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.

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.

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.

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.