This week’s action-packed portion brings us seven of the 10 plagues that God inflicts on Pharaoh and the Egyptians. We identify with the Israelites in the story — they are our ancestors. Yet if we can try to identify with Pharaoh, there is a powerful lesson to be learned from him.
In this week’s Torah portion, Moses receives the call from God to be a prophet, but seems reluctant to answer it. We might think it would be a good thing to be God’s chosen prophet. Why doesn’t Moses agree?
When you know for certain that something is wrong, it doesn’t matter what stands in your way. To affect change, you must plow forward. Such is the model of Judah, who in this week’s Torah portion goes toe to toe with an adversary to speak truth to power.
Tammuz 12, 5773
