​WE’RE IN PURIM territory now. Shabbos is the first of Adar and Parashas Shekalim. On a Pshat level that may not mean very much, but on a Sod level there is so much going on.

Chinuch is everything. Life is an educated guess, and the more educated you are, the less you have to guess what to do. It is certainly harder to get out of bed in the morning with any kind of bounce in your step if you are uncertain about the meaning of what you plan to do that day. The last thing a person wants to do is get to the end of life and question how they spent it.

DOES JUDAISM BELIEVE in reincarnation? Those who quote Saadia Gaon say no. But it is hard to imagine how, if he had a copy of the Zohar, which had yet to be published, because it speaks about gilgulim extensively at the beginning of Parashas Mishpatim.

WHY ARE YOU praying to Me? What kind of question was that? The Jewish people were helplessly trapped between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea with nowhere to run. What else was there to do at that point but pray?

WHAT DOES GOD really want from Creation? Not just from the Jewish people, but from the entire world? That gets answered in these parshios with certainty: