When you Choose Shabbat, you choose to learn that every Shabbat is different and special. This week I learned that Parashat Shemot, (Exodus 1:1 through 6:1), the 13th weekly Torah portion in the annual cycle of Torah readings, is also the first reading from the Book of Exodus. According to Wikipedia, Shemot contains 6,762 Hebrew letters, 1,763 words, 124 verses and 215 lines of the Torah Scroll.
The underlying narrative of Shemot, (שְׁמוֹת), translated as “names“, is entwined within the reading of the Passover Haggadah; the story of the Israelites’ affliction in Egypt, the hiding and rescuing of the infant Moses, the life and times of Moses in Midian, the calling of Moses and circumcision, the meeting the elders and Moses before Pharaoh.
Rabbi Michael D Klein of Temple Torat Emet offers his insights on this week’s Torah reading, Shemot for Shabbat January 18, 2025 aka 18 Tevet 5785:
“Every day brings new opportunities for holiness. This week we experience the roots of the story of the greatest challenge to our existence until that time. We read that a “new king arose over Egypt”. We also read that he oppressed us by spreading fear to all his subjects that we would overtake Egypt. This libel led to 410 years of slavery and murder. He was able to mobilize his entire nation against us and they willingly participated in enslating and benefitting from the fruits of our forced labor. In much the same manner, Hitler, may his name be blotted out, was able to use the same techniques in mobilizing the German people to commit the genocide of the Shoah against our people. From the ashes of these oppressions came the seeds of our continued existence.
We read that 2 brave Egyptian women, Shifra and Puah, refused to carry out the command of Pharaoh to drown the Jewish babies. During WWII many brave Germans and righteous people of other nations saved Jews from the Nazis at the peril of their lives. We read of the birth of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, each of whom had crucial roles in the redemption from slavery and in the subsequent march back to the Land of Israel, our ancestral homeland. From the ashes of the concentration camps, the survivors dreamed of our homeland and many returned to help rebuild it as Chalutzim, pioneers and citizen-soldiers fighting bravely against overwhelming odds to reestablish and maintain our Jewish Homeland.
We can achieve holiness in our lives by cherishing our heritage and by honoring those who, in ancient times and modern times are examples of bravery and commitment to our core values. May there always be such individuals that we look to in our lives as examples of courage and devotion! Shabbat Shalom.
Discussion Questions:
- Why did Pharaoh choose to drown only the baby boys? How was this a miscalculation?
- Why did Moses need Aaron to speak to Pharaoh for him?
- How did Moses’ early life in Pharaoh’s court prepare him as the best choice as leader to confront the Egyptians?
- Why does the symbol of the “burning bush” represent the presence of G-d even today?
Rabbi Michael D. Klein attended Yeshiva College of South Florida and served as Torah Reader, Hebrew teacher, Chazzan and spiritual leader of various synagogues throughout South Florida. In January 2015 he became Ritual Director, Bnai/Bnot Mitzvah instructor and 7th grade Hebrew instructor for Temple Torat Emet of Boynton Beach. In October 2019 he was accepted into an accelerated track and received his smicha from Yeshiva Adath Wolkowisk and has been the Rabbinic leadership of Temple Torat Emet since August 2020. In September of 2022 he was appointed Rabbinic and Spiritual Advisor of the Florida Region of FJMC.
Choose Shabbat; choose to celebrate, to light candles, sing songs and learn a little Torah.
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