Parashat Ha Shavua Commentaries

When Jacob gathers his sons to his deathbed, he opens with this exhortation: "Gather round, that I may tell you what will befall you in the aftertime of days" (49:1). At the conclusion of his speaking, the Torah tells us, "this is what their father spoke to them; he blessed them, according to what belonged to each as blessing, he blessed them" (49:28). Already, then, a discontinuity between the opening of Jacob's discourse and its conclusion should be apparent. What is forecast to be a forecast is, once concluded, summed up as something else entirely, a blessing. Read more...

Vayiggash is perhaps best translated as to "come-closer." The verb is most often used in the Torah to depict a lessening of physical distance between one party and another. But it can have a psychic component as well, signaling imminent rapport and rapprochement, or its opposite - the possibility of failure - and thusly all the heightened tension that comes with drawing too near. Read more...

The miracle that we celebrate on the first night of Hanukkah is unlike that of any of the other seven nights. In fact, it's hard to determine what exactly the miracle was at all. Read more...

Many of us have had Jacob moments, but luckily not a Jacob life. We've had to leave home in order to get on track. Sometimes home is not safe, or it's too safe to do the hard work of creating a life worth living. What is a life worth living? What is the hard work required to become who we were meant to or could be?  What specifically is the role of promises in how we develop our identities and our life narrative?  What is the role of family, friends, adversaries, and God in our defining how we want to live, and creating a legacy we want to leave? Read more...

It is a singular occurrence to find a husband and wife pray together in the Torah the way we find Yitzchak and Rivka praying together in our Torah portion: "Isaac entreated (va'ye'e'tar) with the Lord on behalf / in the presence (NO'CHACH) of his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord responded to his plea, and his wife Rebekah conceived" (Breishit/Genesis 25, 21). Read more...