I the Lord am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage: Sh’mot / Exodus 20:2 Biblical commentators through ages have observed that in the verse above the words your and you are written in the singular in the Hebrew even though God is speaking to the entire nation Continue Reading »
Shabbat Shira today marks the beginning of Jewish Music Season. Originally, the designation of this special Shabbat referred to the reading of the Song at the Sea with its special melody as part of the Torah reading and the chanting of the Song of Deborah as the Haftarah. As Jewish music has proliferated and diversified Continue Reading »
He [Pharaoh] summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Up, depart from among my people, you and the Israelites with you! Go, worship the Lord as you said! Sh’mot / Exodus 12:31 Our teacher Rabbi Yitzchak Zelig Morgenstern of Sokolov (1) quotes his grandfather Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk: Worship God as Continue Reading »
“These are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt …” Exodus 1:1 The Book of Exodus opens with a brief review of the descent of Jacob and his family into Egypt where they will be trapped in fulfillment of the divine warning to Abraham that his descendants will be strangers in Continue Reading »
Jacob lived seventeen years in the land of Egypt, so that the span of Jacob’s life came to one hundred and forty-seven years. And when the time approached for Israel to die… Jacob called his sons and said, “Come together that I may tell you what is to befall you in days to come. Continue Reading »
With all the money and animal stocks consigned to my lord, nothing is left at my lord’s disposal save our persons and our farmland. Let us not perish before your eyes, both we, and our land. Take us and our land in exchange for the bread and we, and our land, will be serfs to Continue Reading »
After two years’ time, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile River, when out of the Nile there came up seven cows, fair to look at and sturdy, and they grazed in the reed grass. But presently, seven other cows came up from the Nile close behind them, ugly and lean, and stood Continue Reading »
Jacob arrived safe (literally, “whole”) in the city of Shechem which is in the land of Canaan — having come thus from Paddan-aram — and he encamped before the city. Continue Reading »
Early in the morning, Laban kissed his sons and daughters and bade them good-by; then Laban left on his journey homeward. Jacob went on his way… Breysheet / Genesis 32:1 The author of Meshech Chokhmah (1) reads these verses from the Torah using the most literal translation of the verbs used to describe the actions Continue Reading »
Rebekah said to her son Jacob, …Now, my son, listen carefully as I instruct you. Go to the flock… B’reysheet/Genesis 27:6, 8-9 In reflecting upon our passage, Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik(1) explains our matriarch Rebekah’s Continue Reading »
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