathy, mercy

You shall certainly let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, in order that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days. (Deuteronomy 22:6-7) "Don't make mountains out of molehills" means don't turn a trivial matter into a large concern. Yeshua seems to espouse a similar sentiment when He chastises the religious for scrupulously observing the small details of God's Law
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Parasha: Shoftim

Clear Boundaries

Tags:  boundaries, conflict, neighbors, orphans, privacy, widows

You shall not move your neighbor's boundary mark, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the LORD your God gives you to possess. (Deuteronomy 19:14) An English maxim has it that fences make good neighbors. In biblical times, territorial borders were marked off with boundary stones. Typically, a boundary-stone landmark might be one stone set up on end, indicating the border
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Parasha: Re'eh

The Blessed Life

Tags:  Bible, blessing, commandments, curse, Torah scroll

See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse. (Deuteronomy 11:26) Moses told the children of Israel that the commandments of Torah would prove to be either a blessing or a curse to them depending on whether or not they obeyed them. He told the Israelites to conduct a covenant ceremony after entering the land of Canaan. They were to hold the ceremony at Shechem--the place where
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Parasha: Ekev

Circumcise Your Hearts

Tags:  circumcision, heart, rebirth, uncircumcision, will

So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer. (Deuteronomy 10:16) Moses told the children of Israel to circumcise their hearts. That's a strange image. Circumcision refers to removal of the foreskin. What does it mean to "circumcise your heart"? In Deuteronomy 10:16, Moses compared an uncircumcised heart with a stiff neck. A stiff neck is a biblical idiom that refers to pride and stubbornness. A person with a
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