In this week’s parshah, God tells Moses that he wants him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, from slavery to freedom. Moses answered God’s call. But whether out of apprehension or humility, he quickly added several excuses for not immediately doing what God asked. First, he says: “I am not good enough.” He points […]
The story of Jacob and Esau represents an important lesson about reconciliation. As you will recall, their animosity for each other began because Jacob stole Esau’s birthright and his father’s blessing. After this, Jacob ends up running away from home so that Esau would not kill him. Twenty years later, God tells Jacob to return […]
How do we ever really know who we are? Why do we do the things we do? Why do we make the decisions we make? As children, we are raised in an environment where choices are made for us, and our specific circumstances and surroundings often determine how our lives are lived. As we grow […]
In last week’s parashah we read the first chapter of the Shema. This week, we read the second chapter. There are many similarities between the two chapters. In fact, certain sentences are virtually identical. So why would the Torah, usually so cryptic, be so repetitious? If one examines the text closely, a significant […]
Everyone is born with a powerful weapon which can be used both for good and evil. This weapon is your tongue. Your tongue is used to create thousands of words every day, and each word has the power to harm or to heal, to hurt or to help. In this week’s Torah portion, we learn […]
In parshah Terumeh, the Israelites change from a people who always complained in order to get something to a people who had to work together to build the Mishkan. Here, God gave them something else entirely. It had nothing to do with physical needs and everything to do with psychological, moral, and spiritual needs. God […]
After being sold into slavery by his brothers, Joseph certainly had cause to hold a grudge against them. Joseph must decide what path he should take in establishing a new relationship with his brothers, one of forgiveness and acceptance or one of vengeance and retribution. In all the years that had gone by without contact […]
Nitzavim is Moses’ third and final discourse. He pours his heart out to the Israelites one last time. One senses the urgency of Moses’ message: “Hear me! This is life and death we are talking about. It is not just the natural cycle of being. What’s at stake is what it means to be alive […]
Is it ever okay to challenge God’s decisions and actions? In our parashah, God reveals to Abraham that he will destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness. God had every right to destroy the cities, and it is likely that anyone who was familiar with the cities would agree. But then […]
In our Parshah, Moses began the first of three discourses to the children of Israel. He talks about the The Way We Were. It isn’t surprising that he started his farewell speech with the Memory of what he and the people have been through together. He thought The Children Will Listen now. He told them […]
