The blessing Jacob gives Judah concludes with the words: "his eyes will redden from wine, and his teeth white from milk." Rabbi Yochanan says homiletically (Kesubos 111b) that you can read it as "teeth whiter than milk" -- to give a smile to a friend is even greater...

The sons of Jacob find themselves before Egypt's second in command, unaware that it's really their brother Joseph. Falsely accused of espionage and of stealing from the royal palace, about to lose their father's beloved son Benjamin -- whom they swore to protect from...

We read this week that two years after Pharoah's wine steward and chief baker had their dreams, Pharoah had one of his own, and as a result, they rushed Joseph from jail. Obviously Pharoah needed Joseph, but the Torah tells us something deeper: that Joseph was only in...

Many of us certainly remember the bitter taste of medicine. Before artificial sweeteners and capsules, taking medicine was, well... a hard pill to swallow. Let's put ourselves in Joseph's shoes on his trip down to Egypt. After having lost his mother Rachel as a...

As our forefather Yaakov (Jacob) prepared to encounter his brother Esav again after 34 years, he did three things: sent presents, readied for war, and prayed. He balanced his prayers and trust in G-d with appropriate "worldly" efforts. He neither trusted in his own...

In our time, we've become accustomed to deceptive promises. The savvy consumer is advised to read advertisements between the lines, not to make the impulse decisions salespeople would have us make. Laws protect the consumer from blatantly false claims, but companies...