“….And you shall keep it for inspection until the fourteenth day of this month…” – Shemot 12:6 וְהָיָה לָכֶם לְמִשְׁמֶרֶת עַד אַרְבָּעָה עָשָׂר יוֹם לַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה – שמות יב, ו Bnei Yisrael were commanded to designate a lamb on the 10th of Nissan to be slaughtered as the Pesach offering four days later. Rashi comments (on Shemos 12:6) that these […]

“….And the blood will be for you for a sign upon the houses where you will be, and I will see the blood and spare you, and there will be no destructive plague in you when I smite the land of Egypt….” – Shemot 12:13 וְהָיָה הַדָּם לָכֶם לְאֹת עַל הַבָּתִּים אֲשֶׁר אַתֶּם שָׁם וְרָאִיתִי אֶת הַדָּם וּפָסַחְתִּי עֲלֵכֶם וְלֹא […]

  Duration of class: 32:11              

“….And there was hail, and fire flaming within the hail….” – Shemot 9:24 וַיְהִי בָרָד וְאֵשׁ מִתְלַקַּחַת בְּתוֹךְ הַבָּרָד – שמות ט, כד In the seventh of the Ten Plagues that G-d brought upon the Egyptians, a devastating hail rained down upon Egypt, striking all people and livestock that were not indoors and crushing all of Egypt’s remaining crops and […]

“…..And the river will swarm with frogs, and they will emerge and come inside your home and your bedroom and upon your bed, and inside the homes of your servants and among your people, and into your ovens and your kneading troughs….” – Shemot 7:28 וְשָׁרַץ הַיְאֹר צְפַרְדְּעִים וְעָלוּ וּבָאוּ בְּבֵיתֶךָ וּבַחֲדַר מִשְׁכָּבְךָ וְעַל מִטָּתֶךָ וּבְבֵית עֲבָדֶיךָ וּבְעַמֶּךָ וּבְתַנּוּרֶיךָ וּבְמִשְׁאֲרוֹתֶיךָ […]

“….And all the water that was in the Nile turned to blood…” – Shemot 7:20 וַיֵּהָפְכוּ כָּל הַמַּיִם אֲשֶׁר בַּיְאֹר לְדָם – שמות ז, כ  The Jewish people were so oppressed in Egypt that even Moshe struggled to understand how this could be part of G-d’s plan. Their misery was so profound that they refused to accept Moshe’s message from […]

“…And Aharon stretched forth his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frog came up and covered the land of Egypt…..” – Shemot 8:2 וַיֵּט אַהֲרֹן אֶת יָדוֹ עַל מֵימֵי מִצְרָיִם וַתַּעַל הַצּפַרְדֵּעַ וַתְּכַס אֶת אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם – שמות ח, ב Our Sages place great emphasis on the importance of executing a mitzvah project from start to finish and […]

“….But i will harden pharaoh’s heart, and i will increase my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt….” – Shemot 7:3 ״….ואני אקשה את לב פרעה והרבתי את אותותי ואת מופתי בארץ מצרים….״ – שמות ז, ג G-d struck the Egyptians with the Ten Plagues as punishment for their cruel enslavement of Bnei Yisrael. These supernatural Plagues also […]

“….Moshe became frightened and said, “Indeed, the matter has become known!….” – Shemot 2:14 ״….ויירא משה ויאמר אכן נודע הדבר…״ – שמות ב, יד   The redemption from Egypt marked the birth of the Jewish people, when the Bnei Yisrael were chosen by G-d to be His nation. This elite status was not something we earned through our merits. In […]

“…..Moshe took his wife and sons and mounted them on the donkey….” – Shemot 4:20 ״….ויקח משה את אישתו ואת בניו וירכבם על החמור….״ – שמות ד, כ The Torah specifies the means of transportation that Moshe provided for his family because the donkey they rode wasn’t quite your average donkey. Rather, when he set out on his journey to […]

“…Moshe became frightened and said, “indeed, the matter has become known.” Pharaoh heard of this incident, and he sought to slay Moshe; and Moshe fled from before Pharaoh…” – Shemot 2:14-15 וַיִּירָא משֶׁה וַיֹּאמַר אָכֵן נוֹדַע הַדָּבָר: וַיִּשְׁמַע פַּרְעֹה אֶת הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה וַיְבַקֵּשׁ לַהֲרֹג אֶת משֶׁה וַיִּבְרַח משֶׁה מִפְּנֵי פַרְעֹה – שמות ב, יד-טו The Torah relates that when Moshe discovered […]

  Both of Yosef’s dreams foretold that one day his family would bow before him, but the imagery in the two dreams was not identical. The subjects of his first dream were from the plant kingdom: eleven sheaves of wheat bowed to his sheave. In the second dream, his family was represented by the solar system: the sun, the moon […]

“…And behold, we were binding sheaves in the midst of the field – bereishis 37:7 וְהִנֵּה אֲנַחְנוּ מְאַלְּמִים אֲלֻמִּים בְּתוֹךְ הַשָּׂדֶה – בראשית לז, ז Yosef and Pharaoh both had dreams involving grain. A noticeable difference between these two dreams, however, reflects the fundamental disparity between what each of them represents. Yosef’s dream opened with a scene of toil. In his […]

  Our Sages teach that water is a metaphor for Torah (Bava Kama 17a). In view of that, we can understand why the presence of snakes and scorpions (in the pit where Yosef was thrown) is hinted in the Torah with the superfluous phrase “there was no water in it,” instead of the verse stating explicitly that the pit was […]

The literal translation of the word גַּרְתִּי is “I sojourned”, meaning, “I lived there as a foreigner” (from the root-word גֵר.) Yaakov emphasized that he was always a stranger in the house of Lavan, and never became a permanent resident. The word גַּרְתִּי according to its literal explanation, “I sojourned,” is truly the secret behind this word’s other interpretation – based on its numerical […]

It is remarkable that such a crucial aspect of Jewish faith, our eternal hope of survival, is commemorated with a law so narrow in scope. The prohibition of eating the sciatic nerve seems to be a mere technicality in the laws of Kosher, applicable only to the precise nerve that the angel wounded in Yaakov, which is in and of […]

Your name reflects more than just your parents’ feelings and whims at the moment you were born. According to the teachings of Kabbalah, parents are endowed by G-d with the wisdom to choose names that are associated with the unique source from which their child’s soul stems. Hence, though Leah attributed her choice of the name Zevulun to the milestone […]

  It is out of character for the Rambam, in a work strictly dedicated to documenting the laws of the Torah, to tell us of the reward that someone in history received for the observance of a particular law. Understandably then, the Rambam does not mention Yaakov’s reward for putting full effort into his work as mere words of inspiration, […]

At the age of one hundred and twenty-three, Yitzchak was five years younger than his mother had been at her passing, and there was still a good chance that he would live another fifty years or more, as his father had. (In fact, he ultimately lived to 180, five years longer than his father.) Even his mother’s passing at the […]

To say that blindness is debilitating is an understatement. In fact, Rashi comments later (28:10), “Because Yitzchak’s eyes had become dim and he was confined in his house, he was like a dead person.” Why had G-d caused this to happen? According to one explanation brought by Rashi, this was to enable Yaakov to receive the blessings that Yitzchak intended […]