by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on January 17, 2014
Feel free to download and print the Parasha sheet and share it with your friends and family: Click here: Parashat Yitro Hearing and/or Doing Yitro hears and comes. He is motivated religiously – to draw close to Benei Yisrael because of their God and their relationship with their God.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on January 10, 2014
A dominant theme in Parashat Beshalach is that of emunah, belief – having it and losing it. That the Children of Israel should believe in God after witnessing the miracles and plagues in Egypt is to be expected. What is more of a question is how long that belief will last – will they continue to believe even when they are not experiencing miracles, and even when they are beset with hardship? …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on January 3, 2014
Nine plagues were proclaimed. Nine plagues befell Pharaoh and the Egyptians. With each passing plague, Pharaoh was one step closer to freeing the Children of Israel. Until this point, he had offered to release them all save the cattle. Even this Moshe refuses, and Pharaoh orders him out telling him never to return.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on December 27, 2013
Va’era opens with a powerful, yet quizzical, declaration – “And God spoke to Moshe and said to him: I am God. And I appeared to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov with El-Shaddai, but by my name God (YHVH) I was not known to them” (Shemot 6:3).…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on December 20, 2013
At the crucial juncture between Moshe accepting the divine mission and his returning to the people and becoming their leader, a curious and perplexing event occurs. Moshe begins to head back to Egypt, and then, abruptly we read: “And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the Lord met him, and sought to kill him” (4:24).…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on February 22, 2013
This Shabbat is Shabbat Parashat Zakhor when, as a lead up to Purim, we read about the mitzvah to remember Amalek: Remember what Amalek did to you by the way, when you came forth out of Egypt…. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies… that you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget it.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on February 7, 2013
Does the Torah approve of slavery? Consider what Wikipedia says on the topic of Jews and Slavery: “Judaism’s religious texts contain numerous laws governing the ownership and treatment of slaves… Jews continued to own slaves during the 16th through 18th centuries, and ownership practices were still governed by Biblical and Talmudic laws.”…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on January 18, 2013
“And in order that you should relate in the ears of your children and your children’s children how I have made a mockery of the Egyptians and my signs that I have placed upon them, and you will know that I am the Lord.”…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on January 3, 2013
“And you, go, and I will send you to Pharaoh, and you will take out my nation, the Children of Israel, from Egypt.” (Shemot 3:10). Moshe encounters God at the burning bush and he is commanded by God to be the person, the leader, who will take the people out of Egypt.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on February 10, 2012
After crossing the Red Sea, seeing the drowning of the Egyptians, experiencing the first hardships of the desert, and receiving the quail and the manna from God, the Children of Israel have finally arrived at their first destination, Mt. Sinai. While the Land of Israel still awaits, their initial demand to leave Egypt was to worship God, and that worship takes place here, in the desert, at the foot of Har Sinai: “When you take this people out of Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain.”…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on January 13, 2012
The beginning of the book of Shemot sees the Children of Israel enslaved, oppressed, and at the risk of decimation. The foundation for their salvation is laid in the birth of Moshe, his being saved by Pharaoh’s daughter, and his venturing out to see the affliction of his brothers. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on January 1, 2012
How exactly can a finite human being, rooted in her physicality, connect to an infinite, non-physical God? This question is one that the Torah grapples with throughout the second half of the book of Shemot. God commands for the building of a physical Mishkan to house the Glory of God enveloped in the cloud. …
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