Parsha Shmot: The Torah of Change (Part 1?)

Hello and welcome to the Exodus. This week’s parsha (Torah portion) is the first of the second book that Moshe (Moses) transcribed from the divine creator-of-everything.  I wonder what it must be like to put down in print your own story as told by someone else.  Did Moshe ever stop haShem (god) and say, “Wait a minute, that’s not how it happened.  It was like this.”?  Then again, he is the humblest man in the world, so maybe he figured … Continue reading

Parsha (double): Vayakhail-P’kudi – Finishing

Hi y’all, Today is the first day of the first month of the year.  Yeah, I know Rosh haShanah (the Jewish new year – literally:  head of the year) is the new year, but I am just telling you what it said in one of the two parshas (weekly Torah portions) that we read this week.  For those who don’t know, the Jewish calender is lunar based and needs to add an extra month every other year or so to … Continue reading

Exodus or Names

Hi everybody, Welcome to the second book that Moshe/Moses wrote: Exodus, or the Hebrew name Shmot which means names. Why is it called names? Well, that is a story for another day. Today I wish to look at the overall story that we read last week. It starts out by naming all the tribes/children that follow Yaakov/Jacob down to Mitzrayim, which is the Hebrew word for Egypt. We then have a new king who does not know about Yoseph/Joseph and … Continue reading