Torah: Bo – Why did Pharaoh hold on to the slaves for so long? For that matter, why did it take a war to free the slaves in the United States? With the opening several month’s ago in D.C. of the African-American museum, I learned much about our nation’s history of slavery. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin…

Torah: Va’Era – Our Torah finds us in bondage. Moses and Aaron appear before the powerful ruler and warn of impending plaques. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel speaking in Chicago in 1963 at a conference on “Religion and Race,” began: ”At the first conference on religion and race, the main participants were Pharaoh and Moses. Moses’ words were:…

Torah: Shemot – “And a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8). This week’s Torah reading begins the Exodus account. The rabbis wonder how the new king could not have known Joseph’s achievements on behalf of Egypt. Mishnat Rabbi Eliezer, composed during  the first two centuries of the common era, states that Pharaoh…

Torah: Va’Yigash- What does it take to be a tzaddik, a righteous person? Joseph is distinctly called ha’tzaddik, the righteous one, by the sages of the Talmud (Yoma 35b). They primarily point to Joseph’s overcoming the sexual advances of his employer Potiphar’s wife and emphasize that his self-restraint revealed his exemplary character. Elie Wiesel points…