God speaks from the fire in the burning bush, but Moses knows that God is not in the fire. God speaks to Elijah after the fire on Carmel, and the text tells us explicitly that God is not in the fire. Yet fire as a Divine medium recurs, and we associate fire with the Divine because of its ungovernable force, sweeping away everything before it. These past two weeks, my home city of Los Angeles has learned yet again the power of fire to devastate homes and lives. Like Moses, we do not see God’s self in the fire, but…
Rabbi Wolpe - ADL Impressions
January
Vayechi – The Blessing in Our Hands
Sometimes, the best way to understand the message of a book is to look at the beginning and the end. Genesis starts with the creation of the world and ends with Jacob blessing his children. From this, we learn that God is Sovereign over all, but the Torah will be about the family and nationhood drama of a particular people. But the brackets of Genesis also teach a remarkable and enduring lesson about human potential. At the beginning of Genesis, blessing is the province of God. God blesses Adam and Eve in the garden, Noah with salvation, and Abraham and…
Vayigash – Dreams and the New Year
Joseph, having been sold into slavery by his brothers, is liberated from captivity in Egypt and attains a position of great prominence. Why doesn’t he let his family know where he is? The great commentator, Ramban, puts it sharply: “Even if it was his will to make his brothers suffer a little, how could he not have compassion on his aged father…How could he not send one letter to his father to inform him (that he was alive) and to comfort him, because Egypt is only about a six day trip to Hebron? Respect for his father would have justified…
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