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Jan 24, 2018, 6:19 AM

Baltimore and the Death of the Firstborn: Drasha Parshat Bo

Many of you may have seen an article in the NY Jewish Week citing allegations of child sexual abuse (CSA) and cover up in the Baltimore Jewish community. You can read more about it over, or after, shabbos, but...

David H. Levitt

Jan 23, 2018, 5:25 AM

Hardened Hearts: What Parsha Bo Teaches for Israel and the Palestinians

Parsha Bo, along with the preceding (Va-Eira) and succeeding (B’Shelach) parshiot, form, in essence, the central core of Jewish culture and mindset – and certainly of our liturgy. These three parshiot tell of the ten plagues, the Passover, leaving...

Jan 22, 2018, 9:47 PM

The Last Jedi and Softening Our Hardened Hearts

Have you seen any good movies recently? What have you seen? Did anyone like The Shape of Water? I was thinking of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. How many of you have seen it? Wow – that’s a lot. Did you like it? I...

Stacey Aviva Flint

Jan 21, 2018, 8:02 AM

Parshat Bo places us on the precipice of the Israelites Exodus from Egypt. Shemot (Exodus) began with the Israelites as refugees and immigrants running from famine to the abundance of Egypt. In Va’era, Joseph’s death ushers in a new...

William Hamilton

Jan 19, 2018, 5:29 PM

In Hawaii, false alarm, true humanity

This smartphone screen capture shows a false incoming ballistic missile emergency alert sent from the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency system on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2018. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)

Judaism favors experiences over information, especially those that inspire us to do good (Parshat Bo)

Jan 19, 2018, 10:51 AM

Freedom and justice don't just happen

Illustrative: Leaders in a Vietnam war protest stand in silent prayer in Arlington National Cemetery, February 6, 1968, including Rabbi Abraham Heschel, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (AP Photo/Harvey Georges)

The triumph over the tyranny of Pharaoh strengthens our resolve to root out modernity's plagues and rulers

Sharona Margolin Halickman

Jan 18, 2018, 11:35 PM

Moshe Rabbeinu, Harriet Tubman & Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

When Israel was in Egypt’s land, Let my people go! Oppressed so hard they could not stand, Let my people go! Go down Moses, Way down in Egypt’s land Tell old Pharaoh To Let my people go! Many of us are familiar with “Go Down Moses”, the...

Jan 18, 2018, 2:52 PM

The story we tell

Michelangelo's Moses, 1513-15, at San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome (Patricio lorente/ Wikipedia Commons)

Our tale across the generations gives the gift of identity, and with it, courage and confidence (Bo)

Jan 18, 2018, 12:52 PM

You say you want a revolution? [Parshat Bo]

In a great tragedy of history, the success of far too many revolutions against tyranny have turned into disasters, with the revolutionaries acting as cruelly and high-handedly in power as the despots whom they overthrew. Consider the French “reign...

Jan 18, 2018, 10:54 AM

“On the Calendar” Parashat Bo 5778

The situation in Egypt is reaching a crescendo. Nine plagues have hit and a tenth – and final – plague is imminent. Hashem tells Moshe that after the upcoming tenth plague the Egyptians will literally throw Am Yisrael out...

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