This coming Shabbat we begin the Torah’s second book, Shemot. After just a few verses, we learn of Levi’s death at age 137. This noteworthy “statistic” had extraordinary significance, for it marked the beginning of our slavery in Egypt. As…
Yaakov Avinu, the last of the Patriarchs, is at the end of his life. Yet before he leaves this world, he must charge the next generation with their mission to carry forward their illustrious family’s legacy, that of, Avraham, Yitzchak,…
The three part series we are embarking on, The Story of Money, is a repeat, it first came out in 2020. While it is a fascinating story, we certainly can’t cover it all in one week, so we’re going to…
lonely adjectivelone·ly | \ˈlōn-lē \ Definition of lonely 1a: being without company 1b: cut off from others 2: not frequented by human beings 3: sad from being alone 4: producing a feeling of bleakness or desolation From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary…
The story of Yosef and his brothers is one of the Torah’s most difficult stories to understand. How could the brothers’ jealousy towards Yosef have been so great that they wanted to kill him because of it? And, after they…
April 17, 2005 John Brisbane came home from work exhausted. A full day of meeting with clients and cajoling them into taking out mortgages far larger than they could afford was more tiring than most people could ever imagine. As…
This week’s Parsha details the encounter between the world’s two opposing forces: good and evil, as manifest in Yaakov and his brother Esav. These two players are still center stage in today’s world in the form of the Jewish people…
There are two types of people in the world, those who like their chocolate chip cookies crispy, and those who like them chewy. There are rumors that there exists a third type of human, the one who likes chocolate chip…
Esav has vowed to kill Yaakov for stealing his blessing from Yitzchak, so Rivka and Yitzchak decided to send Yaakov to Rivka’s brother, Lavan. This would both protect Yaakov from his brother’s wrath and find him a wife. On Yaakov’s…
I can’t wait for the self-driving car. I can’t wait to get into my car, which will know where I’m going because it’s connected to my calendar, and take out a book and start reading, or take out my laptop…