Welcome back to the Torah of Life podcast. Thanks for listening.

This week we read Parshat Shoftim, which focuses on judges and an orderly rule of law.

It happens to be the 26th anniversary of my Bar Mitzvah, and I will hopefully always remember the wise words of the Torah reading: Justice, justice, you shall pursue. (My mother liked that verse so much she embroidered it on the tallit she made for me).

Reading the parasha today, I was struck by the instructions not to offer any less-than-perfect animals as sacrifices to God. Why does God care what the animals look like? And does the same law apply to our prayers today? Is it better not to pray than to offer impure prayers? What do we do with our wandering thoughts when we're trying to pray? Does it matter where we pray and what clothes we where? Can those become impure and if so, can we still pray there? What does God really want from our prayer anyway? Tune in for wisdom about all of the above!

You can find some of the sources I referenced here:

https://islamqa.info/en/125879

https://www.yeshiva.co/midrash/shiur.asp?id=10573

Thanks again for listening to the Torah of Life podcast, your home for transformational wisdom from a Jewish lens.