Parasha of the Week

 This is a powerful parasha filled with the roots of the Israelite enslavement, the genocide of the male children, Moses defending his people and the ultimate call to Moses to take his rightful place as leader of the people. Inasmuch as there are many villains in the story, there are many more heroes, some known and others nameless.  Here are two such heroines, Shifra and Puah.  Commanded to murder all the Jewish male children they not only rush to the site if the delivery but save the children claiming they could not make it in time to commit the atrocity.  Legend has it that Shifra was the Egyptian name for Yocheved (Moses' mother) and Puah as none other than Miriam, Moses' sister.  Whether true or not, they are to be celebrated for their bravery in defying the order of the mighty Pharaoh. We are taught by our wise rabbis to respect government and governmental authorities.  Rabbi Hanina, one the greatest sages of the second century, tells us to respect th...

Some time later Joseph was told, "Your father is ill.     Genesis 48:1   Throughout the Torah people are born and die but this is the first time any mention is made of illness in the Torah.  The Midrash explains, “from the time of Adam until now no one became ill before they passed away.  When their time came to die, they simply died without warning." Jacob prayed to God that he would have some indication that his death as approaching so that he would have a chance to say the things that he needed to day to his children before he passed from view.  God accepted his prayer and from Jacob’s time on, illness was the gift of a warning that life was about to come to an end and we could “put our things in order”.” (Me’am Loez) We not usually consider illness a gift yet we have a long tradition of leaving a well-considered list of ideals that we want to give to the next generations.  They are not wills of the sort that divides real estate ...

“God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.  So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.”   Genesis 45:7-8 In these two sentences Joseph sums up his feelings towards his brothers.  Not only does he not hold a grudge against them for stripping him of his coat, his family and freedom he declares that everything was a part of God's plan.   We rarely have a choice in what happens to us but we always have a choice in the way that we respond.  Some of us prefer to harbor feelings of anger and resentment and coddle them until they become malignant. Others choose the path of forgiveness because that is a gift to them, as well as to us. In the latter instance, a religious person understands that our choices can also be God directed.     We all write the narrative of our own li...

The purpose of life is alluded to in this parasha.  It can be found in Judah’s question to his brothers after they threw Joseph into the pit: Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?    Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him; for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And they agreed.    So when the Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silver   to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.    Genesis 37:26-28 While some may be tempted to credit Judah with saving Joseph’s life we cannot ignore the fact that he was the one who sold Joseph as a slave for the purpose of lining his pocket with silver.  Who would do such a thing?  While we learn later that Judah felt great remorse and repented, at this moment he was thinking only of himself and how he could better his position...

After father Jacob wrestles an angel/man he receives a blessing that came with a cost, a leg that was permanently damaged. “ Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,   because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed. ” Genesis 32:29 Aryeh Kaplan points out that the root of Israel indicates that we “must always struggle to be great before God.”  Life is a gift but that does not mean it does not require assembly.  We have an instruction guide; we call it Torah.  It tells us how to put our life together.    Yet we are comprised of so many contradictory thoughts and wishes that it is often difficult to determine which path to travel.  Tradition tells us that we have two impulses (yetser), one which is altruistic and other is vindictive and selfish.  Throughout our lives we listen to both of those voices and hopefully choose the path that God wishes us to take, the on...

“And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of your son's mandrakes. And she said unto her, ‘Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? and you would take away my son's mandrakes also?’ And Rachel said, ‘Therefore he shall lie with thee to night for thy son's mandrakes.’ And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, ‘You must come in unto me; for surely I have hired you with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.”   Genesis 30:14-16   Longing and love are in conflict. Leah loved Jacob.  She thrived on his love and presence.  Remember that she was the “second prize.”  Leah was the unwanted wife, the last minute substitution for all Jacob’s labors.    Jacob desired the younger, Rachel.  The reader cannot help but feel sorry for...

We have conflicting views on Esau and Jacob.  In this week’s parasha the difference could not be more apparent.  As the father Jacob laid ill, the Torah states, “Then Rebecca took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were in the house, and had her younger son Jacob put them on.” - Genesis 27:15 Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel, in the Talmud, commented, “All my life I attended upon my father yet I did not do for him even 100 th  of the goodness that Esau did for his father.”  What Rabbi Shimon was referring to was the fact that whenever Esau waited upon his father, he put on finest clothes.  Midrash Rabbah agrees with Rabbi Shimon and declares, “Esau only wore royal robes in that was worthy of being in the presence of his father.” There is good reason why  honoring your parents  is a part of the Ten Commandments when there so many other compelling commandments.  Respect for one's parents is a necessary component for ...