Mindful Torah...and more

This week’s parashah /portion is Vayishlach (Bereshit/Genesis 32:4-36:43) . It contains within three important central events in the narrative of the patriarchs and matriarchs of Bereshit /Genesis. First, Jacob prepares to reunite with his brother Esau decades after he had stolen his blessing and his birthright. The night before the reunion Jacob wrestles with a man/angel. At sunrise, before, before leaving Jacob, he blesses him and gives him the name Israel, meaning one who has struggled with the divine. Not long after this we read the disturbing incident of the rape of Dinah, Jacob’s only daughter. She is raped by Shechem, the regional prince,  who then asks to marry her, because he supposedly loves her.  Jacob and his sons agree to this on the condition that Shechem and all the men of his community agree to be circumcised. While they are recovering, her brothers Shimon and Levi lead an attack and slaughter Shechem and all the men of his community. They do so supposedly in d...

This week’s parashah /portion is Hayei Sarah , or the life of Sarah. It begins by telling the reader that Sarah dies at the age of 127. Abraham searches for a place to bury her and settles on the cave of Machpelah outside of Hebron. Isaac is in deep mourning for his mother, so Abraham sends his servant back to his homeland to find a wife for Isaac from among his kin. The servant meets Rebecca, Abraham’s niece, at a well, where she provides water for him and his camels. The servant tells Rebecca who he is and why is there. Sarah tells her father Bethuel and brother Laban that she is ready and willing to return to Abraham’s tent with the servant and to marry her cousin Isaac. Upon their return, Isaac and Rebecca meet. He then takes her to his mother’s tent, they marry, he loved her and found comfort with her after Sarah’s death. Sarah, after whom the parashah is named, and Rebecca oare really at the spiritual core of this story. This is true in spite of the fact that it is the men who...

  This week’s parashah /portion is Vayera ( Bereshit /Genesis 18:1-22:24) . It begins with the arrival of t hree divine messengers (or angels) at Abraham and Sarah’s tent. They inform Abraham that God will give the elderly Sarah a child. The prophecy comes true, and they name their son Isaac. God then informs Abraham that Sodom and Gomorrah will be destroyed, though Abraham attempts to convince God otherwise. Abraham convinces God to spare the cities if there are at least 10 righteous people. Unfortunately, he could not. And so the three messengers went to Sodom and Gomorrah in order to save Abraham’s nephew Lot and his family, who lived there. As the messengers , Lot and his family flee the cities, Lot’s wife looks back, even though they were commanded not to. As a punishment she was turned to a pillar of salt. Later, God’s promise is fulfilled and Sarah becomes pregnant and bears a son, Isaac. Eventually, God commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham takes Isaac to Mt. Moriah...

 This weeks parashah/portion is Lekh-Lekha. These are the words by which God commands Avram (he will later become Avraham) to go to the land which God will show him. And so Avram and Sarai (latter Sarah) begin the journey that will eventually lead to creation of the Israelites and then the Jewish people. The Torah provides no reason as to why God chose this particular man to go on the journey. However, later the rabbis filled in the gap with a plethora of midrash as to why Avram was chosen. Basically, what they all come down to is that Avraham knew that idols were false and that there had to be some greater power that created and "ran" the universe. In one of the most famous midrashim we read that Avram's father Terakh sold idols for a living. One day, when Terakh went out and left Avram alone in the shop, Avram smashed every idol except the largest one. When Terakh returned he asked Avram what had happened. Avram told him that the big idol smashed all the others. Terakh ...