Ten Plagues in Egypt and Ten Miracles in Jerusalem
The fifth chapter in Masekhet Avot delineates many examples of groupings of ten throughout history. Hashem created the world with ten utterances. Avraham Avinu was tested ten times. The Mishna notes that Avraham’s ten successes reflected his undying love for HaKadosh Barukh Hu. Additionally, there were ten plagues brought upon the Egyptians. Concomitant with these […]
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The Pesach of Jerusalem
The name “Pesach” originates with the word used by the Torah to describe God’s saving of the firstborns of the Jewish people: “[God] pasach on the homes of the Jewish people when He smote the Egyptians and saved our homes.” What is the meaning of the word pasach? The simple translation is that it means […]
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The Twin Redemptions of Speech and Jerusalem
In our parsha we read about the horrible oppression of the Jewish people in Egypt. The Torah describes that the Egyptians worked them to the point of exhaustion and murdered them. One would assume that the focus of this era in Jewish history is the physical labor, the oppression and the threat to their physical […]
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Traveling Out of Egypt and To Jerusalem
The Jewish people left the Egypt in a haste. On the night of the first Seder they had to show their hurriedness by eating with their walking sticks and travel clothing. Then, they were rushed out by the Egyptians and did not have time for their dough to leaven. Interestingly, though, this hurriedness seems to […]
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The Continuity of Jerusalem
Our parsha opens with the broadest of all possible lenses. While Moshe is beset with pain over the Jewish people’s current suffering, God tells him about the bright future of this people. God says that He will take them out from Egypt, give them the Torah, bring them to the promised land and they will […]
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Yosef: The Diaspora Jew Who Self-Defines as Zion
The Midrash in this week’s parsha compares Yosef to Zion. Each step of Yosef’s journey – from his initial favored status to his seeming downfall to his rise as viceroy of Egypt – occurred to Zion as well. Zion enjoyed an initial favored status, was cast into exile only rise again in the future. The […]
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Conducting Eternity
In this week’s parsha we see the slow unfolding of the divine plan. For reasons that remain somewhat mysterious, God wanted the Jewish people to descend to Egypt and to begin the slow process of slavery and redemption. As part of this master plan, He had Yosef sold as a slave in Egypt and saw […]
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