Va'era Verses 6:2-9:35

Jewish pride. That is what this portion is all about. Now you may be surprised when I tell you this portion is about the first seven plagues. We start off with Moses and his brother/spokesman, Aaron politely asking pharaoh for the Israelites to pray just outside the Ancient Egyptian kingdom and sacrifice at an altar. As God warned Moses, pharaoh denied his request. Showing His wonders, God turned Moses’ staff into a serpent. Pharaoh was amazed, but IGNORANT (see last week’s interpretation) by saying his magicians can do the same. The Egyptians laughed and chuckled of Moses and his “God”. They asked politely. No plagues, no nothing. Just politely. Pharaoh would regret his ignorant words. We start our plagues at the Nile River as Moses puts out his staff and the entire Nile was turned to blood. Plague one! Ignorant pharaoh turns to his magicians once more. The Israelite mockery continued as pharaoh laughed at the thought of letting them go. Nobody knew it, but this was the beginning of a Jewish rise in morale. Frogs rose out of the bloody Nile and spread through the Egyptian empire. A few Egyptians did not laugh as much when pharaoh denied the thought of letting them go. Less and less people sided with pharaoh as he denied Israelite freedom through lice, through swarms of insects, through livestock disease, and through boils. By the time plague seven rolls around, Moses tells everybody (even the Egyptians) to take cover for a hail storm although pharaoh ignores it. On the other hand, the Egyptians go indoors quite franticly. This is a very miniature detail, but to me it shows Jewish pride, the power of God, and the ignorance of anti-Semitism. I am proud to be Jewish, are you?

Exodus Shemot Verses 1:1-6:1

Hello Bloggers,

Welcome and thank you for your continuing participaion. I would like to note for anybody that owns a Tanak or Bible you can intepret the parsha too! I am excited to dive in to Exodus and without further instruction here is my interpetation of just a small chunk of the parsha that really popped out at me.



People say ignorance is bliss. That makes my eyebrow curl up. According to dictionary.com ignorance is the state or fact of being ignorant; lack of knowledge, learning, information, etc. My question to you is how is that bliss? Because of ignorance the Holocaust, because of ignorance the World Trade Center towers went down, because of ignorance the Spanish Inquisition, and because of ignorance Gaza. How is that bliss? Every terror, every genocide, every war, every murder, every shooting…..ignorance. How is that bliss? This relates back into the parsha this week because of ignorance the Egyptian pharaoh Raamses II thought the Israelites would over power the Egyptians and so he threw every Hebrew boy born after his order in the Nile River. (The Hebrew midwives did not follow his original orders of just killing them…go figure?) Because of ignorance. How is this bliss?

My Interpretation of Genesis Va-yechi

Weekly Parsha Interpretation
January 10, 2009: Va’yechi 47:28-50:26
This week’s parsha to me says a very special message. This message tells me something about Judaism. To me Judaism means everything. In this part of the Torah to conclude Genesis Jacob unfortunately passes on. His sons aid him on his way out and it is obviously pointed out how important it was for Jacob to be buried in the land of Canaan in the Ephron of the Hittite with Judaism’s fathers Abraham and Isaac. Joseph however is buried in Egypt. I think this is a sign of the times ahead. The first era of Judaism has come to an end and no longer has Joseph passed on a passion like Jacob, Isaac, or Abraham. Due to this lack of passion Judaism and its people do not return to Canaan and are enforced into slavery in the land of Egypt.  If I was the fourteenth son of Jacob, I would live in his shoes long after his death, reminding my followers of how great it is to be a Jew.”   The thing I ask you about this Torah parsha, are you a fourteenth son of Jacob or a Joseph?