Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Shmot
- Shmot
The Jewish People has many outstanding qualities: Chesed, compassion, stubbornness, modesty, etc. We also are eternal optimists; in whatever generation we live, we believe in a better future. And, at all times, we look
forward to Moshiach and the era of ultimate perfection that will be ushered in.
Yet as we open Sefer Shmot, there is a great deal of pessimism, gloom and doom, in the air. Am Yisrael is enslaved, degraded, cast to the very bottom rung of society. How will we regain our former glory - no hope is in sight!
More than a century of slavery has sapped us of our positive thinking. Amram, the people’s leader, epitomizes this despair by deciding not to wed or bring more children into the world, for why subject yet another soul to suffering?!
Along comes Miriam (women always come to the rescue!) and convinces her father that he has it all wrong. Marriage, birth, new life always brings Hope. And thus Moshe is born; the ultimate leader who will rejuvenate and
redeem us.
And here is where the title Shmot-names comes into play. "Amram" is a combination of the words "Am" and "Rahm" – meaning "the uplifted nation." His wife’s name "Yocheved" contains the letters of "Kavod H’ ", the glory
of G-d. "Miriam" does contain the word, "Mar – bitter," but also can be read "May-rim - to lift up." And the name "Moshe" means "to extricate," or "pull out" (the Jews from Egypt).
Thus each and every one of the names of the central protagonists of the Exodus story connect to the idea of raising up, rising up and re-establishing the greatness of Am Yisrael, which may falter, but can never fail.
The lesson for us is eminently topical. We often face adversity; it seems at times as if the entire world is set against us. Just this week the proverbial 70 nations gathered together with the express purpose of pressuring
Israel and criticizing our policies. Did they meet to deal with Syria, where 400,000 people have been killed? Or Iran, whose evil Ayatollahs continues to foment terror worldwide? Or France itself, which cannot control its own anti-Semitic hatred? No, their target was little Israel, the foreboding "giant."
But no matter; we remain strong, stoic and supremely confident. We will face all the crises, and we will rise higher and higher; for THAT is the name we proudly carry.
Rabbi Stewart Weiss
Was ordained at the Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, Illinois, and led congregations in Chicago and Dallas prior to making Aliyah in 1992. He directs the Jewish Outreach Center in Ra'anana, helping to facilitate the spiritual absorption of new olim.
Jewish Laws and Thoughts Shul “etiquette:” can we honor Hashem while respecting our fellow congregants?
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part I
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Our King on Rosh Hashana, Our Father on Yom Kippur.
Based on Aroch Siach, p. 221 (Rav Shaul Yisraeli)
P'ninat Mishpat A Non-Contractor in Changing Times – part II
(based on ruling 85128 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts)
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part II
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
Parashat Hashavua Happiness for the Right Reasons
[With painful longing, we share these divrei Torah from our co-Rosh Kollel for close to 40 years, Harav Moshe Ehrenreich zt”l.]
