The Third Commandment states that we cannot take God's name in vain. This means that we cannot commit a sin in God's name. That we can do the right thing for the wrong reason but never the wrong thing for the right reason.

The Second Commandment is against idolatry. This does not just mean worshiping statues but ideology. We have to be careful not to allow our politics, or even our religious practice to make us lose site of the real goal. The Torah was given to make us better people.

Jethro, Moses's father-in-law, arrives and sizes up the situation. He sees that Moses has taken a lot on himself. He gives some constructive criticism for leadership. Moses realizes that this is all meant for the good and accepts it.

The week's portion ends with the attack of Amalek. Amalek has no reason to attack the Jews. Just pure hatred. And they attack the weakest in society. That is why we have to defeat Amalek whenever they raise their hand against us.

The final act of Moses in Egypt was to retrieve Joseph's bones. This is because we do not leave anyone behind and we do not forget anyone. We take care of all in our nation.

Why did Pharaoh assume that the Jews would return after their festival? That is because he misunderstood that when Moses said that the Jews had to go out to serve God that it was about learning how to live, not just prayer. This is the major innovation of the Bible. Religion is not just for Synagogue but about life.

The story of the crossing the Sea of Reeds (Red Sea) is the story of the Jewish people. We have to realize that in order to succeed we have to try. If we do not try, we will never succeed.

More important than God taking the Jews out of Egypt is why. And that the next generation know this. If they will not be taught, then they will make up reasons that have nothing to do with the story.

The entire social structure of Egypt was built on lies. What the plagues did was to strip away all the lies. Egypt was destroyed. The Jews were building on the truth of the Torah.

The Pascal sacrifice in Egypt was to teach the Jews that they were no longer under Egyptian rule, just as it was to teach the Egyptians that their entire society was based on a lie.