Who is there to watch over us ? The midrash on the last plague speaks of when the Hebrews marked their doorposts and lintel with blood, that our ancestors emerged to protect and guide them. Abraham and Sarah are above the lentil – the color associated with them is blue and the spiritual essence (sefira)…
What does it take to believe in miracles? Here was the seventh plague. The one that finally got Pharoah to realize that this was beyond the power of him and his necromancers. The fire in hail that crushed trees and animals. A mix that science can’t accept – opposites together. Moses was to raise his hand…
How to deal with a miracle? What would you do? Moses at first hid his eyes. Then he questioned why this was happening to him. And then he asked who is doing this? The reply was “eh-yeh” sometimes translated as both present and future – “I will be” – “I am.” Other miracles occurred to convince him like his…
How do we bless the next generations? This parsha has the famous blessing that the ill Jacob gives to his grandchildren. Unexpectedly, he put the more powerful hand, his right hand, on the youngest brother. But his wishes still were for both of them including that they be like the fish in the sea: that…
Are there still miracles? During the times of our Torah ancestors there definitely were. Here elder Jacob has come to reunite with Joseph, once he thought dead but now viceroy to Pharaoh, whom now Jacob meets. The miracle here is the entrance to the throne room had a very low top lintel so all who…
Who are we meant to be with? In this parsha which is mostly devoted to Joseph dealing with his brothers, there is also a sentence mentioning his marriage to Asenath Some say she was the daughter of Potiphar‘s wife who had tried to seduce Joseph. She had an astrological chart that predicted powerful people would…
Who is there to help us? In this parsha Joseph has been sold into slavery and is being beaten for crying for help. On the road side his captors and he passed the grave of his mother Rachel and, shedding tears, he fell down by it. Below ground he sensed the presence of Rachel who…
How to make sense of dreams? Here we have the well known story of Jacob, fleeing the wrath of his brother, and sleeping, they say, on the very mountain that will be where Hashem will give the Torah. Jacob has the dream of the ladder, which dream has been variously interpreted for millennia! Besides the angels…
When is a deception justified? That is the moral challenge of this consequential moment in Torah where Jacob at the encouragement of his mother fools his blind father Isaac to believing that he is his brother Esau in order to get his father’s blessing. Esau himself was a constant liar and often heartless, where Jacob…