by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 22, 2021 | Vayeishev
Clothes frequently play an important role in the Biblical narrative, but perhaps never more so as in the story of Joseph and his brothers. Described simply as a ketonet pasim, or “striped coat” (Genesis 37:3), Joseph’s coat was a visible sign of Jacob’s love of...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 19, 2021 | Hebrew Language, Vayishlach
Benjamin was Jacob’s only son born in the holy land, coincidentally right after Jacob’s name was changed to Israel. Rachel named her second son with her dying breath ‘Ben-oni’ (בֶּן־אוֹנִי). The Sages explain the name as meaning ‘son of my suffering’ or,...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 16, 2021 | Covenant, Messiah, Purity, Redemption, Vayishlach
The city of Shechem is mentioned as one of the first places Abraham passed through when he arrived in Canaan (Genesis 12:5). Later in the Bible, Dina, the daughter of Leah and Jacob, was raped by Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, chief of the country. After the...
by Shira Schechter (Moderator) | f 28, 2016 | Covenant, Justice, Revelation and Prophecy, Vayigash
The first Israeli to win a Nobel Prize offered a sweeping account of the wanderings of the Jewish people throughout exile in his banquet speech. Dressed in tails and a black tie with a giant black kippah on his head in 1966 in Stockholm, writer Shai Agnon began his...
by Rabbi Tuly Weisz | f 25, 2015 | Israel, Vayechi
In this week’s portion, we finish the book of Genesis with the conclusion of the story of Joseph and his brothers– the brothers and Jacob are all in Egypt, Jacob blesses his children before his death, and the book closes with the death of Joseph. Before his death and...
