Parshat Vayigash By way of background, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had two consecutive baffling dreams, which even his wise men could not satisfactorily interpret. Pharaoh’s butler then recalled having two years earlier been in prison with Yosef, who had…
Parshat Vayeitzei After Esav vowed to kill his brother Yaakov for having taken their father Yitzchak’s blessing, Rivka and Yitzchak both decided to send Yaakov to Rivka’s brother, Lavan, to escape Esav’s wrath, and to find a wife. On the…
Parshat Vayeshev 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,…
Parshat Vayeira ספר בראשית פרק יח (א) וַיֵּרָא אֵלָיו יְדֹוָד בְּאֵלֹנֵי מַמְרֵא וְהוּא ישֵׁב פֶּתַח הָאֹהֶל כְּחֹם הַיּוֹם: Genesis Chapter 18:1: Hashem appeared to him in the plains of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of the…
Parshat Vayechi When Yaakov heard that his beloved son Yosef was alive and well in Egypt, he gathered his family and moved there. Based on Yosef’s advice, Yaakov and his family lived in Goshen, far from the Egyptian settlements, so…
Parshat Toldot Yitzchak and Rivka had been married for 20 years and had not been blessed with children. Our Sages tell us that were physically unable to do so. Yet, at age 60, Yitzchak would have liked to see the…
Parshat Noach Rashi begins his Torah commentary with Rabbi Yitzchak’s famous question: Why did Hashem begin the Torah with a description of Creation? Isn’t the Torah’s purpose to convey to man his obligations in the form of the commandments that…