PARSHA POSTS: VAYESHEV

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Jan 13, 2025, 8:28 AM

Family Conflict through the Mediator’s Lens: A Wrap Up

Jacob & Family courtesy BibleFunforKids

Over the last three weeks, the weekly Parshahs have taken us through the story of Joseph and the relationship he has had with his family. The Torah portions of Vayeshev, Miketz, and Vayechi provide profound insights into family dynamics...

Jonathan Weinkle

Jan 1, 2025, 10:00 PM

Rude Awakenings

Most of us don’t dream like Joseph – we dream like Pharaoh. Instead of technicolor dreams of glory, our sleep is disturbed by the possibility of what comes after the glory, when the good luck runs out. Pharaoh doesn’t just...

Dec 27, 2024, 10:36 AM

My Personal Parsha

It's been 2 ½ years since arriving in Israel, and 6 months since becoming an Israeli citizen. During the last couple months, I have struggled with internal malaise – a sense of anchorlessness, an identity crisis of sorts --...

David Seidenberg

Dec 24, 2024, 10:16 PM

The Menorah, Part 3: Rabbis vs. Maccabees, Light vs. Fire

collage by author using public domain images

The traditional menorah, or Chanukiyah in modern Hebrew, has eight branches in a line (plus one shamash that is not in that line). The biblical and ecological reasons for this are important and discussed in Part 2, and they...

Dec 24, 2024, 1:20 PM

The festival of judicial independence

Who rules on whether the oil is pure? The rabbinic version of Hanukkah we follow today says it's not the priest-kings, it's the court.

Dec 23, 2024, 5:57 PM

Hanukkah Clothes and Creating Culture of Compassion – Parashat Vayeishev – 12/21

Our wonderful Director of Congregational Learning, Me’ir Sherer, has set the pace for Emunah fashion for almost a decade. Almost every day, he comes in with a different shirt, just like David Rose from one of the sweetest and, I...

Dec 23, 2024, 4:53 PM

Joseph, Dreams, and Prophecy- Vayeishev 5785

When I was a senior in high school, I took a year-long course on psychology as an elective. It was a very interesting class, which even got me wondering for a little bit if I should major in psychology...

Andy Blumenthal

Dec 22, 2024, 6:54 AM

If You Can’t Beat Them, Blame Them

Yesterday, a radical Islamist terrorist from Saudi Arabia plowed his car through a German Christmas market, killing five people and wounding more than 200. Yet, the reaction on social media was sickeningly to call him "a diehard Zionist who...

Dec 20, 2024, 5:48 PM

What is the theme of the stories of Genesis? (Vayeshev)

One of the most fundamental questions about the Torah turns out to be one of the hardest to answer. What, from God’s calling to Abraham in Genesis 12 to the death of Joseph in Genesis 50, is the basic religious principle being...

William Hamilton

Dec 20, 2024, 5:33 PM

Doing Wonders for Your Spirit

“When my reserve unit didn’t call me up for duty, I sank into a deep depression” writes Yair, the co-editor of One Day in October about the emptiness and fear he felt back in October of 2023. “For long...

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