Sefer Yetziyat Mitzrayim – the Book of the Exodus from Egypt – begins with the listing of the names of Jacob and his progeny, seventy of them, who were refugees from the oppression. How can we not throw up our hands in horror as we ...
Yehuda HaNasi: With Yehoshua ben Chananyah, you smuggled your teacher, Yochanan ben Zakkai, out of a besieged Jerusalem in a coffin. He proceeded to create the yeshivah at Yavneh and the rabbis who would defy Rome. You helped to save the ...
At the core of Parashat Vayechi are Jacob’s dying blessings for his sons. Actually the word ‘blessings’ here is a misnomer, or at the very least a deep irony, as most of Jacob’s words contain some extremely blunt feedback. Jacob...
