You See: Used when you hope someone else will understand what you are saying. Dictionary.Cambridge.org 2012 In perhaps the first recorded instance of unsolicited advice from an in-law, this week's parsha recounts Yisro's suggestion to Moshe that he revamp the sole-arbiter system he was employing to judge the people. After viewing that "Moshe sat to […]

After Midnight:  1970 smash cover hit by Eric Clapton, featuring the lyrics "We're gonna find out what it's all about...After Midnight." Eight (or even nine) plagues were clearly not enough for the Egyptians and their pig-headed potentate Pharaoh, so Hashem tells Moshe One more plague shall I bring upon Pharaoh and Egypt; after that he […]

Have A Heart:  To be compassionate; to show kindness or sympathy. Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms 2003 Pharaoh's stunning stubbornness is on full display in this week's parsha.  Witnessing incredible miracles and enduring devastating plagues, Pharaoh inexplicably spurns Moshe's invitation for relief by continually refusing to allow the Jewish nation to go free.  It is […]

In this week's parsha we are introduced to our hero and eternal leader, Moshe Rabbeinu, whose life and leadership span the remainder of the Torah.  The Torah's principle of recording only that which is necessary and pertinent leads to a wildly uneven treatment of Moshe's lifespan:  the first 80 years of his life are concentrated […]

The preamble to our nationhood comes to a close in this week's parsha. Having enjoyed seventeen years of serenity with his beloved Yosef, Yaakov's "time to die" approached. The Gemara in Bava Metziah (87a) informs us that "Yaakov beseeched [G-d] for mercy", and thus was the first person in history to become ill before dying, […]

The denouement of the dispute between Yosef and his brothers is on dazzling display at the dawn of this week's parsha. Desperate and distressed, as well as doubtful of the dubious demands dictated by the Egyptian Dictator, Yehudah draws near to Yosef to deliver his diatribe as to the disproportionate discipline being dispensed. His articulate […]

Yosef's traumatic and dramatic rise to power is on full display in this week's parsha. Soaring like a phoenix from the dustbin of the dungeon in which he was detained, his deliverance is done in a flash. Vindicated by his vault from the viscera of the vault to Viceroy, Yosef is charged with guarding the […]

The troubling trials and tribulations of the two tribes of Shimon and Levi are triggered in this week's parsha. Having received word that their sister Dinah had been viciously violated by the villainous Shechem, her brothers seek vengeance via a veil of compromise. In response to Shechem and his father Chamor's provocative proposal that the […]

Perhaps because I “became a Jew” on Shabbos-Tisha B’Av (Parshas Devarim), I am particularly drawn to the dichotomy of the day. Having been born on Shabbos, the 2nd of Av, my Bris (circumcision) naturally occurred on the following Shabbos, which was Tisha B’Av (in Hartford Hospital. Yes, this was in the days before HMOs, and […]