Shlomo's Thoughts on the Torah

God wants us to do the right thing. No where in the Torah is there a commandment to believe in God. But there are on how to behave.

The difference between the Torah and previous law codes is that the previous law codes were totally secular. The Torah states that even "secular" or ethical laws are from God.

After the revelation of Mt. Sinai, the logical step would be to build a Tabernacle to God. But the Torah takes a detour and speaks about how to build an ethical society.

The 5th Commandment is more than good advice. It is pointing out that the basis of a good society is the two parent family. Without which society would fall apart.

Jealousy is wanting what others have without realizing what they had to do to get that or the reason they have it. When we see someone has done well we should learn from their success, not be jealous of them.

The most common understanding of the Commandment of not taking God's Name in vain is that we should not swear falsely. Another understanding is that we should not do commit a crime in His Name.

The most common understanding of the Commandment of not taking God's Name in vain is that we should not swear falsely. Another understanding is that we should not do commit a crime in His Name.

When Jethro comes to visit his son in law, Moses, he gives him the advice to delegate responsibilities. He does not have to carry the full burden on himself.

One of the problems with the Jews was that they were used to having all of their needs taken care of. One of the lessons of the Torah was that we should not rely only of God but have to work to take care of ourselves. That is what freedom really means.

The commandment to destroy any vestige of Amalek seems strange. There is no such commandment with other enemies of the Jewish people throughout our history. Why such a commandment?

When the Jews get to the Red Sea they seem to be trapped between the sea and Pharaoh's army. Moses prays and God tells him to quit praying and jump into the sea. This shows God wants action, not just prayers.

The portion starts out with the Jews avoiding going directly to the Land of Israel lest they get into a war with the Philistines and run back to Egypt. It ends with the Jews fighting Amalek. They had to learn that there was no going back to Egypt.

Pharaoh accused Moses of lying. Moses had said that the Jews had to go three days to worship God. At no time did Moses say that they would be returning. Pharaoh misled himself into believing that they would.

More important that getting the Jews out of Egypt was to get Egyptian culture out of the Jews. God wanted the Jews to be a moral and ethical people and to reject the immorality of Egypt.

The first born who were killed in Egypt were the first born of any coupling. This was to reveal the immorality of Egypt and why God needed to get the Jews out of Egypt. To get them away from an immoral society.

The reason for the Pascal Sacrifice before the plague of the killing of the first born was that God wanted to see that the Jews were willing to take action for their freedom.

The plague of darkness was much more than three days of darkness. According to the Torah, Egypt was a land of darkness while the Jews, if they follow the Torah are in light.

A free person has to be responsible with his time. A slave does not. That is the reason that the first commandment is declaring the new month. The Jews were being freed for a purpose.

The purpose of freeing the Jews from slavery was that they should be a Godly people. This is expressed through the commandment of declaring the new month. God is setting the people up to be a nation.

Aaron was Moses's spokesman not just to Pharaoh but to the Jews as well.  The reason was that he could empathize with the slaves in a way that Moses could not.

The purpose of the plagues was to teach that all are human, that all are equal before God.

Pharaoh presented himself as a god. His authority was based on this. When it was proven that he was not a god he lost his authority. 

Getting the Jews out of Egypt was easy job. The hard job was to make the Jews into a nation.

All the plagues in Egypt could be explained as happening through natural means. The fact that Pharaoh could not understand that it was the hand of God tells us the real problem in Egypt.

The true punishment of Pharaoh was the taking away his free will. Free will is one of the things that separates humans from animals. By removing this Pharaoh was being made into an animal.