Parasha of the Week

“And” introduces the Torah portion this weekend, Mishpatim.  Being a conjunction, “and" connects this week’s reading with last week when we read the Ten Commandments.  For our sages this is poignant and meaningful as Misphatim contains the vast legalities of a just society.  Both the Ten Commandments and the intricate discussion of how to enact them are sacred from Sinai. Religion is not just a matter of spiritually.  The Jewish path is far greater than that.  Judaism connects us upward toward God in tandem with a horizontal outreach to one another.   Justice is at least as valued as having faith in God.   What good is being humble before God while we ignore the pleas of the oppressed?  Or to allow justice to be skewed in favor of the rich or the poor?   Until we recognize the godliness in  every human being we can never have a full relationship with the Almighty.  T...

Mt. Sinai, the Mountain at which Moses and the Israelites received the Ten Commandments was the smallest and least  of all the mountains in the desert range. Legends about this abound.  Why did not G-d choose a higher, more lofty peak?  Is it because the Torah must be accessible?  Perhaps. This is also the reason why the  bima , at the front of the Synagogue, is raised but not too high to make it inaccessible.  Torah is sacred and elevated, but not our of reach.   Another possibility is that like the mountain we must keep our ego in check so that we remain humble.   It is impossible to put more into a full jar.    Torah requires that we be open to nuances, and new understandings as we age.  This is only possible when we remain humble.

As the Exodus from Egypt commences Jewish families scurried trying to put everything in order. Having moved homes, you know the enormous responsibilities of packing everything securely, trying to remember to pick up all things necessary and discard those things that have no value. In addition to all this hubbub the Jews had to gather from their Egyptian neighbors their earnings, what they were owed, on the eve of their departure, lest it be lost forever. Everyone was busy with these “things’ except Moshe Rabbenu.  He remembered a promise that Joseph made his children swear; when they were finally freed from slavery they were to take his bones and inter them in the Land of Israel.   Moshe did not forget. The sarcophagus of Joseph was submerged at the bottom of the Nile River.  Moshe went to the river, retrieved the coffin, and personally carried them into the new world of freedom. In much the same way when we have moved from one home to an...

This week’s Torah reading, Bo, contains Moshe’s words to Pharaoh, “We will go with our young and our old…”  (Exodus 10:9). In the Jewish tradition we take great care to let the elders precede the young.  In many places throughout the Torah we are told to “stand before the aged,” “give a seat to the aged,” “give honors to the aged,” and so on.  So why would Moshe indicate the young go before old?   The answer is that when liberation is near it must be achieved by the next generation.  So it was when the Jews settled Palestine the young from Poland, Russia and Yemen came first. It was also the same when the Jews went down to Egypt.  The youth Joseph came first only to be followed by his elder siblings and father. The sacred task of our time is for the elders to share the wisdom they have accumulated through the years and for the next generation to reignite the fires of tradition and growth. The Torah speaks to our hear...

“ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as El Shaddai, but by My name YHVH I did not make known to them,” said God in this week’s Torah portion. Why does God mention His name and the names of the forefathers to Moshe rabbenu?   He was letting Moshe know that each one of them had struggled to find the holiness that inheres in every place, but that no one had ever seen.  Abraham, Isaac and Jacob searched to locate godliness in the world.  Without their tireless dedication none of us would be here today.  And yet, these great progenitors of the Jewish tradition never possessed the apex of Creation, the Torah.  That ultimate gift would be handed to Moshe. That is why God told Moshe that He appeared as El Shaddai to Abraham, Issac and Jacob.  Shaddai in Hebrew comes from the word “enough.”  Even though these patriarchs did not receive Torah their discovery of God in all the hidden places was sufficient. How...