Biblical Events

The Destruction of Shechem, The War against the Seven Kings

Jacob Leaves Laban, Laban Instigates Esau to Make War on His Brother, Jacob’s Strategy, Jacob Wrestles with an Angel, Jacob’s Reconciliation with Esau, Jacob’s Arrival in Canaan, Rachel’s Death

Why did Simeon and Levi kill the people of Shechem? Were their actions morally justified? Morally imperative? And why do they serve as the prototype for the law of bar mitzvah, the Jewish boy’s attainment of maturity and responsibility?

The classical interpretation is that Leah and Dinah’s behavior is being condemned as unbecoming the Jewish woman’s virtue of “innerness.” But a careful analysis of the source texts shows the very opposite to be the case . . .

The Kabbalists see Esau and Jacob as the embodiments of the primordial world of Tohu (“Chaos”) and our present reality-process of Tikkun (“correction”)

What is the key to graciously accepting blessings in life while not growing callous because of them? Rabbi Schneur Zalman offers the answer, through a study of the words of Jacob, the archetypal beneficiary.

I doubt if the stirring cry "Never again," has, on its own, dissuaded even one young man or woman from assimilating. If the only message our children hear is "remain Jewish, because of the Holocaust" wouldn't this, if anything, propel the process of assim...

Where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob failed, a young girl could have succeeded

Jacob straddled the river, one foot planted on each bank. He passed his family and possessions across the divide. He now had to make the move himself . . . The hosts of heaven gathered to see which way he would lean.

Just because 4,000 years ago one of my ancestors had a hip dislocated, I need to forgo a good rump steak?