This Week’s Torah Portion: Sh’mot – שְׁמוֹת (Exodus 1:1−6:1)
“A new king arose over Egypt; And he said to his people, ‘Look, the Israelite people are much too numerous for us. Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not increase; otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in fighting against us and rise from the ground.’”
From Pharaoh who enslaved us in Egypt, till today, we find the same hate speech coming from leaders and tyrants.
When leaders incite against minorities in their midst, when they speak about us and them, instead of caring for all the inhabitants of the land, when they try to divide and not to unite.
Then you know you are dealing with the same kind of tyrant pharaoh was!
Parsha Sh’mot Torah Summary:
The new king of Egypt makes slaves of the Hebrews and orders their male children to be drowned in the Nile River. (1:1-22)
A Levite woman places her son, Moses, in a basket on the Nile, where he is found by the daughter of Pharaoh and raised in Pharaoh’s house. (2:1-10)
Moses flees to Midian after killing an Egyptian. (2:11-15)
Moses marries Zipporah, the daughter of Midian’s priest. They have a son named Gershom. (2:16-22)
God calls Moses from a burning bush and commissions him to free the Israelites from Egypt. (3:1-4:17)
Moses and Aaron request permission from Pharaoh for the Israelites to celebrate a festival in the wilderness. Pharaoh refuses and makes life even harder for the Israelites. (5:1-23)
“A new king arose over Egypt; And he said to his people, ‘Look, the Israelite people are much too numerous for us. Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not increase; otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in fighting against us and rise from the ground.’”
From Pharaoh who enslaved us in Egypt, till today, we find the same hate speech coming from leaders and tyrants.
When leaders incite against minorities in their midst, when they speak about us and them, instead of caring for all the inhabitants of the land, when they try to divide and not to unite.
Then you know you are dealing with the same kind of tyrant pharaoh was!
