…And we move on straight away to Shemot, with a response to a king. “And you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus said God, ‘Israel is my son, my firstborn’.” Shemot 4:22: Why did you choose that verse? Rabbi Sacks: Judaism has a unique structure, and I think still to this day, we don’t understand the depth and uniqueness of that…
…the extraordinary power of communities and social networks to shape our lives. The episode of the Golden Calf began with these words: “When the people saw that Moshe was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered themselves [vayikahel] around Aharon.” Shemot 32:1 At the beginning of this parsha, having won God’s forgiveness and brought down a second…
…The opening chapters of Genesis describe the consequences of God’s gift to humans of individual freedom. But since we are social animals, we need also collective freedom. Hence the significance of the opening chapters of Shemot, with their characterisation of Egypt as an example of a society that deprives people of liberty, enslaving populations and making the many subject to…
…achieve holiness, should come as no surprise to us. The idea, if not the details, had already been hinted at in the Torah. The most explicit instance comes in the prelude to the great covenant-making ceremony at Mount Sinai when God describes the potential of His people to be a “kingdom of Priests and a holy nation” (Shemot 19:5–6), that…
…Shabbat? Thinking More Deeply Is this aspect of Shabbat, presented in the Core Idea, new and different from the Shabbat we find in other places in the Torah? Let’s take a look at the two versions of the Ten Commandments, as they appear in Shemot and Devarim. Famously, the wording of the two versions is different. The Shemot account begins…
…gathered (vayikahel) around Aharon and they said to him: Get up, make us gods to go before us. This man Moshe who brought us out of Egypt – we have no idea what has become of him” (Shemot 32:1). The second time this verb is used is in the opening verse of this week’s parsha: “Moshe assembled (vayakhel) all the…
…“So Moshe told this to the Israelites but they did not listen to him, because their spirit was broken and because the labour was harsh.” Shemot 6:9 The italicised phrase seems simple enough. The people did not listen to Moshe because they were busy trying to survive day by day. They had no time for hope, or for promises that…
…you My daughter.”[3] They added that she was one of the few people (tradition enumerates nine) who were so righteous that they entered paradise in their lifetime.[4] So, on the surface, the parsha of Shemot is about the initiation into leadership of one remarkable man, but just beneath the surface is a counter-narrative of six extraordinary women without whom there…
…you today . . . God will fight for you; you need only be still.” Shemot 14:13-14 Facing the Amalekites, however, the Israelites themselves had to fight:”Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose men and go out and fight the Amalekites.” Shemot 17:9 The first was an “awakening from above”, the second an “awakening from below.”The difference was palpable. Within three days…
…the clue: Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them: “These are the things God has commanded you to do.” Shemot 35:1 The verb vayakhel – which gives the sedra its name – is crucial to an understanding of the task in which Moses is engaged. At its simplest level it serves as a motiv-word, recalling a previous verse. In…