Weekly Torah Reading, Mishpatim, February 10, 2024
Exodus 21:1-24:18 A Pastoral Interlude This week’s reading is full of different rules and regulations: the Hebrew slave who wants to remain a slave; the goring ox; the burning field, and so forth. Some of these cases seem far …
Weekly Torah Reading, Yitro, February 3, 2024
Exodus 18:1 – 20:23 Not Saying a Word This week’s Torah reading includes the well-known commandment to “remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8-11). About this commandment the prophet Isaiah particularly stressed the importance of a …
Weekly Torah Reading, Beshallah, January 27, 2024
Exodus 13:17-17:16 Not One, Two This week’s reading prominently features the Song of the Sea—the song that the Israelites sang after their miraculous crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 15). For this reason, this Shabbat is also known as …
Weekly Torah Reading, Va’era, January 13, 2024
Exodus 6:2-9:35 A Divine Guarantee This week’s reading begins with God telling Moses, “I am the Lord” (spelled YHWH). But surely Moses knew that already. In fact, just a few paragraphs earlier, God had instructed Moses to tell the …
Weekly Torah Reading, Shemot, January 6, 2025
Exodus 1:1 – 6:1 Who Am I? Despite Pharaoh’s cruel decrees against the people of Israel, the Israelite population just kept increasing. Even his order to have all newborn babies thrown into the Nile didn’t work: the mother of …
Weekly Torah Reading, Vayhi, December 30, 2023
Weekly Torah Reading, Vayhi, December 30, 2023 Genesis 47:28-50:26 The Staff of Jacob At the end of his life, Jacob gathered his sons together in order to give each of them his fatherly blessing. But in fact, his …
Weekly Torah Reading,Va-yiggash, December 23, 2023
Genesis 44:18 – 47:27 After They’ve Seen Paree After Joseph revealed his true identity to him brothers, he sent them back to Canaan to tell their father Jacob the good news: his long-lost son Joseph was still alive …
Weekly Torah Reading, Vayyeshev, December 9, 2023
Genesis 37:1-40:23 His Father’s Icon Joseph, whose early life is the focus of this week’s reading, got off to a rocky start. The favorite son of his father Jacob, he seems to have been quite an obnoxious young man. …