…give us an entirely new impression of the Children of Israel. Moshe says, “The Lord did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you are the fewest of all peoples” (Devarim. 7:7). This is not what we have heard thus far. In Bereishit, God promised the patriarchs that they…
…the three approaches that Rambam presents explaining the rationale of the mitzvot concerned with animal welfare? Which of Rambam’s three approaches speaks to you the most? How would you summarise Judaism’s approach to animal welfare? (Try to use the language found in Bereishit 1 and Bereishit 2 – see Covenant & Conversation for Shoftim last week entitled The Ecological Imperative)…
…do they change the way you feel when you wear them? Thinking More Deeply The Hebrew for “garment,” b-g-d, also means “betrayal,” as in the confession we say on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur: Ashamnu bagadnu, “We have been guilty, we have betrayed.” Throughout the book of Bereishit, whenever a garment is a key element in the story, it involves…
…created.” Do not read it thus, but, “I will accuse in order to be defeated.” How so? Thus said the Holy One, blessed be He, “When I win, I lose, and when I lose I gain. I defeated the generation of the Flood, but did I not lose thereby, for I destroyed My own creation, as it says (Bereishit 7:23),…
…cannot see. Yet he has persistent doubts as to whether the son who visits him is indeed Esau. He tries the various senses. He tastes the food his son has brought. He smells his clothes. He touches his hands. He concludes: “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau” (Bereishit 27:22). How much…
The book of Bereishit ends on a sublime note of reconciliation between Jacob’s sons. Joseph’s brothers were afraid that he had not really forgiven them for selling him into slavery. They suspected that he was merely delaying his revenge until their father died. After Jacob’s death, they express their concern to him. But Joseph insists: “Do not be afraid. Am…
…of those who have given their lives for the State of Israel? What are we still fighting for today? Carrying the Past, Turning Death into Life At the end of the book of the book of Bereishit, Yosef makes one deeply poignant request: Though I die in exile, God will bring you back to the land, and when He does…
Every Friday night we re-enact one of the most moving scenes in the book of Bereishit. Jacob, reunited with Joseph, is ill. Joseph comes to visit him, bring bringing with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Jacob, with deep emotion, says: “I never expected to see you again, and now God has shown me your children as well.” Gen….
…because of our beliefs, most importantly the belief in monotheism, that there is, at least and at most, one God. The Torah tells us in Bereishit about creation, in Shemot about redemption, and in this week’s parsha about revelation. Judaism is a set of beliefs, but it is not a community based on unanimity about the way we understand and…
…is all life is – a mere breath – yet breath is nothing less than the spirit of God within us: “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being” (Bereishit 2:7). And whether the shofar is our cry to God or…