Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection as we move toward Shabbat. I am the Eternal. Ani Adonai. (Exodus 6:2) Clear and to the point. Unequivocal. This declaration, which begins this week’s Torah portion, was meant to help Moses adjust to his mission to redeem the Jewish people from the most narrow place. Its emphatic […]

Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection. The new Pharaoh we meet as we begin the book of Exodus doesn’t know of the power of the women of the people he despises. He doesn’t know much about the men either. “A new Pharaoh arose who knew not Joseph,” (Exodus 1:8). He proceeded to make sweeping […]

Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection as we prepare for Shabbat. Endings and Beginnings. Death and Life. Unanticipated Results. The Book of Genesis ends and leads us to the beginning of the Exodus. Jacob, who thought his beloved son, Joseph, had been killed by a beast, lives to see his son again. Jacob dies […]

Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection as we make our way toward Shabbat. In last week’s Torah portion, I wrote about the trajectory of Biblical Joseph’s life from the “pit to the prison to the palace.” I first learned about this idea years ago at a rabbinic conference in North Carolina from a Christian […]