Divrei Mav

This week’s Parsha is called, Parshas Mishpatim. The translation of the word “Mishpatim” means ordinances or laws. This title is very appropriate for this week’s Parsha because there are fifty three mitzvos (commandments) taught, twenty three positive and thirty negative. We will only be discussing a few of them. In this week’s Parsha we learn about the mitzvah of keeping Kosher. Kosher is a “category” for food that doesn’t contain Basar V’chaluv (meat and milk) that were mixed together. We learn that a Jewish person cannot eat milk and meat together, cook milk and meat together, and benefit from food that has milk and meat mixed. But the Halachos (laws) of Kashrus (keeping Kosher) go beyond just mixing milk and meat and today we have trustworthy Rabbanim (Rabbis) who watch how the food in many institutions are prepared/cooked/packaged to ensure the Yiddin (Jews) are protected from eating these foods that are harmful to the neshama (soul) of a Jew. If the Rabbi sees that the food prod

This week’s Parsha is called Parshas Yisro. In this week’s Parsha Moses’ father-in-law named Yisro, (hence the Parsha’s title) leaves his home of Midyan join up with Moses. He told Moses that he heard of all of the wonders that Hashem preformed and Yisro realized that Hashem is the emes (truth). It is said about Yisro that he studied all the different religions and in the end he knew that Hashem had to be the emes. So, when the B’nai Yisroel (Jewish people) were traveling in the desert Moses’ father-in-law traveled with them for a period of time and then went back home to his family in Midyan. While Yisro was traveling with them he observed Moses and felt “it was not good” the way Moses would have lines of yidden (Jews) come be judged all day until very late at night. So Yisro advised Moses that he would become very weary if he continued to do this. He gave him explicit instructions on how to appoint and train judges to reduce the workload for Moses. Moses being the greatest leader i

This week’s Parsha is called, Parshas Beshalach. At the end of last week’s Parsha, Pharaoh had eagerly sent the Jewish people out from slavery and out of Egypt all together. At the beginning of this week’s Parsha Pharaoh returned to his previous ways, changing his mind and chasing after the B’nai Yisroel (Jewish people) with his army and chariots. When the Egyptians came within striking range they attacked by shooting arrows but Hashem brought a cloud that shot their arrows right back at the Egyptians. This allowed the B’nai Yisroel put some distance between them and the Egyptians and then Hashem removed the cloud. Suddenly the B’nai Yisroel began to panic because they came to the Yam Suf (dead sea) and had nowhere to go with the sea in front and the armed Egyptians behind them. Hashem told Moses to stretch his hand over the sea, and when Moses did, the sea split. There are many discussions on how the sea split, what took place when it split, etc. I would like to expound on some of t

This week’s Parsha is called, Parshas Bo. In this week’s Parsha we learn about the last three makkos (plagues) that are delivered by Hashem (G-d) to the Egyptians. The seventh makka was called, arbeh (locusts). It is brought down in the midrash, (a book compiled by the very wisest Rabbis) that these locusts weren’t your ordinary locusts, these locusts were described by the midrash as having, “teeth like iron, horns of oxen, claws like lions, wings like eagles, and writhing backs like those of snakes.” In this plague the entire Egypt was polluted with locusts. Similar to the previous plagues the Pharaoh came to Moses and told him that he would let the Jews go free as soon as Moses stopped the plague. So again, Moses davened to Hashem to stop the plague. When the plague ended the Pharaoh changed his mind again. Hashem then brought a ninth plague choshech or darkness. This plague lasted for days and during these six days of darkness the darkness I worsened to the point that the Egyptian