Mindful Torah...and more

This week we begin reading the book of Shemot/Exodus with Parshat Shemot (Ex. 1:1 - 6:1). In reading the beginning of this familiar story of slavery and redemption, I could not help but be struck by verse 8 “and a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.” There are many commentaries about this verse. Some say that he just didn't want to acknowledge all that Joseph had done. Others said that he did not remember about Joseph or that so many year had passed that the new Pharaoh just simply didn't know what Joseph had done for Egypt. His name had become a distant memory. And yet the fact that he did not know Joseph then led Pharaoh to fear the Israelites. They had grown so numerous, he was concerned that they would eventually rise up against him. And so he made them slaves. They were forced into hard labor and task masters were placed over them. Then, still afraid that they might rise up against him in the future, he decreed that all male babies were to be kil...

This week we conclude the reading of the Book of Bereshit /Genesis with Parshat Va’yehi (Genesis 47:28-50:26). The name and first word of the parashah/ portion means, “he lived.” This refers to Jacob, who is on his deathbed. He had been brought down to Egypt to live with his beloved son Joseph, whom he thought dead for over 20 years. Now, after 17 years in Egypt he is ready, at the age of 147, for his life to end. He gathers his twelve sons around his bed (daughter Dinah has long since disappeared from the narrative. But that is for another time), as well as Manasseh and Ephraim, Joseph’s sons by his Egyptian wife Osnat. When he blesses his two grandsons, he crosses his hands, thereby giving the preferred blessing of the elder child to the younger. And so, this family tradition that blessed Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau and Judah over his elder brothers continues on to the next generation. It has always struck me, and many others, how Dinah disappears after ...