“The alphabet is an abolitionist. If you would keep a people enslaved, refuse to teach them to read.”  – Editorial on “Education in the Southern States,” in Harper’s Weekly, November 9, 1867 The Torah says in this week’s Parsha, Shemot, that after 210 years of slavery, the Jewish people cried out: “It was after many…

This week’s parshat, Shemot, states that the Jewish people were fruitful in Egypt and multiplied: “And the Jewish people were fruitful and multiplied and swarmed and very much increased and became robust, and the land was filled with them.” This term, “vayishritzu”, “swarmed,” as a noun means “insects” and as a verb means “to reproduce,” in…

In the preceding Torah portions we have seen Joseph exercise his power with great loyalty on behalf of Pharaoh and Egypt.  He not only saves everyone from famine, but in the process makes Pharaoh even richer by using the stored grain to bring all agricultural land under the ownership of Pharaoh and render all of…

This past Saturday night I had the privilege of learning about the Torah portion with the children of Kesher Israel at our monthly Parent-Child learning program.   We looked at leadership in this week’s parsha.  Moshe is one kind of leader -0his character of leadership seems to be concern for individuals and sticking up for…

The name of this week’s Torah portion is Shemot, which literally means, “names.”  Though content-wise the book itself might be more aptly known by its latin name, Exodus, it does indeed begin with the counting by name of the children of Israel:  “And these are the names of the children of Israel who came to…