By Ian Schwartz This week’s parsha features the rare musical note shalshalet . As we know, the shalshalet appears only three times in the entire Torah, and in our parsha it appears on the word “Vayima’ein”—“and he refused,” describing Yosef’s refusal of Eshet Potiphar. I once heard a beautiful explanation of this shalshalet from Rav YY Jacobson. Chazal tell us: “Eileh toldos Yaakov, Yosef.” Everything that happened to Yaakov happened to Yosef. Yosef experienced the same t

By Rabbi Josh Appel Winston Churchill often spoke of his personal battles with what he called his “Black Dog,” a metaphor for the depression that followed him through much of his life. For a man celebrated as a beacon of resilience during some of the darkest days of human history, this internal battle was no less tumultuous than the external war he helped to win. This brings us to Yaakov, who also faced a mysterious and lonely battle in the dead of night: Jacob was left alone

I wanted to look at the name יוסף itself and see what the essence of this name is. If you look at the pesukim where Rachel Names Yosef, it says. ותהר ותלד בן ותאמר אסף אלקים את־חרפתי She conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” ותקרא את־שמו יוסף לאמר יסף ה׳ לי בן אחר So she named him Joseph, saying, “May Hashem add another son for me.” ויהי כאשר ילדה רחל את־יוסף ויאמר יעקב אל־לבן שלחני ואלכה אל־מקומי ולארצי After Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob sai

By Mordy Blau When looking through the past couple of parshiot, I noticed something very interesting. Whenever Avraham is going on his journey to a new location, the Torah emphasizes that he went with Sarah, his wife. We see this first at the end of Lech Lecha when Avraham leaves for Ur Kasdim. Terach took Avraham, Lot, and Sarah—אשת אברם. וַיִּקַּ֨ח תֶּ֜רַח אֶת־אַבְרָ֣ם בְּנ֗וֹ וְאֶת־ל֤וֹט בֶּן־הָרָן֙ בֶּן־בְּנ֔וֹ וְאֵת֙ שָׂרַ֣י כַּלָּת֔וֹ אֵ֖שֶׁת אַבְרָ֣ם בְּנ֑וֹ וַיֵּצְא֨ו

By Seth Jacobs Avraham and Yitzchak were walking together towards הר המוריה. The wheels in יצחק’s head were turning, and he was beginning to realize what was happening. He turned to אברהם and said "אבי"  my father and then remained quiet, waiting for a response. The כלי יקר explains that this was actually a question. יצחק wanted to see whether אברהם still saw him as a son, or whether he no longer cared and was acting out of his own volition. When אברהם responded "הנני בני",