Parshat Vayechi – Planning a Legacy of Meaning
Beha’aloscha – בְּהַעֲלֹתְךָ Beha’aloscha (Hebrew for “when you step up”) is thematically diverse, beginning with the daily lighting of the golden menorah in the Mishkan. The Levites are initiated into the Tabernacle service. The Torah then describes the celebration of Passover in the second year in the desert, complete with the bringing of the Korban…
Parshas Vaeira G-d assures Moses that He will indeed redeem the Jewish people from slavery and bring them into the land of Israel. After the Torah presents a detailed genealogy of the tribe of Levi (Moses’ family), Moses and Aaron go before Pharaoh to request a three-day hiatus from work so that the Jewish people…
The parsha begins with Abraham’s incredible display of chesed (kindness) to three angels who appear as men. This, despite extreme discomfort from his recent bris milah (circumcision). The angels declare that Sarah will give birth to her first child at the age of 90 when Abraham would be 100. Later, Abraham pleads to G-d on…
“In reference to war, the Torah emphasizes the word machaneh, camp. The Torah commands, ‘When you go out to encamp against your enemies, you shall guard against anything evil… for Hashem, your G-d, walks in the midst of your camp to rescue you and to deliver your enemies before you so that your camp shall…
The deluge that destroyed the world in the time of Noach caused a major upheaval in the physical makeup of the world. The geological and archeological evidence of these changes has baffled many a scientist, so much so that even skeptical scientists argue that some fossilized discoveries may be attributed to the Flood. Not only…