THE SITUATION IS becoming intolerable. When the Right loses the vote, they go back to the drawing table to figure out how to win it the next time.

THE SEFER IS called Shemos because it is the second word of the first parsha, “These are the names…” But there seems to be more to this than might be the case with the other four books of the Torah, since this week’s parsha begins with an education about God’s names.

The “temperature” drops significantly from the end of last week’s parsha to the beginning of this one. Last week ended with Yosef appeasing his brothers, and spending time with his grandchildren.

This is the last parsha in Bereishis (Chazak!), the first in which there is an overt reference to the end of days:

SOME TIME AGO during the first Persian Gulf War, a major American magazine interviewed Saddam Hussein. Curious, I read the article and was surprised to read a few things.