Bereshit 12:1-17:27 In the last two parashot, the story was told to us of the beginning of creation, culminating in what seemed to be its crown, humanity made in the image of the Creator. Sadly, our tale continues with the tragic recounting of the epic descent of this beautiful, amazing and “tov meod” creation into […]
Bereshit 28:10–32:3 For this week’s d’var Torah, I would like to zero in on a couple words that are repeated in both the opening verses and last verses of our Parasha, framing, like book ends, its message to us: In my Chumash they are translated as “he encountered” and “the place”, in Hebrew: ”יפגע” & […]
Bereshit 44:18–47:27 Our Parasha opens up with Judah’s heartfelt request to the Prime Minister of Egypt also known, though not to him, as his brother Joseph. As quoted in my Chumash: “With Judah’s selfless offer of himself as a substitute for Benjamin, Joseph finally had irrefutable proof of his brothers’ new attitude, as exemplified by […]
Any mother can relate to the story of the Exodus when she gives birth. The difference though is that at the Exodus, a whole nation is birthed. In both cases, as the baby exits the womb, or as Israel exits Egypt, the water breaks and the drama is there with powerful birth pangs, pain, blood, […]
As I read the two parashot for this Shabbat, their names struck me as a fundamental key to their understanding: Nitzavim – You stand Vayeilech – And he went I am going to take a little bit of creative liberty here to extract the simple message I read into those names by turning them into […]
In last week’s parashat Etchanan, Moshe retold the story of how they received the 10 words on Mt Sinai. In this week’s parashat Eikev he continues his story. What struck me in how he tells it in both parashot is how many times he used a form of the word “לישמור: 14 times in Etchanan […]
Our story in this week’s parasha starts with a terrified Balak, king of Moav. Upon realizing what Israel had done to the Amorites, he summons Bilam, son of Beor, to come and curse them for him. He is told by G-d that he can only repeat the words as He, HaShem says them. Unable to […]