GEN1589 The classic Jewish blessing on Friday evening by a Jewish father to his son is “May God make you like Ephraim and Menasheh.”   Of all of the great people to aspire to, why did the rabbis choose these two (relatively minor biblical personalities) and ignore Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and so on?  One possible answer is that unlike Isaac and Jacob, who grew up in a totally Jewish household in the land of Israel, Menasheh and Ephraim were born and raised in the land of Egypt, where they were the only Jews in the entire land and they had to “act Egyptian” as children of the king’s viceroy.   Nevertheless, they were able to remain good Jews, as they were brought up properly by their father Joseph.   … The other half of the blessing, for girls, can now be understood.   There, the four mothers of Judaism are mentioned as models, because each of them grew up in an environment alien to Judaism, yet, nevertheless, emerged as Jewish women with the right Jewish values. Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel all had fathers who did not exemplify Jewish values, and they all grew up in the most non-Jewish of environments.  Like Menasheh and Ephraim, they, too, were able to withstand the pressures and influences of their environments to develop the right attitudes and pass them on to their children. … it is the obligation of Jewish parents to try and instill those values that will last and remain with children when they become adults so that they will be able to live Jewishly in any environment in the world. AMEMEI 138-9  

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GEN1610 The Talmud Yevamot 65b says that a person may lie for the sake of peace and gives three biblical precedents for this concept.   [One of them is this verse; the other two are Samuel during his journey to anoint David Samuel I 16:2-5, and God, explaining to Abraham why Sarah laughed Genesis 18:12-13.]   It is clear that Jacob never uttered these words because if Jacob had wanted to prevent Joseph’s vengeance against his brothers, he would have told Joseph, not the brothers, not to take revenge (it is doubtful if Jacob actually ever found out about the sale).   The Torah itself tells us why the brothers “lied” about their father’s statement – in order to prevent recriminations by Joseph now that their father was dead.  AMEMEI 293-4

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EXOD2 The traditional name in the Torah describing the Jewish people, hundreds of times in the text, is Bnei Yisrael, which means the children of Israel, or Jacob. Since Abraham was the "father" of the Jewish people, why isn't the nation called Bnei Avraham, the children of Abraham? It is precisely because the family had to be united before they could become a nation. Only after there was a united family in Jacob's time did the Jews become a people. The first references to the Jewish people as a people and as the Children of Israel came after they became united as a family. Genesis 46:8 The idea of family is so central to Judaism that the name of the nation itself is the name of the first united family of Jews (Children of Jacob-Israel). The importance and unity of the Jewish family is not an isolated reference in Genesis. The theme continues in Exodus in the first verse, which describes how the Jews came to Egypt as a united family. But then, in Egypt, because of slavery, the unity of the family was in danger of being dismantled. From Rashi's description (commentary on Exodus 2:1), of how one of the most prominent families separated in order to avoid the killing of a potential child by Pharaoh, we can imagine that many other families also separated at that time for similar reasons. It was only because of their daughter Miriam's plea to her parents, says Rashi, that Amram and Yoheved reunited. Miriam used the logic that her parents were acting far more cruelly than Pharaoh. Pharaoh wanted to kill off only the males, but by separating and not having children, her parents were denying both males and females. Thus, as Amram and Yocheved reunite, it becomes the symbol of the reunification of the family as is highlighted in the verse, "a man from the family (house) of Levi took the daughter of Levi." The result is the birth of Moses (Exodus 2:1-2), the beginning of the redemption. It is clear, then, that the redemption of the Jewish people could not occur until they were again reunited as families.

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EXOD8 Pharaoh is afraid the Jews will become too numerous and eventually rebel against the natives. This phenomenon continued as choose were always perceived as foreigners who may one day rebel against the government and cause difficulties. Non-Jews feared a loyalty to God or to the land of Israel and not to the country in which the Jews lived. That is why Napoleon made the Jews choose sign an oath of loyalty to him. Even today in the United States, the most tolerant country in history, Jews are accused of dual loyalty whenever any kind of friction occurs between United States and the State of Israel.

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EXOD11 By their [Amram and Yoheved] listening to Miriam and then reuniting, the Torah is indicating to us that it is wrong not to have children, even in dire circumstances, even though the technical mitzvah was already fulfilled through Miriam and Aaron. Therefore, for those parents who do not want to bring babies into a cruel and immoral world, the Torah is indicating that this is not the Jewish way. There could be no more immoral world than was that of Egypt, and yet Miriam and her reasoning triumphed. Like the product of this union, Moses, that "unwanted" child, could indeed become the future leader of the people and holiest of prophets. In fact, as Pharaoh tried to limit the Jewish population by making conditions unbearable, the Torah tells us that God made sure that the Jewish population would continue to flourish nonetheless, even in these terrible physical and immoral conditions. This also reveals to us that God wanted the Jewish population to thrive. Despite all human attempts to limit Jews from being born, God continued to help the Jewish nation grow when the Jews themselves, like Amram and Yoheved, cooperated.

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EXOD20 Although the cause is noble, the proper action to take--often the consequences of the action of civil disobedience, both in modern times and certainly in earlier times--is incarceration, if not a worse punishment. That is the price one pays for this form of protest. And what makes civil disobedience so noble is that people are attempting to act within the law to protest a government policy or law. The acceptance of punishment without resisting adds to the moral legitimacy of the act. The attitude to the consequence can be seen in the commentaries to the first instance of disobedience in the Torah. The midwives did not kill the babies, and when asked by Pharaoh why they disobeyed him, they offered the excuse that Jewish mothers are different and that they did not need midwives In order to give birth. It is not clear from the text whether Pharaoh believed this poor excuse. What happened as a result of this protest? Pharaoh ordered all Jewish male infants to be killed by being thrown into the Nile. Therefore, their protest had no tangible results since ultimately Jewish babies were being killed anyway. We can learn from this two lessons. First, that civil disobedience does not necessarily achieve the desired results. Yet, that does not signify that people should not attempt to protest anyway, as the Torah obviously lauds the midwives' actions has something noble and correct, not wasted. Second, we also can learn that even when one is sure that nothing will be accomplished, it is important to ensure that the immorality does not take place through your hand, if you know it to be wrong (do you listen to the teacher to student?).

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EXOD27 See [[EXOD2]] Exodus 1:1 came AMEMEI 69-70

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EXOD64 When the concept of Jewish modesty is mentioned, most people immediately assume that this is a reference to some sort of dress. They believe that Jewish modesty entails skirts that are usually much longer than the current styles dictate, and the image usually comes to mind of a woman who is dressed with most of her body totally covered. This modern stereotype of Jewish modesty is certainly not what true Jewish modesty stands for, and the reference to clothing depicts only a very small portion of the spectrum of the general concept of modesty in Judaism. The proof that the idea of Jewish modesty cannot possibly be merely a function of clothing is derived from the Talmud (Eruvin 100b), which says that had the Torah not taught the Jewish people modesty, this Jewish concept would have been learned from the cat. Nearly all cats in the world walk around at all times stark naked, devoid of any clothing whatsoever! Therefore, the true meaning of modesty in Judaism could not possibly be related to dress. In addition, there are only two references in the entire Bible to the Hebrew word for modesty, tzinut. One reference (Proverbs 11:1-2) speaks of modesty as a form of wisdom and intelligence, the other, more famous verse, (Micah 6:8), speaks of the way a person should walk with God-modestly. Neither biblical reference has anything remotely to do with clothing. Clearly, then, Jewish modesty is a general concept that affects all parts of a person's life and is not exclusively clothing– related. What, then, it is the Jewish concept of modesty? How can we identify a modest person-in the Jewish sense? And which other concept in Judaism is modesty related to? If we assume that the Hebrew term tzniut and the general idea of modesty are, in some way, connected to the idea of covering up and hiddenness, then the Torah connects the concept of modesty to the concept of holiness. When Moses, as a shepherd, first encounters God by the Burning Bush on Mount Sinai, God informs Moses that the place he is standing upon is holy ground. Moses' first reaction to this statement is that he hides his face. Thus, hiddenness and privacy seems to be the reaction to holiness. This relationship seems to be consistent with many references to Jewish holiness.

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EXOD81 The cults always have a charismatic leader who is the central focus and force in the cult. This concept of one central authority figure who is the leader is alien to Judaism. The relatively modern invention of Rabbi is not a very Jewish idea. From a Jewish, religious perspective, there is nothing that a rabbi can do that any other person can't do. This includes performing weddings and funerals, which need no rabbi in Jewish tradition. The rabbi has no special privileges and no special link with God. The term rabbi merely means teacher. The greatest rabbi, that is, teacher in Jewish history was Moses, who was called Moshe Rabbenu, Moses our Teacher, and not Moses our Leader or Moses the Prophet. And yet, according to the Torah, Moses had a lisp or another type of speech impediment. One explanation is that this teaches us that although Moses was not a charismatic speaker, he was still the greatest teacher. That is not the Jewish way--to get people to follow Jewish tradition because of charisma. It was what Moses said that made him effective. The Torah itself inspired the people and made Moses a great teacher, not Moses' way of speech. Therefore, the notion of following a leader merely because he or she is charismatic, while basic to cults, is alien to Judaism.

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EXOD101 These with the Jewish "policeman," also slaves, who had been appointed by Pharaoh to oversee the work production of their fellow Jews. When Pharaoh cut back on straw but insisted that brick production not fall, these Jewish "policemen" were instructed to use any means to ensure production. Yet they refuse to hurt the Jews who did not meet their quota, and, instead, they were beaten. It was these Jews, who put their fellow Jews' needs before their own, who were designated [by Moses in the desert] as the elders and were worthy for Jewish leadership. The Midrash (Shemot Rabbah 2:2] asks why it is that so many Jewish leaders were shepherds, and answers that, like Moses who went out of his way to help a weak sheep, the shepherds demonstrated sensitivity to each sheep. How much more so would they be caring and sensitive to the needs of the Jews they would lead. It is clear, then, that Jewish leadership is to be conferred only on those who demonstrate this one quality of caring for other Jews.

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