D'var Torahs

This Parsha with the Greatest Revelation in Jewish History is Called Yisro. Parashat Yisro contains the most extraordinary moment in human history, the revelation of God and the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. God speaks. A nation hears.  This Parsha is called Yisro, named after Moshe’s father-in-law, a former pagan priest. The Torah opens with two simple words:  “Vayishma Yisro”  And Yisro heard. The Midrash teaches that the voice of Sinai echoed across the entire world.

From Slaves to Partners: Remembering the Song Parashat Beshallach includes a description of the fleeing Israelites reaching the shores of the Reed Sea blocking their way forward. The Egyptian army is chasing them from behind. They are scared; they cry out to God who tells them to move forward. Until this moment, the Israelites were slaves. Slaves react; they do not initiate. Slaves wait to be saved. At the sea, something shifted. Nachshon ben Aminadav stepped forward. The peo

Parashat Bo is a Parasha about darkness and about light . The final three plagues, that of locusts, darkness, and the death of the firstborn, appear very different from one another. However, they are all expressions of darkness. The locusts darken the sky, blotting out the sun and consuming everything that grows. Egypt is left stripped of possibility and future. Then comes a darkness so thick it can be felt. A darkness that immobilizes. People cannot see one another. They can

The Ineffable Name and the Promise of Belonging When God appears to Moshe at the burning bush, it is a moment of revelation, and it is a moment of reintroduction. Moshe asks a simple but daring question: “When the people ask me Your name, what shall I say?” God’s response is a name and a statement of being, of presence, of time itself. God reveals the ineffable Name which is spelled with the four Hebrew letters: Yud–Heh–Vav–Heh. This Name does not describe what God does; it d

Heroism Born in Suffering Parshat Shemot  opens not with redemption, but with pain. The Torah tells us that a new king arose over Egypt “who did not know Joseph.”   With that forgetting comes fear, oppression, and cruelty. The Israelites are enslaved, their bodies broken by hard labor, their spirit crushed by decrees designed to erase them. And yet, what is most striking about Shemot  is that heroism does not appear as power or rebellion. It appears as quiet, moral courage in