page_title: Shemot (parsha)
section_title: Modern
hierarchical_section_title: Shemot (parsha) / Further reading / Modern
caption_attribution_description: James Joyce, 1 photographic print, b&amp;w, cartes-de-visites, 9.2 x 6.1 on mount 10.5 x 6.5 cm.
context_page_description: Shemot, Shemoth, or Shemos is the thirteenth weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the first in the Book of Exodus. It constitutes Exodus 1:1–6:1. The parashah tells of the Israelites' affliction in Egypt, the hiding and rescuing of the infant Moses, Moses in Midian, the calling of Moses, circumcision on the way, meeting the elders, and Moses before Pharaoh.
  It is made up of 6,762 Hebrew letters, 1,763 Hebrew words, 124 verses, and 215 lines in a Torah Scroll. Jews read it the thirteenth Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in late December or January.
context_section_description: Isaac Abravanel. Commentary on the Torah. Italy, between 1492–1509. Reprinted in, e.g., Abarbanel: Selected Commentaries on the Torah: Volume 2: Shemos/Exodus. Translated and annotated by Israel Lazar, pages 23–84. Brooklyn: CreateSpace, 2015. ISBN 978-1508640219.
  Abraham Saba. Ẓeror ha-Mor (Bundle of Myrrh). Fez, Morocco, circa 1500. Reprinted in, e.g., Tzror Hamor: Torah Commentary by Rabbi Avraham Sabba. Translated and annotated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 3, pages 844–94. Jerusalem, Lambda Publishers, 2008. ISBN 978-965-524-013-9.
  Niccolò Machiavelli. The Prince, ch. 6. Florence, Italy, 1532.
  Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno. Commentary on the Torah. Venice, 1567. Reprinted in, e.g., Sforno: Commentary on the Torah. Translation and explanatory notes by Raphael Pelcovitz, pages 281–307. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1997. ISBN 0-89906-268-7.
  Moshe Alshich. Commentary on the Torah. Safed, circa 1593. Reprinted in, e.g., Moshe Alshich. Midrash of Rabbi Moshe Alshich on the Torah. Translated and annotated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 2, pages 336–74. New York, Lambda Publishers, 2000. ISBN 965-7108-13-6.
  Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz. Kli Yakar. Lublin, 1602. Reprinted in, e.g., Kli Yakar: Shemos. Translated by Elihu Levine, volume 1, pages 23–79. Southfield, Michigan: Targum Press/Feldheim Publishers, 2002. ISBN 1-56871-202-2.
  Saul ha-Levi Morteira. "The People's Envy: Sermon on Shemot." Amsterdam, circa 1622. In Marc Saperstein. Jewish Preaching, 1200–1800: An Anthology, pages 270–85. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. ISBN 0-300-04355-4.
  Avraham Yehoshua Heschel. Commentaries on the Torah. Cracow, Poland, mid 17th century. Compiled as Chanukat HaTorah. Edited by Chanoch Henoch Erzohn. Piotrkow, Poland, 1900. Reprinted in Avraham Yehoshua Heschel. Chanukas HaTorah: Mystical Insights of Rav Avraham Yehoshua Heschel on Chumash. Translated by Avraham Peretz Friedman, pages 117–24. Southfield, Michigan: Targum Press/Feldheim Publishers, 2004. ISBN 1-56871-303-7.
  Thomas Hobbes. Leviathan, 3:36, 37; 4:45. England, 1651. Reprint edited by C. B. Macpherson, pages 456, 460, 472, 671. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Classics, 1982. ISBN 0-14-043195-0.
  Moshe Chaim Luzzatto Mesillat Yesharim, chapter 2. Amsterdam, 1740. Reprinted in Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Just, page 31. Jerusalem: Feldheim, 1966. ISBN 0-87306-114-4.
  Chaim ibn Attar. Ohr ha-Chaim. Venice, 1742. Reprinted in Chayim ben Attar. Or Hachayim: Commentary on the Torah. Translated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 2, pages 441–99. Brooklyn: Lambda Publishers, 1999. ISBN 965-7108-12-8.
  Moses Mendelssohn. Sefer Netivot Hashalom (The “Bi’ur,” The Explanation). Berlin, 1780–1783. Reprinted in Moses Mendelssohn: Writings on Judaism, Christianity, and the Bible. Edited Michah Gottlieb, pages 216–19. Waltham, Massachusetts: Brandeis University Press, 2011. ISBN 978-1-58465-684-5.
  Nachman of Breslov. Teachings. Bratslav, Ukraine, before 1811. Reprinted in Rebbe Nachman's Torah: Breslov Insights into the Weekly Torah Reading: Exodus-Leviticus. Compiled by Chaim Kramer; edited by Y. Hall, pages 21–55. Jerusalem: Breslov Research Institute, 2011. ISBN 978-1-928822-53-0.
  George Eliot. Adam Bede, chapters 8, 12. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1859. Reprinted, e.g., edited by Carol A. Martin, pages 83, 113. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. (Dinah says: “when God makes his presence felt through us, we are like the burning bush: Moses never took any heed what sort of bush it was — he only saw the brightness of the Lord”; “Arthur Donnithorne was moving about in his dressing-room, seeing his well-looking British person reflected in the old-fashioned mirrors, and stared at, from a dingy olive-green piece of tapestry, by Pharaoh’s daughter and her maidens, who ought to have been minding the infant Moses.”).
  J.H. Ingraham. The Pillar of Fire: Or Israel in Bondage. New York: A. L. Burt, 1859. Reprinted Ann Arbor, Michigan: Scholarly Publishing Office, University of Michigan Library, 2006. ISBN 1-4255-6491-7.
  Samson Raphael Hirsch. The Pentateuch: Exodus. Translated by Isaac Levy, v
caption: Joyce
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