It isnearly impossible to understand what the Torah is trying to teach us by simplyreading an English translation. There’s so much nuance and detail within theselection of each Hebrew word which include the intrinsic properties of the word chosen.While in English, a word has a meaning, which we can look up in the dictionary,in Hebrew, using Lashon HaKodesh, each word is a combination of the buildingblocks of creation made up of the Hebrew alphabet where even the letters chosenfor the words convey a message. 
 
AlthoughHashem is one, and never changing, our perception of G-d varies on our end, andalthough in English, we might see the translation of God as the Lord or the Creator,in Hebrew, the specific name conveys much more than a synonym for Hashem. 
 
Wesee this in the opening verse of this week’s portion where we translate to” andGod said, and he says to Moses I am God”. But without looking at the word theTorah uses denoting speech, and without looking at the word or the name usedfor G-d, we really miss so much. 
 
Untilthis point the Torah has told us that G-d spoke to Moses, I believe, 18 timesAnd each of those times it uses the verb, AMAR. 
 
Theopening verb use this portion is in the form DABER,. What’s the differencebetween these two forms? The former (AMAR) denotes, a soft language, while thelatter (DABER) denotes a harsh language. if one pays attention to thisthroughout the Torah, examining which form of the verb is used to denotespeech, one can then understand so much more of the context, And of the deepmessage being conveyed to us by the Torah. 
 
Evenmore than the differences in the verb, ‘to speak’, is what we learn based onthe name of God, which is used in the verse. The opening words denote a harshspeech and G-d is called ELOKIM. This is the name of God which denotes anaspect of judgment. Contrast this with the latter part of the first verse whichdenotes soft speech and uses the name HAVAYA, which denotes mercy. 
 
Thereare many more names that are used and things change when letters are added toone of the names, for example HAELOKIM modified ELOKIM in many ways.  
 
Thisclass explores the names, the numerical values of the names and the messagefrom the Torah to us in a single verse, which can help us at least on anintellectual level deal with many of the difficulties we face in life. We sayon an intellectual level because it is very difficult often on an emotionallevel to override emotions with intellect even though it’s probably somethingwe should try to do. 
 
Manylessons come to us through the fulfillment of the commandments, as ordered bythe Torah. We can always say that we are doing this, or we are fulfilling thatcommandment, because we were simply told to do so, but on a practical levelthere is tremendous value in trying to understand what lies below the commandto perform a specific action. Every action has a purpose that extends beyondthe commandment itself, often to inspire us, to teach us, and then to allow anaction below to cause a reaction above. We have to realize that God infusedwithin each of us a tremendous power; where our actions below impact the Cosmosabove. 
 
Wesee this also, in the stories that the Torah brings to us. Heaven forbid, weshould ever look at the Torah as a storybook, or a history book. These storiesalso have tremendous and deep underlying concepts and messages, and all of theactions that our forefathers did, which are described in these stories causereaction which we would feel many years later. This is part of the secret ofwhen the rabbis tell us that Ma’aseh Avot, Siman Labanim - the actions of theforefathers are a sign for their children. The most famous is Abraham going toEgypt because of the famine and arriving there with nothing, Sara is attacked andprotected and a short time later, Abraham and Sarah joined by Lot depart with tremendouswealth. In the same manner, his descendants will eventually leave Egypt withtremendous wealth, and just as Sara was protected, the women will be protectedeven during the difficult years of the Egyptian enslavement.  
 
Inthis class we see how the actions of Joseph Impacted the family hundreds ofyears later and how the stories we hear are so much deeper when we begin topeel away the layers. 
 
Wealso explore the five negative forces released into the world, which gave powerto the primordial snake, which are represented by the five final letters of theHebrew alphabet which we refer to as MANSAPACH. Negative forces represent theinitial failures from Adam to the age of the flood to the generation of the towerof Babel and, and the veil which led to the destruction of Sodom and finally culminatinginto the descent into the crucible of Egypt.  
 
Inother classes, we explore how each of the forefathers tried and mitigated someof the negative power of each of the letters. This was done by Abraham, Isaac,Jacob, and Joseph. The fifth remains to be corrected by, the Mashiach, may hecome speedily in our days.  
 
 
 

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