In Parshas Mishpatim we are introduced to myriad laws that govern social order. Following Parshas Yisro, and the Revelation at Sinai, Mishpatim outlines many laws that dictate the daily life of a Jew. The Torah delineates mitzvos regarding ownership of one’s slaves, injuries and damages,...
In Parshas Yisro, seven weeks after leaving Egypt, as the nation stands around the foothills of Har Sinai, the greatest Revelation known to mankind occurs, as Hashem gives the Bnei Yisrael the Torah. Matan Torah infused the spiritual life-blood into our nation as a whole,...
Parshas Beshalach is particularly famous for being the parsha of Keriyas Yam Suf, the splitting of the Reed Sea, and shiras ha’yam, the great song of praise and thanks that the people sang after the Egyptians drowned in the churning waters (Shemos 13:17-22, 14, 15:1-21). ...
The mitzvos and events in Parshas Bo are many. The topics include: the final three makkos - Arbeh/Locusts, Choshech/Darkness, and Makkas Bechoros/the Plague of the Death of the Firstborn. The first national mitzvah - Rosh Chodesh - is transmitted to the Bnei Yisrael (12:1-2); the...
In parshas Va’era, the miraculous plagues that Hashem brought upon Pharaoh, his countrymen and the land of Egypt begin to unfold. As punishment for the more than a century-long enslavement of the Israelite nation, the Ten Plagues wreak havoc upon Mitzrayim. The makkos decimate the...
Sefer Shemos opens in our parsha, Parshas Shemos, with the servitude and enslavement forced upon the Israelite slaves by their Egyptian tormentors. The pattern is one that is familiar to us from our long and bitter history in exile. When Yosef, and his brothers, and...
In Parshas Vayechi, the final parsha in the book of Bereishis, the narratives of the lives of the Avos and Imahos, Yaakov and his many struggles, the events between Yosef and his brothers, come to a close. The family of Yaakov has descended to Egypt,...
In Parshas Vayigash, the narrative of Yosef and his brothers reaches its climax. Twenty-two years after the brothers threw Yosef into the pit and twenty-two years after he was sold to Egypt, Yosef - the viceroy of Egypt, the most powerful man in the ancient...
In Parshas Miketz, the drama, intrigue, passions, and suspense in the Yosef narrative continues. After languishing for twelve years in prison, Yosef’s fortune suddenly changes. When Pharaoh dreams of seven gaunt, sickly cows consuming seven robust, healthy cows, and seven withered ears of corn consuming...
In Parshas Vayeishev, we begin the end of Sefer Bereishis. The last four parshios - Vayeishev, Miketz, Vayigash and Vayechi - relay to us, in great and fascinating details, the life and times of Yosef ha’Tzaddik and his brothers, and Yaakov Avinu’s final years. The...