Daily Chumash Summaries

By: Sarede Rachel Switzer
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  • Audio Summaries of the daily Chumash portions In loving memory of Ousher Zelig ben Myer HaLevi Z”L

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    Sarede Rachel Switzer
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Judaism Spirituality
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  • Shmos, 1st Aliya

    Shmos, 1st Aliya
    Jan 12 2025
    Audio Summaries of the daily Chumash portions In loving memory of Ousher Zelig ben Myer HaLevi Z”LTo sponsor an episode please visit: https://itistaught.com/support-this-project/To get the daily chumash summaries in your email click here https://substack.com/profile/182692001-sarede-rachel-switzer?utm_source=profile-page.Subscribe on SpotifySubscribe on Apple PodcastsPlease consider leaving a review on the platform of your choice! For comments and inquiries, email itistaught@gmail.comNew Pharaoh in EgyptThe parsha begins with a counting of all of Yaakov’s children who had come into Egypt, totaling 70 people and relates that they passed away.The fact that they were counted both during their lifetime and after they passed away, highlighted how endeared they were to G-d. For similarly does G-d count the stars in the sky as they come out and night and then leave. So the sons were as follows:Reuven, Shimon, Levi and YehudaYissaschar, Zvulun and BinyaminDan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher andYosef, who stayed faithful to his family’s ways in spite of becoming a powerful ruler in Egypt.So the sons indeed pass away along with that entire generation.The Israelites grow significantly in number, with every pregnancy bearing six children and the Israelites filled the land of Egypt.A new era begins in Egypt and it is up for debate whether this involved a new Pharaoh coming to power or if it was the same Pharaoh who ruled with different laws.If it was a totally new Pharaoh, he was unfamiliar with Yosef. If it was the same king with new laws, he merely pretended to not be familiar with Yosef.Whatever the case, this “new” Pharaoh says to his people “The Israelites are greater and more numerous than us! If we are attacked, what if the Israelites join our enemies? They will then leave us and we will no longer have them as slaves. Let’s outsmart their G-d by afflicting the Israelites with water, for after the flood, G-d promised that he would never again send a flood to destroy the world, so if we afflict them with water, their G-d will not take revenge on us in kind.” This king made such an assumption for he knew that G-d usually punishes “measure for measure”. What he failed to realize was that while indeed G-d had promised that he would not destroy the entire world through a flood, this did not preclude him from hurting a specific area with water.So Pharaoh decrees that there shall be “tax collectors” that ensure that the Israelites must pay a “tax” in the form of building storage houses in the cities of Pitom and Ramses. These cities were not originally fit for storage, however the Israelites made them strong and fortified so they now were.Yet the more the Egyptians afflicted the Israelites, the more G-d blessed the Israelites and they continued to prosper. The Egyptians became disgusted and saw the Israelites as thorns. They enslave and embitter the Israelites with backbreaking labor involving mortar and bricks and working the land in every way.Pharaoh summons the Israelite midwives to him - Shifra (from the same root as meshaperet , “to beautify” since she beautified the babies during birth) and Puah (meaning to “cry”, since she cried with the crying babies and soothed them with sounds and words. Alternatively, it is an allusion to a woman “crying out” in childbirth). The real name of these women were respectively Yocheved and Miriam (Yocheved’s daughter).Pharaoh’s astrologers had foretold that there would be a boy who had yet to be born who would save Israel.So Pharaoh commands the midwives to kill any Israelite boy who is born. Girls, however, do not have to be killed at birth.The midwives disobey Pharaoh and not only do not kill the boys but sustained them with water and food. Get full access to Sarede’s Substack at sarede.substack.com/subscribe
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    5 mins
  • Vayechi, 7th Aliya

    Vayechi, 7th Aliya
    Jan 10 2025

    Audio Summaries of the daily Chumash portions In loving memory of Ousher Zelig ben Myer HaLevi Z”L

    To sponsor an episode please visit: https://itistaught.com/support-this-project/To get the daily chumash summaries in your email click here https://substack.com/profile/182692001-sarede-rachel-switzer?utm_source=profile-page.Subscribe on SpotifySubscribe on Apple PodcastsPlease consider leaving a review on the platform of your choice! For comments and inquiries, email itistaught@gmail.com

    Yosef's Final Words

    Yosef comforts his brothers saying that they have nothing to fear and he will not harm them.

    He reassures them by relating to them that before the brothers arrived, all of the Egyptians referred to Yosef derogatorily as a slave and then with the arrival of his brothers he suddenly became perceived as a free man. So if he would now kill them, the Egyptians would think that Yosef was lying about them being his brothers for the sake of his reputation, for what brother would kill his brothers?

    Additionally, Yosef points out to them that the fact that the brothers were unable to extinguish Yosef when they tried to is evidence that Yosef would not be able to exinguish them even if he tried. This is because the deeper reason behind why the brothers wanted to get rid of Yosef is because they thought that he was like Esav and unfit to be part of the holy nation of Israel. However the fact that Yosef survived in spite of this was proof that they were wrong and demonstrated that "10 candles" (i.e. the 10 brothers) could not extinguish "1 candle" (i.e a holy person like Yosef). So all the more so would Yosef not be able to extinguish them.

    Yosef lives the rest of his life in Egypt and dies at the age of 110. Yosef witnessed three generations being born through Ephraim and raised Menashe's son's Machir's sons.

    Right before he dies, Yosef tells his brothers that his life is coming to an end but that the brothers will be brought to the land that was promised by G-d to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. He says that G-d will remember the brothers and asks them to move his bones out from Egypt.

    Yosef dies and he is embalmed and buried in Egypt.



    Get full access to Sarede’s Substack at sarede.substack.com/subscribe
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    4 mins
  • VaYechi, 6th Aliya

    VaYechi, 6th Aliya
    Jan 10 2025
    Audio Summaries of the daily Chumash portions In loving memory of Ousher Zelig ben Myer HaLevi Z”LTo sponsor an episode please visit: https://itistaught.com/support-this-project/To get the daily chumash summaries in your email click here https://substack.com/profile/182692001-sarede-rachel-switzer?utm_source=profile-page.Subscribe on SpotifySubscribe on Apple PodcastsPlease consider leaving a review on the platform of your choice! For comments and inquiries, email itistaught@gmail.comYaakov Blesses BinyaminYaakov now relates his last prophecy concerning his son, having to do with Binyamin:BinyaminYaakov says that Binyamin will be like a wolf who brings it's prey to it's lair before eating it. So too shall Binyamin be "grabbers", specifically of women/wives, as per the later incident in Shoftim 21:21 where the people who lived in the Binyamite city raped the concubine Levi brought into the city with him. This "grabbing" is also alluding to King Saul (descendant of Binyamin) who waged war against everyone around him.Yaakov says that Binyamin will devour spoils in the "morning" and distribute plunder in the "evening". The "morning" is a reference to King Saul, as he was the first king over Israel and he will devour and divide up its spoils. The "evening" refers to exile (i.e. darkness like evening) of Nevuchadnezzar and Yaakov says that even then, the tribe of Binyamin will distribute plunder, through Mordechai and Esther (descendants of Binyamin) distributing the plunder of Haman.Alternatively, this plunder is referring to the offerings of the Cohanim in the Beis HaMikdash. The Beis HaMikdash was located in the territory of Binyamin so Binyamin was in charge of distributing the offerings to the Cohanim.The text now says that here Yaakov concluded giving blessings to his sons. Although some of the prophecies were stated more obviously as overt "blessings", even the prophecies of rebuke (as with Reuven, Shimon and Levi) were all blessings as well. All of the sons were included in all of the blessings (as alluded to by the text saying that each one in accordance with his blessing did Yaakov "bless them" rather than the more seemingly obvious "bless him"), and in addition, Yaakov prophetically gave each son a blessing that was tailer made specifically to him.Yaakov then instructs the sons to bury him in the Meharat HaMachpela where his forefathers are buried. Yaakov details that this cave is to be found in the land of Canaan, facing Mamrei and is in the field of Ephron the Hittite which Avraham purchased along with the cave from Ephron.Yaakov lists all of the people that are buried in that cave: Avraham, Yitzchok, Sara, Rivkah and Leah (whom he buried).After giving these instructions, Yaakov draws his feet onto the bed and passes away and is brought to his people. Since Yaakov's entire life was completely spiritually oriented, Rashi quotes the gemara (Taanis 5b) in stating that "Yaakov didn't die". His body and soul were so intertwined during his life that in his soul leaving his body after life it was as if he was merely removing a garment of clothing.Yosef falls on his father's face crying, and kisses him. He then orders his servant physicians to embalm his father and they do so. The embalming took 40 days and then the Egyptians mourned Yaakov for 30 more days (70 days total). The Egyptians mourned Yaakov as they recognized that blessings came from him in that the famine subsided and the Nile had more water as soon as Yaakov arrived.Yosef approaches Pharaoh and says that he would like to fulfill his father's wish of burying him in the Meharat HaMachpelah and says that he will return to Egypt afterwards.Side note: fom this verse where Yosef quotes Yaakov as saying that he had "dug the cave for himself", Rashi understands that Yaakov had gathered all of the money he had accumulated from Lavan's house and gave it to Esav as payment to buy Esav's portion of the cave, so now it is entirely Yaakov's.Pharaoh says he will allow Yosef to fulfill the oath he made to his father in this regard. If not for the oath, Pharaoh would not have conceded, however Pharaoh was worried that if he would have insisted on Yosef violating his oath to his father, Yosef would have violated the oath he made with him, namely to keep it a secret that Pharaoh did not speak or understand Hebrew, whereas Yosef knew Hebrew in addition to 70 other languages.So Yosef sets off to bury his father and is joined by all of Pharaoh's servants, the elders of his household and of all of Egypt as well as Yosef's entire family, aside from the young children and cattle and flocks which stayed behind in Goshen. He does bring chariots and horsemen with him and the result was a pretty intimidating group.They reach Goren HaAtad* (literally "the threshing floor of the thorns") which is across the Jordan and Yosef delivers a very great and intense eulogy for his father and imposes a seven day mourning period.*Side note/back story to the name Goren HaAtad: ...
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    10 mins

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