Question: Why was G-d trying to kill Moses (Exodus 4:24-26) on his return to Egypt with his wife and son? Was it due to him not circumcising his son yet?

Answer: Moses was in a bit of a quandary – his new born son was due to have his circumcision on the same day that G-d commanded Moses to return to Egypt – There were 3 options:

a) Moses could have circumcised his son and left for Egypt immediately – but traveling within 3 days of the circumcision would be dangerous for the baby’s health

b) He could have performed the circumcision and then waited for 3 days until the baby was out of danger, but that would delay carrying out G-d’s command to return to Egypt.

c) He could begin traveling, thus fulfilling G-d’s command and then perform the circumcision at an inn along the way.

Moses’ choice of the 3rd option seems to be a reasonable compromise and its hard to understand how that choice would warrant a death sentence. Thus the Midrash tells us that the real reason for G-d’s anger was that when Moses arrived at an inn, he first involved himself getting settled in, rather than immediately performing the circumcision.

Yours sincerely,
Ari Lobel

Question: Was Moshe (Moses) originally an Egyptian name or a Jewish name? I have heard that it is both. I would appreciate a clarification. Thank you.

Answer: Thank you for sending us your question. I don’t know if you’ll get a clarification from us, but here’s a quote from the footnotes of The Living Torah by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan z”l which you can find here too:

Moses
In Egyptian, Moshe means a son. Thus, his naming is prefaced by a phrase that is literally translated, ‘he became to her as a son’ (cf. Ibn Ezra; Hadar Zekenim). Significantly, the suffix moshe is found (and exclusively so) in the names of many Pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty, such as Ka-moshe (‘son of [Ra’s] majesty’), Ach-moshe (Ahmose; ‘son of the moon,’ or ‘the moon is born’) and Toth-moshe (Thutmose; ‘son of Toth’). The word moshe may indeed be of Semitic origin (see next note, this verse, ‘bore’), introduced by the Semitic Hyksos.

According to other ancient sources, the name Moses comes from the Egyptian mo (water) and uses (drawn from) (Josephus, Antiquities 2:9:6, Contra Apion 1:31; Philo De Vita Moses 2:17; Malbim).

Some sources state that Moses’ Egyptian name was Monius (Ibn Ezra; cf. Abarbanel; Josephus, Contra Apion 1:26, 28). Other ancient sources claim that Moses’ name was preserved among the Gentiles as the legendary Musaeus, teacher of Orpheus, from whom the Muses obtained their name (Artapanus, in Eusebius, Preparatio Evangelica 9:27).

bore
See 2 Samuel 22:17, Psalms 18:12; note on Genesis 47:11. In Egyptian, mase or mashe means to give birth. Others see the word as related to the Hebraic mush, and of Semitic origin (Rashi; Chizzkuni; Tur; see note, this verse, ‘Moses’).

I’ll add that I recall hearing from Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg z”l, former Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Israel in Baltimore, that even if the name is Egyptian, when the Torah writes of Pharoah’s daughter’s naming of Moshe based on having “drawn him from the water” “Min HaMayim MiShisihu” the Torah is explaining that she found that Egyptian name meaningful because of it’s connection to being drawn from the water.

All the Best,
Mordechai Dixler
JewishAnswers.org

Question: How did Moses know that God Is God at the burning bush? G-d is beyond description, has no form and defies human classification. Why didn’t Moses ask for some identification?

Answer: I suspect that the answer is that the experience of direct contact with God is so unique that it does not require special proof. Further, later on, Moshe does demand methods by which to demonstrate that God has sent him – which God provides.

Rabbi Daniel Freitag

Question: What is the origin of the Jewish Star?

Answer: The hexagram (six-pointed star) has been used as an ornament, and possibly as a magical sign, in many cultures since ancient times. It was used by Jews as well, but was not especially a Jewish symbol. In Byzantine and Arab sources it became known as the “seal of Solomon”, and this name was also adopted in Jewish sources. By the late Middle Ages the name had gradually changed to “shield of David” (Magen David). It was used as an official emblem by various Jewish families and communities beginning about 500 years ago, and was widely adopted as a Jewish symbol in the 19th century. In particular, it was adopted by the Zionist movement, and thus become an official Israeli symbol. For more details on its history see the article Magen David in the Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 11, cols. 687-697.

Question: What is the Torah viewpoint on rebuking someone else?

Answer: First of all, one of the 613 commandments is to give rebuke to our fellow Jews. That being said, we have to qualify this with two points.

When the Torah gives us this commandment in Leviticus 19:17, it states immediately afterwards that you should not do a sin. This is understood as teaching us that when we rebuke our fellow Jews, it must be done with the utmost care so as not to hurt the person in the process.

Additionally, we see in Genesis 29:4, that when Jacob approaches the shepherds at the well, he refers to them as “my brothers.” The question is asked, why is he calling them his “brothers” if he is just meeting them for the first time? The answer is that he is about to rebuke them for wasting time (ibid verse 7). However, rebuke cannot be given without first expressing love. First, Jacob made them like his brothers, and then he was able to rebuke them.

Sincerely,
Pinchas Landis

Question: I attend a Yeshiva in Jerusalem and I have been wearing black and white as most of the students do. I’ve never had a problem with this, but now I feel I need to know a solid reason why I dress this way as I think about it all the time.

Answer: There is no requirement to wear black and white. Most of the Yeshiva students in the United States 50 years ago wore colored shirts. However, it became customary in the Yeshiva community to wear black and white because those are modest colors. See compendium Kitzur Shulchan Aruch Chapter 3 where he associates black clothes with humility. The Talmud states that the Sages of the Talmud wore white clothes.

Nowadays most people wear black and white because they want to associate with a particular community. This is not required by Jewish law, but the clothes you wear are a way to show which group you want to identify with. This is similar to Yankee fans wearing Yankee caps and t-shirts.

Clothes aren’t the most important thing but they may help us act in a certain way because we feel that people view us by the way we are dressed.

It is important to remember that clothes are for ones self. It helps a person see himself in a certain way. However, we should never judge another by the clothes they wear. That is merely external.

Rabbi Meir Goldberg
Rutgers Jewish Xperience

Question: I was speaking to someone who knows Matisyahu, a Hasidic performer. One thing he remembers Matisyahu showing him is somewhere in the Torah where it says “do not let the world influence you, but let the world be influenced by you.” Can you please reference where in the Torah this can be found?

Answer: Thank you for your question. As far as I know that inspiring quote from Mattisyahu is not actually in the Torah, or any of the main Jewish texts. I suspect it is something that the last Lubavitche Rebbe said, which was passed on to Mattisyahu by his chassidic teacher.

However, the message is one which is clear from the Torah. Two stories in the book of Genesis seem to reflect this idea. Abraham and Sarah left everything (i.e. all the negative influences) behind them when they came to Israel to begin again. The verse says that they came with the ‘souls that they made in Charan’ (Genesis 12; 5). The Talmud comments on this that it refers to the people that they brought closer to an relationship with G-d. In other words, while still steeped in the culture and influences of Charan and Ur Kasdim, they were able to influence a great number of other people.

Secondly, the story of Joseph, who was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers. The whole time that he was there, whether as a slave in the home of Potiphar, or as the assistant to the jail keeper, or as Pharaoh’s main adviser, he always rejected assimilation into Egyptian society, and remained immune to the influences around him. He remained the ‘Hebrew’ (Genesis 41; 12) despite being second to the throne. The Talmud tells us that he even maintained all of the kosher laws and other Jewish rituals while there. Yet at the same time he influenced (and saved from starvation) the entire known world. His influence was such that he was known for many generations after his death.

I think this is the message that Mattisyahu is trying to put across. To influence others without being influenced by them. This is also one way of viewing all of Jewish history – the tremendous influence that Jews have had on the world for the past several millenia (including being the basis of both Christianity and Islam) while maintaining their own unique Jewish heritage and tradition.

Rabbi David Sedley

Question: When Hagar and Ishmael are kicked out, it says Sarah saw Ishmael doing something, and uses the verb ‘zadi, chet, kuf’, the same used for idolatry at the golden calf incident, murder in II Samuel and adultery when Potiphar’s wife accuses Joseph… it’s also the verb for laughter with Isaacs name comes from… how can it be used so liberally? The Torah also states that Isaac was named for Sarah’s laughter, almost immediately before and after the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael, which is usually a red flag – right? The use of a word 3 times in a row?

Answer: Hi! I’ve become quite fascinated by your question. I agree with you completely – there clearly is a very important point being made by the repetition of this verb (tzachaq – let’s translate it roughly as “laughter”). There’s a lot to think about here, and I’ll just tell you some of what occurs to me.

The idea of laughter is not a simple one. I know that a number of learned tomes, including one by Freud, have been written to try to explain it. I guess, though, that laughter generally is a response to something incongruous, something that doesn’t fit the pattern we expect. 90-year-old women just don’t bear and nurse children! Here G-d is the one causing the “laughable” situation by doing something out of the realm of the normal rules. Here, laughter is beautiful – it’s a recognition of wonder.

At other times it is people who create the laughter, by ignoring the bounds of the real world. We would perhaps call that “scoffing”. That’s what a scoff-law does, when he shows contempt for the norms of society, treating terrible crimes (murder, idol worship, adultery) as nothing serious. I think that’s what Ishmael was doing. When everyone else was laughing in wonder at the great miracle that G-d had done, Ishmael, his feelings hurt and feeling pushed aside, was trying to mock it and dismiss it as not a big deal. Unfortunately, by doing that he marked himself as unable to continue as a part of the world Sarah and Abraham were building.

I don’t think the word “tzachaq” itself carries a wide variety of meanings. Its very specific meaning does have many different uses, though, some good and some bad. Everything is like that; the world is complex, and things can be used or abused.

Best wishes,
Michoel Reach

Question: Please explain why Jews do not practice missionary works like the Christians and Mormons and many other religions. It seems to me that while some religions actively seek to find people in need of spiritual guidance and spread the Word, Jewish practitioners don’t. I look at my community and all the open invitations from the Lutheran churches that say ” Welcome, come worship with us, our doors are open to all, join us!”. Yet the Jewish synagogues appear to me to be inclusive, private and unapproachable. Why?

Answer: Judaism is not a religion, exactly, but a world-historical movement, part of a revolutionary, liberating force in human affairs that started when the pyramids were new and that’s always operative on or near civilization’s cutting edge. Our mission is what it always was: to make the world more truly God-conscious, to bring what you might call the “higher consciousness” principles of Sinai more fully into the world and establish them here permanently for the greater good of all humanity.

You can join us in this cause and, indeed, you should, but you don’t need to become Jewish to do so and, indeed, you shouldn’t. God has already made you what you are, a non-Jew, but you can accept Israel’s religious beliefs and worldview and philosophy upon yourself without taking up the rites and rituals of Judaism. So you don’t need our shuls, or synagogues, the closest equivalent to what Christians call a church or temple: they’re not for you but for us; they are “schools” – that’s what shul means – where we recite communal prayers and study God’s Ways and try to make them ours. They are consciousness-altering centers that won’t alter your consciousness much, if at all, because they’re not designed for you. (You are welcome to visit, if you want; we’re not unapproachable, our shuls simply aren’t like any church you’ve ever heard about or been in.)

I hope this answer helps, at least a little. My name is Michael Dallen, incidentally. I wrote the book Rainbow Covenant: Torah and the Seven Universal Laws, about Israel’s “out-patient” or universal outreach department, the First or Noahide Covenant, or Universal Covenant, and the religious principles or laws pertaining to that covenant, which have been revealed to all human beings.

Shalom.