In addition to the Bar Mitzva, there are other celebrations today. Two longtime members of the community will be getting married soon. One was the Kohen this morning (Yoel Mlynash), who is getting married in a month. The other (Joseph Borison) was supposed to be the Levi, but he was under the weather this morning so his father took the Aliya. That wedding is in two weeks. Both of these young men will...Read more...
The story of Yosef and his brothers is the longest narrative in the Torah. Spanning three Parashiot, it is the only story with distinct character development. At one level, it seems to be a power struggle, like in a Netflix series. There’s a reason why the Chumash operates on that level but we have to remember that that is not the only level on which it operates. It is not a domestic argument but a clash of...Read more...
Decades ago, I started to speak on this Parasha about the subject of domestic abuse. That began in response to a call for such Derashot in order to raise awareness about the issue in the Jewish community. There was a widespread myth that Jews were immune to this type of behavior. R’ Dr. Avraham Twersky, ztz’l, published a short but powerful book at the time on the subject. He called it, The Shame Borne in...Read more...
There are no paragraph breaks in the Parasha. It’s one long story of Yaakov leaving and then returning. He journeys out on orders from his parents and then, 148 verses later, comes back home. There are many episodes within this long story. Normally, I would concentrate on one of these episodes -- on the angels on the ladder, on the birth of the children, on the confrontation with Lavan. But sometimes...Read more...
