Torah Parallels

~ Something to Think About ~ יתרו פרשת  Parsha Stumpers By: Daniel Listhaus What did Yisro hear that no one else did? According to the one who holds that Yisro was attracted by the fact that  B'nei Yisroel  won the war against  Amalek , what was so special about it? Granted they were untrained, but still the  B'nei Yisroel  had an army of 600,000 men between 20 and 60. Certainly it couldn't have been such a tremendous surprise that they won. Rashi writes that Yisro had 7 names. One of them was Yeser – which became Yisro after he converted. If so, didn't Yisro really only have 6 names at any given time? Yisro is called Choveiv because of his love for the Torah. Why did Yisro receive such a name any more than Moshe, Aharon, or any of Bnei Yisroel in the midbar? (18:2) Rashi sounds good in the broad sense but what specifically was Aharon worried about? Moshe’s wife and children would not have become slaves? Moshe was fro...

~ Thoughts on the Parsha ~ Parshas Beshalach Thinking Like a Leader By: Daniel Listhaus וַיֹּאמֶר ה' אֶל משֶׁה מַה תִּצְעַק אֵלָי דַּבֵּר אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְיִסָּעוּ " Hashem said to Moshe, ‘Why do you cry out to Me? Speak to the  B’nei Yisroel  and let them journey!” - Shemos   14:15             After  B’nei Yisroel  left  Mitzrazyim,  the Torah [1]  relates that Pharaoh took 600 chariots of the Egyptian army and pursued them. When  B’nei Yisroel  saw that the Egyptian army was camped not far from them, they became very frightened and cried out to Hashem for help. They then turned to Moshe and said, “Are there no graves in Egypt that you had to take us out to the  midbar (desert)   to die? Did we not tell you it would be better for us to stay in Egypt?” [2]  Moshe immediately responded that there was no reason to worry because Hashem wil...

~ Something to Think About ~   בשלח  פרשת  Parsha Stumpers By: Daniel Listhaus  How could Hashem use  ba'al-tzefon  as a reference point if it is an  avodah zarrah ? Rashi (14:15) writes that because of  zechus   avos  and  B'nei   Yisroel's  belief in Hashem after leaving Mitzrayim, they merited to have  kriyas   Yam   Suf . How do  zechusim  work? Certainly  zechus avos  could not have been exhausted at that point that they would have to utilize the  zechus  of their  emunah , because  zechus avos  is something we still depend on today. So how do  zechusim  get calculated to figure out what different  zechusim  could do, how much power they have, and to what extent they could be used in various circumstances? (15:15 – Rashi) What is so significant and great about recognizing that Hashem was able to kill the horse wi...

~ Thoughts on the Parsha ~ Parshas Bo Anti Ambidextrous Ambitions By: Daniel Listhaus וְהָיָה לְאוֹת עַל יָדְכָה וּלְטוֹטָפֹת בֵּין עֵינֶיךָ כִּי בְּחֹזֶק יָד הוֹצִיאָנוּ ה '  מִמִּצְרָיִם “And it shall be a sign upon your arm, and for  totafos  between your eyes, for with a strong hand Hashem removed us from Mitzrayim.” - Bo  13:16 The  Ramban [1]   points out that so many of the  mitzvos  we do serve in some way as a ( zeicher ) remembrance of Hashem taking us out of  Mitzrayim . Indeed, the  makkos (plagues)   in  Mitzrayim  continuing with  yetzias Mitzrayim  (exodus from Egypt)   and  kriyas Yam Suf  (splitting of the Red Sea), and ultimately culminating with  mattan Torah  (receiving the Torah), serve as a timeless certificate for us that Hashem is the  borei  (creator)  and manhig  (controller) of the world and that we are His chosen pe...

~ Something to Think About ~ בא   ת ש פר Parsha Stumpers By: Daniel Listhaus (10:7-11) Pharoah’s advisors told him to let the men go, and Pharaoh himself was willing to let the men go. If so, why did he ask Moshe “ mi va’mi ha’hol’chim  – who is going?”   Why not just tell them at the onset that he as only willing to let the men go? (10:17) Why by this makka did Pharaoh ask Moshe to daven to remove it “from me”? (10:22) Rashi writes that during  choshech  – the wicked who did not wan to leave  mitzrayim  were killed. Who were these wicked who did not want to leave and why would they want to stay? Why did their wanting to stay warrant labeling them as  reshaim ? (10:26) The Torah is unclear what would have happened oif Pharaoh would have let the  B’nei Yisroel  go? Would they have come back after “they went to serve Hashem”? Why didn't Dasan and Aviram die during  makkas choshech  ? Af...

~ Thoughts on the Parsha ~ Parshas Va'eira Frogger: Croak or Croak By: Daniel Listhaus וַיֹּאמֶר ה' אֶל משֶׁה אֱמֹר אֶל אַהֲרֹן נְטֵה אֶת יָדְךָ בְּמַטֶּךָ עַל הַנְּהָרֹת עַל הַיְאֹרִים וְעַל הָאֲגַמִּים וְהַעַל אֶת הַצְפַרְדְּעִים עַל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם “Hashem said to Moshe, ‘Say to Aharon, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals, and over the reservoirs, and raise up the frogs over the land of Egypt.’ ” - Va'eria  8:1              Rashi [1] writes that the reason the first of the  makkos  (plagues) brought upon  Mitzrayim  was  dam  (blood) was because the Egyptians worshipped the Nile and Hashem strikes a nation first by destroying its acclaimed deity. Clearly we see from  Rashi  that besides for the well-known fact that every single  makkah  brought on  Mitzrayim  was calculated  middah-kneged-middah...