Category: Chumash Shemot

Friday night. The sun has long since set, dark clouds hide the stars, and the wind is howling off the Shouf mountain range in central Lebanon. I had managed to quietly sing the Kabbalat Shabbat service, while en-route to the ambush site, and even pray the evening service while in the staging ground, before giving my men a final inspection, but I had no idea what to do about Kiddush. In such situations we usually ate from our packs, one or two at a time, and we had a system to ensure that we didn’t make much noise, but I had never happened to find myself in this particular situation on a Friday night. I had not thought it through in advance, so I had no wine with which to make Kiddush, and a wave of depression fell over me as I realized how far I was from where I really wished to be on a Friday night. Having come...

Love Thyself!! Secrets to Your Ultimate and Everlasting Net Worth Just as a person must believe in G-d, so too, he must afterwards believe in Himself. That is to say, that G-d is involved with him and he is not a waste—that he is here today and gone tomorrow... Rather one must believe that his soul is from the Source of Life, may His name be blessed and that G-d gets pleasure – taanug-- in him and is -- mishtashaya -- playfully involved with him when he does His will. And this is the meaning of the verse “and they believed in G-d and Moses His servant” (Exodus 15). [The soul of] Moses consisted of the 600,000 souls of the Jewish people of that generation --- and they believed that G-d desired them – wants and receives pleasure from the good within them. - Rabbi Tzadok Hacohen: Tzidkat HaTzadick 154 I heard an interview with a famous singer. The interviewer asked her, “What are your feelings...

“Zeh lo nirah li” “This doesn’t look like such a good idea”, said Benjy, commander of an elite company in Golani’s Egoz unit, in the summer of 2006. “I know”, responded his commander, “but orders are orders”. Their mission was to cross the border into Lebanon and take the ridgeline some 3 kilometers opposite in an effort to support IDF troops to the East. I have visited the border by Kibbutz Avivim many times, and it never ceases to amaze me, the fortitude and raw courage it must have taken for Benjy to lead his men over wide open territory in broad daylight, beneath the guns of Hezbollah terrorists in the hills above. This was the same Benjy Hillman o”bm, subsequently killed in that battle at Maroun Aras , who was cited for bravery some years earlier, when he single-handedly charged armed terrorists who had infiltrated one of the settlements in Gush Katif. Alone, in the darkness he saved the lives...

To Serve with Joy Is your life ‘out of service’?   “And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh; and he said unto them: 'Go, serve the LORD your G-d; but who are they that shall go?' And Moses said: 'We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds we will go; because the holiday of G-d is for us.'” — Exodus 10:8-9 The King of Egypt must have been quite surprised by Moses answer. To serve G-d is not like serving you. It is not about degrading back-breaking slavery rather a joyful celebration for the whole family. To serve G-d is a holiday for us. The Secret to Service Most people think that a mitzvah is a "demand" meant to deprive or diminish our godly self worth. But that is incorrect. A mitzvah is a "command" enabling us to co- operate, associate, identify and thereby consciously bond with G-d and experience His love. This is...

It had been a really long day, at the end of a really long week. We were in the middle of Infantry officers’ training course and we had spent the entire week learning and practicing military maneuvers in the field. Physically and emotionally exhausted, at some points it had seemed the week would never end. But time marches on and Thursday had finally come and gone. The sun was setting and as we were getting out for Shabbat we knew the routine by now; soon we would be called to assemble in a large U shaped formation with all our gear on our backs and trucks would come to take us back to the main base camp where we could finally get a hot shower and prepare for the weekend pass in the morning …. I could taste freedom even as the sun set that Thursday night. Sure enough, our commanders told us to assemble and you could feel as...

Where is G-d, the Miracle Maker? People often say, “If there is really a G-d, why doesn’t He do outright miracles anymore? I would believe in G-d if I saw the ten plagues in Egypt, the sea split or some other supernatural event.” In the past, G-d did miracles in order to prevent some terrible tragedy from happening. G-d overruled the laws of nature to keep the story going—otherwise, it would have ended. But this type of intervention is not the ideal way that G-d wants to act. G-d prefers not to do miracles. He only does them when there is no other way to teach us about His control of nature. People do not really change by witnessing a miracle. Of course, at first they are strongly moved and seem to change. But the awe quickly wears off, and they return to their old ways. We see this human pattern many times in the stories of the Torah. The Israelites witnessed the...

In January of 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, at the behest of his boss, Heinrich Himmler, convened a conference in a Villa in Wansee, a suburb of Berlin. Some of the top hierarchy of the Nazi party and the SS were invited, including Adolf Eichmann. They had finally concluded that there was nowhere to send all the Jews. When Hitler began his war of domination, he initially had not intended, it seems, to annihilate the Jews; he simply wanted them out of Europe. In fact, the Nazis may have planned to fund their Nazi War machine by ransoming off their Jews. As an example, the St. Louis, which was the last boat full of German refugees to set sail before the war began, sailed in June of 1939. Bound for Cuba, there were approximately 960 German Jewish refugees aboard, with visas for Cuba. Passage on board cost five hundred dollars, an enormous sum, equivalent today to more than eleven thousand dollars. And the...

Identity Crisis is a Gift: Awakening to the Role and Goal of Your Soul Kirk Douglas, z”l, the actor, once told me that when people compliment him on a performance, they often tell him how great he was at losing himself in the part. "You just became Vincent Van Gogh! You were so wonderful." And he answers, "No, you lost yourself in the part. I can't afford to lose myself in the part. I have to pay attention to the director, to the cues. I have to hit the mark just right so the action is in the camera frame. I must stay aware that I am an actor playing a role." A good actor plays his part, but he doesn't get lost in his part. He can't even begin to think he is the character he is playing. On the other hand, he still embraces that role with a tremendous amount of love and gives everything he's got to play...

It is nearly forty years now, and yet it seems like yesterday. There are moments you can taste, even smell, forever. Forty yards, or perhaps it was only thirty? Time has a way of coloring the details. We had come under heavy fire, and we were doing everything right; by the book. The force was split up and the cover position was already in place laying down heavy suppressing fire, while we moved into place to charge their position. Six of us, trained and experienced, we were running in a straight line up the hill. In such moments, you discover whether all the training had really been worth it. In the movies, they always make it seem like the officer is a hero, cool under fire, and wise enough to know exactly what to do. But in reality, the training just takes over. It isn’t bravery, nor is it that the officer is gifted enough to know exactly what to...

How Can an Argument Bring People Closer? The Unexpected Sound of Spirituality  Imagine someone who has spent months in silent meditation, immersed in peaceful introspection. Now, bring them into a beit midrash, the heart of Jewish learning. What would they expect? A sanctuary of calm, quiet reflection? Instead, they’d be shocked. The room is alive with intensity—voices rising, hands gesturing, students leaning into each other, arguing over a passage in the Talmud. At first glance, it looks more like a heated dispute than a spiritual experience. How can such passionate disagreement be part of a path to wisdom? This, however, is the Jewish way of learning. Torah study isn’t a solo practice of silent contemplation. It’s a dynamic exchange, a pursuit of truth through rigorous discussion and debate. A War of Ideas, Not of Egos  In Judaism, learning isn’t just about absorbing information—it’s about engaging with it. The Talmud describes Torah study as milchamta shel Torah, the “battle of Torah.” But this battle isn’t about ego or winning an argument....