Author: moshe

In “Torah Tapestries on Sefer Shemos,” Parshat Va’era, Rebbetzin Shira Smiles’ takes up a theme (pages 13-17) concerning “Learning to Appreciate.”

Rebbetzin Smiles writes:

Before the first plague, blood, Hashem commanded Moshe Rabbeinu to first warn Pharoah of the impending plague…. If Hashem told Moshe to warn Pharoah that he was going to hit the water, we would expect the next instruction to read “And if Pharoah refuses, then you shall raise your staff and strike the water. ” But that’s not what Hashem said. read more

To sufficiently comprehend the evolution of the enslavement of B’nai Yisrael in Mitzrayim, it would seem that one needs to comprehend the closed nature of the two preceding Parshiyot; the concluding posuk of Vayigash (Sefer Breish’t, Perek 47, posuk 27);

And Yisrael dwelt in the land of Mitzriyim in the land of Goshen, and they acquired property in it and… multiplied greatly

And the first posuk of Vayechi ((Sefer Breish’t, Perek 47, posuk 28);

And Yaakov lived in the land of Mitzrayim for seventeen years… read more

We hear it again and again, at Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, from Fathers or Uncles or Grandfathers about how the young person carries the name, and indeed the midos and attributes of the one for which they are named. We hear how this young person carries the same attributes of Chessed, of dedication to Mitzvot, to Torah, to his fellow Jews as the Tzaddik/Tzadekket whose name he or she carries. And we learn that a Tzaddik, upon his earthly demise, lives on through the midot and kindnesses of descendents. It would seem that this recognition of inherited midos has its roots with Yaakov Aveinu. read more