Shmooze News February 7th, 2026
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Not Lost in the Crowd
The central event in this week’s parashah is the giving of the Torah. Based on the verse, Hashem came from Sinai — having shone forth to them from Seir, having appeared from Mount Paran (Devarim 33:2), our Sages tell us that before coming to us at Har Sinai, Hashem had first gone to Seir and Mount Paran and other lands, where He had offered the Torah to the other nations as well. In the words of R’ Yochanan: “the Holy One, Blessed is He, brought [the Torah] around to every nation and they did not accept it, until He came to the Jews and they accepted it” (Avodah Zarah 2b). Was the vote in each nation unanimous? Did every individual in Seir, Mount Paran, etc. reject the Torah, or just the overwhelming majority?
The Vilna Gaon says that in fact there were individuals in each of the nations who wanted to accept the Torah. They were simply vastly outnumbered. The spiritual strivings of those individuals, though, were not for naught. Those souls are the ones who over the years joined and continue to join the Jewish people as geirim (converts).
The Chidah (R’ Chaim David Azulai 1724-1806) shares a related thought. We find that our Sages often use the expression, גר שנתגייר, lit. a convert who converted (Shabbos 135a, Pesachim 92b, et al.). Would it not be more accurate, though, to refer to such individuals as “a non-Jew who converted”? Why are they referred to as a “convert” who converted? Our Sages teach us that the souls of future geirim were in fact present at Har Sinai when the Torah was given (Shevuos 39b). Accordingly, the Chidah explains, this is why they are called converts who convert. They were ready and willing to be converts long before. They were present at the very beginning, when it all started. They simply needed to finish the conversion process (מדבר קדמות מ''ע ג אות ג).
The Otzros HaTorah (p. קנג) suggests that this is the meaning behind another statement of our Sages regarding the giving of the Torah. They state that when Hashem spoke at Har Sinai, He did so in all seventy languages (Shabbos 88b). But He was giving the Torah to the Jews, who spoke Hebrew! For whom then was He translating it? The answer is that He was doing so for all the souls that wanted and would want to be part of the Jewish People. He was making it possible for those souls from all the nations to connect to Torah. The Torah speaks to them as well. After all, they were already “converts” – who simply needed to eventually be converted.
Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom / Good Shabbos
Rabbi Moskovitz
Shmooze News January 31, 2026
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It Was the Wind That Did It! … Obviously!
This week’s parashah records the greatest of all the miracles we had experienced up until that point; Krias Yam Suf (the splitting of the Sea of Reeds). Although that miracle was a clear break from the natural world, the Torah notes an interesting phenomenon: Hashem moved the sea with a strong east wind all the night … and the water split (Shemos 14:21). Clearly it was Hashem Who split the sea, not some wind. What then was the purpose of the wind that night?
The Sefer HaChinuch (Mitzvah 132 as explained by Sichos Mussar 5762, §102) suggests that this is simply an example of a general rule that Hashem seems to follow when performing miracles. He performs them in a hidden manner, masking the miracle in some level of natural phenomenon. He does so, explains Sefer HaChinuch, due to the loftiness of the Master (Who experiences no “gain” through our accolades) and the lowliness of the recipient (i.e., the human, who’s freewill would otherwise be negatively impacted).
Ramban, though, has a somewhat different approach. He suggests that the purpose of the wind was to bring about the finale of the entire Exodus story itself! The Egyptian army had pursued the Jewish people up to the shores of the sea. They had front row seats to what took place on that fateful night. They too felt the east wind blowing all night and they too witnessed the sea splitting and the Jews walking through on dry land. They then had a choice to make. A normal-thinking person would reason to themselves that something supernatural was taking place; that the Gd of the Jews was delivering His people. The smart choice would be to stop the madness of this pursuit and go back home. But the Egyptians did something else. They noted the weather and said to themselves, “Perhaps it was not Gd who split the sea. Perhaps it was the wind!” Ramban goes on to note that even though the reality is that wind does not split seas into rows of water and dry land, the Egyptians ignored that obvious fact. Instead, they followed the Jewish People in due to their great desire to inflict harm upon us. They engaged in the human ability to rationalize away inconvenient truths to pursue a path of their own wicked choosing. The wind effectively gave them that choice. It lured them into the sea, where they received their just deserts. They ignored the clear and present miracle that took place, ultimately bringing about not our destruction, but their own.
For us, the lesson is clear. The guiding hand of Hashem is ever present. Some see miracles. Others see wind.
Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom / Good Shabbos
Rabbi Moskovitz
Shmooze News January 24, 2026
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This Makkah Did Hit the Jewish Areas, But That’s Just Fine
While the Makkos (the Ten Plagues) pounded the Egyptians, the Jewish people were spared. The Torah makes a point of this, for example, by the plague of pestilence where the pasuk says, Hashem shall distinguish between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, and not a thing that belongs to the Children of Israel will die (Shemos 9:4). Similarly, by the plague of hail, the pasuk says, only in the land of Goshen, where the Children of Israel were, there was no hail (ibid. 9:26).
However, by the plague of locust, the Torah says rather emphatically, It ate all the grass of the land and all the fruit of the tree that the hail left over. No greenery remained on the trees or the grass of the field in the entire land of Egypt (ibid. 10:15). This pasuk clearly states that the locust ate up everything that the hail left over, seemingly even in the fields owned by Jews! Why would the fields of the Jews suddenly be affected by this plague in particular?
An answer to this question can be found by a careful examination of what the Torah says regarding the previous plague of hail. The Torah there notes that the Egyptian crops of “flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was ripe and the flax was in its stalk,” (ibid. 8:31). The Torah then goes on to note that there were a few Egyptian crops that were not struck by the hail, namely, “the wheat and the spelt … for they ripen later” (ibid. v. 32). It was those later ripening crops of wheat and spelt, that the locust now consumed, as the above verse notes, [the locust] ate all … that the hail left over. Now, in that area of the world, the wheat and spelt crops ripen around Shavuos time. In fact, in Temple times, the first offering from the new crop of wheat each year was offered on Shavuos (the Two Loaves of Bread), which was the time that such grain was just becoming available.
When the locust came and ate the wheat and spelt that were still growing, they did indeed eat even the plants in Jewish fields. Nevertheless, the Jews were unaffected by that; since the wheat and spelt would anyways not be ready to harvest until Shavuos, by which time the Jews would have been long gone from Egypt! In fact, the only ones who would have enjoyed such crops, had they been spared, would have been the Egyptians who remained behind! Therefore, in this instance, although the plague affected Jewish fields, it in no way negatively impacted the Jews themselves. Rather, the fact that the locust consumed those growing crops ultimately impacted only the Egyptians, no different than all the other plagues before (R’ Yosef Dov [Berel] Soloveitchik, cited in טללי אורות).
Wishing you a Good Shabbos / Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Moskovitz
Shmooze News January 17, 2026
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Shabbos Mevarchim Chodesh Shevat
Rosh Chodesh will be Monday
A Speech Impediment with Purpose
Towards the beginning of this week’s parasha, Moshe reiterated his reluctance to continue to appear before Pharaoh. He argued that Pharaoh would not listen to him because Moshe was עֲרַ֥ל שְׂפָתָֽיִם, of sealed lips (Shemos 6:12). Moshe already noted his speech impediment back at the burning bush, where he called himself heavy of mouth and heavy of speech (Shemos 4:10). What was the source of this speech impediment, and why did Hashem not simply heal him before sending him on this mission?
Regarding the source of Moshe’s speech impediment, some suggest that that was simply how Moshe was born (Ibn Ezra). Interestingly, some argue that Moshe did not have a speech impediment in the classic sense. Rather, Moshe’s heavy mouth and heavy speech was simply his lack of fluency in Egyptian, as he had not spoken it in many decades (Rashbam). The Midrash, however, says that Moshe did indeed have a physical speech defect, and the Midrash traces that deficit back to an incident in his early childhood growing up in Pharaoh’s palace. One time, the toddler Moshe was sitting on Pharoah’s lap and playfully pulled Pharaoh’s crown off his head and put it on his own. Pharaoh’s necromancers saw this as a sign that this child was the one that they had foreseen who was destined to take away Pharaoh’s power and free the Jewish people. Some therefore advocated for his execution arguing that he knew what he was doing in taking off the crown, while others argued that he was just a senseless child. A test was devised, where a tray was brought before the toddler with a glowing coal and a piece of gold to see which he would reach for. As Moshe stretched forth his hand to take the gold, the angel Gavriel moved it to the burning coal. Moshe then placed his hand with the coal into his mouth, leading to his becoming heavy of mouth and heavy of speech (Shemos Rabbah 1:26). Some suggest that it was because Moshe’s speech impediment had this miraculous origin, that Hashem was not quick to heal it (Ramban, Shemos 4:10).
Others, however, argue that Moshe’s speech impediment played a crucial role in what was arguably his most important function. So many religions and movements find their origin in the personality of a charismatic leader. They begin with an influential person with great ability to passionately articulate the very ideas and values that form the basis of the religion or movement. Now Moshe was not simply the redeemer of the Jewish people, he was destined to be our greatest teacher. He is the one who brought us the Torah from heaven and taught it to us as a nation. Although we ourselves heard Hashem speak at Har Sinai and directly appoint Moshe as His go-between, the sceptic may want to somehow argue that perhaps the people were bamboozled by a smooth talker. But as the Torah notes, Moshe was far from an eloquent speaker. His speech impediment made it impossible for him to smooth talk even if he wanted to. And that was exactly the point. His lack of ability to influence through speech means that the veracity of the content of what he taught lay in its intrinsic authenticity and not in the eloquence of its delivery (Derashos HaRan #3).
Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom / Good Shabbos
Rabbi Moskovitz
Shmooze News January 10, 2026
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The Irony of it All
A new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Yosef (Shemos 1:8). This new Pharaoh, seeking to undo the growth of the Jewish population, first imposed slave labor upon us. But not only did that not work, it had the opposite effect - for as much as they would afflict [the Jews], so they would increase (ibid. v. 12). Pharaoh then instructed the Jewish midwives to kill all male babies on the birthing stool. That too proved unsuccessful (due to the courageous defiance of those midwives). Finally, Pharaoh commanded his entire people, saying, “Every son that will be born — into the river shall you throw him! (ibid. v. 22).
In this final solution, Pharaoh spoke to his entire people, instructing them to throw the babies in the river. However, this last verse does not say whose babies were to be thrown into the river. In fact, the verse implies that all baby boys born at that time – even the Egyptian ones – were to be drowned. Rashi cites our Sages (Shemos Rabbah 1:18) who explain that the astrologers of Pharaoh foresaw the imminent birth of the one who would lead the Jewish people to freedom. However, they were unclear if he was a Hebrew or an Egyptian. [Maharal explains that the source of their confusion was due to the fact that while Moshe was a Hebrew, he was adopted and raised by the daughter of Pharaoh, an Egyptian woman. As such, they got mixed signals.] They also foresaw that this savior would find his downfall through water and therefore advised that all baby boys be drowned at that time. [They were in fact correct that Moshe would ultimately be stricken by water, but not that of the Nile, but rather the waters of Meriva, where Moshe would end up hitting the stone.] Based on the advice of his confused stargazers, Pharaoh decreed that for now, all baby boys, both Hebrew and Egyptian, be thrown into the river.
It is fascinating, though, that Pharaoh’s attempt to thwart this heavenly decree of salvation, was not only unsuccessful – but it helped bring it about! The future leader he was trying to kill was placed in a basket in that same river, only to float into the arms of Pharaoh’s very own daughter! Pharaoh’s attempt to undo Moshe, actually led to him being raised in Pharaoh’s palace, under his very nose! The same phenomenon occurred earlier in the Torah when the brothers tried to undo Yosef’s dreams by selling him into slavery. But in so doing, they actually set in motion the fulfillment of those very dreams. They sold Yosef off to the place where he would rise to power, ultimately leading to their all coming down to bow to him for wheat, as his dreams had in fact predicted years earlier.
Kli Yakar suggests that this is alluded to in the phrase, A new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Yosef. Pharaoh did not “know Yosef” in the sense that he did not learn the above lesson from the story of Yosef. Pharaoh wanted to diminish the Jewish people and therefore enslaved us with hard labor. But the more he afflicted us, the more we increased. Because attempting to thwart the plan of heaven does not work. It simply brings it ever closer.
Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom / Good Shabbos
Rabbi Moskovitz
Shmooze News January 3, 2026
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Life or Death?
When Yaakov Avinu’s end was coming near, the Torah states, וַיִּקְרְב֣וּ יְמֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֘ לָמוּת֒, which literally means, “the days of Yisrael were approaching death” (Bereishis 47:29) The Torah specifically does not say that he himself was approaching death, but rather his days were approaching their end. The Midrash explains, “Hashem finds it difficult to decree death upon the righteous…therefore He associates death with their ‘days’ [rather than with themselves]” (Yalkut Shimoni, Bereishis 47 §154).
Rav Elazar Menachem Man Shach (1899-2001) explains the depth of this Midrash. Our Sages tell us that צדיקים במיתתם קרויים חיים, the righteous, [even] in their death, are considered alive (Berachos 18a). That is to say that the lives of the righteous do not end upon their passing. Rather, since they go on to become bound to the Source of all life – the “Life-giver of the worlds” (citation from the blessing, yishtabach), they become eternal. They enter a realm above time and transition into an existence over which “death” has no meaning. It is only to their lives as they manifest in this world – bound by time, split up into days – to which “death” can apply. Hence, the “days” of the righteous can come to an end, but not themselves (מובא בטללי אורות).
This is in contrast to the wicked who are described as “dead,” even within their lives. For example, the verse which speaks of a wicked person subject to execution says, By the testimony of two witnesses or three witnesses shall the dead person be put to death (Devarim 17:6). He is still alive, but the Torah already calls him “the dead person” (Berachos 18b). The wicked exist only in this world, chasing illusory pleasures, trying desperately to hold on to them as though they have lasting value, only to see them– and their lives – slip through their fingers. Thus, even in this world, they are not “alive.”
It is fascinating that there are two Parshiyos in the Torah that have the word “life” in their titles: Chayei Sarah (the life of Sarah) and VaYechi (And Yaakov lived). Ironically, both speak of someone’s passing. Chayei Sarah speaks of the passing of Sarah, and our Parashah, Vayechi, speaks of the passing of Yaakov. Why then are they given titles with the word “life”? Based on the above, the answer is clear. Sarah and Yaakov were both extremely righteous. When each passed away, they simply left behind their respective lives in this world; the lives that were bound by “days.” Their true and eternal lives, however, were just beginning (אזנים לתורה).
Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom / Good Shabbos
Rabbi Moskovitz
Shmooze News December 27, 2025
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The Land of Goshen
In this week’s parashah, Yaakov and his family, all the shevatim and their families, came down to Mitzrayim. When they arrived, Yosef settled them in the land of Goshen, far away from the hustle and bustle of the capital. This district comes up a number of times in the parashah (see Bereishis 45:10, 46:28, 46:34 et. al.), but the roots of Goshen actually go back to an earlier incident in the Torah.
A few hundred years earlier when Avraham and Sarah had come down to Mitzrayim due to the famine in their days, Sarah was forcibly taken into the palace of Pharaoh. Our Sages tell us that Pharaoh stopped at nothing to win over Sarah’s heart. He transferred to her in the kesubah he wrote for her, all his silver and gold. And, moreover, he gave her a gift of a district in Egypt called Goshen (Pirkei D’Rebbi Eliezer, Ch. 26),
The Midrash ends by noting that that is why the Jews settled in Goshen, since in truth it was our inheritance from our matriarch, Sarah. We ended up effectively settling on our own property!
Some suggest that there is a deeper message in this. The word Goshen (גשן) is related to the word at the start of our parashah, ויגש, which means “to come close.” Pharaoh gave this gift of land to Sarah in an attempt to bring her closer to him. The land was named after his attempt to win her over. It did not work. Sarah was not interested; the palace, the wealth, the alure of Egyptian society held no sway over her. She remained true to herself, her beliefs, her relationship with Avraham, and rejected all the gifts, all the attempts of Pharaoh to win her over.
It is specifically to Goshen, then, that Yosef sent his family. Because he knew that in the coming years the Jewish people would face great challenges. We were
going to need to become a nation there in Mitzrayim and yet remain distinct. As we say in the Haggadah – ויהי שם לגוי מלמד שהיו ישראל מצוינים שם, “there he became a nation” (Devarim 26:5), this teaches that the Jews were distinct there.
Where did the ability to do so begin? It began in Goshen. It began in a place not just physically apart from the sordid cultural centers of Egypt, but which stood as a refuge from it. A place whose very history would remind us of the strength of character of Sarah Imeinu to whom the allures of Egypt meant nothing. There in the land of Sarah, in the land whose story we all knew, that is where we settled, for it was there that we would develop into a unique nation. It was there that we would become the Jewish People (MiMamakim al Parshiyos Hatorah, p. 243).
Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom / Good Shabbos
Rabbi Moskovitz
Shmooze News December 20, 2025
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Rosh Chodesh is this Shabbos and Sunday.
Pharoah Called Yosef, “Zaphenath-paneah”
This week’s parashah begins with Yosef correctly interpreting the dreams of Pharaoh. Pharaoh was very impressed by Yosef and promoted him to the position of viceroy. He then changed his name, as the verse says, Pharaoh called Yosef’s name Zaphenath-paneah [צָֽפְנַ֣ת פַּעְנֵ֒חַ֒] and he gave him Asenath daughter of Poti-phera, Chief of On, for a wife. Thus, Yosef emerged in charge of the land of Egypt (Bereishis 41:45).
It was not unusual in earlier times for rulers or kings to rename people when promoting them to positions of authority, as Moshe did for Yehoshua (Rashbam, Bereishis 41:45). What though is the meaning of the particular name Pharoah chose for Yosef?
Some suggest that the name Zaphenath-paneah is an Egyptian name (Radak), and as such, we do not really know its meaning (Ibn Ezra; see however, “The Living Torah”, where R’ Kaplan suggests that it means “the god speaks” in Ancient Egyptian).
Rashi, however, argues that Zaphenath-paneah is in fact Hebrew, and that it means מְפָרֵשׁ הַצְּפוּנוֹת, “he who deciphers cryptic matters.” Ramban also suggests that it may be Hebrew, and explains that even though Pharaoh spoke Egyptian, it would not be unusual for him to use Hebrew in naming Yosef. Either Pharoah knew Hebrew, as it was the language of the neighboring country, Canaan(!). Alternatively, he simply asked Yosef for an appropriate name to give him. Similarly, in a later era, when the then Pharoah’s daughter found the infant Moshe floating in the Nile, she also chose a name for him that had meaning in Hebrew. She called him Moshe, “for I drew him from the water – meshesyhu” (Shemos 2:10). Even though she was a native Egyptian speaker, she wished to give a name that matched Moshe’s Hebraic roots (Ramban, Bereishis 41:45; cf. Ibn Ezra to Shemos 2:10).
Chasam Sofer (Toras Moshe) notes the importance of Yosef’s name change. Had Yosef been called by his original name, his brothers would have immediately recognized him. After all, how many Egyptian officials had Jewish names!? In a similar vein, Chizkuni (42:8) explains that this is one of the three reasons that Yosef’s brothers did not recognize him, notwithstanding the fact that they had grown up with him. The other reasons were that Yosef had grown a beard since they had last seen him and the fact that Yosef was now speaking to them in Egyptian (Chizkuni, Bereishis 42:8).
After the above pasuk notes that Pharoah changed Yosef’s name to Zaphenath-paneah, it ends by stating something very interesting. It says, Thus, Yosef emerged in charge of the land of Egypt. Even after receiving his promotion, marrying into aristocracy, and being given a new title and name, internally, he remained the same Yosef; unmoved by the glory, unchanged by the society in which he found himself. It was not Zaphenath-paneah running the country. It was Yosef HaTzadik (Toras Moshe).
Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom / Good Shabbos
Rabbi Moskovitz