John Dewey once said, “Education is not preparation for life, it is life itself”. The Torah is not just a book of laws educating us about what to do in life; Torah is life itself. When reading and studying the gamut of Torah (Bible, Midrash, Jewish philosophy and Talmud), an axiom must be that the Torah has the depth and breadth to teach life lessons beyond what is written in black and white. We can learn so much from the way verses were written and the examples given by our Sages.

In this week’s Parsha, the Torah tells us of the climax of the saga of the children of Israel in Egypt. The final plague is inflicted on Pharaoh and his nation, and Am Yisrael receives its very first commandment and the Jewish calendar. In addition, the journey to the Promised Land begins.

One of the most disheartening parts of Judaism are the decrees and prohibition from our Rabbinic Sages. The difficulty in them is that many times these “fences” are very demanding and are meant to prevent even the slightest  chance of sin. Many modern thinkers feel these farfetched situations with which those decrees are based on seem ridiculous. These decrees encompass a great part of our lives and sometimes these additional decrees to basic commandments can be more difficult than the commandments themselves.

How can we as human beings truly help one another? Rav Soloveichik explains that in order to achieve an act of true giving, one must understand what the receiver is missing. He must consciously feel and identify with the person he is giving to. Rav Soloveichik gives a very practical example of this. When a person wants to comfort a mourner, he must picture himself beforehand in the mourner’s situation.

Have you ever dreamed of being a leader? Whether it be the captain of the sports team or the C.E.O of a company, being a leader rises us up to success. At the same time, do we know what being a leader really entails? Are we ready to take on hardships and responsibility to achieve our goals? In order to be a true leader, one must serve as the pillar, supporting and building every step of the way.