Exodus · Weekly Torah portion
Parashat Shemotשְׁמוֹת
Torah reading
Exodus 1:1-6:1
Haftarah
Isaiah 27:6-28:13, 29:22-23
Sephardic: Jeremiah 1:1-2:3
What happens in Shemot
A new Pharaoh 'who did not know Joseph' enslaves the Israelites and orders every baby boy drowned. Two midwives, Shifra and Puah, refuse. A Levite mother sets her son afloat in a basket; Pharaoh's own daughter draws him from the Nile and names him Moses. Raised in the palace, Moses strikes down a taskmaster beating a slave and flees to Midian. At a bush that burns without being consumed, God calls him to demand of Pharaoh: 'Let My people go.' Moses resists — 'Who am I?' — but goes.
Big themes
- Standing up to injustice
- Answering the call while unready
- Quiet courage
If this is your bar or bat mitzvah portion
Everyone who defies Pharaoh in Shemot — the midwives, Moses's mother, Pharaoh's own daughter — takes a personal risk for someone powerless. And Moses's first response to God's call is 'Who am I?' Feeling unready is apparently no disqualification for doing great things.
Learning to chant Shemot?
Ready 13 builds a verse-by-verse practice plan for this exact portion — chanted reference audio, karaoke highlighting, trope games, and a countdown that keeps the big day on track.
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