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PARSHA POSTS: SHOFETIM

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Aug 17, 2026, 7:06 PM

Do Not Raise the Axe

The Kanaani’s journey from the Gates of Eden to America and Finland

Michael Zoosman

Aug 16, 2026, 7:09 AM

“Eye for an eye?” A 2026 Shabbat Shof’tim Sermon Against the Death Penalty

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The below text is a copy of the sermon that this writer delivered for Shabbat Shof’tim at Or Shalom Synagogue in Vancouver, BC on August 15, 2026. The writer is a former Jewish prison chaplain and co-founder of the...

Aug 15, 2026, 12:23 AM

Parshas Shofetim: And So It Goes…

Prophecy as the Living Connection to HaShem After Moshe Rabbeinu The moment of Revelation at Har Sinai stands as the singular climax of human history. Standing at the foot of the burning mountain, the entire nation of Bnei Yisrael experienced...

Aug 15, 2026, 12:21 AM

I Will Never Tell You How to Vote

Every election season, I find myself facing the same question: How much politics belongs on the pulpit? My instinct has always been clear: very little. The synagogue is one of the few remaining places where people who disagree profoundly about...

Maximillian Hollander

Aug 14, 2026, 7:31 PM

Eglah Arufah: We Are All Responsible

In the final section of Parshat Shoftim, the Torah describes a strange ceremony called the Eglah Arufah, which was a procedure done if a dead body was found near a city that was presumably murdered, but the murderer was...

Aug 14, 2026, 6:42 PM

Parashat Shoftim

The Justice That Sustains the Path Shoftim opens with three words that have echoed through history like few others: Tzedek, tzedek tirdof — Justice, justice shall you pursue. Not a typographical error, the repetition. It is structural emphasis — justice...

Sherwin Pomerantz

Aug 14, 2026, 6:31 PM

74 Days to Elections: Justice, Justice Shall You Pursue

Tomorrow in synagogues worldwide the Torah potion of Shoftim (Judges) will be read. The portion opens with the following words from Deuteronomy, Chapter 16: 18…You must appoint judges and sheriffs for yourselves in all your cities that God, your God, is...

William Hamilton

Aug 14, 2026, 5:51 PM

Nobody Left Behind

“It’s like talking to Americans about personal freedom,” Haviv Rettig Gur says when he’s describing Israel's spirit of solidarity. More than 90% of Israeli High Schoolers affirmatively answered this question: If the Jews of this or that region of the...

Talyah Ginsberg

Aug 14, 2026, 2:30 PM

Justice, justice shall you pursue — preferably after coffee

Gavel and coffee. (iStock)

Elul's court means we must first give up our double-standards and only then demand leaders who do more than look thoughtful in photos (Shofetim)

Aug 14, 2026, 8:16 AM

Testing Prophecy (Shoftim, Covenant & Conversation)

In his enumeration of the various leadership roles within the nation that would take shape after his death, Moses mentions not only the priest/judge and the king, but also the prophet: “The Lord your God will raise up another prophet...

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