Thursday, November 27, 2014

Control The Intake - Shoftim

Control the Intake
Parshat Shoftim

A world gone mad. Those are the sentiments I come to when listening to the news. Murders, beatings, robberies, shooting planes out of the sky, terrorism, and so much more. Right is wrong and wrong is right.

And then there is Israel. The double standard, the hatred, the anti-Semitism, and the so-called "cease-fires" that only bring more Rockets mortars and terrorism.  The so called analysts and pundits who provide insight and ignorance on every topic under the sun.

So I did a radical thing, I turned off the news. Not easy for a news junkie, but necessary, and I believe empowering. Instead, I choose to focus my mind's energy on the things that I can control and give me hope. Family, community, and Jewish education. Making a difference in my immediate circle. Anything really important, I figured will find it's way to me.

Just because it's on the news does not mean that I have to listen to it.

In this week's Torah portion of Shoftim G-d commands us to place judges and watchman at our gates and entrances. The context and purpose of this commandment is to establish communities, provide security, order, and a system of justice in those communities.

Our rabbis explain that this teaching also refers to a spiritual "border control". The portals into our being. Our eyes, nose, mouth, and mind need to be watched as well.

Control your intake. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

It's not just a good diet slogan. It's the key to physical and spiritual sanity.

Shabbat Shalom

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