With the opening of Sefer Shemos - ברוך שהחיינו וקימנו והגיענו לזמן הזה - we learn once again about the Egyptian exile, enslavement, subjugation and bitter lives the Bnei Yisrael lived, suffering at the hands of Pharaoh and Egypt. The methods of subjugation included propaganda...
This week’s parsha, Parshas Vayechi, is the final one in the book of Bereishis. After a tumultuous, albeit successful, life - losing his mother as a young boy of 8 or 9 years old, being hated and rejected by his brothers, being sold by them...
In parshas Vayigash, after twenty-two long, painful and productive years, Yosef and his family are reunited. After Yehuda’s passionate soliloquy to save his brother, Binyamin, from being kept as a servant by the at-times-cruel, at-times-kind, erratic and strange viceroy of Egypt, Yosef reveals himself to his...
In Parshas Miketz, the mazal of Yosef the prisoner, the slave, the rejected, is about to change in the blink of an eye. When Pharaoh dreams two dreams that no one can interpret to his liking - sickly and healthy cows on the shore of...
In the beginning of Parshas Vayeishev we learn of Yosef the Beloved Son, Yosef the Owner of the Kesones Pasim, Yosef the Dreamer… Yosef who is ostracized by his brothers. Yosef was seventeen years old and was a shepherd with his brothers; he would spend...
In Parshas Vayishlach, Yaakov Avinu travels back to the land of Canaan, after working for Lavan for twenty years. Fourteen years of servitude were for his wives, and six more years for his flocks. En route home, he fears the wrath of his brother Eisav...
In this week’s parsha, Parshas Vayeitzei, the journey of Yaakov Avinu continues. Fleeing the wrath of his brother Eisav, he first spends fourteen years hiding out and learning in Yeshivas Shem v’Ever. He then departs from Beer Sheva and heads to Charan (28:10). It is...
In the beginning of Parshas Toldos, we learn of the struggles of Yitzchak and Rivka to bear offspring. The Torah tells us that both Yitzchak and Rikva davened that offspring be granted to them. וַיֶּעְתַּ֨ר יִצְחָ֤ק לַֽה֙ לְנֹ֣כַח אִשְׁתּ֔וֹ כִּ֥י עֲקָרָ֖ה הִ֑וא וַיֵּעָ֤תֶר לוֹ֙ ה וַתַּ֖הַר...
In this week’s parsha, Parshas Chayei Sarah, we learn of the death of Sarah Imeinu (Bereishis 23), the shidduch between Yitzchak and Rivka (Bereishis 24), and the death of Avraham Avinu (Bereishis 25). The pasuk tells us that Sarah died at the age of 127 years,...
In this week’s parsha, Parshas Vayeira, we continue to learn of the life, journey, struggles, triumphs and faith of our father and founder, Avraham Avinu. The parsha begins as Avraham is recovering from his bris milah at the age of ninety-nine years, and G-d comes to...