parshat Va'era

for whom were these plagues/miracles done? Was it to bring Egypt to its knees, punishment for the inhuman way they mistreated us during 117 years of slavery? Was it to show Paro who really is boss? Was it to strengthen & energize Bnei Yisrael, after so many years of our being downtrodden?

It's all to easy to go through life without actually seeing what is all around us.

The Exodus from Egypt was a complex and difficult operation, requiring two goals: 1) Convincing Bnei Yisrael that it was going to occur and getting them to the level at which they would be worthy of it. 2) Convincing Paroh to set the people free or force him to do so.

The Lord could certainly have accomplished the same result with one plague, especially the last and final plague of the death of the Egyptian firstborn. Why go through the exercise of the first nine plagues?

Yechezkel and Yirmiyahu are both prophets in the same period, there are some similarities and some differences in their prophets. we will study one of these prophets.

Parshas Va’eira opens with Moshe Rabbeinu receiving admonition from Hashem for not being appreciative of His Ways. Thus, this is certainly an excellent time to study the brocha of bensching called Hatov Vehameitiv, “He Who is good and does good.”

In this week's Torah reading, G-D lays for Moshe the plan for redemption. The order in the Parasha is different than the order we say during Birkat Hamazon.