Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Beshalach – Tu BiShevat The waters piled up, The floods stood straight like a wall; The deeps froze in the heart of the sea. (Shemot 15,8) "The breath that issues from both nostrils". Scripture speaks, if it were at all possible, of God in the same manner as it does of a human monarch, in order to make human ears hear the facts in accordance with what usually transpires, so that they may understand the matter:...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Bo No one saw his fellow and no one rose from where he was three days, But all the israelites had light in their dwelling places. (Shemot 10:23) You find darkness mentioned three times in the parasha: "That there be darkness", "a darkness one can feel" "and there was pitch dark", -thus alluding to three types of darkness; alata, afela, and arafel. Alata (Translations of the Hebrew terms for darkness are by Robert Alter.)...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Vaera If you refuse to let them go, Then I will plague your whole country with frogs. The Nile shall swarm with frogs… The frogs shall come up on you and on your people And on all your courtiers. (Shemot 7:27-29) On you and on your people – this is to say, they shall come even upon your bodies. This is why Pharaoh did not command the magicians to remove the frogs, for usually the magicians...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Shemot And the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives One of whom was named Shiphrah and the other was named Puah. And the midwives feared god And did not do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them And they let the children live (Shemot 1:15, 17) To the Hebrew midwives – To the midwives who were Hebrews. (Rashbam, ibid.) In addition, there were those women who were righteous converts from among...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Vayigash And joseph said to his brothers: i am joseph. Is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer himm, For they were confounded in his presence. (Bereishit 45:3) On the 18th anniversary of her passing, this issue is dedicated to the dear memory of Marcia Kretzmer. Torah study was her source of inspiration for "the Torah of loving-kindness which was upon her tongue", finding expression in her actions and in her creations. ...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Miketz – Chanuka And, look, another seven cows came up after them, lean and very foul-featured and meager in flesh, I had not seen their like in all the land of Egypt for foulness. (Bereishit 41:19) The Dream and Its Telling It is interesting to compare the dream as related here by Pharaoh with the dream as it actually occurred, as related above. There the dream is described objectively, but here Pharaoh's description reflects...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Vayeshev And she took off her widow's garb and covered herself With a veil and wrapped herself and sat by petach Enaim which is on the road to timna (Bereishit 38:14) (The meaning of "Petach Enayim" is not clear. "Petach" means opening or entrance. "Ayin", singular of "Enaim" may mean "eye" or "spring". 'Ayin' appears in many Hebrew idioms; its exact meaning is contextually determined and therefore subject to varying interpretations – Translator). She sat...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Vayishlah And Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Efrata, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob erected a monument on her grave. And this is the monument of the tomb of Rachel to this day. (Gen. 35:19-20) And Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Efrata – the Sages interpreted (Breshit Raba 82,9), it is an honor to women for their burial to be in the place where they died, for...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Vayetze …And Rachel said to Leah, "Give me, pray, some of the mandrakes of your son." And she said, "Is it not enough that you have taken my husband and now you would take the mandrakes of my son?" And Rachel said, "Then let him lie with you tonight in return for the mandrakes of your son." And Jacob came from the field in the evening and Leah went out to meet him and said, "With me...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Toldot And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb… And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bore them. (Gen. 25:24,26) And his hand grasped Esau's heel, to detain him, so that he would come out first (Hizquni). Or else: to detain him so that he would...