Fear or Distress? Jacob and Esau are about to meet again after a separation of twenty two years. It is a fraught encounter. Once, Esau had sworn to kill Jacob in revenge for what he saw as the theft of his blessing. Will he do so now – or has time healed the wound? Jacob […]
Encountering G-d It is one of the great visions of the Torah. Jacob, alone at night, fleeing from the wrath of Esau, lies down to rest, and sees not a nightmare of fear but an epiphany: He came to a certain place [vayifga bamakom] and stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking […]
Older and Younger Rachel, hitherto infertile, became pregnant. Suffering acute pain, “she went to inquire of the Lord.” [vatelekh lidrosh et Hashem] (Bereishith 25:22) The explanation she received was that she was carrying twins who were contending in her womb. They were destined to do so long into the future: Two nations are in your […]
Hopes and Fears The sedra of Chayei Sarah focuses on two episodes, both narrated at length and in intricate detail. Abraham buys a field with a cave as a burial place for Sarah, and he instructs his servant to find a wife for his son Isaac. Why these two events? The simple answer is because […]
Arguments for the Sake of Heaven God appeared to Abraham in Elonei Mamrei, as he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. The eighteenth chapter of Bereishith is structurally difficult to understand. It can be divided into three parts: 1. G-d appears to Abraham as he is sitting […]
What Do We Own? If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left. It was the first, but certainly not the last, quarrel over the land. Abraham and Lot have returned to Canaan after their brief exile to Egypt. Abraham “had become […]
Hero or Zero? Noah is one of the most tantalizing figures in the Torah, and nowhere is this more evident than in the first and last glimpses we catch of him in the sedra that bears his name. The opening is full of expectation: Noah was a righteous man, faultless in his generation. Noah walked […]
