Hi, welcome back to the Daily Study. I want to thank a follower for reminding me to post yesterday's Daily Study. I completely missed it, so we are going to dive into Thursday's reading for the weekly Torah portion of Shoftim, looking inside Deuteronomy, chapter 18 and 19, verses 14 to 13. Let's dive in.
Moses then warned the Jewish people not to listen to false prophets and review the laws of cities of refugee. When someone commits an accidental murder, this stroke of divine providence indicates that the accidental murderer needs to be exiled to one of these cities in order to cure himself of some inner defect that would otherwise go unrectified. The victim's close relatives are allowed to kill the accidental murderer unless he has fled to one of these specifically designated as asylum cities. That sounds extremely intense.
Why is the Torah being so meticulous within this topic and what's going on? Let's dive into the verse. Shalosh Arim Tavdil Lach Vagomer. Moses told the Jewish people, you must designate three cities for yourself.
Allegorically, the relative who seeks to avenge a victim's blood is our own evil inclination. It attempts to trick us into sinning, thereby causing us to suffer some form of spiritual death. Example, a loss of vitality in our spiritual life. The messianic redemption will be our ultimate refugee from this pursuer, for the evil inclination will be nullified in the messianic future.
Right, we're told that the evil inclination will no longer be in power when Mashiach comes. Similarly, the future resumption of the temple service will afford all who need it in the opportunity to complete their atonement. In the meantime, the study of the Torah is our refugee from our evil inclination, for the holiness of the Torah has the power to neutralize the effect of evil on us. What a fully loaded daily study, and this is just coming to teach us that the Torah is what will keep us connected to ourselves, ourselves, to the people who love us, to the core of ourselves, our souls.
Because the Torah is God's word, and God is within all of us. And right now, we live in a world of distraction, where in 2020 there's lots going on. But it's saying right here in the text that in the messianic future, we will no longer have this evil inclination, we will no longer have distraction, because we will be living in a state of bliss, because everything will be clear to us. And therefore, the temptations will no longer even be temptations, because we will understand their consequences.
And that was it for Thursday's daily study of Parsha Shoftim.