HOUSE-BOUND There is a gap between Liberation and Exodus. After the tenth plague struck, Pharaoh implored the Israelites to leave immediately. Nevertheless, the Exodus did not take place untilthe morning. Indeed the Israelites were commanded: “And no person shall leave the entrance of his house till morning.” (Shemot 12:22) The late Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik (Festival of Freedom, pp. 31-32) sees a profound significance in the fact that the Israelites did not rush into liberation mode but had to wait, patiently, until day broke. History, he says, records many instances of slaves’ bloody and ruthless insurrections against their masters. Ancient Rome...
ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE The drama begins. Pharaoh and the Egyptians are smitten by the plagues. Blood, Frogs, Lice, Pestilence, Boils and the rest. But Pharaoh’s heart is hard and he doesn’t let the Israelites go. What is significant about the first three plagues – the water of the River Nile turning to blood, the frogs jumping out of the river and invading the country and the eruption of lice from the ground – is that it is Aaron, rather than Moses, who holds out his staff over the river and later smites the ground that brings the plagues. The explanation...
WHY MOSHE? Open a Jewish Encyclopedia and you will find many individuals, over the course of Jewish history, who are called Moshe. Look more carefully, and you will see that apart from the first Moshe or Moses, the name doesn’t occur again for more than two thousand years. It seems that for a long time, Jews were reluctant to call another person by the name of our greatest leader and saviour. So what are the origins of this name? According to this week’s parasha, Pharaoh’s daughter names the baby she rescues from the Nile as Moshe, Ki Min HaMayim Meshitihu...
THE PATRIARCH, PELE, AND THE POPE. From opposite sides of the world, tens of thousands of people have been paying their tributes this week to mourn the deaths of Pope Benedict XVI and football legend Pelé. Both the Vila Belmiro Stadium in Santos, Brazil, and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome were thronged as the faithful came by to pay their respects. The man of a 1000 goals was buried in a simple funeral on Tuesday and Benedict is due to be buried on Thursday with the full ritual accorded to a former pontiff. Both men were internationally known to millions...
REVERED OR REVILED The blurb on Niall Ferguson’s biography of Henry Kissinger (Volume I: The Idealist, 1923-1968) reads: “No American statesman has been as revered or as reviled as Henry Kissinger. “Once hailed as ‘Super K – the indispensable man’ whose advice has been sought by every president from Kennedy to Obama – he has also been hounded by conspiracy theorists…” Despite having arrived in the USA in 1938, Henry Kissinger, to this day, sounds like an outsider. His Jewish-German origins are unmistakable, both to his credit and potential misfortune. In last week’s parasha, Pharaoh chose Joseph to manage his...
