After the long and arduous process of Moses’ unrealized negotiations with Pharoah and his hardened heart, and after all the plagues, this week’s Torah portion, Bo, describes the deliverance from slavery and the beginning of our ancestors' wandering in the desert.  In preparation of their escape from Egypt, the Israelites prepare and partake of the first Passover Seder, consisting of the meat from the commanded sacrifice, matzah, and maror (bitter herbs).  And, as the Israelites experience the first taste of freedom, the Torah introduces what is to Read more...

Pharaoh and Moses are locked in a conflict between two opposing world views. Pharaoh represents a civilization built upon an obsession with death; Moses advocates a religion whose followers "choose life." Pharaoh stands at the pinnacle of a society which is organized in a strict hierarchy -- a world in which everybody is assigned a place below someone else, all in the service of the state and its enormous aristocracy. Read more...

To be honest, I don't remember exactly when this occurred, some time during college or shortly thereafter. I don't remember exactly where this happened, a group of us around a table at someone's home for a Shabbat meal or at a restaurant on a night out. But here's what I do recall, quite vividly: I looked around the table at my circle of closest friends, including my future husband, and suddenly realized that everyone there, myself included, was either an eldest sibling or an only child. That is, a first-born. Read more...

Ours is an age of unparalleled uncertainty.  While we ransack the past and its accumulated wisdom for  guidance today, we also know that the degree of change in every aspect of our lives is without precedent.  Groping in the dark, treading uncertainly down a path not previously taken, modern humanity doesn't know its destination and isn't even sure it is enjoying the trip.  And we have good cause for our doubts.  Read more...

Immersed in the drama of liberating his enslaved people, Moses prepares to appear before Pharaoh, to insist that the Israelites be allowed to leave Egypt.  God instructs his servant, Moses, "Go to Pharaoh.  For I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his courtiers, in order that I may display these My signs among them..." Read more...