Author: Xus Casal

“And he called [vayikra] to Moses, and he, HaShem, spoke to him” (Lv 1:1). ויקרא אל משה וידבר יי אליו   Humbleness   When you read this portion in a Torah scroll, you’ll notice that the letter alef – א in the word “Vayikra” is smaller than the other letters. One may wonder why did Read More

Review of Terumah The Last two portions in the book of Exodus (Shemot) are basically a repetition of Terumah and Tetzave respectively. In this week’s portion we read again of the working of the Tabernacle (Mishkan). Only thing that changes basically is the verbal form, from “You shall make” to “he made”. In Short, the Read More

“veAtah Tetzave” (ואתה תצוה) “And you, you must command…” (Ex 27:20).   The verse could have simply said: ‘Tetzave’ which means “you must command.” Why do we need the word veAtah (and “you”)? In Hebrew it seems redundant. But in the Bible, when a word seems redundant, out of place, or grammatically incorrect, it means Read More

“Tell the sons of Israel to take to me a Terumah” (a tribute, a present, literally, something uplifting) Exodus 25:2   This week’s Parasha talks of the materials and components donated to build the Sanctuary in the Desert. ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם “They shall make me a sanctuary and I shall dwell in their Read More

This is probably one of the most important moments and one of the most important topics to attain Redemption: Repentance (Tshuva), in many levels.   It begins with the phrase:   ‘VaYishma Yitro’ ‘And Yitro heard… how HaShem had brought Israel out of Egypt’ (Ex 18:1).   Previous week’s portion told us that the pagan Read More

Amalek’s Attack   “And Israel saw the big hand which God made in Egypt… and they believed in God and his servant Moses” (Ex 14:31).   In this week’s Torah portion, we are told of the Egyptian Exodus, of the confrontation between God and the Egyptian army at the Sea of Reeds, and of the Read More

God deals with the Dragon   “And God said to Moses: “Enter to Pharaoh” (Ex 10:1)   The expression used in this sentence is very interesting. It says: ‘Bo el Paroh’; ‘Enter into Pharaoh’; the same verb used when God told Noah: “Bo el haTeva”; ‘Enter into the Ark’ (Gn 7:1). The Zohar in this Read More

The 10 Sefirot   In this week’s Parsha we find 7 of the 10 Plagues with which God punished the land of Egypt in order to deliver the people of Israel. Why the reading portion was set in this way? Why do we read of 7 of the 10 plagues and leave the other 3 Read More

In our previous Parsha we have seen Moshe from the aspect of “Tiferet” (which inner essence is compassion). This week we are gonna show him from the aspect of “Hokhmah”. Today’s study is a bit deeper than previous ones, but as always I’ll try to simplify it as much as possible.   Moses as Wisdom Read More