This week, the Torah reading talks about the gathering at Mount Sinai, and receiving the Torah. And the Torah says that the people “saw” the voices, when Mount Sinai was covered with a cloud of smoke.

Many commentaries speak about what this means, whether literally or figuratively. The Shearis Menachem, though, has a unique approach to understanding the idea of “seeing” voices. He explains that what the Jewish People heard on Mount Sinai was visible afterwards. You could see it in their way of life, in how they spent their days. What they heard could be seen.

In other places and situations, what people heard was merely heard, and not seen. People saw and learned, but what they had learned was not visible in how they lived their lives afterwards.

In just the past month, we have seen how fragile life really is. Can people see what we have learned?

Good Shabbos!

Rabbi Yaakov Menken
Director, Project Genesis – Torah.org

This quotation, from this week’s Torah reading, is surely one of the most well-known phrases in the Bible. And I have often pointed out that it’s really a half-quote, distorted, read as a cry for freedom. In actuality, G-d is telling Pharaoh to give the Jews a new, Divine Master: “Send out My people, that they may serve Me!”

But when you think about it, there’s no contradiction. We are trained to think that “freedom” means the ability to do whatever you want. But when was the most care-free time of your life? Most of us would answer, our childhood. And who are the happiest children? Those who are confident in both their parents’ love, and their guidance. Both of those are critical: the happiest children are not those with no rules, but those with clearly-defined guidelines, enforced with fairness and love.

Good Shabbos!

Rabbi Yaakov Menken
Director, Project Genesis – Torah.org

In this week’s reading, Moshe sees an Egyptian beating another Jew, and comes to his rescue — killing the Egyptian taskmaster, and putting his own life in danger. Why did Moshe take such a terrible risk?

The Jewish man is never identified by name. We never hear from him again — we don’t even know if he was one of those who left Egypt (to the best of my limited knowledge).

The Torah does not waste words, but tells us that Moshe saw the Egyptian man beating a Jewish man “from his brothers.” This answers our question, and this was what made Moshe the ideal leader of the Jewish people.

To Moshe, another Jew wasn’t merely another citizen of the same country, or a distant relative — he was immediate family, for whom he was willing to risk his life.

Good Shabbos!
Rabbi Yaakov Menken
Director, Project Genesis – Torah.org