Parashat Va-yishlach [Genesis 32:4-36:43] features Jacob’s reunion with Esau, but not before his fateful encounter with the mystery combatant, sometimes identified as Esau’s guardian angel, sometimes with Jacob himself, and sometimes as some other figure. Jacob reunites with his father ever so briefly, ever so cryptically, at the end of …
Parashat Va-yetze [Genesis 28:10-32:2], my Bar Mitzvah (BC) portion, crams over 20 years of Jacob’s life into a single parashah. And what an eventful 20+ years. Jacob leaves Beer-sheva for his uncle Laban’s home, meets his cousin Rachel at the well, agrees to work for 7 years to marry her; …
Parashat Toldot [Genesis 25:19-28:9] features Isaac, the middle patriarch. The toldot [“generations” or “story} belong to Isaac; but the far more interesting …
Parashat Hayei Sarah [Genesis 23:1-25:18] begins with the death of Sarah and the acquisition of the Cave of Machpelah as a burial …
Parashat Va-yera [Genesis 18-22] is one of the richest parashiyot in the Torah. Chapter 18 features the angels coming to announce the …
Parashat Lech L’cha [Genesis 12:1-17:27] is the third of the parashiyot in Sefer Bereshit [Book of Genesis]. It has long been recognized …
Parashat Noah [Genesis 6:9-11:32] is the second parashah in Sefer B’reshit [Book of Genesis]. It largely consists of the Flood story, which …
After many summers at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires, we began Parashah Talk again the week after Covid shut down so much …
Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanofsky Written comments By Rabbi Barry Chesler On Tuesday afternoon, the first day of Sukkot, …
