“HEAR OH

ISRAEL!: FROM
THE WILDERNESS
TO JERUSALEM”
EXODUS
PHAROAH

‘History’s first anti-semite’

~Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

“The Israelite people are much too

numerous for us” (1:9). “In the
event of war, they will join our
enemies in fighting against us …”
(1:10)
THE MIDWIVES
“these lowly
champions of
morality assume far
greater historic
importance than do
the all-powerful
tyrants who ruled
Egypt.”

~ Nahum Sarna

Fresco from the Dura-Europos

Synagogue
MOSHE
‘It surely is no
coincidence that the
Jews' future liberator is
raised as an Egyptian
prince. Had Moses
grown up in slavery
with his fellow
Hebrews, he probably
would not have
developed the pride,
vision, and courage to
lead a revolt’.

~Rabbi Joseph
Telushkin (Jewish
Literacy)
THE 10 COMMANDMENTS
1: MONOTHEISM

• Is it a commandment to believe?

“The first commandment is that He commanded us to believe in

the Deity, that is, that we believe that there is a cause and a
motive force behind all existing things. This idea is expressed in
the statement ‘I am the Lord your God.’”
~ Maimonides

• Egypt as ‘a house of bondage’: Egypt’s massive artistic

achievements were built on human slavery and misery
2: AGAINST IDOLATRY

“visiting the guilt of the fathers upon the children” …but

also: “kindness to the thousandth generation of those who
love Me and keep My commandments” (20:6).

“God will punish only those who persist in committing the same
evils as did their parents and other ancestors. Angry as most
Jews might be when they encounter an antisémite, most will be
even more enraged if they learn that the antisémite is German
and a descendant of an S.S. officer.”
~Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
3: THE NAME
Interpreted two ways:

• God’s name should not be pronounced

except in the context of prayer. Thus, instead of
saying “Adonai,” observant Jews are taught to say
“Adoshem” in non-liturgical settings.
• God’s name should not be written. Many
religious Jews will not spell out God’s name even in
English; instead they write G-d (perhaps out of
concern that the paper on which God’s name is
written will be thrown out).
4: SABBATH

• Shabbat is not an adjunct to six work days. It is its own

holy entity.

“There is more to Shabbat than not working just as there is more

to peace than not fighting.”
~Rabbi Saul Berman

… In the creation story, the seventh day is the only day that
God sanctifies (Genesis 2:3).
5: HONOUR PARENTS

“Honor means that a child must give him [his father, here
representative of both parents] food and drink, clothe and cover
him, and lead him in and out [when the parents are old and need
a helping hand]…. Revere means that a child must neither stand
nor sit in his [parents’] place, nor contradict his words, nor tip the
scale against him [by siding with his parents’ opponents in a
dispute”
~Babylonian Talmud, Kiddushin 31b.
6: DO NOT MURDER

• Murder is not self-defense

• Murder is not killing to save lives
• A person who can stop a killer, and doesn’t, bears some
moral responsibility for the killer’s future victims.
7: DO NOT COMMIT
ADULTERY

• According to biblical law, whether or not adultery has

occurred depends exclusively on the woman’s marital
status.
• According to rabbinic law, if a woman commits adultery,
she is subsequently forbidden both to her husband and to
her lover
8: DO NOT STEAL

Subsumed under the prohibition of stealing is

kidnapping (rabbinic Judaism regards kidnapping as the
act forbidden in this commandment, while ordinary stealing
is forbidden by the other biblical verses cited in this entry).
9: DO NOT LIE UNDER
OATH
• concerns the judiciary, reflecting an intuitive
understanding that judicial immorality or inequity will
quickly contaminate the rest of society.
• Jewish ethics has never regarded all lying as forbidden,
and if you look through the narratives, almost every hero
in the Torah lies at one point or the other to save their own
life or livelihood.
• However, in the courtroom, where an individual has sworn
in the name of God not to lie, all deviations from the truth
are prohibited.
10: DO NOT COVET

“a common man will not covet the queen, who is so removed from
him socially that it will never enter the man’s head that he might
take her away from the king. Ibn Ezra counsels that God has
instructed us that our neighbour’s wife is as forbidden to us as is
the queen. Just as the common man will not spend hours
fantasizing how he will win over the queen, so too must we not
spend wasted hours imagining how we will win over our
neighbour’s spouse. That person is forbidden to us.”
~ Rabbi Joseph Telushkin on Ibn Ezra (medieval commentator)
SACRIFICE & THE SACRED
CALENDAR: LEVITICUS
JEWISH UNDERSTANDING OF ANCIENT SACRIFICE
OFFERING TO ATTAIN GOD’S
FORGIVENESS
First Temple (~ 950 B.C.E.):
atone
sacrifices offered to
for violating Torah
laws
From 90 CE onward (after the
second temple destroyed):

acts of loving-
kindness supersede
sacrifices as the preferred
way of attaining God’s
forgiveness.
TIME OF OFFERING

First Temple (~ 950 B.C.E.):

Offerings brought every
morning and afternoon at
about 12:30pm.

Today :
Prayer services offered every
morning (~shacharit) and
afternoon (~mincha) to
commemorate these daily
Temple offerings.

Jewish law forbids

praying
mincha before 12:30pm.
OFFERING EACH DAY
Animal sacrifice
was a daily
offering.

Talmud later taught that Torah

study would take its place

“studying of Torah is
a greater act than
bringing daily sacrifices”
(Babylonian Talmud, Mecjillah
3b).
OFFERING IN KIND
From animals and grain:
• peace offerings (ch 3),
• sin offerings (ch 4),
• guilt offerings (5:14–26)
• meal offerings (ch 2 and
6:7–16),
• thanksgiving offerings To Prayers (in the Siddur) for:
(7:11–15).
Peace
Forgiveness
Meals
Thanksgiving
THE JEWISH LITURGICAL CALENDAR
Passover (Pesach)
Shavuot
Rosh ha-Shanah
Sukkot
HEAR, OH ISRAEL!
TZAVA’A : “ETHICAL WILL”

Deuteronomy= Moses’ ethical will

Central theme: undying
opposition to idolatry…..

But what stands out:

Emphasis on carrying out the

ethical
Torah’s

commands
THE RABBIS ON
SHEMA
You shall love the Lord your God
Talmudic Rabbis: “[This
means that you should]
cause God to become loved
through you. One who
studies the Law, serves
Torah scholars, is honest in
his dealings and speaks
gently with people, what do
people say of him? ‘This
man who studies Torah—
how pleasant are his ways,
how becoming are his
deeds’” (Babylonian Talmud,
Yoma 86a).
TEFILLIN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uezimCF8JDg
MEZUZAH
REFLECTION
TEFILLIN AND MEZUZAH: DO YOU THINK
THEY ARE TOO LITERAL OR ARE THEY
HIGHLY SYMBOLIC?