Rabbi Abrams Blog

Thank G-d, Rabbi Yaakov is doing well. We just finished a four day trip with the family yesterday, where the grand finale was visiting him in the Phoenix hospital. He is in good spirits and asked me to walk around the hospital floor with him. As it turns out, he was in a seemingly mild bicycle accident not involving anyone else, and was able to walk home. But an hour later, while washing himself off, he collapsed. His internal injuries from the fall were worse than the bike accident. After the fall, he was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where it was determined that he had tremendous internal bleeding and was in emergency surgery for over a day, where they removed his spleen. Thank G-d, his life was saved and he is projected to make a full recovery. He joked about this tremendous desire for contraband (orange juice) since he’s not allowed to eat or drink anything for the next while (all IV). We had just spoken a couple days prior about a trip we had planned including going to Phoen...

  For the past two weeks, the weekly Torah portion has been a story that I’ve read a thousand times, but for some reason I only understood what it means this year.  The story of the Exodus from Egypt.  Moses asks the Pharaoh to “Let me people go!” When the Pharaoh declines, Moses brings ten plagues upon Egypt.  I always, wondered what the purpose of the ten plagues was.  If the point was just to get us out, surely G-d has simpler and faster ways of redeeming the Jews from Egypt. Was it to “punish a wicked man or people”? Are we really that vindictive that we need “revenge” on the evildoers? What I realized this year is that G-d used these ten plagues as tools to dismantle the evil Egyptian society and reprogram them to reject their gods, priests and king.  To find the true G-d, develop a liking for the Jews and develop respect for Moses.  Over the past 5784 years, plenty of “evil societies” have come and gone, risen and fallen.  The ten plagues of...