Parashat HaShavua

Parashat Vayeshev: From Darkness to Miracle

This Shabbat, Parashat Vayeshev brings us once again the story of Yosef—a story where inner light coexists with betrayal, and where light ultimately confronts the deepest darkness. And this year, as we prepare to light the first Hanukkah candle on Sunday night, that contrast between light and darkness takes on an even more urgent meaning. We are not just reading an ancient text; we are reading the world. Lighting the Hanukkah lights is both a spiritual and political act. It

1 day ago

Vayishlach: Seeing the Face of the Other in Times of Reunion and Reconstruction

There are moments in life when the past comes knocking on our door—not with violence, not necessarily with pain, but with the quiet insistence of what remains unresolved. This is how our parashah Vaishlaj begins. Yaakov, after years away from home, returns to face Esav, the brother he had deceived, the brother he had fled from, the brother who once swore to kill him. It is no coincidence that the Torah begins the story with the verb “vaishlaj”—“and he sent.” Yaakov sends me

Dec 5

Parashat Vayetze: When the Path Opens with Dreams and Tears

Vayetze is a parashah of departure, but not an easy flight. Yaakov leaves his home with fear, guilt, and a heart in turmoil. He departs broken. And perhaps that is precisely why, in that moment—when nothing seems stable—he dreams. A ladder connects heaven and earth. Not to erase what has happened, but to tell him: your path is not disconnected. Angels ascend and descend. Movement. No promise of stillness, but a promise of presence. Yaakov sleeps on a stone, and yet, the heave

Nov 28

Parashat Toldot - The Voice, the Hands, and the Heart

There are moments in the Torah that feel as if they were written to be watched like a scene on a stage. Parashat Toldot is one of them. We are not only witnesses to the birth of Esav and Yaakov, nor merely to the passing down of blessings; the Torah invites us into that “in–between” moment —that unsettling stretch of time when Rivkah feels the turmoil inside her womb, the struggling of the children within her— and she utters a question that still echoes through the generatio

Nov 27

Parashat Chayei Sarah: The Lives That Beat Within a Life

This week’s Parashah opens with a statement that, far from being a biographical detail, is an existential manifesto: “And the life (the lives) of Sarah was: one hundred years, twenty years, and seven years—these were the years of Sarah’s life.” The Torah repeats “the life of Sarah” at the end of the very first verse, almost as if to remind us that her death is not the end—that her presence keeps pulsing in those who remember her, who speak her name, who walk in the path she c

Nov 14

Parashat Vayera: Learning to See the Other

In the beginning of Parashat Vayera, Abraham interrupts his reflections, and some comentarist say even a moment of connection with the Lord, to welcome three strangers who appear in the heat of the day. It’s a brief yet decisive moment: the encounter with the ineffable —with God, for the believer— is revealed in the encounter with another human being, in our ability to see the other even amid our own pain and worries. Our sages teach that God appeared to Abraham while he was

Nov 7

Lech Lecha – A Journey From Wound to Healing

There is a section in our parashah that is often overlooked—perhaps because the opening verses are so powerful that they eclipse everything else. After all, they give the portion its very name: Lech Lecha. It’s hard to compete for attention with something as extraordinary as God’s call to a man who seems quite ordinary, and that man’s selfless and wholehearted response—a response that would make him the founding father of a people, just as promised. But this time, the text

Oct 31

Parashat Noah – Lessons in Reconstruction and Responsibility

Shabbat Parshat Noach. Noach—the one of the Flood, the one of the Ark. The survivor whose first act upon leaving the ark is to plant a vineyard, make wine, and become drunk… perhaps to drown his sorrow in the face of total destruction. Noach—the one of anguish, perplexity, and perhaps still, hope. Just two years ago, the world began to sink once again into a mabul, a flood of violence and disorientation. At the time, we thought humanity had hit rock bottom, that the storm co

Oct 24

Parashat Bereshit – Beginning Again Out of Chaos

Botanists often tell us that the sequoias — those colossal trees that grow in California — are the longest-living species on earth. Some have reached two thousand years of age. It is humbling, almost overwhelming, to think that they were planted in the days of Rabbi Akiva and still breathe under the same sky. Yet, according to a fascinating and little-known midrash, the oldest living creature in the world is not a tree, but a bird called the Jol — or Maljás. Tradition tells

Oct 17