CLEAR VISION One of the key parts of the magnificent Song of the Sea that we sing this Shabbat, is the phrase, “this is my G-d and I will exalt Him…” (Shemot 15:2) Rashi, citing the Sages of the Midrash, tells us that at that moment, everyone enjoyed sublime heights of prophecy. “Even a maidservant saw things at the Red Sea that were not perceived by the prophets Ezekiel or Isaiah” (Rashi, Shemot 15:2.) This raises a striking question: what was so special about the experience at the Sea that it surpassed even our greatest literary prophets of the bible?...

DID G-D GIVE PHARAOH HEART DISEASE?! Throughout the episode of the Ten Plagues, described in last week’s sidra and this week’s sidra, we read of the ‘hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.’ For the first five plagues, it is Pharaoh who hardens his own heart. For the subsequent plagues, we read that it is G-d who hardens Pharaoh’s heart. What does this mean? Obviously, G-d didn’t harden his arteries or give him angina! We need to appreciate that the Torah uses the term ‘heart’ to refer to the source of a person’s moral, spiritual and intellectual capacities. (Indeed, the medieval work, Chovot...

ENLISTED The drama of the Exodus story has begun. Moses’ initial meeting with Pharaoh has had its setback. G-d promises to redeem his people with no less than four expressions of liberation. Then, in the entire sheni or second portion, the narrative is interrupted with a genealogical list. We are treated to the family background of Moses and Aaron in the tribe of Levi. Moreover, the lineage of the preceding tribes of Reuven and Shimon is also included. We are treated to a listing of not only Moses and Aaron, but also their uncles and cousins, great uncles and second...

RIGHTEOUS GENTILES We are introduced, in this week portion, to the first large-scale persecutor of the Jews in Pharaoh’s extermination policies of throwing Hebrew babies into the Nile. At the same time, the Torah informs us of gentiles who refused to obey such orders. Pharaoh instructs women who are called Hameyaldot Ha’Ivriyot – the Hebrew Midwives to carry out his plans. They are called Shifrah and Puah. Whilst Rashi, following the Midrash, identifies these women as Yocheved and Miriam, the mother and sister of Moses, other sources disagree. ‘Hebrew Midwives’ could mean Midwives who are Hebrews, or Midwives to the...

JOSEPH’S FINAL ALIYA The sidra of Vayechi and the book of Bereishit conclude with Joseph making his brothers promise that when they (i.e., their descendants) leave Egypt, they would take his remains with him. A number of commentators are puzzled by this request. Why doesn’t Joseph make his sons promise that they would do this for their father? After all, the sidra begins with Jacob making Joseph swear that he would bury him in Israel, not Egypt. Rabbi Joseph B Soloveitchik (d.1993) in Chumash Mesorat Harav p.373, offers the thought that Joseph was not only concerned about his final resting...

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 unmistakeable, both to his credit and potential misfortune. In the portions of the Torah we are currently reading, Pharaoh has chosen...

CHANUKAH POWER The festival of Chanukah recalls the military victory of the Maccabees over the vastly superior Greek army as well as the miracle of the jug of oil in the Temple, with the seal of the High Priest, which miraculously lasted for eight days, instead of just one. The great Chassidic leader, Rabbi Levi Yitchak of Berditchev (1740-1810) poses a fundamental question. Why did our Sages institute a holiday to recall these miracles and not to recall other miracles? In the Bible we read of a number of inspiring miracles. For example, there is the account in the fourth...

DO YOU RECOGNISE YOURSELF? A key phrase in this week’s portion, is used in two startlingly contrasting contexts. When Joseph’s brothers want to communicate to Jacob that Joseph is lost, they kill a goat, dip Joseph’s coat in the blood, send it to their father with the words, Haker na – “do you recognise this item?” When Tamar, Judah’s daughter-in-law, has been accused of adultery and is about to be executed, instead of publicly revealing Judah as the man who made her pregnant, she takes out the pledges that Judah had sent her and sends them to Judah with the...

THE QUESTIONS ESAU ASKS US Occasionally, a biblical passage will leap off the page indicating that it has a relevance not merely to the time and place in which it was originally uttered, but for all generations. Such a passage occurs when Jacob sent his agents with gifts to bring to Esau, ahead of their meeting. Jacob told his emissaries; Esau will ask you three questions: To whom do you belong? Where are you going? For whom are these before you? (Bereishit 24:18) Rabbi Joseph B Soloveitchik (d.1993) explains that these questions are addressed to all of us, whoever, wherever,...