This week’s Torah portion, Vaera, describes the first seven of the 10 plagues that God wrought upon Egypt so that Pharaoh would heed Moses’ pleas to let our people go. After each request from Moses and Aaron, Pharaoh refuses. A plague is brought upon...

This week’s parasha begins with a communication breakdown. In its opening lines, G-d shares something fantastic with Moses: G-d has remembered the Israelites and is going to take them out of slavery. Wonderful news! Time for the Israelites to rejoice...

“Stay woke!” The word “woke” has increasingly come to mean not only the past tense of “awake” but also to be socially aware, especially as related to issues of racial and social justice, according to Merriam-Webster. The term originated...