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Parashat Shemot, Exodus 1:1–6:1
by Rabbi Russ Resnik
When Adonai saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush, “Moshe! Moshe!” He answered, “Here I am.” He said, “Don’t come any closer! Take your sandals off your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy ground.” And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz’chak and the God of Ya‘akov.” Moshe hid his face, because he was afraid to look upon God. Exodus 3:4–6
We sometimes like to think that we’re on a spiritual quest, searching for God, and this idea fits right into the ethos of our day, which would make spirituality into an accessory for a full and satisfying life. Torah turns this idea on its head to reveal that we flatter ourselves with the idea that we’re looking for God; in reality it’s God who is looking for us. Indeed, God’s search for humankind is one of his distinguishing marks in Scripture.
So, early in Exodus, the hero of the story, Moshe, is herding his father-in-law’s sheep “on the far side of the desert”—a nice way of saying “in the middle of nowhere”—when God reveals himself to him out of a burning bush. Moshe has to turn aside from his own way to see what’s going on (Ex. 3:1–3). And when he does, he realizes that he’s encountering God and he hides his face in fear.
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A Drash on Parashat Vayechi, Genesis 47:28–50:26
By Rabbi Paul L. Saal
Congregation Shuvah Yisrael, Bloomfield, CT
The significance that this week’s parshah, Vayechi,is bookended by two deaths, those of Jacob and Joseph, is both unavoidable and undeniable. But the events concerning the burial of both patriarchs, and the emphasis on their skeletal remains, are both enigmatic and intriguing. Both men make their successors swear to lay their bones to rest in the land of Israel, and these promises are ultimately fulfilled.So, what significance can be found in the return of Jacob and Joseph's bones to the land of Israel?
Perhaps an interesting alliteration might shed some light on this question. The Torah is written without nikkudim, the vowel pointing that often helps us to distinguish between similar words. The absence of nikkudim can make for some interesting and evocative wordplay when reading the text. When the text of the Torah is not vocalized, the word for bones (atzamot) can also be read as essence (atzmut). Also the word for independence (atzma’ut) is derived from the root word for bone (etzem).
So the removing of Joseph and Jacob's bones might be read as liberation of both their bodies and their spirits from Egypt.
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Parashat Vayigash, Genesis 44:18-47:28 by Rabbi Dr. Michael Schiffman Director, Chevra USA
When Yeshua spoke to the P'rushim and Tz'dukim, he said, "If you really believed Moshe, you would believe me; because it was about me that he wrote" (John 5:46, CJB). There are many Messianic prophecies about Yeshua in the Prophets, but in the Torah, on the surface, there doesn't seem to be very much, and yet Yeshua referenced the writings of Moshe as proof of his Messianic claims. Yeshua is seen in the Torah, in addition to the propositional verses of Deuteronomy 18, and others like it, in the "types," or pictures of Yeshua in the lives of people in the Torah. The clearest picture of Yeshua in the Torah is in the life of the Patriarch Joseph.
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