There has been massive debate in Anglo Jewry in the past few weeks as to whether we should take a unified stance in our support of the state of Israel or whether we should openly air our differences. It’s been a noisy debate, a shrill debate, but it’s the wrong debate, and it is [...]
From Vayeshev to the end of the book of Bereishit we read the story of Joseph and his brothers. From the very beginning we are plunged into a drama of sibling rivalry that seems destined to end in tragedy. All the elements are there. There is favouritism. Jacob loved Joseph more than his other [...]
By any standards it was a shocking episode. Jacob had settled on the outskirts of the town of Shekhem, ruled by Hamor. Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, goes out to see the town. Shekhem, Hamor’s son, sees her, abducts and rapes her, and then falls in love with her and wants to marry her. He begs [...]
What kind of man was Jacob? This is the question that cries out to us in episode after episode of his life. The first time we hear a description of him he is called ish tam: a simple, quiet, plain, straightforward man. But that is exactly what he seems not to be. We see him taking [...]
Even before they were born, Jacob and Esau struggled in the womb. They were destined, it seems, to be eternal adversaries. Not only were they were different in character and appearance. They also held different places in their parents’ affections: The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the [...]