By David Sidman

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
This week’s parsha of Beshalach is associated with the splitting of the sea at Krias Yam Suf, where the Jewish people finished their exit from Mitzrayim. It was there that they beheld the splendor of Hashem, as never before. It was there that they realized the promise of Hashem, “lokachas lo goy mikerev goy.” They not only achieved independence from Mitzrayim, but became an independent nation.
Coupled with this theme is that of “re’iyah,” the ability to see, and through vision perceive the truth and appreciate reality.

By Yair Rosenberg
Last week, David Bateman, a prominent Utah entrepreneur and Republican political donor, sent an unusual email to his state’s business and political leaders, including Gov. Spencer Cox. The subject line? “Genocide.” The topic: Jews. But Bateman’s message was not about the Holocaust, or about Jews being the victims of mass murder. Instead, he accused them of perpetrating it.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
This week’s parsha completes the cycle of the ten makkos that Hashem visited upon Mitzrayim. It is striking that despite all the various warnings, punishments, pleas, havoc and destruction rained down upon him and his people, Paroh and the Mitzriyim stubbornly remained frozen in their inability to recognize Hashem’s domination.
How is it that a ruler whose primary job is to care for his country’s welfare and safety refuses to recognize the plainly obvious? How is it that his people didn’t revolt against him after suffering because of his obstinate arrogance?

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
The Gemara teaches that Chananyah, Mishoel and Azaryah were inspired by the frogs of Mitzrayim to give up their lives al kiddush Hashem.
The Gemara in Pesochim (53b) explains that they learned a kal vachomer from the actions of the frogs during makkas tzefardeia, when the frogs jumped into the flaming Egyptian ovens.
They analyzed the pesukim and concluded that the frogs could have fulfilled their obligation by simply hopping around Mitzrayim and making a general nuisance of themselves. For them to fulfill G-d’s will during that makkah, it was not necessary for them to be roasted to death.

By Ira Stoll
The New York Times is marking the death of Archbishop Desmond Tutu with a new push to depict Israel as a racist state like apartheid-era South Africa.
The Times obituary of Tutu reports, “In 2010 he unsuccessfully urged a touring Cape Town opera company not to perform in Israel, invoking South Africa’s struggle against apartheid in criticizing Israel’s policy toward Palestinians. He said that the company’s production of “Porgy and Bess” should be postponed “until both Israeli and Palestinian opera lovers of the region have equal opportunity and unfettered access to attend performances.”

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
There are all types of people. Some see the positives in this world and others see the negatives. Taking a look at what is going on now, you can almost fall in with those who see the sky about to fall.
The president and his administration have proven to be totally inept. They can do nothing right. Inflation is raging and nobody is sure about the economy. Covid is far from gone and nothing anyone has tried has accomplished anything to stop it. Government mandates promoted by the administration and Democrat states have been held off by the courts, and even where they have been enforced, they show no signs of slowing the virus. The Democrats and media spread hysteria throughout the population and shutdowns begin again.

By Rafael Medoff 
It has often been said that if only the State of Israel had existed in the 1940s, its air force could have bombed Auschwitz, interrupting the gassing of countless innocents.
Well, now it does exist. And it turns out that it has been using its air force to interrupt a contemporary regime’s gassing of countless innocents.
The Washington Post has just revealed that two Israeli bombing raids inside Syria in 2020 and 2021, which previously had been shrouded in mystery, were in fact part of a covert campaign to stop “a nascent attempt by Syria to restart its production of deadly nerve agents.”

The following is from an op-ed in the New York Times by Bret Stephens:
Is it a good idea for Joe Biden to run for re-election in 2024? And, if he runs again and wins, would it be good for the United States to have a president who is 86 — the age Biden would be at the end of a second term?
I put these questions bluntly because they need to be discussed candidly, not just whispered constantly.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
Parshas Vayechi completes the Torah’s discussion of the founding of the world, and the first adherents of Yahadus and their families. Seder Bereishis contains many stories that can be understood on many levels. Gleaning from them lessons for how to conduct ourselves is the foundation of our belief. Through the Torah’s narrative, we have met Adam and Chava, Noach and his sons, and Avrohom, Yitzchok and Yaakov and their families. This week, the circle is closed, as the last of the avos grows old in exile, blesses his children with eternal brachos, passes away, and is brought for burial to the Me’oras Hamachpeilah in Chevron.