Shmot

When we read our parasha carefully, we can notice an important linguistic change. Whereas throughout this section of the Torah, Hashem’s word is introduced with the word “vayomer,” in the beginning of this parasha the word “vayedaber” is mentioned eleven times for His speech. Our parasha also describes three plagues with which Hashem afflicted Egypt, the middle one being dever, which shares the same Hebrew root as vayedaber and is also sometimes written as “davar.” The common denominator between the three plagues in the parasha is that none of them included use of Moshe’s staff.

Most people find it fascinating to discover that the great tzadikim, Chananyah, Mishael and Azaryah, learned from the frogs in this week’s Parsha that there is a mitzvah to die al kiddush Hashem. Stay tuned to find out…

Moshe’s first action as an emerging leader was that he saw an Egyptian beating an Israelite and killed the Egyptian (Shemot 2:11-12). This was followed by confronting two Israelites fighting and trying to stop them, only to be scorned, “Who has placed you as an officer and judge over us? Will you kill me the way that you killed the Egyptian?” (ibid. 14). Moshe was then sought by Paroh and slated for execution, but he managed to escape to Midian.