by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on December 23, 2021
The book of Shemot opens with the first phenomenon of anti-Semitism that we find in the Torah. It is not hatred directed at an individual, but to an entire people. It begins with Pharoah. He says to his fellow Egyptians that the Hebrews are a people to be feared: “Behold, the people are more numerous than us.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on January 7, 2021
With the opening of the book of Shemot, we transition from Bereshit, the story of the family, to Shemot, the story of the nation. It is a shift in the meaning of “Bnei Yisrael,” from “the children of the man named Yisrael (Yaakov),” to “The Nation of Israel (the Israelites).”…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on January 4, 2018
May a woman be a mohelet? Although women are not circumcised, they are members of the covenant that the Jewish people, have with God: “You stand this day all of you before the Lord your God.. all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the stranger that is in your camp… that you enter into covenant with the Lord your God…” (Deut.…
by Dr. Yonatan Grossman
Posted on July 5, 2017
To view the sources for this shiur click here. …
by Rivka Kahan
Posted on December 7, 2016
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by Dr. Hezi Cohen
Posted on November 1, 2016
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by Rabbi David Fohrman
Posted on October 27, 2016
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by Rabbi Avi Weiss
Posted on May 21, 2016
After being raised in the Egyptian palace, Moshe (Moses) goes into the field and sees an Egyptian smiting a Jew. In the words of the Torah, “He looked this way and that way, and when he saw there was no man (ish) he smote the Egyptian” (Exodus 2:12).…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on December 31, 2015
In an extended passage from the book of Yechezkel, the birth of the people of Israel is described through the vivid imagery of actual childbirth: And as for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut, neither were you washed in water to make you supple … No eye pitied you … to have compassion upon you … but you were cast into the open field … on the day that you were born.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on January 8, 2015
The beginning of the book of Shemot serves as a mirror image to the end of the book of Breishit. Breishit ends with Yosef’s promise to his brothers: “Behold, I will die; and God will surely remember – pakod yifkod – you, and bring you out of this land” (Breishit, 50:24).…
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).…