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PARSHAT BESHALACH ACTION “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go forward.”  (Exodus 14:15)             When I was in college, I spent part of a summer at a program...

PARSHAT BO ACCORDING TO THE CHILD “You will speak to your son on that day saying, for the sake of this did the Lord do this for me in my going out from Egypt.”  (Exodus 13:8)             In this week we read...

PARSHAT VAERA ELIJAH’S CUP “I will free you from the labors of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and through extraordinary chastisements.  And I will take you to be My people, and I will be your...

PARSHAT SHMOT MIRIAM “His sister [Miriam] stationed herself at a distance, to learn what would befall him.” (Exodus 2:4)             In general, I observe Jewish rituals without major changes.  But in recent...

PARSHAT VAYECHI GENESIS: AN OVERVIEW “So he blessed them that day, saying, By you shall Israel invoke blessings, saying: God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.”  (Genesis 48:20)             This week we...

PARSHAT VAYIGASH AMAZING GRACE “Then Judah went up to him and said, Please, my lord, let your servant appeal to my lord, and do not be impatient with your servant, you who are the equal of Pharaoh.”  (Genesis 44:18)...

PARSHAT MIKETZ & HANUKKAH SELF AND OTHERS “They replied, We your servants were twelve brothers, sons of a certain man in the land of Canaan; the youngest, however, is now with our father, and one is no more.”  (Genesis 42:13)...

PARSHAT VAYESHEV ROOM FOR DOUBT “They took him and cast him into the pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.”  (Genesis 37:24)             At the beginning of this week’s portion, Joseph’s brothers...

PARSHAT VAYISHLACH WORDS HAVE POWER “Thus Rachel died. She was buried on the road to Ephrath—now Bethlehem.”  (Genesis 35:19)             Last week I wrote about how, in the book of Genesis, we often see that...

PARSHAT VAYETZE FATE AND KARMA “Laban said, It is not the practice in our place to put the younger before the older.”  (Genesis 29:26)             Today I want to speak of two words which are often overused...