SUMMARY OF PARASHAT SHEMOT
This week we start a new book: Shemot, “Names” or Exodus.
1. THE BIRTH OF MOSHE
The Tora begins by mentioning the names of Jacob’s sons...
SHEMOT: Argentina World Cup Champions and the Exodus from Egypt
The Bible, Biblical archeology, and ancient Jewish history are taught in the Jewish academic world. But there is a phenomenon that is not much...
SHEMOT: Antisemitism Began In Egypt
וַיָּ֥קׇם מֶֽלֶךְ־חָדָ֖שׁ עַל־מִצְרָ֑יִם אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹֽא־יָדַ֖ע אֶת־יוֹסֵֽף
ויאמר אל עמו הנה עם בני ישראל רב ועצום ממנוהבה נתחכמה לו פן ירבה והיה כי תקראנה מלחמה ונוסף...
VAYICHI: Preparing Ourselves To Die
LIVE LIKE MORTALS
The idea of death has always fascinated me. In my teens, becoming my conscious of my own mortality and its hopeless inevitability...
SUMMARY OF PARASHAT VAYICHI
Parashat Vayichi (ויחי) which means “and he lived” refers to the last 17 years of the life of the patriarch Jacob , Ya’aqob, in...
VAYICHI: The forgotten Hero of Genesis
This Shabbat we will finish reading the book of Bereshit (Genesis). The first of the five books of the Tora includes a fascinating story,...
VAYICHI: Success and Failure in Raising Children
Our Sages never overlooked the small and significant missteps made by our ancestors, especially in the times before the Tora had been revealed when...
How do we celebrate the 15th of Shebat
This coming year, 2026, we will celebrate TU BISHBAT, the "New Year of the Trees ", Monday February 2nd. This "new year or cycle"...
MIQETZ IN FIVE ACTS
While in jail, Yosef correctly interprets the dreams of the imprisoned Pharaoh's officers. Two years later, Pharaoh has a dream. He is standing...
MIQETZ: Droughts, Floods, and the Exquisite Accuracy of our Tora
כי זה שנתים הרעב בקרב הארץ ועוד חמש שנים אשר אין חריש וקציר
There has been famine in the land for two years now, and...
MIQETZ: Having God In Mind
"Emuna" is generally translated as faith, and is understood as "believing in the existence of God". But the Emuna / faith of Yosef went...
VAYESHEB: Faith requires patience
YOSEF, THE MANAGER
Yosef was sold by his brothers and transported to the slave market in Egypt, where Potiphar, a minister in Pharaos court, acquired...
9. Hanukka and The First Independent Jewish State
Shimon and the First Independent Jewish State
During these days of Hanukka, I have tried to convey to my readers that the miracle of Hanukka...
VAYISHLACH: Shimon, Levi and the Israeli Army
ABRAHAM AND ISAAC
At the beginning of Jewish history, when we were not yet a people or even a tribe, but merely a small nuclear...
8. The Miracle of Jewish Resilience
THE END OF YEHUDA MACABEE
General Lysias arrived in Antiochia, the capital of the Seleucid kingdom, defeated Philipus, and became the regent of the 9-year-old...
7. Was this the greatest miracle of Hanukka?
ELEPHANTS JOIN THE BATTLE
The miracle of the oil that lasted for eight days was not the last Providential act of Hanukka. Although they were...
6. The Most Beautiful Unknown Story of Hanukka
This is the story of one of Yehuda Maccabee's battles, likely unknown to most readers, which I only recently learned about by reading the...
5. Recovering Jerusalem and Rededicating the Temple
AN INVINCIBLE ARMY?
When the Seleucid general Lysias learned of the defeat of his generals by the Jewish rebels led by Yehudah Macabi (see here),...
4. The beginning of the Jewish rebellion
THE BEGINNING OF THE JEWISH REBELLION
In 167 BCE, Matitiyahu and his sons Eleazar, Yehuda, Shimon, Yochanan, and Yehonatan led a rebellion known as the...
3. How do You Provoke a Jewish Rebellion?
כתבו על קרן השור אין לנו חלק באלוקי ישראל
"Write on the ox horn that we have no part in the God of Israel." (Jerusalem Talmud,...
