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.

Respecting One's Elder Siblings

Published: 13 January 2014 | Written by Rabbi Aryeh Citron

The fifth of the Ten Commandments expresses the imperative to honor one's parents. In the original Hebrew, the words are: Kabed et avicha v'et imecha. The Talmud derives from an extra letter in this verse, the vav in the word v'et, that one must also respect his elder brother.

Based on this, some say that respecting one's older brother is a Torah obligation. Others maintain that it is a rabbinic obligation, which merely finds support in the above verse.

Some say that this obligation only applies while one's parents are alive. Others say that it applies after they are deceased as well. Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef rules that one should be stringent in this matter.

Music, Language of the Soul

Published: 06 January 2014 | Written by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

For the first time since their departure from Egypt, the Israelites do something together. They sing. "Then sang Moses and the children of Israel." Rashi, explaining the view of Rabbi Nehemiah in the Talmud that they spontaneously sang the song together, says that the holy spirit rested on them and miraculously the same words came into their minds at the same time. In recollection of that moment, tradition has named this week Shabbat Shirah, the Sabbath of Song. What is the place of song in Judaism?

There is an inner connection between music and the spirit. When language aspires to the transcendent, and the soul longs to break free of the gravitational pull of the earth, it modulates into song. Music, said Arnold Bennett, is "a language which the soul alone understands but which the soul can never translate." It is, in Richter's words, "the poetry of the air." Tolstoy called it "the shorthand of emotion." Goethe said, "Religious worship cannot do without music. It is one of the foremost means to work upon man with an effect of marvel." Words are the language of the mind. Music is the language of the soul.

L'chaim to Chutzpah!

Published: 30 December 2013 | Written by Shimon Posner

Taking the Jews out of Egypt was the easy part for G-d; He's in the miracle business. Taking Egypt out of the Jews, now that's hard.

And Egypt was very into the Jews. The pharaohs had enticing culture and entertainment (abomination in both sleazy and non-sleazy flavors); the Jews desperately wanted to shed immigrant status and blend in. They pretty much did.

One of the most adored of the Egyptians' adorations was ... the sheep. (No, I don't know why.) It was the precursor of -- oh, I don't know, the television? Now imagine coming home one day, taking the beloved idiot box and throwing it out the window! Now picture doing that when you work for the networks, and your boss came over to watch the news with you. We call it chutzpah.