Intent of a Question

Intent of a Question

Jan 8, 2011 By Eliezer B. Diamond | Commentary | Bo | Pesah

Everyone knows that four children are mentioned in the Passover Haggadah and that one of them is the evil child. Probably fewer of us are aware that the question attributed to this child is a biblical verse found in this week’s Torah portion, “What do you mean by this rite (avodah)?” (Exod. 12:26). 

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Afraid of the Dark

Afraid of the Dark

Jan 16, 2013 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Bo

I cannot read the stories of the plagues without a knot in my stomach. What kind of God hardens Pharaoh’s heart so that the suffering of both the Egyptians and the enslaved Israelites increases? What kind of God comes up with the death of the firstborn as the “final straw”? What am I supposed to do with these stories as someone who wants to believe in the God of Redemption and Compassion and Justice; who wants to feel that God’s presence in my life?

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“We Were Slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt”

“We Were Slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt”

Jan 23, 2015 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Bo

Mount Sinai and a pyramid mirror each other, two halves of a whole. The pyramid is upside down, demonstrating that slavery is unnatural. Servitude distorts reality and ambition. This distortion comes not only from slavery to a human master, but also from when we become enslaved to our own drives—lacking the ability to envision an alternative or to hold fast to hope.

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The Many Languages of Torah

The Many Languages of Torah

Jan 3, 2014 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Commentary | Bo

Sometimes basic questions are the hardest to answer. For example, I know that one plus one equals two, but when asked to prove it logically, I may struggle a bit before I can express it.

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The Heart of Pharaoh

The Heart of Pharaoh

Jan 30, 2009 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Bo

God “has hardened [Pharoah’s] heart and the hearts of his courtiers” in order to teach them and the entire world a painful and difficult lesson about where true power resides. In order to understand that lesson, I think, we must try to understand Pharaoh.

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Where Does Midrash Begin?

Where Does Midrash Begin?

Jan 23, 2015 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Commentary | Bo

In this week’s parashah we find the first legal passage in the Torah, Exodus 12, which contains laws concerning Passover. Torah as a type of literature is best defined as a combination of law and narrative. In Torah we read not only some laws here and some narratives there, but laws that are authenticated and explained by the narrative, and narrative whose purpose is to motivate us to observe the laws. Since we first encounter law in this week’s parashah, in a significant way it is here that the Torah begins in earnest.

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Bo

Bo

Jan 1, 1980

1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh. For I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his courtiers, in order that I may display these My signs among them, 

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Bo

Bo

Jan 1, 1980

13 The word which the Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah about the coming of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon to attack the land of Egypt:

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