Rashi on Shemot Genesis and Exodus have each its personality. The former starts with cosmic events and segues into the details of the first Hebrew families, while the latter focuses on the nation as whole, and on its journey from slavery to freedom and to nationhood. Rashi’s commentary, accordingly, wears…
In a famous passage in Exodus, God reveals some of His ways to Moses, who is hidden at the crevice of the rock. This very powerful passage is recited numerous times on Kippur with great enthusiasm. To continue the prayer, skip to the next Hebrew section. If you wish to…
Messianic Wars in Midrash – Parashat VaEra In Exodus 8:2 we read of the second plague of Egypt, frogs: ותעל הצפרדע ותכס את ארץ מצרים. The literal translation of these words is: The frog [singular] came up and covered the land of Egypt. The use of the singular form to…
We are taught to believe that the text of the Torah is extremely economic and succinct, and that Torah and redundancy are mutually exclusive. We therefore cannot help but wonder why the Torah is so verbose when describing the construction of the Tabernacle. To answer this question, I think we…
First Two of the Ten Concepts וַיִּכְתֹּ֣ב עַל־הַלֻּחֹ֗ת אֵ֚ת דִּבְרֵ֣י הַבְּרִ֔ית עֲשֶׂ֖רֶת הַדְּבָרִֽים He [Moshe] wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten concepts (Ex. 34:28) This passage teaches us that the term “Ten Commandments” is a misnomer. There are two other references to the Ten Commandments…