“How Could I forget her birthday?!” Someone confided in me that she’d forgotten a friend’s birthday. The friend was very upset. I couldn’t relate, because I’m a guy, and I […]
Judaism 101
A Smoking Cigarette You’ve probably noticed that my titles are often known phrases or plays on words. Part of it is to pique your interest, and part of it is […]
Why Are You Praying? In this week’s Torah reading, the Jews were running away from the Egyptians who were pursuing them. But then, they reached a point where they were […]
In this week’s Torah reading, Parshat Bo, Moshe (Moses) warned Pharaoh that at midnight, Egypt will be inflicted with a plague, with which all the first-borns will be killed, for […]
The Ten Plagues – Measure for Measure This week’s Torah reading describes the first seven plagues the Egyptians suffered for refusing to allow the Jews to leave the land. Besides […]
Magic Tricks – A Display of Dexterity As a kid, I loved magic. I wanted to be a magician because it was so cool to be able to do things […]
A Reason For the Same Old It’s interesting when you take note of things that are most often a certain way and you realize that there’s a reason for it. […]
Anti-Semitism – The Alternative Method of Separation The Beit HaLevi cites a fascinating Midrash (Shemot Rabbah 1:8) about the distain the Egyptians developed towards the Jews in Egypt, as described […]
The first few parshiyot (Torah portions) in Sefer Shemot (The Book of Shemot) deal with the Galut Mitzrayim (Egyptian Exile) and the eventual Redemption. In fact, the Ramban calls this […]
God Had Good Intentions In this week’s Torah reading, Parshat Vayechi, after Yaakov (Jacob)’s passing, his sons approached their brother, Yosef (Joseph). They were concerned that now, as their father […]
