This week's parsha

Unless otherwise noted, "This week's Parsha" comprises articles taken from contributors to the Chabad.org website. We show the original author's name here, so that proper attribution is given. For the sake of brevity, footnotes cited in the original author's writings are omitted from this website. If you need to see the citations, please refer to the original articles on the Chabad.org website.

Miriam: Tambourines of Rebellion

Published: 04 January 2015 | Written by Chana Weisberg

Bitter was the daily fare of the Jewish slaves in their Egyptian exile. What began as forced labor steadily degenerated into acts of unspeakable brutality and horror, culminating with Pharaoh’s decree to murder all newborn male infants, and his bathing in Jewish children’s blood.

While the physical labor was backbreaking, the moral toll was similarly exacting. The family unit was shattered, wives separated from husbands, who were forced to remain at their work sites in faraway fields. The people were demoralized and depressed, stripped of any vestige of dignity or self-respect. Under the daily terror of the taskmaster’s whip, it seemed useless to hope for a better tomorrow.

Knowledge and Direction

Published: 28 December 2014 | Written by Tali Loewenthal

One of the problems of society is the possibility of a rift between knowledge and commitment, between intellectual attainment and a sense of direction in life. We might imagine that intensive acquisition of knowledge would guarantee that the person will use their talents in a way which is both wholesome in itself and beneficial to others. However, history is littered with figures who were both brilliant and dangerous. As we have seen in the history of European culture over the past two centuries, some forms of "scholarship" can lead to the worst excesses.

Jewish teaching has always been aware of this problem, as is seen in discussion by the Sages of an idea found in our Parshah and also elsewhere in the Torah.

Hugs

Published: 21 December 2014 | Written by Shimon Posner

The Communists rose to power when Naphtali -- "Tolchik," to his friends -- was young. His father didn't like the smell of it all, and told Tolchik to become a shochet -- to master the intricate, exacting practice of kosher ritual slaughter. The training takes time and the pay is lousy. "Become a shochet," said Tolchik's father. "If you'll be a shochet, you'll stay a Jew."

Tolchik the Shochet and his wife raised their children under the Soviets. By the early 1950s, though, the entire family had managed to escape, most of them with false passports. Except for their grown son, Meir, and his growing family.