Exodus (Shmot)

Yitro, our tradition’s first management consultant, gives Moses some excellent advice in this week’s Torah reading.  Seeing Moses wearing himself out attending to disputes between people, Yitro tells him to delegate.  Not only that, he tells Moses what kind of people he should seek out as leaders: Exodus 18:21. And you shall choose out...
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 Surely the greatest treasure the world has ever known was the original two tablets of the Ten Commandments. These were no ordinary pieces of stone with a little of writing engraved on them. In this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tisa, we are told that tablets were ma’aseh Elohim, they were the work of God—the...
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Today is Shabbat Zachor, when we are commanded to remember what Amalek did to us—which is to have attacked us from the rear, targeting the women and children. This morning’s Maftir reading tells us that when we come into the land of Israel we must blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven,...
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 Over three thousand years ago, there was a gathering of the Jewish people to study Torah. This week’s Torah portion, Vayakhel, opens with the words: “And Moses gathered all the congregation of the people of Israel together and said to them, These are the words which the Lord has commanded, that you should do them.”...
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“This is the accounting of the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of the Pact”…Exodus 38:21 This week’s Torah portion begins with an accounting of the gold, silver, copper and other valuable things that were used in constructing the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, which represented God’s presence among the people of Israel. Like any good leader, Moses knew...
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  Can you imagine what an amazing experience it would have been to stand at Mt. Sinai when God’s presence was right there? When Moses went up the mountain to receive the Torah? From the description in the Torah, it would have been a truly awe-inspiring experience. Everyone there was brought to a very...
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