Because of the way the Jewish calendar is built, and the Torah readings are laid out, our reading this week is almost always read on Chanukah—in 17 out of the 19-year cycle. We read this portion, about the redemption of Yosef from prison, during the holiday, and in...

In our reading this week, Yosef (Joseph) refuses the advances of his master's wife, and is thrown into jail. He was entirely innocent, and she had lied about what transpired. He would have been fully justified to wallow in his own sorrow, dealing with no one. Instead,...

One of the advantages of writing and publishing Divrei Torah online is that it's very easy to go back and look at one's own previous work, whether to get inspiration or even to share again a Dvar Torah that today's audience may not have seen. This week, I found an...

In this week’s parsha, Avraham went to Abimelech, King of Gerar, to complain about a well of water that Avraham's servants dug to provide water for his people and flocks, but which Abimelech’s servants had stolen. Instead of simply apologizing and taking...

Rabbi Eliyahu Kramer, known as the Vilna Gaon (the genius of Vilna), taught that the entire Torah is contained within its first book, Bereishis ("In the Beginning"), that Bereishis is contained in its first parsha (portion), this week’s reading, that the entire...

In this week's reading, Moshe announces to the people of Israel that he can no longer lead them. “He said to them, ‘I am 120 years old today; I can no longer come and go, and Hashem said to me, “you shall not cross the Jordan River”’” [31:2]. Lest they think they are...