Va'eira

The Seventh Plague (1823 painting by John Martin)

Va'eira, Va'era, or Vaera (וָאֵרָא‎—Hebrew for "and I appeared," the first word that God speaks in the parashah, in Exodus 6:3) is the fourteenth weekly Torah portion (פָּרָשָׁה‎, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the second in the Book of Exodus. It constitutes Exodus 6:2–9:35. The parashah tells of the first seven Plagues of Egypt.

Jews read it the fourteenth Sabbath (Shabbat) after Simchat Torah, generally in January, or rarely, in late December.[1]

It is composed of 6,701 Hebrew letters, 1,748 Hebrew words, 121 verses, and 222 lines in a Torah Scroll, and is considered part of the Hebrew Bible.[2]

  1. ^ Fred Reiss, The Standard Guide to the Jewish and Civil Calendars: A Parallel Jewish and Civil Calendar from 1899 to 2050 with Parashiyyot and Haftarot and Candle-Lighting Times for Selected Cities (West Orange, New Jersey): Behrman House, 1986); "Parashat Vaera," Hebcal.
  2. ^ "Torah Stats for Shemoth". Aklah, Inc. Retrieved September 3, 2023.