Exodus
Freedom Through Submission: The Paradox of Worshipping God
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz My anti-religious friend was giving me a hard time again. “You keep saying that you are on a spiritual journey towards God,” he said. “But all I see are roadblocks. Don’t do this. Don’t say that. Don’t eat this....
The Heart of the Matter: Free Will and the Story of Pharaoh
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz People are complicated but God has us figured out, as the prophet Jeremiah said: Most devious is the heart; It is perverse—who can fathom it? I Hashem probe the heart, Search the mind— To repay every man...
Martin Luther King Jr.’ Stance on Antisemitism
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz The beginning of the Book of Exodus is the first time that we encounter antisemitism. Pharaoh was the first to use the antisemitic tropes that have, unfortunately, become all too familiar: "There are too many of...
Are Science and Fear of God Compatible?
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz "Fear of God is the beginning of knowledge and understanding." There are several sources for this piece of wisdom. King Solomon, the wisest of the wise, said it in Proverb (1:7). Solomon clearly learned this...
The Remarkable Women Behind Moses’ Success
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz Everyone is familiar with the phrase, “Behind every great man is an even greater woman.” In the case of Moses, it took far more than one woman to help him achieve greatness. Moses did, in fact, require six...
Three Steps to Achieving Greatness
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 “Great Sabbath”
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...
Why Are We Commanded to Both Remember and Observe the Sabbath?
After leaving Egypt and seeing the wonders of God’s greatness at the splitting of the Reed Sea, the Children of Israel prepared themselves for three days to receive the Torah at Mount Sinai. The Torah describes how God descended upon...
Song of the Sea
After the Children of Israel passed through the Reed Sea, God closed the waters, wiping out the Egyptian army that was chasing them. The Hebrews celebrated by singing two songs; the first 18 verses of Exodus 15 make up the Song of the...
How is the Plagues of the Firstborn Different from all the Other Plagues?
The final plague that struck Egypt was exceptional in several respects. It hit both man and animal and, for the first time, a plague killed people outright. Unlike the other plagues which left the Jews untouched, the Jews were required...
