There is currently something of a trend in Israel. A small but growing number of Orthodox males, while otherwise remaining Orthodox, do not want to wear kippot. The reason for this is a sense that the kippah creates an unwanted and unnecessary division between Jews. Here we are, the thinking goes, all living in a Jewish state, serving together in the army, paying taxes, talking Hebrew, not going to work on Shabbat and celebrating the Jewish holidays, what need is there to announce my "superior" Jewishness, my extra measure of religiosity, with this little cap?

In this week's parsha, Mishpatim,the Torah repeats - with the wording somewhat changed - the admonition to rest on Shabbat which was in the Ten Commandments, which appeared in last week's parsha, Yitro:

"Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so  that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the slave born in your household, and the stranger as well, may be refreshed."

This week, in parshat Beshalach, the Israelites leave Egypt, and finally get rid of the Egyptians for good at the splitting of the Reed Sea. The scene is extraordinarily dramatic: the newly-freed slaves are in the desert, with Pharaoh's chariots closing in on them on one side, and the sea on the other. Miraculously, the sea splits, they walk through it, and it then closes in on the pursuing Egyptians, drowning them.

This week, in parshat Bo, the Jewish people leave Egypt. Besides the ten plagues, the last three of which occur in this week's portion, there is also a fairly long and involved process which much be gone through before the Jews can be free: the first Passover Seder. Moshe is commanded by God to tell the people to prepare for the big night by choosing sheep, and getting ready for a fairly complicated feast.

This week, we begin the book of Exodus. The Israelites are in Egypt, where they have been brutally enslaved. Moshe has emerged as a would-be savior, killing an Egyptian taskmaster, but then failing to break up a fight between two Israelites (a sure sign of a real Jewish leader). Because of his having killed the Egyptian, he is forced to flee the country, and takes refuge in the Land of Midian, where he marries, and herds sheep for his father-in-law.

This week the portion we read is Vayishlach, in which Yaakov returns to the Land of Canaan after twenty years of exile, an exile which was necessitated by his need to escape his brother Esav's murderous anger at having been cheated out of his birthright. Upon his return, the first thing Yaakov must do is face Esav, who is approaching Yaakov and his family with four hundred men. Yaakov takes the necessary steps - he defensively divides his family into two camps, he prays to God, and he sends a gift to Esav, in an attempt to placate him.

In this week's portion, Va'yetze, Yaakov, fleeing from his brother Esav, leaves home and goes to Charan, the ancestral home of Abraham. There he marries Rachel, whom he loves, but only after first being tricked into marrying her older sister Leah, whom he does not. Rachel, we are told, is barren, whereas God takes pity on Leah, and blesses with children.