Parashat Va-Era

 

 

This week in Morah Yiska and Morah Donna’s Yahadut Aleph classes we reviewed what happened in the second Parasha of the book of Shemot—Vaera וארא.  The first 7 of the plagues were brought on the land of Egypt.

 

We concentrated our efforts in understanding this reading by examining one of the plagues.  The hail that fell on the land of Egypt was very special.  It was ice on the outside and fire on the inside.  This goes against what we understand about how physics work.  The ice should have melted from the fire and the melted ice should have put out the fire.  But it was a miracle that these two things were able to work together to strike the Egyptians.

 

We also read a Midrash that explained that just like a King might have to help different branches of his army make peace in order to work together, the ice and the fire when facing a common enemy, they had to get past their differences to work together.

 

We all need to think about ways we can work with others more effectively.

 

The students in Morah Hannah’s class concentrated on telling the time in Hebrew and read a story about a girl who was worried that her friends weren’t coming to her birthday party.  This is a great introduction for next week’s Parashah.  The Children of Israel finally leave Egypt and get their first mitzvah which has to do with time.  Stay tuned to find out what this Mitzvah is.

 

Shabbat Shalom

 

Morah Donna, Morah Yiska and Morah Hannah