Category: Chumash Shemot

The Gift of Giving: Love’s Secret Service In this week’s Torah Portion we are commanded to bring pure oil to the tabernacle to light the Menorah (candelabra). “And you (Moses) shall command the children of Israel, that they bring to you pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually.” (Exodus 27:20) The Midrash, which part of Jewish Oral Tradition, asks an obvious question. The entire world is illuminated by G-d’s splendor and yet He tells the Jewish people to bring oil to light the Menorah before Him? The Midrash answers that G-d desires the works of your hands. How can we understand that G-d desires the works of our hand? How can G-d want something from us? What can we give G-d? Does G-d lack anything that we can provide? The Kabbalah teaches that G-d created the world to give us goodness and yet it seems from the Midrash that G-d is not looking to give but really wants to receive. How...

It was known as ‘Shavua Tirgolot’ the ‘week of training drills’. It sounded pretty innocuous, but as it turned out, it was a week of hell. The IDF prides itself on being prepared for any and every eventuality, and to that end, tank crews were trained to automatically respond in any given combat or stress situation. When such events actually occur, you don’t have time to think about what to do, you have to already have it down to a T. If there is a fire in the tank you can’t start debating who gets the fire extinguisher (or activates the spectronics system) and who opens up the engine doors, it all has to be automatic with everyone knowing exactly what they are meant to do, and even what to do in the event someone is injured and their role needs to be filled by someone else. To this end we practiced endlessly what to do in the event there...

Is G-d Beyond Us or Within Us? The Torah recounts that G-d instructed the Israelites to build a sanctuary, telling Moses, “Let them build a sanctuary and I will dwell in them.” Note that G-d did not say, “I will dwell in the sanctuary.” G-d said, “in them.” Is G-d beyond us or within us? One day my son Ananiel and my two daughters, Leyadya and Ne’ema, burst into my study. They had obviously been fighting over something and were very upset. I could see that I was chosen to be the lucky arbitrator to resolve another case of sibling rivalry. They shouted at each other, “You go, you ask Daddy.” “No, no! You go, you go.” Finally Ananiel, who was age five at that time, took the challenge and said, “O.K., O.K. Daddy, isn’t it true that G-d is a boy?” Ne’ema and Leyadya, ages eight and nine, had tears in their eyes. I could hear them silently pleading with me,...

The Divine Wants You to be Happy When Rules Become Delicious Recipes for Your Soul “And these are the judgments that you shall place before them.” — Exodus 21:1 "You shall place before them, that is, like a table that is set and ready for eating." — Rashi “Taste and see that G-d is good.” — Psalms 34 LAWS YOU CAN EAT, ENJOY AND SAVOUR The job of a teacher of Torah is not to be a philosopher, ethical guide or law giver but rather a gourmet chef. A gourmet chef has the ability to bring the taste out of every ordinary cabbage, every simple bean sprout, as well as present it all in a delicious tantalizing way. Once, I went to someone's home to raise funds for my institute. I thought we would have about a ten minute discussion. Instead, we were talking for five or six hours. I hadn't eaten all day, and I was starving. Finally I decided that instead of asking for...

We had an Aunt in our family who was a very special person and had been a kindergarten teacher for many years, with a lot of experience in child education. Although she passed away a number of years ago I still have fond memories of some of the discussions I had with her regarding educational questions. One that stands out in my mind was how she dealt with a child whom she termed a ‘biter’; perhaps seeking attention, he would sometimes bite other children. No amount of explanation and cajoling seemed to work, and one can imagine the impact this must have had on other children and their parents. So, one day when he was caught biting a fellow kindergarten classmate, she promptly took his arm… and bit him back! After a moment of shock, the boy burst into tears, but as she described it to me, it was the last time he bit another child! I wonder what the...

Ready to HotSync Your Soul? Secrets to a Super-Natural Life of Freedom and Synchronicity Years ago, I saw these sandals I really liked. At the time, I knew nothing about these shoes other than I just liked the way they looked. So I went into a store and I tried on a pair, but they didn't feel right. They had all these funny bumps inside of them. I told the salesman, "There is something wrong with these shoes." He said, "No there is something wrong with your feet. You must understand that these shoes are designed to support the shape of a natural foot." "What's unnatural about my feet. They're in their natural place — at the end of my legs." He laughed. "You don't understand. Your feet have taken the unnatural shape of the shoes you've been wearing. And the shoes you've been wearing are good for killing cockroaches in tight corners, but they are not meant to contain feet." I felt insulted so I took...

Recently, I attended the wedding of the daughter of very old friends and was enjoying the palpable joy at the chosson’s tisch (the gathering where the marriage document, the Ketubah, was witnessed and signed with the groom before the ceremony) when the father of the bride approached me and asked me to daven Maariv (lead the evening service). I had a moment of angst as I did not have a siddur (prayer book) on me nor did it seem anyone else did. But as he seemed pressured to move things along I did not want to hold things up and so elected to lead the prayers by heart from memory. Thinking about it later it was interesting that the prospect of davening from memory caused me angst; after all, I say these prayers every day and almost always do it from memory; and had I not been asked to lead the service would have done so again, so why the sudden...

The Nourishing Power of Love Is Your Food Missing Vitamin L? When the Israelites were wandering in the desert, G-d fed them with a hitherto unknown substance called “manna.” The people would go out of their tents every morning, and find this strange stuff lying there on the ground. G-d tells the Israelites: “I fed you manna -- something that neither you nor your fathers knew what it was -- so that you should know that not by bread alone does a person live, but by all that comes from the mouth of G-d.” Why did it have to be something unfamiliar? What would have happened if the Israelites would have woken up in the morning and found bagels all over the place? Imagine being in the middle of the Sinai desert, and every morning appear these bagels, sliced in the middle, with two centimeters of cream cheese and lox. Now that would be a Jewish experience! Why did it have to be...

One of the saddest stories I ever heard was from a Holocaust survivor many years ago who would say Kaddish on the tenth of Tevet every year, in the shul I grew up in as a boy. He was given the privilege of leading the services on that day and for a long time I thought he just had a Yahrtzeit (the anniversary of the death of a loved one…) on the tenth of Tevet. Until one year when I found out he said Kaddish for his whole family on this day because he never found out the exact day of their deaths; the tenth of Tevet is the day chosen to remember those whose exact date of death is not known. One year he spoke on Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) in the Synagogue’s Hebrew School and I went to hear him speak. It transpired that he had escaped the Warsaw ghetto by hiding under a pile of dirty uniforms being...

The Miraculous Power of Love The first of the Ten Commandments is: “I am YHVH your G-d Who took you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” The Zohar, the magnum corpus of Jewish mysticism, explains: “This is the foundation and the root of Torah, all the commandments, and the complete faith of Israel”. Thus, the Exodus is the seminal event of the Jewish calendar and of daily Jewish consciousness. Although the obvious theme of the holiday is freedom it is commonly referred to as Passover. Wouldn’t “the Holiday of Freedom” or the “Exodus” be more appropriate? Jewish tradition teaches that it is so named because G-d passed over the houses of the Jews when He caused the death of the first born of the Egyptians during the tenth plague. This disturbing image of G-d, hopping and skipping over the Jews’ homes, is also hinted at in the Song of Songs, which is read on Passover: “Behold the voice of my...