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Moshe Grows Up and Gets Married Moshe grows up and is appointed the head over Pharaoh’s house. He witnesses the plight of the Israelites, his brethren, and feels for them.  There were Egyptian taskmasters then who were in charge of Israelite taskmasters and would wake them up with the “crowing of the rooster” to getContinue reading “Shmos, 3rd Aliyah”

Moshe Is Born Pharaoh summons the midwives and asks them why they let the babies live in spite of Pharaoh’s orders. The midwives answer that the Israelite women are like beasts of the field in the way that they deliver. They are so fast that they call any neighbor over to help them and don’tContinue reading “Shmos, 2nd Aliyah”

New Pharaoh in Egypt The parsha begins with a counting of all of Yaakov’s children who had come into Egypt, totaling 70 people and relates that they passed away.  The fact that they were counted both during their lifetime and after they passed away, highlighted how endeared they were to G-d. For similarly does G-dContinue reading “Shmos, 1st Aliyah”

Yosef’s Final Words Yosef comforts his brothers saying that they have nothing to fear and he will not harm them. He reassures them by relating to them that before the brothers arrived, all of the Egyptians referred to Yosef derogatorily as a slave and then with the arrival of his brothers he suddenly became perceivedContinue reading “VaYechi, 7th Aliyah”

Yaakov Blesses Binyamin Yaakov now relates his last prophecy concerning his son, having to do with Binyamin: Binyamin Yaakov says that Binyamin will be like a wolf who brings it’s prey to it’s lair before eating it. So too shall Binyamin be “grabbers”, specifically of women/wives, as per the later incident in Shoftim 21:21 whereContinue reading “VaYechi, 6th Aliyah”

Yaakov’s Final Words and Blessings to His Sons cont’d Yaakov continues speaking prophecies about each of his sons: Gad All of Gad’s troops will return (with no man amongst them missing) to their land on the other side of the Jordan. Asher The food that comes from the land of Asher will be rich, abundantContinue reading “VaYechi, 5th Aliyah”

Yaakov’s Final Words and Blessings to His Sons Yaakov calls all of his sons over with the intention of revealing to them when the end of all Jewish exiles will be, but the Divine Presence departs from him just as he is about to speak, so he continues with other things, namely different prophecies toldContinue reading “VaYechi, 4th Aliyah”

Yaakov Blesses Yosef and His Sons cont’d Yosef sees that Yaakov had placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head and was unhappy about this, he moves Yaakov’s hand to Menashe’s head and says to his father, “No, this is the firstborn”. Yaakov replies that he knows, and that indeed Menashe will give birth to aContinue reading “VaYechi, 3rd Aliyah”

Yaakov’s Blessing to Yosef and His Sons Yaakov’s eyes had become heavy with age, making it difficult for him to see, so he beckons Yosef and his sons closer and kisses and hugs them. Yaakov exclaims to Yosef, “I did not dare imagine that I would ever see you again, and here G-d has grantedContinue reading “VaYechi, 2nd Aliyah”

Yaakov Prepares for the End of His Life Introductory note: Usually, the parshas are divided from one another by a number of blank spaces. In this case, this new parsha of VaYechi is only separated from the previous one by one space. When this happens, the parsha is called סתומה (i.e “Closed”). Rashi brings twoContinue reading “VaYechi, 1st Aliyah”