Parasha of the Week

"The house of Jacob shall be a fire. ”  Prophet Ovadya 1:18 Angels seem to appear at pivotal moments of Jacob’s life.  When heaven feels like it is about to collide with the earth under Jacob’s feet, he is met. Imagine.  A mother advising her child to take a blessing using subterfuge.  The young man obliges by donning fur to deceive his aged father. It is a highly emotionally charged moment.  Jacob is caught in a tight web where, if he fails the rest of his life will be a misery.  If Jacob succeeds, phantasms or demons will crowd and trail him until he dies.  It is an impossible situation.  Almost blindly, mechanically, Jacob walks toward the inevitable.  Imagine . A throaty howl of anguish rises from his father’s bedside when Esau understands that his brother has collected the birthright prize.  Wild and uncontrolled, Jacob knew that the target of the howl was him.   Echoing through the valleys, the screeches of Esav reverbera...

                 They gazed at the Forbidden Tree and were silent.    The oppressive quiet that hovered a round the two people betrayed their inner nervousness.     Their hearts fiercely beat against the walls of their chest. Inside, they yearned for the light of knowledge.     They hungered to know!     Excitement and anxiety mounted as they continued to look at the Tree as their ultimate liberation.     The Garden was perfect but, they assumed, there had to be something even greater than this.  Why else would the Master have placed it in sight?  In the center of the Garden?  Why would He even have thought to create it?   There was an unspoken agreement that neither one would touch it because of the Master’s decree.  Still, they wanted and watched.  The desire grew.  Glancing sideways, they wondered who would be the fi...

Moses instructs the people of Israel to appoint judges and  law-enforcement officers in every city; "Justice, justice shall you  pursue," he commands them, and you must administer it without  corruption or favoritism. Crimes must be meticulously investigated and  evidence thoroughly examined -- a minimum of two credible witnesses is  required for conviction and punishment. In every generation, says Moses, there will be those entrusted with the task of interpreting and applying the laws of the Torah. "According to the law that they will teach you, and the judgement they will instruct you, you shall do; you shall not turn away from the thing that they say to you, to the right nor to the left." Shoftim also includes the prohibitions against idolatry and sorcery; laws governing the appointment and behavior of a king; and guidelines for the creation of "cities of refuge" for the inadvertent murderer. Also set forth are many of the rules of war: the exemption fr...

  In our precious language, Hebrew, there is no word for "things."  Instead, we generally employ   davar to denote "things."  But this is not accurate.    Davar   means word.  For example, when God casts the universe He does so with   devarim , not things but words.   The   devarim  uttered by the Celestial One then becomes the physical reality of that expression. In much the same way, Judaism insists that there is no such thing as a word that exists as only a breath.  For from being vapid, every word becomes transformed into matter.   That is why  devarim means both word and things.  Words are the vessels that hold reality.   Inside every word is a power that has its ultimate source in God.   That is why He created us and everything else with  devarim . There is more: our words, like God's, are also creative.  They mold and form.  Words capture an idea and then becomes reality....