Shlomo's Thoughts On The Torah

That Moses's name does not appear in this week's portion of the Torah is important in that it shows that no one is indispensable. We can all be replaced. This does not mean that we should do nothing. We have a job to do. We might not complete it but we still have to do it.

Teruma teaches us to prepare to build the Tabernacle for a better life. The month of Adar teaches us to be happy and that we are not victims no matter what comes our way.

God commands us to build Him a home so that He can dwell among us. What God really wants is for us to have a just society. That we treat each other with respect.

The reason that God wants us to help in the building of the Tabernacle is to show us that this is a partnership with God. That our job is to bring God down to this world through the commandments.

The key to a just society is that the judges follow the law. That they do not favor either the wealthy or the poor. All are equal before the law and cases can only be tried on the facts or the evidence. Not on anything else.

That we get societal laws right after the revelation at Mt. Sinai teaches us that the spiritual laws are important but is our society is unjust then the spiritual laws will not matter.

The Third Commandment states that we cannot take God's name in vain. This means that we cannot commit a sin in God's name. That we can do the right thing for the wrong reason but never the wrong thing for the right reason.

The Second Commandment is against idolatry. This does not just mean worshiping statues but ideology. We have to be careful not to allow our politics, or even our religious practice to make us lose site of the real goal. The Torah was given to make us better people.

Jethro, Moses's father-in-law, arrives and sizes up the situation. He sees that Moses has taken a lot on himself. He gives some constructive criticism for leadership. Moses realizes that this is all meant for the good and accepts it.

The week's portion ends with the attack of Amalek. Amalek has no reason to attack the Jews. Just pure hatred. And they attack the weakest in society. That is why we have to defeat Amalek whenever they raise their hand against us.

The final act of Moses in Egypt was to retrieve Joseph's bones. This is because we do not leave anyone behind and we do not forget anyone. We take care of all in our nation.

Why did Pharaoh assume that the Jews would return after their festival? That is because he misunderstood that when Moses said that the Jews had to go out to serve God that it was about learning how to live, not just prayer. This is the major innovation of the Bible. Religion is not just for Synagogue but about life.

The story of the crossing the Sea of Reeds (Red Sea) is the story of the Jewish people. We have to realize that in order to succeed we have to try. If we do not try, we will never succeed.

More important than God taking the Jews out of Egypt is why. And that the next generation know this. If they will not be taught, then they will make up reasons that have nothing to do with the story.

The entire social structure of Egypt was built on lies. What the plagues did was to strip away all the lies. Egypt was destroyed. The Jews were building on the truth of the Torah.

The Pascal sacrifice in Egypt was to teach the Jews that they were no longer under Egyptian rule, just as it was to teach the Egyptians that their entire society was based on a lie.

The ninth plague was to teach both the Jews and the Egyptians that idolatry is darkness while the Torah is light. When we stray from the Torah we enter into darkness.

The first commandment that the Jewish people received as a people was to declare the new month. Keeping time connotes freedom. We are now responsible for keeping time and what we do with it.

When Moses began his mission, he and his brother were alone. By the end they were the natural leaders and Egypt was destroyed. The were standing for the right thing while Pharaoh tried to lie his way out.

Just as dictators will try to keep their narrative, the true believers in them will make every excuse why the system isn't working as it should. It is harder to shake their belief with the truth. But it is our duty to try.

Pharaoh built up a false narrative that he was a god. The plagues slowly destroyed that narrative. There is nothing worse for a dictator than to have his lies revealed as such.

The real problem that Moses had in Egypt was to rally the Jews to his side. Moses had to deal with a people who were suffering. They did not want to hear it if it made their lives worse. He had to address them so that they would understand.

The plagues in Egypt were designed to destroy the entirety of Egyptian society. It was God's judgement that that society was evil and had to be uprooted.

One of the issues of dealing with Pharaoh is that he refuses to allow the Jews to define who they are. The issue is that only the Jews get to define who we are, not anyone else.

When Moses starts to redeem the Jews, he is facing the problem that they have given up hope. He has to get them to understand that they will be redeemed. This is true thought-out history, It is hard for those enslaved to believe that the end will be good.