Parashat Vayetze begins with the story of ... A midrash on this week’s Torah portion interprets the well-known verse from Psalms: “A song of ascents: I lift my eyes to the mountains (he ...

prophetically were aware of the future happenings and travails of their descendants [the Possuk states as much explicitly by the “Treaty between the Parts”, recounted at the end of Parshat ...

How will we get through the next four years? This week’s Torah portion, Vayetzei, offers some answers. Though there are multiple views within the Jewish community, many people I know are deeply ...

Jacob has a dream—a vision of a ladder reaching up to the heavens. Upon awakening, he is deeply moved by the realization that God is present in this place. He concludes his reflections with the ...

Echoes of that story resonate in this Torah portion as Isaac, Rebecca, Esau, and Jacob engage in a painful choreography that ends in tragedy. There are two sons and, at least in the beginning ...

This week’s Parshah, Parshat Toldot, primarily highlights the story of Yitzchak and his initial selection of Esav to receive the Berachot, only for Rivkah to initiate the process whereby Yaakov ...

Everyone seems to be in a rush this week. Eliezer runs towards Rivka. Rivka hurries to serve Eliezer, and proceeds to run to and from to the camels. This is following in the footsteps of Avraham ...

We see Hagar three times in the Torah, in Genesis 16, Genesis 22, and, according to the Midrash, in our Torah portion, Chayyei Sarah, but under the name Keturah. We met Hagar as the maidservant of ...

Isaac was not the weakest link. Abraham the founder had many potential successors. There was his first-born son Ishmael, by Sarah’s maidservant Hagar. After Sara’s death Abraham fathered six ...