Parashat Mikeitz The festival of Chanukah is very popular. Many Jews identify with it, and many because they probably misunderstand it. They either think of it as celebration of political independence, or as a type of nationalistic holiday. Really, Chanukah is about a clash of cultures - Judaism and the Torah versus the Hellenistic Greeks. I have nothing against the current Greeks, we are talking about the ancient Hellenists who, for ...
Read MoreParshas Vayeishev Dreams feature prominently in our Parsha. The dreams of Joseph that precipitated his slavery in Egypt, the dreams of Pharaoh that needed interpretation, and the dreams of Joseph’s fellow prisoners, that eventually led to his release. The word for dream in Hebrew is “chalom”, spelled chet, lamed, mem. A great Chassidic thinker once pointed out that the letters of chalom can be rearranged to spell, lochem, fight, and mochel, ...
Read MoreParshas Vayishlach This weeks Parsha describes the dramatic encounter between Jacob and an angel, who, according to our Sages, represents the forces of anti-Semitism. The angel hurts Jacob in his sciatic nerve causing him to limp until the dawn, when Jacob is healed. The Torah goes on to say that for this reason that we don’t eat the “gid hanasheh,” the sciatic nerve of an animal. The Sefer Hachinuch, a 13thCentury ...
Read MoreParshas Vayeitzeh Our patriarch, Jacob, has a vision of a ladder connecting heaven and earth, with angels going up and down the ladder, and the Divine Presence standing at the top. This vision terrifies him, because according to our Sages, the “angels” going up and down are really representations of the various kingdoms and nations that have tried to destroy the Jewish people. Jacob then apparently makes a conditional contract with ...
Read MoreParshas Toldot With the recent horrific weather, Sandy and the Nor’easter, a number of people raised the issue of climate change caused by humans. What is the Jewish attitude towards the global warming? I think that the question of climate change is an empirical question and therefore Judaism doesn’t really have an opinion about it. In addition, I can’t give you my personal opinion because a. I am not a scientist ...
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