In this week’s Torah portion, parashat Bo, we read about the death of the Egyptian first-borns, which results from Pharaoh’s unwillingness to let the Israelites go. When I read these verses, I can not even fathom the horror that every Egyptian family must have felt after they had woken up in the morning only to […]

Thoughts on Parashah Va’eira. God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and . I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. I have now heard the moaning of the Israelites because […]

This week’s parasha, Vaera, deals with one of the most spectacular displays of divine power in the entire Hebrew Bible – with the ten plagues of Egypt. We can only marvel at the scope of divine intervention, which involves a wide variety of animals and (super)natural phenomena unleashed on the people of Egypt. Our focus […]

Thoughts on parashat Shemot A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are much too numerous for us. Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not increase; otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in […]

So he blessed them on that day, saying, “With you, Israel will bless, saying, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh,’ ” and he placed Ephraim before Manasseh. (Gen 48:20) Ye’simcha Elohim ke-Ephraim ve’chi-Menashe May God make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh With these words we bless our sons on Shabbat and […]

In my reflection on the previous parashah, I presented Joseph as a sensitive person, traumatized and torn by emotions. In this week’s reflection, I will focus a different aspect of his character. Joseph is of course torn by strong emotions, but at the same time, as we learn from these parashot, he is also often […]