With a small push, yet surprisingly little creativity, we can easily notice that the Exodus from Egypt mirrors the events that surround the last evening of the existence of Sodom.
In Egypt, the …
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By Rabbi Avi Billet
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1/25/23
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How old was Moshe when he fled from Egypt in Chapter 2? Depending which midrash you follow, he was either a teenager, 20, or 40.
No matter which approach we follow, he spent at least 40 years in …
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By Rabbi Avi Billet
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1/18/23
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Commentaries have a field day trying to pinpoint the sin that sealed Moshe’s fate not to bring the people into the Promised Land. Even the language of the Torah is inconclusive, because when …
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By Rabbi Avi Billet
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1/11/23
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A Jew who reads the Torah as a historical account of the beginnings of our people may easily swell with pride and yiddishe nachas over the way Yosef gains control of the entire Egyptian …
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By Rabbi Avi Billet
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12/28/22
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Have you ever bumped into someone you haven’t seen in over 20 years? This is a common occurrence in unfortunate circumstances such as funerals and shiva homes, but is also known to happen at …
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By Rabbi Avi Billet
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12/21/22
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Bundles of grain and stars bow down to Yosef. What does it all mean?
In this week’s parsha, Vayeishev, Yosef relates his first dream to his brothers and tells his father about his second …
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By Rabbi Avi Billet
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12/14/22
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Before they went out of style, mother-in-law jokes were very popular. Have you ever heard of a father-in-law joke? I suppose if anyone were to author such a joke, it would be our forefather …
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By Rabbi Avi Billet
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12/1/22
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One of the fun exercises I like to employ when studying Chumash is to attribute vague or ambiguous statements to the less obvious person. Let us read two familiar verses in Chapter 27. We’ll …
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By Rabbi Avi Billet
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11/23/22
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The banishment of Yishmael and Hagar leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth. How could Sarah justify throwing them out of the house? How could G-d tell Avraham to do exactly as Sarah told him? …
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By Rabbi Avi Billet
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11/9/22
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Other than former current events, nothing dates a Jewish book more than when discussing or quoting a deceased great rabbi with “Rabbi So and So, shlit’a, says...”
The term …
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By Rabbi Avi Billet
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8/18/22
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