Then a new king came to power in Egypt, who did not know Joseph. “Look,” he said to his people, “the nation of the Children of Israel has become too numerous and powerful for us. Come, we must outsmart him or he will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out,...

Many believe that Chanukah is about a military battle: the untrained, unprepared small band of Jews defeated the great Greek army, pushed them out of the Holy Temple, and celebrated by lighting the Menorah and eating latkes. Israel even has a whole Maccabiah Games, a...

We learn in this week's reading that when Yosef had prophetic dreams about ruling over his family, his brothers resented it. Thinking that he was a threat to them and the nation they were to build, they contemplated killing him. Reuven, though, convinced them to throw...

In our reading, Yaakov is informed that Esav is coming out to meet him with 400 men. Yaakov prepares to face tremendous losses—"And he said, if Esav comes upon one camp and strikes it, the remaining camp will be for a remnant" [32:9]. The Medrash say that Yaakov...

"And all the wells that the servants of his father had dug, during the days of Avraham, the Pelishtim had closed them up and filled them with dirt" [26:15]. Yitzchak wanted to use the wells his father's servants had made, but the Pelishtim had gone and filled them in....

Sometimes, the Torah strikes us as repetitive. We are forced to wonder why the Torah felt it necessary to tell us the same thing twice, and to look more deeply to determine what we learn from the retelling. Nowhere is this more striking than the story of Eliezer going...

The Torah tells us that after the birth of Yitzchak, “the child grew and was weaned, and Avraham made a great banquet on the day that Yitzchak was weaned” [Genesis 21:8]. Rashi explains that what made the banquet “great” was the presence of the great men of the...

In our parsha (reading), Hashem tells our forefather, “do not fear, Avram, I will shield you, your reward is very great” [15:1]. And Avram replies in the following verse, “Hashem, what will you give me, and I go childless…” [This was before Avraham and Sarah were...

A few days ago, someone wished me a happy holiday. Given that the upcoming holiday is Yom Kippur, the somber, serious, even frightening Day of Atonement, my first, unshared thought was that that wasn’t really the appropriate greeting for the occasion. But I thought...

When I was in college, there was a woman I knew who was Jewish, but who never participated in Jewish activities. She told me at one point that on Yom Kippur, her father would go into his study, close the door, and read, or whatever else it might be that he did. He...

"In compensation for your failure to [lit. that you did not] serve HaShem your G-d with joy and with happiness of heart, from an abundance of all.” [Deut. 28:47] There are terrible calamities prophesied in this week’s reading. The Torah tells us why these tragedies...

One of the most cited phrases in the Torah is found in the first sentences of this week’s reading: “justice, justice shall you pursue” [Deut. 16:20]. But this is not, despite what you may have read elsewhere, a license for each individual to elevate his or her own...