By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz “You’re a lot shorter in person than I expected.” That is the phrase that actors hear most often. It is the flip side of the “larger than life” perception of famous people. Science fiction stories about time...
The Shabbat that precedes Pesach (Passover) is called ‘Shabbat HaGadol’ (the big/great Sabbath). There are several reasons for this. According to Jewish tradition, the first Shabbat HaGadol was the last Shabbat that the Jews were in...
At the beginning of the Torah portion of Vayakhel (Exodus 35:1-38:20), the Torah again described the materials that were collected for use in creating the Tabernacle (Exodus 35:4-9). In the case of the laver, the Torah even describes the...
In preparation for the final devastating plague, the Hebrews prepared the Passover lamb. The offering, whose blood, painted on their doorposts, would protect them from the Angel of Death and whose meat would be eaten as the Passover...
In 2003, about 3,300 years after the Hebrews left Egypt, Nabil Hilmy, dean of the faculty of law at Egypt’s Zagazig University, announced that he was suing the Jews for the gold and silver they took when they left Egypt. Calling the...
There are several Pharaohs mentioned in the Torah. The first contact with an Egyptian ruler described in the Bible takes place when Abraham goes to Egypt to escape a famine (Genesis 12). But the influence of the Egyptian monarchs in the...
While Israel was being blessedly prolific in Egypt and growing into a nation, Pharaoh ordered the midwives to kill the male Jewish babies. Shiphrah and Puah defied Pharaoh’s order and received God’s blessing for their courage. Their...
When Jacob passes away, Joseph requests permission from Pharaoh to travel to Israel to carry out his oath to his father to bury him in Hebron. All of the dignitaries from Egypt join Joseph and his brothers as they travel to Israel, though...
When the house of Jacob went to Egypt, they were given the land of Goshen to settle (Genesis 45:10). The Children of Israel settled in Goshen for 430 years, growing from a clan of 70 into a great nation of 600,000. The Bible notes that...
By interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams, Joseph essentially saves Egypt and his own family. There is no doubt the famine would have caught the Egyptians off guard. The Nile River allowed the Egyptians to live independently from the whims of...
