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Beit Midrash
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Jewish police are still something of a rarity in the Jewish psyche. The Germans used them in the ghettoes of destruction that they established. The police themselves were eventually also liquidated by the Germans but they were widely viewed by the limited number of survivors of the ghettoes as being reprehensible people. The police in Israel were originally viewed as an heroic group, part of the ethos and culture of the "new Jew" fostered by the early secular Zionist pioneers. Over the past few years some of this original luster has dimmed due to police misconduct, corruption and inefficiency. Petty personal squabbling among the leaders of the police has also led to the tarnishing of the police image. The police claim to be underpaid and overworked which certainly may be true. The Torah’s admonition of creating an effective police force nonetheless remains in place. The public perception of the police is as important many times as is the actual effectiveness of the police itself. A lack of public trust in police behavior and probity endangers the entire balanced structure of a law abiding society. As such the Torah’s declaration in this week’s parsha regarding the judiciary and the police remains intensely relevant in our time and place as well. There is a special prayer in the Amidah for the welfare of our judiciary. The police are also subliminally included in that prayer.
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
