Author: Shlomo Bar-Ayal

  • Moses’s Art Of The Deal

    When the negotiation between Moses and Pharaoh begin, Pharaoh tries to limit who can leave. Moses lets him know that this is a nonstarter. It’s all the Israelites otherwise Egypt will be destroyed. We know how the story ends.

  • God Is In The World

    God informs Moses that He will be the redeemer of Israel. That He will be involved with the world. This teaches that God is involved in our world and lives.

  • Uniting For The Mission

    When Moses returns to Egypt he is met by Aaron. One would have thought that Aaron would have been jealous of Moses, but he was not. He knew that Moses’s mission was more important. That they had to be united in the goal.

  • Humility & Leasership

    A great leader does not lead because he wants to but because he has to. And after he has accomplished what he set out to do he willingly gives up his office.

  • A Lesson In Humility

    When Moses was at the burning bush he was commanded to take his shoes off. One of the reasons was he should feel the rough stones so that when he spoke to the Jews who were enslaved, he should understand their pain.

  • Stand Up & Be A Man

    The Torah relates that when Moses saw the Egyptian task master beating a slave, he looked around and did not see a man. Meaning he saw lots of people but no one who was willing to take a stand. So he did.

  • Listen To Your Elders

    The reason that the Tribe of Levi was not enslaved was because Levi was still alive when Pharaoh tricked the Jews into becoming slaves. He told his descendants that he smelled a rat. And he was right.

  • Don’t Expect Gratitude

    The lesson of the statement that there arose a Pharaoh who did not know Joseph, or that after all the good that Joseph did for Egypt, when it suited them, the Egyptians forgot about him. We should do the right thing because it is right. Just don’t expect gratitude.

  • Mistreating Your Fellow

    The 10th of Tevet is the anniversary of the Babylonians laying siege to Jerusalem, the beginning of the end of the 1st Temple. The reason for the destruction was the mistreatment of Jews to the fellow Jews.

  • Stand Up For Your People

    Simon & Levi come under criticism for their actions in defending their sister Dina. But Jacob understands that they did not commit their deeds our of malice but due to their love of their family.