Last week was the beginning of our fearless heroes try to break the iron clasp of Pharaoh, king of Egypt! The Torah left us with our fearless leader, Moshe (Moses) asking haShem (god) what good he was doing, and haShem replying to just wait and see; the fun is about to begin. Well, the fun begins in this week’s parsha (Torah portion) which is called Va-ayra which means, “And I appeared.” It starts with god telling Moshe that he appeared … Continue reading
The parsha (Torah portion) for this week , along with the beginning of the next week’s parsha, gives us a blueprint for how to live and interact with people. There are 3 scenarios that the Torah looks at: How do you deal with someone who changes the rules on you, How to deal with somebody who accuses, and What to do when you are feeling threatened. The latter scenario is in next week’s parsha, so maybe I will talk about … Continue reading
It is that time again for a word or two on this week’s parsha (Torah portion). The parsha is titled Pinchas (or Phineas for those of you with an English bent) and it is a strange beast. The week before, we left our heroes fighting a plague for getting involved in idol worship and having Pinchas come to the rescue by killing a high ranking Jew and his Midianite lover. In this parsha, Pinchas gets rewarded, and god tells Moshe … Continue reading