We are almost at the end of the Jewish month of Tevat, getting ready to go into the month of Shvat, and we find ourselves in the throws of the 10 plagues that god has sent against Egypt. How did we find ourselves in such a predicament? We are here because god won’t allow Pharaoh to let a bunch of slaves go out on a 3 day journey to make a sacrifice to their god. What in the world is … Continue reading
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
I hope everybody is doing well. This week we finish the book of Genesis or Breisheit as it is referred to in Hebrew. We also saw the end of Jacob/Israel and Yoseph. Before Israel passes from us, however, he does give us some final pointers on how to interact with people. The parsha (weekly Torah portion) starts out with Yaakov/Jacob knowing he is near death and so he asks his son Yoseph to swear to bury him at the ancestral … Continue reading
I hope everyone is having a wonderful, en-lightening Hanukkah. While the the flame still glow, I hope to fan it with the Torah portion (parsha) that coincides with those flames… The parsha is called Meekaytz and one of the meanings of this word is harvest. I want to look at the parsha from this point of view. In order to harvest, you must plant something. And as the saying goes: you reap/harvest what you sow/plant. the parsha starts right out … Continue reading
Hi everybody. I hope this finds you all in good health and good spirits. The portion of the torah that we read this week is a continuation of Yaakov’s (Jacob) journey to becoming Israel. It includes the reconciliation of him and his brother Esau, and the destruction of the city of Schem, the death of Yaakov’s parents and his wife Rachel, and ends with Esau moving to make room for Yaakov, which is followed by a strange, repetitive listing of … 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
This week’s parsha (Torah portion) is called Toldot (generations in English). Let’s look at what this word, generations, means. Generations implies cycles, and cycles are circles. Each generation is born, lives, and dies. That is its cycle or circle. However, before a generation dies, it creates a new generation, turning the circle into a spiral. I find it strange to call this parsha Generations when most of this parsha talks of one generation and prior parshas have also mentioned lineages … Continue reading
This week’s parsha (Torah portion) has a lot in it. A very quick summary goes like this: Sarah dies and Abraham buys the cave called Macpelah to bury Sarah in. Then he sends his servant Eli-ezer to find a wife for his son Yitzchak (Isaac). After Eli-ezer returns with Rivka (Rebecca), Abraham dies and Yishmayil and Yitzchak bury Abraham next to Sarah in the cave called Macpelah. What is interesting about the name of the cave is that it comes … Continue reading
This week’s parsha (portion of the Torah we read this week) is called Vayera. It has a lot in it including the destruction of Sdome and Gemorah, and the roots of where King David. However, none of those things are what I feel like talking about today. Today, I want to talk about one of the lesser known things that I found interesting in our parsha: The story regarding Abraham, Sarah, and Avimelech (which translates to, “My father the king,” … Continue reading
As I read the parsha (weekly Torah portion) in Hebrew, I like to to pretend that names are not just names, but that they mean something. This give me the freedom to translate them. The text takes on a new meaning in the process. For example, in this week’s parsha, Lech lecha (go to yourself is a translation from Hebrew), we find Avram setting up an alter between two towns: Bet-El and Ai, and from there he calls to god … Continue reading