For I Know The Thoughts That I Think Toward You[1] In our last portion, VeYigash, we witnessed the climax of Joseph’s saga – when Joseph “could not restrain” himself and revealed his identity to his brothers – a very happy ending to a very dramatic story. It seems that the story is over now, so […]
In our last portion, we saw Joseph overwhelmed by his love for Benjamin and crying in the inner room. We have to remember these tears of love that Joseph had to hold back. We have to remember them because right from the beginning of the next chapter we are again mystified. Literally a few lines […]
We continue our journey through this passionate Bible story: the story of Joseph and his brothers. We are in the Torah Portion Miketz, Genesis 41-44. These chapters are my absolute favorites in the book of Genesis, so I will definitely need lehitapek -– “to restrain myself” – in the same way, as we will see […]
Beware of Royal Apparel! The story of Joseph and his brothers forms the last part of the book of Genesis. This story begins in our new Torah Portion, Vayeshev. It opens with the word Vayeshev (hence the name of the Portion), usually translated as “settled”, or “dwelt”: “Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was […]
Our portion today, VeYishlah, covers two very important meetings in Jacob’s life. Traditionally, the encounter at Peniel is considered the most important event in Jacob’s life—and rightly so, it defined not only Jacob’s own name and destiny, but the name and destiny of the whole people! However, I would like to bring your attention to […]
Three Prayers You would remember that at the end of the last Portion, Toledot, Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-Aram to take a wife from there. This happened after the story of the “stolen blessing” – the blessing that Jacob received from Isaac while pretending to be Esau. In fact, Jacob was fleeing from the wrath […]
“And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham begot Isaac” (VaEile toledot Izhak) – this is the beginning of the new Torah Portion, Toledot. These very words, VaEile toledot, occur eleven times in the book of Genesis, serving as a heading for its major divisions and “making descent a keystone of biblical history”[1]. […]
My dear readers, we continue our “lost in translation” journey through the Torah Portions. At some point, we will definitely go back to the Book of Acts and continue the discussion that we started before the High Holidays, but for now, we will follow the Torah Portions cycle. Every year when a new cycle begins […]
I wrote already on these pages that Torah Portion VaYerah presented a special interest to Christians: its structure is similar to the structure of the gospels, especially the Gospel of Luke. This portion begins with the Divine Annunciation of the miraculous birth of the son of the promise, and ends with Aqedat Itzhak, the […]
Lech Lecha is one of the most amazing portions in the whole Torah, and it’s definitely one of my favorites. One can speak endlessly about these chapters, in fact, I wrote an entire book on them[1], but since this year’s comments on Parashot Shavua go under the title “Lost in translation” that’s what we will […]
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