The final words of last week’s Torah portion tell us of the death of Avram’s father. It is in this moment of grief and mourning that our parshah this week begins with the words, “Vayomer Adonai el Avram: Lech L’cha.” God spoke to Avram and said “Lech l’cha.” Not...
In this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Vay’chi, Jacob prepares to die. He asks Joseph to bring him his two sons so that he can bless them as his own. Jacob blessed these two grandsons and added the words, “With you, Israel will bless, saying, ‘May G-d make you like...
In this week’s Torah portion, Jacob wrestles with G-d and in the end, G-d blesses him saying, “Your name shall no more be Jacob, but Yisrael.” Yisrael means one who struggles with G-d and, as I wrote in a previous D’var Torah, it is our struggle with and engagement...
In Genesis 25:29, we read: “One day, when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the hunting field. He was famished, and he said to Jacob, ‘I’m famished: let me gulp some of that red stuff!... Jacob said, ‘Sell me your birthright here and now.’ And Esau said,...
In this week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, our matriarch, Sarah dies. “…and Abraham proceeded to mourn for Sarah and to bewail her. I imagine that the entire community must have mourned for Sarah, yet that mourning would have been different in color and weight than...
With parshat Vay’chi, we reach the final parsha of the book of Genesis. An ailing Jacob prepares to offer a final blessing to his children. He tells Joseph that Joseph’s own sons, Ephraim and Menasseh “shall be mine no less than Reuben and Simeon,” and Jacob...
G-d said to Avram, “Lech L’cha.” “Go forth. Go from your country, your kindred, your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” And from this moment, Avram’s journey truly begins. “Lech l’cha,” G-d says, a phrase that could be literally translated as “go to...
“Jacob left Beer-sheba, and set out for Haran. He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. He had a dream; a stairway...