Charity – A Kindness for Yourself In this week’s Torah reading, the verse says (22:24), “When you lend money to a poor person with you, you should not pressure him […]
Weekly Torah Portion
Insight and themes on the weekly Torah portion read aloud in synagogue.
Fear at Sinai This week’s Torah reading, Parshat Yisro, depicts the awesome event of the Jews receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai. It was a frightening experience, with a lot […]
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 […]
