TorahParsha

What is power?

for Parshat VaEireh

 

i

God smites Egypts

with terrifying hail

fire in ice

thunder

hail that is deadly to animals

destructive to houses

ruinous of crops;

and Pharoah tells Moses:

I will free Israel,

pray for me

that God ends this hail.

*

Moses tells Pharoah:

I will lift my hands to God

and He will end this Plague

and you will know

that the land is God’s.

 

ii

If God wanted to show

that the land is His,

demolishing the land

should be enough.

But God displays His power

by answering a prayer.

*

Perhaps showing

that the power to reopen the dialogue

is the power beyond all strengths.

 

 

___

With inspiration from Rav Ezra Bick and Rav Avi Weiss

___

Shabbat shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

What should you risk?

for Parshat Shemot

 

i

Moses is born

in a time of genocide.

His mother sees that he is good

and she hides him from the government

and when she cannot hide him anymore

she sends him down the river

to an unseen fate

(and the princess finds him

and names him Moses).

*

Moses sees

an Egyptian man

beating one of his brethren.

Moses looks to see

that no one is looking

and strikes the Egyptian down.

Later, a man asks him:

Will you kill me, too?

and it is clear

that the thing is known,

that the world has found out.

And Pharoah seeks to kill Moses

over this crime.

*

God takes Israel from Egypt

— a nation

from the midst of another

nearly destroying Egypt in Plagues.

 

ii

The good

hidden within

—Moses tucked away,

the act of justice,

Israel in Egypt—

must not be hidden.

The good must come to light

even at the risk of everything.

 

 

Shabbat shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

How to find God, Who seems hidden

 

for Parshat VaYechi

 

i

Jacob blesses his grandchildren,

saying:

let them multiply as fish

in the midst of the land.

*

Such a strange blessing!

 

ii

When God makes the things of the water,

the word fish is not mentioned.

Fish is first mentioned

only when God announces Man

who will rule over all things,

who will rule over the fish of the sea.

*

God sends Israel through the Sea

and rescues Israel from Egypt

and the Children of Israel

saw the great Hand of God,

and they believed in God.

*

We are land dwellers.

Things of the water do not exist for us

until we and they are brought into connection:

until we rule over fish,

until God protects us with His Hand.

Then these things come into view,

and they exist for us.

 

iii

To be a fish that thrives on land

is to live that connection

that seems impossibly unapparent

between the world where we exist

and the world beyond—

between the land and the sea,

between our lives

and the Hand of God.

*

Jacob blesses his grandchildren:

live that hidden connection so firmly

that it becomes you.

 

________

Shabbat shalom,

Abe

________

Originally published last year

www.TorahParsha.com

What it means to see someone

for Parshat VaYigash

 

i

Joseph tells his brothers of his dreams

that predict his greatness

that make his brothers hate him so much

they send him off to slavery in Egypt.

*

In Egypt

Joseph becomes a powerful man.

The brothers, not knowing who he is,

come to him for bread.

*

Joseph throws them in jail

plays tricks with their money

calls them spies & thieves

until Judah, Joseph’s brother,

tells this unknown man

all he has wrought upon them

and how the game he is playing

will break their father.

*

Joseph breaks down

he cries: I am Joseph

he says: you had thought to do me harm;

through you,

God has brought me

to sustain a great nation.

*

And Joseph cares for his brothers

the rest of their lives.

*

And this is the first time

anyone acknowledges God

as overseeing the brothers’ whole story.

 

ii

In anger,

Judah tells Joseph

what he could never say before:

how much Joseph matters to this family.

*

And that is what breaks down the walls

between Joseph and his brothers

and takes the curtain away

between the brothers and God.

 

___

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

___

For simplicity, I wrote that the brothers send Joseph to Egypt, but the sale of Joseph is far more indirect. See Gen 37:18-29

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