By Joy Scott, Am Haskalah Congregant For more than two decades, Jacob lived with the guilt and knowledge of his own iniquity, against both his brother, Esau, and his beloved father, Isaac. In last week’s Torah parsha, Vayishlach, we read how the burden of these emotions quickly evaporated when Jacob went to Canaan and […]
Posts with the Genesis tag
A ‘Bissel’ of Torah: VAYISHLACH (GENESIS 32:4-36:9)
By Joy Scott, Am Haskalah Congregant In last week’s parsha, Vayetzei, we read the convoluted and multifarious twenty years which Jacob experienced while living with his Uncle Laban. In parsha Vayishlach, with immense trepidation, Jacob follows God’s orders to return to his birthplace in Canaan. He is terrified of the inevitable encounter with his […]
A ‘Bissel’ of Torah: VAYEITZEI (GENESIS 28:10-32:3)
By Joy Scott, Am Haskalah Congregant This week’s parsha, Vayetzei, begins with Jacob on the run from his family and home. Although he leaves with his father, Isaac’s birthright and blessing, these were obtained under false pretenses. His mother, Rebecca, heard his brother, Esau, mutter that he intended to kill Jacob for this deception. […]
A ‘Bissel’ of Torah: TOLDOT (GENESIS 25:17-28:9)
By Joy Scott, Am Haskalah Congregant This week’s parsha presents an ancestral tale that haunts us with its theme of cunning and deception. As the narrative proceeds, we realize that each of the characters presented in Toldot is caught in a web of relationships; a web of words, true and false, from which they […]
A ‘Bissel’ of Torah: CHAYEI SARAH (GENESIS 23:1-24:67)
By Joy Scott, Am Haskalah Congregant The translation of this week’s Torah parsha, Chayei Sarah, is ‘The Life of Sarah’. Ironically, only the first two lines of the parsha pertain to the death of Sarah and no other aspect of her life is even mentioned again. Rashi wrote that the death of Sarah is […]