RJ Blog

This Shabbat, we conclude the Book of Genesis with Parashat Va-y’chi. Whenever we finish reading a book, even a book of Torah, it is important to reflect on where we have been, what we have covered since the beginning of the book. Over the past twelve weeks, we have made our way through Genesis, beginning with Creation and the mythological stories that attempt to explain how the world as we know it came to be. Then, we began the story of our people, with God’s call to Abram to leave his home and go to a land that God would [...]

Are there any more moving words in the entire Torah than the question Joseph asks immediately upon revealing his identity to his brothers: “Is my father [really] alive?” (Genesis 45:3). After many years of denying his identity, hiding his identity, and trying to forget his past, he cannot contain himself any longer. He clears the room of everyone except his brothers. “He gave voice to a loud wail, and the Egyptians heard—Pharaoh’s palace heard!” (45:2). At first glance, it might seem that Joseph asks a rhetorical question. Hadn’t his brothers spoken of his father all along? But upon further reflection [...]

Elie Wiesel has written, “In Jewish history, a name has its own history and its own memory. It connects beings with their origins. To retrace its path is then to embark on an adventure in which the destiny of a single word becomes one with that of a community; it is to undertake a passionate and enriching quest for all those who may live in your name.”1 From the story of the Creation through the rest of Genesis, the giving of names has been a significant part of the biblical narrative. After creating the wild animals and birds, God “brought [...]

It is said that clothes make the man. But in this week’s portion, Vayeishev, they have a great deal to do with the unmaking of Joseph. Two garments, the coat of many colors and the undistinguished garment Potiphar’s wife strips off of him, end up contributing to his trials, each being a catalyst for his descent to Egypt and to prison, respectively. The first garment that gets Joseph into trouble is the coat of many colors, which his father made for him. The text says, “When his brothers saw that he was the one their father loved, more than any [...]

“Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get ready to rumble! “In this corner, returning after a long absence in Haran, where he is rumored to have fathered eleven sons and one daughter with four different women, considered by some a saint and by others a heel, is the one, the only, Jacob, son of Isaac and Rebekah. “And in the other corner, the most mysterious being ever to set foot in a wrestling ring: Is he a man? An angel? God? Nobody knows.” That is how the unusual encounter that highlights the beginning of this week’s Torah portion might be described if [...]

As Parashat Vayeitzei begins Jacob is fleeing from his home in Beersheba. He’s afraid his brother, Esau, will make good on his threat to kill Jacob (Genesis 27:41), because Jacob (with Rebecca’s guidance) tricked their father, Isaac into giving the blessing for the firstborn to Jacob. As the sun sets, he stops for the evening and lies down to sleep. He dreams of a ladder with its base on the ground, its top in heaven, and angels of God going up and coming down the ladder. And, for the first time in Jacob’s life, God appears to him, and says, [...]

This week’s Torah portion begins with the phrase, V’eileh toldot Yitzchak ben Avraham, “This is the line of Isaac son of Abraham” (Genesis 25:19), indicating that the text is now going to focus on Isaac, the second of the Patriarchs of our tradition. And, indeed, he figures prominently in the stories of this portion. However, he still seems to play a subordinate role to his father, Abraham, and his son, Jacob. In the stories of two of the major incidents of his life, the Akeidah (Genesis 22) and the blessing of his sons (Genesis 27) he is not even the [...]

Do you remember the first time you laid eyes on your beloved? Do you recall your feelings the moment you saw the love of your life? The Torah offers us a rare glimpse of such an encounter toward the end of this week’s portion when Rebekah, after the long journey from her home in Aram-naharaim, lays eyes on Isaac. He was out in the “evening to stroll in the field” (Genesis 24:63) when he sees a caravan of camels approaching. Isaac, who apparently at this point does not recognize that this caravan is Abraham’s servant (possibly Eliezer) returning from his [...]

While most readers of the Torah consider Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac as his most troubling deed, his treatment of his firstborn son, Ishmael and Ishmael’s mother, Hagar, is also deeply disturbing. How can a father send his child away—to almost certain death—in the wilderness? Chapter 21 of Genesis begins auspiciously: we learn that Sarah becomes pregnant and bears a long-awaited child to Abraham. Abraham and Sarah celebrate the birth of Isaac by circumcising him at eight days in fulfillment of God’s command, laughing at the miracle of his birth at their old age, and holding a great [...]

Dear Mom and Dad, By the time you read this letter, Sarai and I, and our nephew Lot, will be well on our way to the land of Canaan. I wanted to say goodbye to you personally, but couldn’t figure out how to tell you we were leaving and not coming back. I love you dearly and would never do anything to hurt you. Why are we leaving? The short answer is that God told me to leave. I know that may sound strange to you, but for some time now I have had a strong feeling that I didn’t [...]

co-written by Barbara Binder Kadden Words are powerful. In Genesis, chapter one, God creates through words: “God said, ‘Let there be light!’–and there was light … God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters,’… God now said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image,’ ” (Genesis 1:3, 6, 26). In chapter three, the serpent’s words, “Did God really say: ‘You may not eat of any tree of the garden’?” (3:1) led to Adam and Eve’s eating the forbidden fruit and expulsion from the Garden of Eden. But sometimes it is the lack of words [...]