Parshat Shemot 2025
This week’s Torah portion, Shemot, starts a new book in the Torah. We just finished where Jacob, Joseph, and the entire family are reunited in Egypt as the entire region is saved from famine. A new Pharaoh, who doesn’t know Joseph, rises to power and enslaves all the Hebrews, fearing that they are becoming too powerful. The slavery is brutal, and newborn males are being put to death. Miraculously, a Hebrew male (Moses) is born and saved by Pharaoh’s daughter, who adopts and raises him in the palace. Moses leaves the palace, sees the suffering of his people (the Hebrews). After seeing an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, Moses loses his temper, kills him, and flees to Midian to prevent being put to death for the murder.
After 40 years of shepherding in Midian, the L-rd appeared to Moses in a flame of fire coming out of a bush. The L-rd called out to Moses explaining, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people… and have heard their cry… for I know their sorrows. And I have come down to save them from the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land… to a land flowing with milk and honey.” The L-rd sends Moses to Pharaoh, to bring the Hebrews out of Egyptian slavery. Moses asks, Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the people of Israel out of Egypt? The L-rd replies, Certainly I will be with you.
Even though the story of Moses is hundreds of years after Joseph, one story immediately follows the other. Is there a reason for that? Are they closely connected in meaning? Also, does this story apply to us now in our modern world? Please come join us and find out!
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