Shlomo's Thoughts on the Torah

When the story of the Exodus begins Pharaoh makes it clear that he does not respect the Jewish slaves. At the end he does, but only after the Jews learn to respect themselves.

The first commandment that the Jew are given as a people is to declare the new month. This is to emphasize that they no longer are slaves but control their time. Also, that with freedom comes responsibility.

God commands the Jews to put the blood of the lamb on their door posts. He says so that there will be not mistake who is Jewish and who is Egyptian. The real reason is to teach the Jews to stand up to their oppressors as Jews. To be proud Jews.

The Plague of Darkness showed that the Egypt was a place of darkness, both morally and spiritually, while the Torah would lead the Jews to true enlightenment.

The Plague of Locusts destroyed what little was left of the Egyptian economy. For the Egyptians it meant that they were meaningless since they considered their wealth as everything. For us, while net worth is important, our souls are more so.

God reveals that the purpose of taking the Jews out of slavery was to make them into a holy nation. And they become holy by their behavior. That redeeming the Jews from slavery was more than giving them freedom.

The ultimate punishment of Pharaoh was that his free will was taken away. This makes him no more than an animal which operates by instinct but has no free will.

Even though there was more than enough evidence that God was running the show, the Egyptians refused to see the obvious evidence. They thought it was all a trick, until it was too late.

Pharaoh was regarded as a god in Egypt. One of the main purposes of the plagues was to show that he was a mere mortal and only human. According to the Torah, only God is God.

When the negotiation between Moses and Pharaoh begin, Pharaoh tries to limit who can leave. Moses lets him know that this is a nonstarter. It's all the Israelites otherwise Egypt will be destroyed. We know how the story ends.

God informs Moses that He will be the redeemer of Israel. That He will be involved with the world. This teaches that God is involved in our world and lives.

When Moses returns to Egypt he is met by Aaron. One would have thought that Aaron would have been jealous of Moses, but he was not. He knew that Moses's mission was more important. That they had to be united in the goal.

On Hanukah we celebrate the victory of the morality of the Torah over Greek philosophical thought.

One of the things that we notice is that Joseph remained steadfast in his faith, no matter what the situation that he found himself in. From being a slave to being 2nd to Pharaoh, he remained a Jew.

When faced with the accusations that they were spies by the prime minister of Egypt, they began to accuse Judah of selling Joseph. The problem was that they were willing participants. We have to realize that we are still responsible for our actions.

Pharaoh's dreams tell Joseph that God is in charge. The language used to describe the 7 beautiful cows, and the 7 lean cows is the same as when the Torah describes Rachel and Leah. That tells Joseph that the dreams are from God.

Pharaoh discovers Joseph's ability to interpret dreams due to the advice of his cup bearer. But the way that he mentions Joseph is not complimentary. This is to show that someone who does the right thing should be honored for his action, even though he might not be good himself.

In Joseph's dreams he shows that he is different from his family. The first one has to do with farming while the family business is being shepherds. The second he is surrounded by the sun, moon and stars. But the family did not put their faith in these things.

Joseph interprets the dreams of the butler and baker while in prison. When the butler is returned to his duties Joseph asks him to remember him to Pharaoh. The butler doesn't. This is to teach us that we have to put our faith in God, not man.

Before Joseph can attend his position of leadership he has to learn to be humble. That he can't just declare himself the leader and expect others to follow. That is the reason he has to be sold into slavery and be in prison.

Judah's doesn't realize his potential. But Tamar does. It is only through their union is his full potential realized and he can then become the leader he was meant to be.

Both Joseph and Judah each have to undergo a crisis to achieve their potentials. The issue is not that there is a crisis that we face in our lives but how we handle them and how do we learn from them.

Jacob makes the mistake of letting all his sons know that Joseph is his favorite. This leads to jealousy and disaster. Joseph compounds the mistake by throwing this in their faces.

Jacob and Esau come together one final time to bury Isaac. They leave knowing that they have differences that cannot be bridged. The lesson is to know what we can agree on and what we cannot.

The reason for Rachel dying before her time was that she had stolen her father's idols. She did it with the good intentions of stopping him from idolatry. The problem was that she stole them. Your intentions do not matter if your methods are wrong.