This Week

Vayeshev: The Strength We Give Each Other

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

Ian Schwartz

2 days ago2 min read

Vayishlach: The Battle of Darkness and Dawn

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

Josh Appel

Dec 53 min read

Vayera: Beyond Our Nature

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",

Seth Jacobs

Nov 73 min read

Bereishis: When Life Doesn’t Follow the Script

By Aryeh Bienstock At the end of the 6 th day of creation, the Torah says that Hashem saw that all that he made was very good. וַיַּ֤רְא אֱלֹקִים֙ אֶת־כׇּל־אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשָׂ֔ה וְהִנֵּה־ט֖וֹב מְאֹ֑ד וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם הַשִּׁשִּֽׁי׃ However, throughout the opening perakim of Bereshit, we see that things didn’t go so well or seemingly as planned. We have the sin of Adam and Chava with the Etz HaDaat , Kayin killing Hevel, the destruction of the world in the floo

Aryeh Bienstock

Oct 172 min read