D'var Torah in a Minute

When the Continental Congress declared the independence of the United States in 1776, one of the first things they did was commission a committee to design a seal for the new nation. While the design that was ultimately adopted was the familiar Great Seal of the United States, one of the original proposals, suggested by Benjamin Franklin, showed the Israelites having just crossed the Red Sea, with Moses commanding the waters to return to their places, drowning Pharaoh and his army. This scene, arguably the most famous of all miracles chronicled in the Torah, is the climax of Parashat Beshalach, a parashah replete with miracles. What is a miracle? In the Rugrats Hanukkah special, the babies define it as "when something good happens that you thought could never happen." We tend to associate miracles with totally supernatural occurrences - rivers turning to blood, seas splitting, manna and quails falling from heaven - and if we can find rational explanations for those phenomena...

In the Broadway phenomenon that is Hamilton , there are many great songs. The show's opening number has been a viral hit ever since an early draft of it was performed by Lin Manuel Miranda at a White House poetry event in 2009, "The Schuyler Sisters" gave the 2010s and 20s a new feminist empowerment anthem, and Daveed Diggs set a record for the fastest delivery of lyrics in any Broadway show with his rap in "Guns and Ships." I want to talk about another song, though. "The Story of Tonight" is perhaps not the flashiest of numbers, but it is relevant to one of the themes of this week's parashah. Early in the first act of the play, Hamilton joins his new friends, Hercules Mulligan, John Laurens, and the Marquis de Lafayette, in dedicating their lives to the cause of revolution, declaring that even though they may not see the end result of the fight for freedom, future generations will remember them and tell their story. In Parashat Bo, Moses and Aaron...

At the end of last week's portion, God was giving Moses his orders to go to Pharaoh and demand the Israelites' freedom. Moses and Aaron go to the court and demand "let my people go," a request which Pharaoh declines. And then comes a famous course of events - the Ten Plagues. Or at least the first seven of them. Each time it follows a similar pattern: Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh with their demand, Pharaoh refuses, cue the plague, Pharaoh agrees to let the Israelites go, plague stops, Pharaoh's heart is hardened, and he changes his mind. But, there's an important note to be taken. At the start of the whole process, God advises Moses, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that I may multiply my signs and wonders." So God is telling Moses that he will ensure that Pharaoh doesn't let the Israelites go until God has had sufficient time to cause enough damage. The question of why an omnipotent God needs to impose punishments for violating commandments ...

This Shabbat, we begin the Book of Exodus, and with it, the Jewish nation's origin story. While we have been reading the stories of Creation and the Patriarchs up to this point, and they are certainly worthwhile stories, they are just the prologue to the story which will take up the remainder of the Torah, that of the Israelites' journey to become a free nation in their own land. This journey will come to its climax in around a month, with the giving of the Ten Commandments, but before we get to that point, our new story must begin. So, we have the Israelites living in Egypt, slaves under the new Pharaoh's reign, who has also decreed that all newborn boys be drowned in the Nile. A prominent Levite couple has a newborn son, and the wife, Yocheved, hides the infant in a papyrus basket and sends him floating down the river, where he is found and adopted by one of Pharaoh's daughters. The baby, given the name "Moses", grows up in the palace as a prince, but he alw...