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Yaakov avinu’s (our forefather Jacob’s) midnight encounter with a mysterious angel: Who was this angel, what was his purpose, and by what name was he known? Yaakov overcomes the angel, and by doing so gains insight into all these questions. He also acquires for himself a new name, a new identity, and a new role to play in establishing the Divine presence here on this earth.
Vayishlach (Genesis 32:4-36:43)
Parashat Vayishlach is read on Shabbat:
Kislev 16, 5776/November 28, 2015
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Avraham saw his appointed meeting place with G-d as a distant and foreboding mountain, (Mount Moriah), and Yitzchak envisioned the Holy Temple to be a field, accessible and alive. But it was Yaakov who understood the Holy Temple to be a home, a nurturing, loving center in which G-d and all mankind can embrace.
Vayeitzei (Genesis 28:10-32:3)
Parashat Vayeitzei is read on Shabbat:
Kislev 9, 5776/November 21, 2015
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Yitzchak avinu (Isaac our patriarch) was a man of vision blinded by the light of G-d’s brilliant and hidden presence. He lived, he died, and he lived again to bless his son Yaakov, ‘ish tam,’ the perfectible man, with the task of bringing G-d’s light into the world for all to perceive.
Toldot (Genesis 25:19-28:9)
Parashat Toldot is read on Shabbat:
Kislev 2, 5776/November 14, 2015
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The purchase of the Machpelah cave by Avraham is the first of three incontestable acquisitions of the land of Israel that the holy Torah testifies to. The others are Kever Yosef, the tomb of Yosef, built upon land purchased by our patriarch Yaakov, and the threshing floor of Arvona, purchased by King David, upon which was built the Holy Temple. It is these three places precisely that our enemies currently seek to steal from Israel, using lies and deceptions, knowing full well that these three places are the three pillars upon which the world stands and the three foundation stones upon which Israel’s settlement of the land rests firmly and eternally.
Chayei Sara (Genesis 18:1 – 22:24)
Parashat Chayei Sara is read on Shabbat:
MarCheshvan 25, 5776/November 71, 2015
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Believing is seeing: seeing G-d’s presence in the world, in sickness and in health, (the opening verses of Vayera), in the good and the bad, (the destruction of Sodom), and even when G-d seems to place an impossible task before us, (the binding of Yitzchak). Avraham’s open-eyed faith in G-d led him to Mount Moriah, the place of the future Holy Temple, the place Avraham named “‘HaShem will see,’ as it is said to this day: On the mountain, ‘HaShem will be seen.'” (Genesis 22:14)
Lech Lecha (Genesis 18:1 – 22:24)
Parashat Vayera is read on Shabbat:
MarCheshvan 18, 5776/October 31, 2015
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Avraham wasn’t just the biological ancestor of the nation of Israel. He wasn’t merely a migrant seeking a new land. And his name wasn’t simply chosen out of a hat by G-d to receive the commandment of lech lecha – “go for yourself” – on a journey. Avraham was the world’s first and greatest iconoclast and revolutionary, completely upending the way things were and introducing a new, and an ever new and ever renewing way of understanding and living life with the intimate knowledge of and personal acquaintance with the One G-d.
Avraham sought G-d, and G-d took him in: into the land, into G-d’s covenant, and into G-d’s heart.
Lech Lecha (Genesis 12:1-17:27)
Parashat Lech Lecha is read on Shabbat:
MarCheshvan 11, 5776/October 24, 2015
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A generation so evil, so corrupt, decadent, violent, so self centered that G-d, Who created and loved their forefather Adam, could not suffer their depravity and swore their utter destruction. This is the generation of the flood, the generation of Noach.
Fast forward five thousand years to the present and you will witness a generation every bit as iniquitous as that of Noach. Is man preparing his own extinction? Where is today’s ark that will rescue the righteous?
Noach (Genesis 6:9-11:32)
Parashat Noach is read on Shabbat:
MarCheshvan 4, 5776/October 17, 2015
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