Righteousness and Justice

When Israel practiced righteousness and justice, God blessed the nation, but when the people strayed from them, the prophets rebuked the people.

THIS WEEK'S TORAH PORTION:

Mishpatim (משפטים | Judgments)

Torah: Exodus 21:1-24:18

Haftarah: Jeremiah 34:8-22, 33:25-26

Gospel: Luke 7:1-8:3

The Impassioned God

Is God jealous in the sense of a petty, selfish jealousy that takes offense when attention and affection are directed anywhere else?

THIS WEEK'S TORAH PORTION:

Yitro (יתרו | Jethro)

Torah: Exodus 18:1-20:23

Haftarah: Isaiah 6:1-7:6, 9:5-6

Gospel: Matthew 6:1-8:1

Is HaShem in our midst or not?

(Exodus 17:7)
Shevat 12, 5776/January 22, 2016

Parashat Beshalach chronicles the exodus of the children of Israel from their enslavement in Egypt. For the first time in their lives they are no longer under the thumb of the Egyptians. For the first time in their lives they are free as individuals, unburdened as families, independent as a community, and standing on their own two feet as a nation - the nation of Israel! But liberty brings great challenges and independence requires tremendous responsibility.

Nachshon's Leap

The rabbis teach that Nahshon earned merit for the entire tribe of Judah when he leap into the sea, earning his tribe the right to the kingdom of the house of David.

THIS WEEK'S TORAH PORTION:

Beshalach (בשלח | When he sent)

Torah: Exodus 13:17-17:16

Haftarah: Judges 4:4-5:31

Gospel: Matthew 5

It is a Passover offering to HaShem

(Exodus 12:27)
Shevat 5, 5776/January 15, 2016

Suddenly, in this week's Torah reading, Bo, after delivering nine straight devastating blows to the Egyptians way of life, their livelihood, their possessions, their livestock and food supply, their way of perceiving the world, their belief system, their sense of self and leaving their faith shaken and shattered, G-d calls for a time out, and focuses His attention on the children of Israel. He instructs Israel to mark the upcoming new moon, and fourteen days hence to slaughter the lambs that they will have acquired on the tenth of the month. This is the Korban Pesach - the Passover offering. G-d makes it clear that the Korban Pesach is Israel's ticket out of Egypt. Those who slaughter their lamb as commanded and smear the blood of the lamb on their doorposts will be spared when G-d releases His destroying angel to kill the first-born of every household in Egypt.

These Signs of Mine

The slayer of the firstborn took no account of merits of innocence or guilt as he passed through Egypt. Faith and creed did not enter the equation.

THIS WEEK'S TORAH PORTION:

Bo (בוא | Come)

Torah: Exodus 10:1-13:16

Haftarah: Jeremiah 46:13-28

Gospel: Mark 3:7-19

And you will know that I am HaShem your G-d

 

(Exodus 6:7)
Tevet 27, 5776/January 8, 2016

Why did G-d create the world in six days when He could have done so in a single nano-instant? To this timeless question can be added: Why did G-d employ ten plagues to compel Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, when He could have effected the exodus of Israel in a micro-second? In either case what was to be gained by a slow, deliberate, step-by-step process?

The classic answer, given by our sages of old to the first question is that G-d expanded His instantaneous creation into an ordered process so that man would be able to intellectually grasp the meaning of the world which G-d created, study and increase his knowledge of G-d's world and thereby draw closer to G-d Himself. An unexplainable, opaque world would have presented an impassible obstacle between man and G-d , and that would have contradicted G-d's intention in creating the world.