Understanding the Burning Bush

Understanding the Burning Bush

Dec 16, 2013 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Shemot

This week’s parashah, Shemot, begins the saga of the enslavement of the Israelites in the land of Egypt.

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Updating Our Mindset

Updating Our Mindset

Jan 9, 2010 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Shemot

The conclusion of Genesis and the beginning of the book of Exodus coincide this year with not only the end of a secular year, but the winding down of a decade. Of all its nicknames shopped around during the last days of December (the Ohs, Noughties, Aughts, or, as Slate Magazine put it, the Uh-Ohs), “the digital decade” is the one that I find most fitting. The past ten years have brought us blogging, Googling, YouTubing, tweeting on Twitter, and updating our Facebook statuses. Each progressive step (if we really want to call it progress) has brought new meaning to here and now. What these technologies have demonstrated is that we have a virtual obsession with being current—with letting people know exactly what we are thinking, doing, or experiencing.

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Morality and Memory

Morality and Memory

Dec 31, 2012 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Shemot

As we welcome this coming Shabbat, we turn to the second of the Five Books of Moses, Exodus.

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Israel’s Quarterback Problem

Israel’s Quarterback Problem

Jan 14, 2012 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Shemot

Having concluded the saga of the matriarchs and patriarchs, we encounter a pharaoh who does not know Joseph—or chooses not to remember the good things he did for Egypt. The tide quickly turns, and the Children of Israel face a harsh new reality. As if enslavement were not enough to break the spirits of the descendants of Jacob, the pharaoh codifies cruelty into law and seeks to exterminate the Israelite population. The harsh decrees of the pharaoh actually end up setting the scene for the birth of Moses.

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God’s Nomenclature

God’s Nomenclature

Jan 13, 2007 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Shemot

The act of “naming” is a God–like act that speaks to relationship and power.

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Legacy and Jewish Identity

Legacy and Jewish Identity

Dec 28, 2002 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Shemot

What is the greatest legacy we can leave to our children and grandchildren?

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Pharaoh’s Rebellious Daughter

Pharaoh’s Rebellious Daughter

Jan 5, 2002 By Melissa Crespy | Commentary | Shemot

How did she get away with it?! How did the daughter of Pharaoh manage to save the baby Moses, and raise him in the royal court, when her father had decreed that all Hebrew boys were to be killed?

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Good for the Midwives

Good for the Midwives

Dec 30, 2012 By Walter Herzberg | Commentary | Shemot

What exactly was the good that God did for the midwives? This question has engaged the commentators throughout the generations.

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