Compassionate Moshe
והיה רגיל להוכיח אותי על שראה שאינני משתתף בצערא דאחרינא. וכה היה דברו אלי תמיד שזה כל האדם. לא לעצמו נברא רק להועיל לאחריני ככל אשר ימצא בכחו לעשות. [My father, Rav Chaim Volozhiner,]...
Category: 2- Shemos
Killing Amaleiq
As the wise king wrote, “For everything there is a time, and a season for every goal under heaven.” The “time for war” was when Canaan was simply a battleground for warring barbaric tribes,...
Vayichal Moshe – Moshe Implored
While looking at Unqelus this week, I had a thought that is an application of the idea in Prayers and Requests. (See also Meshekh Chokhmah – Vayechi II – My Sword and My Bow.)...
Shemos: From Vigilante to Lawgiver
A post on Facebook by Jeremy Phillips raised the question of why Hashem chose a vigilante to be His lawgiver. He got me thinking. Hashem even lauds Moshe’s vigilantism in the Torah when he...
Pieces of Sapphire
In this week’s parasha (Shemos 34:1), when Hashem tells Moshe to carve the second luchos, He says “פסל לך – carve for yourself”. The gemara comments on the apparently superfluous “לך – for yourself”...
Calves, Cherubs, and Half Sheqels
Why is it that in last week’s parashah (Ki Sisa) we read all about the sin of the eigel hazahav but this week’s parashah we read about the mitzvah of making two keruvim atop the aron? Why...
Doing what is Customary
When the Jews reached the Red Sea and saw the Mitzriyim catching up, “וַיִּֽירְאוּ֙ מְאֹ֔ד וַיִּצְעֲק֥וּ בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל אֶל־ה’ — they became very fearful, and the Benei Yisrael cried out to Hashem.” (Shemos 14:10) Rashi,...
Hardening the Heart vs. Weighing it Down
So, I recently noticed that the translation of Unqelus I am using offers “hardened Par’oh’s heart” and the like regardless of whether the original word ויחזק (Aramaic: ואתקף) or another word built from \חזק\...
Epistemology in the Torah
There are three verbs in pasuq 31 describing the steps in which being saved at the Red Sea impacted the Jews:
vayyar – they saw
vayyir’u – they felt yir’ah (fear / awe)
vaya’aminu – they believed