Parasha Insights

We do not care how much you know until we know how much you care.

The opening of our portion Beshalach related how Pharaoh had a change of heart right after he let the Jewish people go. "He said to the Children of Israel: They are lost in the land, the desert closed in on them."

Yonatan ben Uziel was one of the 80 sages who studied under Hillel the Elder during the century before the destruction of the Second Temple. He is the author of Targum Yonatan, an Aramaic translation and elucidation of the Torah, and a book of Kabbalah known as Megadnim. The Talmud describes his holiness by saying that when he studied Torah, any bird that flew over him was “burnt up.”

The Targum Yonatan interprets the verse literally. P… Read More »

A couple had two little boys, ages 8 and 10, who were excessively mischievous. They were always getting into trouble and their parents knew that, if any mischief occurred in their town, their sons were probably involved.

The boys' mother heard that a Rabbi in town had been successful in disciplining children, so she asked if he would speak with her boys. The Rabbi agreed but asked to see them individually. So the mother sent her 8-year-old first, in the morning, with the older boy to see the grand rabbi in the afternoon.

The great rabbi, a huge man with a booming voice, sat the younger boy down and asked him sternly, "Where is G-d?”

The boy's mouth dropped open, but he made no response, sitting there with his mouth hanging ope… Read More »