Weekly Torah Portion

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Sharona Margolin Halickman

Dec 3, 2024, 6:28 PM

Did Yaakov recite Tehilim?

In Parshat Vayetze, Breisheet 31:38-40, Yaakov explains to Lavan: These 20 years that I was with you, your ewes and she-goats never miscarried, and I did not eat any rams of your flocks. I never brought you a mutilated animal....

Dec 1, 2024, 5:55 PM

Hearts and Livers: The Conflict of Yaakov and Esav Over Survival and Meaning

The modern family can relate to the story of Yaakov and Esav more than is probably comfortable to admit. How two siblings can be so different and how two parents can be so at odds is beyond perplexing. From...

Nov 29, 2024, 3:55 PM

Toldot: Learning from Everyone

Artwork by Michoel Muchnik

This week’s parasha is centred around a turning point in Tanach. Esav and Ya’akov are born, the Torah specifically telling us how Ya’akov enters this world holding onto his brother’s ankle, desperate to be the one who enters the...

Nov 29, 2024, 3:52 PM

Internal strength

Alvord Lake Bridge, Golden Gate Park - San Francisco, California, USA, made of reinforced concrete. (CCO, Daderot/ Wikimedia Commons)

Like reinforced concrete, law and justice are things we take for granted – that is, until things go terribly wrong (Toledot)

Nov 29, 2024, 1:43 PM

The Tragedy of Good Intentions (Toldot, Covenant & Conversation)

It is the deep, reverberating question at the heart of Toldot. Why did Rebecca tell Jacob to deceive Isaac and take Esau’s blessing? Her instruction is brisk and peremptory: Now, my son, listen carefully and do what I tell you:...

Ben-Tzion Spitz

Nov 28, 2024, 5:14 PM

Famine-proof (Toldot)

Unbelief starves the soul; faith finds food in famine. -Richard Cecil It was certainly true that in biblical times drought and famine led directly to starvation and death. Abraham’s strategy, in the time of drought, was to leave the dry...

Nov 28, 2024, 12:14 PM

‘Roller Coasters and Merry-Go-Rounds’ Parashat Toledot 5785

It is probably the greatest example of raw pathos in the entire Torah. Jacob, at the behest of his mother, Rebecca, disguises himself as his brother, Esau, in order to fraudulently appropriate Esau’s blessing from their father, Isaac. As...

Dana Greitzer Gotlieb

Nov 28, 2024, 10:15 AM

What’s Her Story? Sarah’s Life

Photo taken by Dana Greitzer Gotlieb. Trona, CA, 2023.

Our Torah portion, Chayei Sarah—חַיֵּי שָׂרָה—The Life of Sarah, begins with an unexpected twist: not with her life, but with an announcement of her death: וַיִּהְיוּ֙ חַיֵּ֣י שָׂרָ֔ה מֵאָ֥ה שָׁנָ֛ה וְעֶשְׂרִ֥ים שָׁנָ֖ה וְשֶׁ֣בַע שָׁנִ֑ים שְׁנֵ֖י חַיֵּ֥י שָׂרָֽה׃ |וַתָּ֣מת שָׂרָ֗ה… וַיָּבֹא֙...

Jonathan Frankel

Nov 27, 2024, 11:50 PM

Identical Twins: Yaacov and Esav

The tale of the quarreling brothers Yaacov and Esav is one of extreme differences. Esav is wild and hairy, Yaacov is simple and fair. Obviously the text implies that these twin brothers were not identical however careful reading coupled...

Sharona Margolin Halickman

Nov 27, 2024, 12:04 AM

What was so bad about Esav’s wives?

In Parhsat Toldot, Breisheet 26:34-35 we read about Esav’s wives: Eisav was 40 years old when he married Yehudit, the daughter of Be’eri, the Hiti, and Bosmat, the daughter of Eilon, the Hiti. They were a source of “morat ruach”...

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