Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Vayigash ALL THE SOULS COMING TO EGYPT WITH JACOB, THOSE DESCENDED FROM HIM, EXCLUDING THE WIVES OF JACOB'S SONS, ALL THE SOULS WERE SIXTY SIX. AND JOSEPH'S SONS, WHO WERE BORN TO HIM IN EGYPT, TWO SOULS; ALL THE SOULS OF THE HOUSE OF JACOB WHO CAME TO EGYPT WERE SEVENTY. (Bereishit 46:26-7) Abba Halifa Keruya asked R. Hiyyz bar Abba: The sum you find is seventy, but individuals you find...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Miketz THE ONE OPENED HIS SACK TO GIVE FODDER TO HIS DONKEY AT THE LODGING PLACE, AND HE SAW HIS MONEY THERE IT WAS, IN THE MOUTH OF HIS SACK. (Bereishit 42:27) Simon and Levi are brothers – but are they not all brothers? Rather: "brothers in scheming" – they devised a scheme against Shechem and destroyed it, for it says: And two sons of Jacob, Simon and Levi took. And they schemed against...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Vayeshev FOR THE SOURCE OF LIFE IS WITH YOU; IN YOUR LIGHT WE WILL SEE LIGHT. (Psalms 36:10) You shall charge the Israelites that they shall take to you – Israel said: Master of the Universe! In your light we see light, yet you command us to light lamps before you!? Rabbi Yitzhak said a house full of lanterns. The master of the house tells his servant,...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Vayishlah AND ESAU RAN TOWARD HIM AND EMBRACED HIM, AND HE FELL ON HIS NECK AND KISSED HIM, AND THEY WEPT. AND HE LIFTED HIS EYES AND SAW THE WOMEN AND THE CHILDREN, AND HE SAID, "WHO ARE THESE TO YOU?" AND HE SAID, "THE CHILDREN WITH WHOM GOD HAS FAVORED YOUR SERVANT." AND THE MAIDSERVANTS AND THEIR CHILDREN DREW NEAR AND PROSTRATED THEMSELVES. AND LEAH AND HER CHILDREN DREW NEAR AND PROSTRATED THEMSELVES, AND...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Vayetze AND JACOB SAID WHEN HE SAW THEM, "THIS IS THE CAMP OF GOD," AND HE NAMED THE PLACE MAHANAIM. (Bereishit 32:3) Mahanaim Two camps, outside the land, who came with him up to here, and of Israel, who came to greet him (from Tanchuma Vayishlach 3). (Rashi on Bereishit 32:3, Judaica Press translation) Angels of God met him – To aid him on his...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Toldot SO JACOB DREW NEAR TO ISAAC HIS FATHER, AND HE FELT HIM, AND HE SAID, "THE VOICE IS THE VOICE OF JACOB, BUT THE HANDS ARE THE HANDS OF ESAU." The Alternative Scenario As for Isaac's thinking: it seems to me that he wanted to bless Esau to make him his favorite because game was in his mouth. He wanted to reserve more blessing and success for him than for his brother,...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Chaye Sara AND SHE HASTENED AND LOWERED HER PITCHER FROM UPON HER, AND SHE SAID, 'DRINK, AND I WILL ALSO WATER YOUR CAMELS.' SO I DRANK, AND SHE ALSO WATERED THE CAMELS. (Bereishit 24:46) One should not divine the future like an idolater, for it says, You shall not practice divination (VaYikra 19:26). What is divination? For example, those who say, "Since my bread fell from my mouth, or my staff fell from my...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Vayera AND ABRAHAM TOOK THE WOOD FOR THE BURNT OFFERING, AND HE PLACED UPON HIS SON ISAAC, AND HE TOOK INTO HIS HAND THE FIRE AND THE KNIFE, AND THEY BOTH WENT TOGETHER. (Bereishit 22:6) AND ABRAHAM SAID, "GOD WILL PROVIDE FOR HIMSELF THE LAMB FOR THE BURNT OFFERING, MY SON." AND THEY BOTH WENT TOGETHER. (Bereishit 22:8) and they both went together Abraham, who knew that he was going to slaughter his...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Lech-Lecha RISE, WALK THROUGH THE LAND, THROUGH ITS LENGTH AND ITS BREADTH FOR I WILL GIVE IT TO YOU. (Bereishit 13:17) We learned: R. Elazer said in the name of R. Yosi: Once I entered Alexandria, Egypt. There I found an old man, who said to me: "Come and I will show you what my fathers did to your fathers; they drowned some of them in the sea; some they slew by the sword;...
Shabbat Shalom The weekly parsha commentary – parshat (link to original page) Click here to receive the weekly parsha by email each week. Parshat Noah NOAH, WITH HIS SONS, HIS WIFE, AND HIS SON'S WIVES, WENT INTO THE ARK BECAUSE OF THE WATERS OF THE FLOOD. OF THE CLEAN ANIMALS, OF THE ANIMALS THAT ARE NOT CLEAN, OF THE BIRDS, AND OF EVERYTHING THAT CREEPS ON THE GROUND, TWO EACH, MALE AND FEMALE, CAME TO NOAH INTO THE ARK, AS GOD HAD COMMANDED NOAH. (Bereishit 7:7-9) THEY CAME TO NOAH, INTO THE ARK, TWO OF ALL FLESH IN WHICH...