Parasha of the Week

Some time later Joseph was told, "Your father is ill.     Genesis 48:1   Throughout the Torah people are born and die but this is the first time any mention is made of illness in the Torah.  The Midrash explains, “from the time of Adam until now no one became ill before they passed away.  When their time came to die, they simply died without warning." Jacob prayed to God that he would have some indication that his death as approaching so that he would have a chance to say the things that he needed to day to his children before he passed from view.  God accepted his prayer and from Jacob’s time on, illness was the gift of a warning that life was about to come to an end and we could “put our things in order”.” (Me’am Loez) We not usually consider illness a gift yet we have a long tradition of leaving a well-considered list of ideals that we want to give to the next generations.  They are not wills of the sort that divides real estate ...

“God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.  So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.”   Genesis 45:7-8 In these two sentences Joseph sums up his feelings towards his brothers.  Not only does he not hold a grudge against them for stripping him of his coat, his family and freedom he declares that everything was a part of God's plan.   We rarely have a choice in what happens to us but we always have a choice in the way that we respond.  Some of us prefer to harbor feelings of anger and resentment and coddle them until they become malignant. Others choose the path of forgiveness because that is a gift to them, as well as to us. In the latter instance, a religious person understands that our choices can also be God directed.     We all write the narrative of our own li...

The purpose of life is alluded to in this parasha.  It can be found in Judah’s question to his brothers after they threw Joseph into the pit: Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?    Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him; for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And they agreed.    So when the Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silver   to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.    Genesis 37:26-28 While some may be tempted to credit Judah with saving Joseph’s life we cannot ignore the fact that he was the one who sold Joseph as a slave for the purpose of lining his pocket with silver.  Who would do such a thing?  While we learn later that Judah felt great remorse and repented, at this moment he was thinking only of himself and how he could better his position...

After father Jacob wrestles an angel/man he receives a blessing that came with a cost, a leg that was permanently damaged. “ Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,   because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed. ” Genesis 32:29 Aryeh Kaplan points out that the root of Israel indicates that we “must always struggle to be great before God.”  Life is a gift but that does not mean it does not require assembly.  We have an instruction guide; we call it Torah.  It tells us how to put our life together.    Yet we are comprised of so many contradictory thoughts and wishes that it is often difficult to determine which path to travel.  Tradition tells us that we have two impulses (yetser), one which is altruistic and other is vindictive and selfish.  Throughout our lives we listen to both of those voices and hopefully choose the path that God wishes us to take, the on...

“And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of your son's mandrakes. And she said unto her, ‘Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? and you would take away my son's mandrakes also?’ And Rachel said, ‘Therefore he shall lie with thee to night for thy son's mandrakes.’ And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, ‘You must come in unto me; for surely I have hired you with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.”   Genesis 30:14-16   Longing and love are in conflict. Leah loved Jacob.  She thrived on his love and presence.  Remember that she was the “second prize.”  Leah was the unwanted wife, the last minute substitution for all Jacob’s labors.    Jacob desired the younger, Rachel.  The reader cannot help but feel sorry for...

We have conflicting views on Esau and Jacob.  In this week’s parasha the difference could not be more apparent.  As the father Jacob laid ill, the Torah states, “Then Rebecca took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were in the house, and had her younger son Jacob put them on.” - Genesis 27:15 Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel, in the Talmud, commented, “All my life I attended upon my father yet I did not do for him even 100 th  of the goodness that Esau did for his father.”  What Rabbi Shimon was referring to was the fact that whenever Esau waited upon his father, he put on finest clothes.  Midrash Rabbah agrees with Rabbi Shimon and declares, “Esau only wore royal robes in that was worthy of being in the presence of his father.” There is good reason why  honoring your parents  is a part of the Ten Commandments when there so many other compelling commandments.  Respect for one's parents is a necessary component for ...

  “Now if you will   deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. And if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left.”    Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said,   “The thing comes from the   Lord ; we cannot   speak to you either bad or good.”    Genesis 24:49-50 This is a curious phrase.  Why would they say nothing good or bad about Rebecca?   It is understandable why they would not say anything bad as that would constitute  lashon ha-ra , the sin of gossip.  But why avoid saying good things?   In the Garden of Eden, chapter 2 verse 18, God declares that He will make for Adam a fitting helper.   Ezer k’negdo  is the Hebrew for "fitting helper.”  Yet that means much more than that. It indicates that a real mate someone who loves you dearly and someone who will correct you when you were wrong and laud you when you do well. It is not  someone...

No name is given for Lot’s wife in the Torah.  However, the Midrash tells her names as Idit.   It is puzzling why she was transformed into a pillar of salt for gazing back at the destruction of the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.    There us a n ancient Jewish custom that when we break bread and offer it to strangers that we also offer salt as a condiment.  Just as the salt was a reminder of the sacrifices in the Temple, which were salted, so too, salt was a necessary ingredient for survival in a desert –like climate. According to Midrash Rabbah, Idit did not want to admit the strangers that showed up at her doorstep into her home.  They came to inform Lot and his family about the city’s impending doom.     Idit also did not want to feed them, much less admit them.  Again, referring to the old midrash, Idit went to her neighbor’s home to borrow salt for the strangers because she did not want to use her own (at th...

Abraham is a brave man who adheres to God’s words assiduously.  He listens and obeys God’s every word from leaving homeland to nearly sacrificing his son.  Now, God tells him that he will pass from the earth, just like every other human being.  Yet, as a reassurance God declares to Abraham, “As you for you, you will go to your father’s in peace; You shall be buried at a ripe old age.”   The Talmud remarks on God’s promise to Abraham.  Rabbi Abin haLevi also said: One who is in the presence of the dead should not say “Go in peace” Lech l’Shalom , but “Go in peace” Lech b’Shalom , as it is said, “You shall go to your fathers in peace.    berachot 64a   Life is difficult.  Death, separation from the ones we love,  is so much more trying.  But here God assures us that we will be reunited with our ancestors in Olam haBa (Heaven).

The story of Noah and his Ark is one that children find fascinating and that we as adults tend to put aside as we grow older and a bit more cynical.  But the tale has built inside of it some powerful moralistic lessons. As you will remember from last week's Torah portion the middle of the story has Cain murdering his brother in a moment of anguish and losing all self-control. God does not punish the murderer in the way that we would punish a murderer in our time or in virtually any time in history but rather sends Cain out away from society where he could do no further damage. In other words, God is merciful. In this week’s portion we find that yet again God despairs of ever having created humankind for he sees people as doing “nothing but evil from his youth.” Yet God saving Noah and his family inside of their craft tempers the story. And then He gives them a covenant, which is a span that stretches across the heavens, as a promise that never again will the world be deluged a...

Rabbi Yitzchak said (Rashi’s father): The Torah should have commenced with the verse from Exodus “This month shall be the first of months to you,” (as this was the first commandment ever given to Israel).  Why does the Torah then begin with the story of Creation? To show the world the strength of His power to give the land to Israel.” We understand that the land of Israel is sacred.  As a result the other monotheistic faiths that base their scriptures on ours also understand the land as holy.  Yet even as long ago as the eleventh century we were praying and pining for a return to the Land, which God promised.   For is then the return and independence of a Jewish nation in 1948 was miraculous.  It was a fulfillment to the Divine promise mentioned in the Bible, alluded to in the very first verse of the Torah! Rabbi Yitzchak went on to quote Midrash when he wrote, “All the earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it and gave...