When the midwives in Egypt get the order to murder all male Jewish babies they resist. The Torah states that they fear God more than Pharaoh. Fearing God will get you to do the right thing.
Category: Culture
-
Listen To Your Elders
The reason that the tribe of Levi was not enslaved was that Levi was still alive when Pharaoh succeeded in fooling the Jews. Levi, though saw through Pharaoh’s plot and told his descendants not to be fooled.
-
Limiting the Power of the King
While recognizing that a leader was needed, the Torah limits the power of the king. It is interesting to note that this passage was the basis for the constitutional limits on the president of the US.
-
Don’t Be a Normal Nation
The first of the Ten Commandments is that God took us out of Egypt. One of the thoughts is that we were not taken out of Egypt to be a normal nation but to be a light until the other nations.
-
Words Have Meanings
The Temple was destroyed due to baseless hatred of Jew against Jew. The cause of baseless hatred is the abuse of accusations. When a person is accused of behavior that he is not guilty of he will react. And not in the manner that the accuser expects.
-
Moses’s Last Speech
The Book of Deuteronomy is all about how to set up society once the Jews reach the Land of Israel. Moses’s main concern was that the Jews not copy the ways of the Egyptians or their society.
-
Korach & the HMS Bounty
The dispute between Korach and Moses was really an ego trip on Korach’s part. In such a case it would have ended with Korach and his followers fighting with each other, much like the crew of the Bounty who killed each other after they mutinied.
-
Don’t Follow the Crowd
Joshua & Caleb did not follow the conventional wisdom of the other scouts. They were outliers in their views. Yet they were correct in their analysis while the others were not. This is to teach that it is the outliers who advance ideas, not those who follow the crowd.
-
We Have to Earn It
The reason that Moses was commanded to send the scouts to scout out the Land was because we have a partnership with God. God will help us but He wants us to also have a part in the process. We have to earn the miracle.
-
Prepare the Next Generation
Moses has to teach Joshua an important lesson in this week’s portion. That if you want a future of the Jewish people then you have to prepare the future leaders to take their positions. Otherwise, there will be no next generation.