Light from the Future: Parshas Voeira

1. Voeira – A Line on the Wall In the days of old, there were those people whose lives were devoted to one area of Jewish expression. Today, as we prepare for the dynamic period of…
2. Voeira – A Tale of Two Cities The introduction of the counter intuitive perception of G-d’s role in everything—began with Abraham and culminated with Sinai. At Sinai the world was…
3. Voeira – Acknowledgment First Step to Freedom The instrument we need for Moshiach is acknowledging what goes on in our lives. Acknowledging leads to appreciation. This is what preparing for…
4. Voeira – Divine Micromanagement The entire future of the world, the ultimate age of Redemption, is not necessarily dependent on some earth shattering gesture on our part. One minor…
5. Voeira – Four Redemptions Plus One One can be freed from torture, but can still be plagued by inner turmoil and anguish. One can be freed as a slave, but still have others who act like…
6. Voeira – Four to the Fourth Power The number four, in conjunction with the Seder (which is full of fours, such as the Four Questions, the Four Sons, etc.), has been associated with the…
7. Voeira – Hot and Cold There is a time when indifference can be a virtue: When we remain cool and collected in the presence of people whose passions are misplaced.
8. Voeira – Miracles: Escaping the Galus Fumes! Jewish law never included imprisonment as a standard punishment. If the sanction doesn’t bring the criminal to atonement then it is simply punishment…
9. Voeira – Seventh Generation Sensitivity We are living in the most refined generation of history! Thousands of years of collective observance of the Mitzvos, and Torah study practiced with…
10. Voeira – Staff Eats Staff For education to be worthy of its name the teacher, mentor, parent et al. must employ tough love on occasion. However, the way we administer this love…
11. Voeira – Synthesis, Not Sin-Thesis Moses, who is known to us as the Giver of the Torah, represented the ultimate intellect. His role was to think, probe and understand. If Moses would…
12. Voeira – Ten, Forty or Fifty Plagues R. Eliezer’s “four level” approach to getting rid of evil means that we must work on all conscious levels of our soul, making sure they are not…
13. Voeira – Ten Plague Therapy One of the greatest obstacles to growth is the desire to make great strides, so that one can realize their goal quickly. If one cannot rise to the top…
14. Voeira – The Bird of Knowledge Galus is punctuated with pain, suffering, discord, strife and concealment of G-d’s presence. On the other hand, Galus has provided us with the…
15. Voeira – The Eighth Step: Arbeh-Locust – Covering the Eye of the Land Locust was the most devastating plague to date because it destroyed all of Egypt’s food supply, portending a famine of historic proportions that would…
16. Voeira – The Fifth Step: Dever-Pestilence – The Holy Animal The plague of dever-pestilence was the first to actually do more than just serve as a nuisance or a source of fright, but it killed their livestock, a…
17. Voeira – The First Step: Blood – Destroying Icons The first impediment to emotional and spiritual health is our belief in false icons. The first plague that turned the Nile River into blood was aimed…
18. Voeira – The Five Expressions of Redemption By not changing their names, the Jewish people in Egypt never lost their identity as Jews. Corresponding to this virtue, the Torah states that G-d…
19. Voeira – The Fourth Step: Arov-Mixture of Wild Animals – Don’t Undersell Yourself The fourth plague known as arov involved a mixture of wild animals coming together to terrorize the Egyptian populace. It was more than a nuisance, it…
20. Voeira – The Frog If we would trace everything in this world to its source, we would realize that there is but one, absolutely one, source to everything. Any appearance…
21. Voeira – The Nameless, Ubiquitous Pharaoh The face expresses one’s inner feelings. When a person shows you their face they are inviting you into their inner space. In Hebrew the word for…
22. Voeira – The Ninth Step: Choshech-Darkness – The Last Prerequisite The plague of darkness is by far the most enigmatic plague. It appears not be in order, for it did not cause more harm than the preceding ones. Unless…
23. Voeira – The Seven Plagues In our attempt to get out of the current exile, we must apply the following lessons that emerge from the first seven plagues: We have to abandon all…
24. Voeira – The Seventh Step: Barad-Hail – Bringing It All Inside The plagues are getting more destructive. This seventh plague of hail put an even greater dent in the economy of Egypt as it destroyed many of the…
25. Voeira – The Sixth Step: Shechin-Boils Tough Love The plague of Boils was the first of the second half of plagues, and it was the first plague to actually afflict their bodies. One of the obvious…
26. Voeira – The Tenth Step: Makkat Bechorot-The Death of – The Firstborn Preserving Our Elite Faculties The death of the firstborn was obviously the most devastating plague, because it actually killed at least one family member in each household.…
27. Voeira – The Third Step: Lice – Small Is Big After the first two plagues they were treated to a plague— the plague of lice—that proved impossible for them to replicate unlike the first two. They…
28. Voeira – The Three Guarantees How could a loving G-d allow Galus to continue? This question is really a statement. This “question” does not demand a philosophical answer. It wants…
29. Voeira – The Tomorrow Syndrome “Tomorrow” is the lexicon of exile. The word “tomorrow” should not appear in our vocabulary when it comes to the end of pain and suffering or the end…
30. Voeira – Uncircumcised Lips When Moses saw how he was not getting through to the Children of Israel, he attributed this to his own spiritual deficiency. Moses was convinced that…
31. Voeira – Who Will Be the Aaron’s of Our Generation? As long as the Jewish people believed that Moses was sent by G-d to liberate them, there was no need to perform miracles for Pharaoh. Their faith was…

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