Illustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
Parashah Scavenger Hunt שְׁאֵלוֹת הַשָּׁבוּעַ
Welcome to Devash's Parashah Scavenger Hunt for Parashat Shemot!
Aliyah 1 (Shemot 1:1-1:17)
- What were the names of the storehouse cities that Pharaoh forced Benei Yisrael to build?
- What were the names of the two midwives?
Aliyah 2 (Shemot 1:18-2:10)
- For how long did the daughter of Levi hide her baby?
- Who gave Moshe his name?
Aliyah 3 (Shemot 2:11-2:25)
- What was the name of Moshe’s firstborn son?
- What did Moshe do right before he killed the Egyptian?
Aliyah 4 (Shemot 3:1-3:15)
- What was God’s sign that God was really with Moshe on his mission?
- How does God describe the land where Benei Yisrael will be taken?
Aliyah 5 (Shemot 3:16-4:17)
- How did Moshe turn the snake back into a staff?
- What should Moshe do if Benei Yisrael still don’t believe him after he turns his staff to a snake and gives his arm צָרַעַת (tzara’at, a spiritual skin disease)?
Aliyah 6 (Shemot 4:18-4:31)
- Who kissed whom in our parashah?
- When Moshe speaks to Pharaoh, how should he describe Benei Yisrael?
Aliyah 7 (Shemot 5:1-6:1)
- There is a special note in our parashah that only appears five times in the whole Torah. What is it?
- Moshe and Aharon ask Pharaoh to let Benei Yisrael journey in the desert for how many days?
Look anywhere in the parashah to find the answer to these questions!
- What was the name of Moshe’s father-in-law? (It isn’t so simple!)
- What word does Pharaoh use three times to insult Benei Yisrael?
- What word in our parashah links Moshe to Noah?
- How did Moshe and Tzipporah travel to מִצְרַיִם (Mitzrayim, Egypt)?
- Who in this parashah is described as God-fearing?
From the Haftarah
(Haftarah for Ashkenazim: Yeshayahu 27:6-28:13 and 29:22-23
Haftarah for Sefardim: Yirmeyahu 1:1-2:3)
- Haftarah for Ashkenazim: What will happen on the day that a great shofar is blown?
- Haftarah for Sefardim: Why does Yirmeyahu say that he shouldn’t become a prophet?
Scroll down to see the answers!
Answers:
Aliyah 1
- Pitom and Ra’amses (Shemot 1:11)
- Shifrah and Puah (1:15)
Aliyah 2
- 3 months (Shemot 2:2)
- Pharaoh’s daughter (2:10)
Aliyah 3
- Gershom (Shemot 2:22)
- He looked in both directions and saw no one there (2:12)
Aliyah 4
- When Benei Yisrael leave Mitzrayim, they will eventually worship God on the very mountain where God and Moshe were speaking (Shemot 3:12)
- A good and wide land, a land flowing with milk and honey (this second phrase appears 13 times in Tanakh, and this is the first!) (3:8)
Aliyah 5
- He grabbed its tail (Shemot 4:4)
- Take water from the river and pour it on the ground; it would turn to blood (4:9)
Aliyah 6
- Aharon kissed Moshe (Shemot 4:27)
- As God’s firstborn child (4:22)
Aliyah 7
- A merkha kefulah (Shemot 5:15)
- Three (5:3)
From anywhere in the parashah
- In our parashah, he is called Re’uel (2:18), Yitro (3:1), and Yeter (4:18)—it’s possible Yitro/Yeter is really a title, and his name was Re’uel
- נִרְפִּים—weak and lazy (Shemot 5:8, 5:17)
- תֵּבַת גֹּמֶא—A “little-teivah (ark or basket)” of reeds (Shemot 2:3)
- By donkey (back in Devash for Bereishit we saw a midrash suggesting that this was the same donkey from the Akeidah!) (4:20)
- The midwives (1:21)
- Haftarah for Ashkenazim: Those who have been lost in Ashur and Mitzrayim will be brought back to worship God in Yerushalayim (Yeshayahu 27:13)
- Haftarah for Sefardim: He doesn’t know how to speak, and he’s a child (Yirmeyahu 1:6)
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