Torah Thoughts
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Standing Up to G-d
Torah Ki Tisa / כִּי תִשָּׂא : SHMOT (EXODUS) Exodus 30:11-34:35 (link to the text on Sepharia) Everyone knows the story, and I knew it, too, or so I thought. Moshe Rabbeinu goes up to Mount Sinai, the people below miscalculate and think he failed to return on time, and make a golden calf. G-d…
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Creating a Mikdash for Hashem
How is it possible to notice something new about something one has seen, heard, sung, or said literally thousands of times? Maybe it is just because I have become really interested of late in Shorashim (root words) and how they are connected, but this past Shabbat, I noticed for the first time the part of…
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Every Person has a Godly Soul
Mishpatim / משפטים : SHMOT (EXODUS) 21:1-24:18 (all links to citations will take you to the text on Sepharia.org) While preparing for this week’s ParshaNosher post, I was particularly struck by the beauty of the language of Exodus 23:12 , which reads: “Six days you will do the things that you do[i]/ ששת ימים…
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Batya, Daughter of Pharoh: Coincidence or Rebel?
I have long been fascinated by the story of Pharoh’s daughter (to whom we refer as “Batya,” meaning “daughter of G-d”), who pulls Moshe (soon to be Rabbeinu) from the Nile. A daughter of Pharoh, she clearly was aware of the edict declared by her father after the midwives serving the Jews failed: he tasked…