Author: Shlomo Bar-Ayal

  • Amalek is True Evil

    The commandment to destroy any vestige of Amalek seems strange. There is no such commandment with other enemies of the Jewish people throughout our history. Why such a commandment?

  • God Wants Action, Not Words

    When the Jews get to the Red Sea they seem to be trapped between the sea and Pharaoh’s army. Moses prays and God tells him to quit praying and jump into the sea. This shows God wants action, not just prayers.

  • Freedom Comes With a Price

    The portion starts out with the Jews avoiding going directly to the Land of Israel lest they get into a war with the Philistines and run back to Egypt. It ends with the Jews fighting Amalek. They had to learn that there was no going back to Egypt.

  • Pharaoh Misled Himself

    Pharaoh accused Moses of lying. Moses had said that the Jews had to go three days to worship God. At no time did Moses say that they would be returning. Pharaoh misled himself into believing that they would.

  • Getting Egypt Out of the Jews

    More important that getting the Jews out of Egypt was to get Egyptian culture out of the Jews. God wanted the Jews to be a moral and ethical people and to reject the immorality of Egypt.

  • God Knows Your Actions

    The first born who were killed in Egypt were the first born of any coupling. This was to reveal the immorality of Egypt and why God needed to get the Jews out of Egypt. To get them away from an immoral society.

  • God Wants Action From Us

    The reason for the Pascal Sacrifice before the plague of the killing of the first born was that God wanted to see that the Jews were willing to take action for their freedom.

  • The True Plague of Darkness

    The plague of darkness was much more than three days of darkness. According to the Torah, Egypt was a land of darkness while the Jews, if they follow the Torah are in light.

  • Freedom Means Responsibility

    A free person has to be responsible with his time. A slave does not. That is the reason that the first commandment is declaring the new month. The Jews were being freed for a purpose.

  • Preparing for Freedom

    The purpose of freeing the Jews from slavery was that they should be a Godly people. This is expressed through the commandment of declaring the new month. God is setting the people up to be a nation.