A Pause and a Post

I have just a few minutes till my next meetings with students begin and I need a pause and also to gather my thoughts, so I'll combine the two. I breathe through blogging, as I love to do and at the same time think a bit and metaphorically punch the lockers as I gear up for one guidance period followed by four straight periods of teaching taking us to 5:10.

So far in the first days of Chumash we've discussed introductory issues. How many sections are there to the book? We knocked it down to three super big topics, two general themes, and one theme that connects them all (Yetziat Mitzrayim, Matan Torah, and The Mishkan/Shlach et Ami VeYa'avduni? Connecting to G-d). The Ramban seems to say that the theme of Shmot is Galut and Ge'ulah (which one could argue translates into connecting to G-d). There is an implied question which the Ramban confronts; if the theme is ge'ulah then why is it that the sefer concludes with the Jews still in exile. He redefines redemption as reaching the high spiritual level of the Avot, even if the Jews are not on their own land, so this book does end with redemption as when the Mishkan was constructed the Jews achieved a high spiritual level. (There is what to consider here because the Ramban is so into the holiness of Israel, in other places making extreme statements against the level of those who practice Judaism outside of Israel. Here, however he says that one can be living in a realm of redemption outside of Israel. I didn't raise this in class, and don't think I will.) We also discussed the various numbers given for how long the Jews were in Egypt and how to reconcile the discrepancies. There's a bit more introduction to do - perhaps, and yet I'm itching to enter the book itself...