Shemot

By Rabbi Isaac Mann

There are certain verses or expressions in the Torah that lend themselves to a multiplicity of interpretations despite their having a simple plain meaning (referred to hereafter as peshat). One of these is found in this week’s sidra of Shemot that describes Moses’ very first action as an adult. The Torah tells us (Ex. 2:11-12) that when he grew up, he went out [from Pharaoh’s palace] and looked at the plight of his brethren and saw an Egyptian man [presumably a taskmaster] beating a Hebrew [slave] from among his (Moses’) brethren. “And he turned this way and that way (ko va-kho) and saw there was no man (va-yar ki ein ish), and he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.”

The peshat of ko vakho is obvious. Moses looked all around and saw – or thought he saw – no one observing him. Of course, as we know Read More >

By Professor Jerome Chanes

The opening chapters of the Book of Exodus relate a narrative that is strange, not in its story, but in its telling; it is a book that begins V’eleh shemot, “And these are the names . . .,” but there are no names! There are names of the Jacob’s family who came down to Egypt, but the individuals centrally involved in the story of this book are not identified by name. We know all the characters, Yocheved and Miriam and Amram and Pharaoh’s daughter-but no one is named in the text (for example: “And a son of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi . . .”). Most striking, the little boy has no name. His mother does not name him; Pharaoh’s daughter finally, the second time around, does name him, as “Moses.”

In fact, our hero has no name.

What the Book of Exodus is about a people who Read More >

By Hazzan Marcia Lane

In 2007 the Jewish world lost a giant by the name of Alfred J. Kolatch. He was a rabbi, but didn’t always use his title. He was also the author of more than 25 books, including The Jewish Book of Why and The Jewish Child’s First Book of Why, but for many of us he is best known and loved for having written The Complete Dictionary of English and Hebrew First Names. It was first published as The Name Dictionary in 1967, revised in 1984, and is so universally respected that it has a place on virtually every rabbi’s, cantor’s, Read More >

By Rabbi Allen Darnov

“When Moses had grown up, he went out to his kinsfolk” (Exod 2:11). This verse has generally been understood to denote that Moses, aware of his Hebrew identity, sympathetically goes out to investigate the suffering of his oppressed kinsmen in Egypt.

When might Moses have learned that he was a Hebrew? Moshe Greenberg believes that Moses remained at home with his mother beyond the period of weaning (cf. Gen 21:8), and that he was therefore old enough to acquire a Hebrew identity from his family (Understanding Exodus, p. 42). Nachmanides explains that Pharaoh’s court “told him he was Jewish (Yehudi) and he therefore desired to see them because they were his kinsmen” (Nachmanides to Exod 2:11).

However, it is also possible to read Exod 2:11 otherwise, that Moses does not have knowledge of his Hebrew roots, and so he does not know the Hebrew slaves are his kinsmen when Read More >

By Linda Shriner-Cahn

In this week’s Torah portion, Sh’mot, we once more are given all of the names of the sons of Israel, linking this second book of the Torah to the first. Their names are brimming with meaning.

Sh’mot means ‘names.’ Names are critical in understanding who we are and how we relate to the world. It is Adam who names the animals, giving him a sense of dominion over his surroundings. The process of naming something is empowering. For a brief moment we are granted insight into the power of a name. When we name our children we invest the future of that child into their name.

Every week as we make Kiddush (the blessing of sanctification of the Shabbat, recited over a cup of wine) on Friday night we recount the separation of the Read More >

By Charles R. Lightner

‘. . . but the bush was not consumed’

Perhaps no single phrase in our history has been so influential as that included by Moses in his formulation of the Shema: ‘Adonai Echad.’ We can trace the development of the basic monotheistic idea in our texts over time in a fairly straightforward way. That there exists only one God, however, does not express the full range of meaning our sages have found in the phrase ‘Adonai Echad.’

The phrase can also be read as describing an attribute of God i.e. oneness or unity. Read alongside Exodus 3:14 ‘And God said to Moses, ‘I Am that I Am’. . .’ it can convey the idea of pure existence or beingness. It also anticipates Isaiah 6:3 ‘The whole earth is filled with His glory.’ That God is both immanent and transcendent is a fundamental concept of our tradition, especially our mystical tradition. Read More >

The Fast and the Slow
By Greg Schindler

This D’var Torah is dedicated in honor of the Bar Mitzvah of my son, Gabriel Jonah.

The story is told in the Talmud of a man who came to the sage Hillel
and requested, ‘Teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.’
(Shabbos 31a) The man had previously made this request of the sage
Shammai, who chased him away. But Hillel did not chase the man away.
Rather, he said to him, ‘That which you hate, do not do to others. The
rest is commentary.’ While you may be familiar with the story up to
here, there is one more line to the tale. Hillel then adds: ‘Now go and
study!’

In this simple account lies a great truth of learning. Learning comes in two ways: The ‘Fast’ and the ‘Slow.’

The ‘Fast’ is the flash of insight where’out of the blue’an idea
takes form in our mind. This is Hillel’s reduction Read More >