Our reading this week begins, "And these are the judgments that you shall place before them" [21:1]. Rashi comments that a statement beginning "these..." rejects or supplants that which came before it, whereas "and these" means to add and connect. In this case, we...

This week, Moshe comes before Pharaoh to warn him of the coming Tenth and Final Plague: So says G-d: at roughly midnight, I will go though Egypt…and every firstborn will die…” [11:4] Moshe told Pharaoh that at “roughly” midnight—“Ka”-chatzos Halaylah—G-d will go...

Rabbi Yaakov Galinsky zt"l says something on this week's reading that could have been drawn from current events, though his twelfth yahrtzeit will be next month on the Jewish calendar. In this week's reading, Moshe and Aharon come before Pharoah, to demand the right...

This week's reading begins, "And Yehuda approached him," [44:18] confronting Pharoah's viceroy, his brother Yosef, on behalf of their brother Benyamin. Rashi says he now spoke harshly, with sharp words. My teacher, Rav Asher Rubenstein zt"l, pointed to one of the...

Because of the way the Jewish calendar is built, and the Torah readings are laid out, our reading this week is almost always read on Chanukah—in 17 out of the 19-year cycle. We read this portion, about the redemption of Yosef from prison, during the holiday, and in...

In our reading this week, Yosef (Joseph) refuses the advances of his master's wife, and is thrown into jail. He was entirely innocent, and she had lied about what transpired. He would have been fully justified to wallow in his own sorrow, dealing with no one. Instead,...