Parashat Va’eira takes place in a world where human beings have stopped being seen as human beings. To Pharaoh, the Israelites are not parents, children, neighbors, or elders. They are a problem. A labor force. A threat. A number. And the Torah teaches us something frightening: the moment people stop being seen as people, cruelty […]

At the end of the Book of Genesis, which we concluded last week, the Israelites had been invited to relocate from Canaan to Egypt to wait out the 7 year famine. After the 7 years, they remained in Egypt and, as we begin the Book of Exodus this week, our story picks up 400 years […]

A few years before either of my parents passed, my brother and I sat down with them to discuss their wishes. My father said he wanted to be cremated, and that when both he and my mother had passed, we should mix their ashes together. My mother was horrified: ‘What, you want me to have […]

You probably remember the story behind this week’s Torah portion. Joseph—the youngest brother, the dreamer—was betrayed by his brothers years ago. They were so jealous they even thought about killing him, but instead they sold him to a group of traveling merchants on their way to Egypt, and when they returned home, they told their […]