B’Shallach (After He Had Let Go) Sh’mot/Exodus 13:17-17:16
Torah Portion: B’Shallach (After He Had Let Go) Sh’mot/Exodus 13:17-17:16
Haftorah Reading: Judges 4:4-5:31
Today we read of the people of Israel being freed from Egypt and slavery after living four hundred years as slaves to Pharaoh. If I had to put a title to this section it might be, “Change and Transformation.” I want us, as we study today, to look at our own life in light of what we talk about.
In our opening verse Exodus 13:17 we read, “And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that G-d led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for G-d said, ‘Lest perhaps the people repent when they see war and they return to Egypt.”
Not Rules By the Present – B’chukotai (In My Statutes) Lev.26
Torah Portion: B’chukotai (In My Statutes) Leviticus 26:3-27:34
HafTorah: Jeremiah 16:19-17:14
Our Torah portion this week is one of two places in the Bible that we read a listing of blessings and curses that hinge on obedience to G-d. Here there are 11 verses that talk about blessings and 36 verses that tell us the consequences of disobedience. I would like to propose that here we read the last line of the story first. I think we now are in and have been in the age of the curses. We see disobedience to G-d’s word on every side.