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>Reuben: The Might-Have-Been

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Reuben: The Might-Have-Been

…so close yet unachieved. How so? What does his example teach us about what it takes to live an accomplished life? There is an extraordinary moment in Vayeshev. The Torah freeze-frames a critical juncture in Reuben’s life, showing the diverging paths he faced when confronted with a moral challenge. The background to the scene is the early years of Joseph,…

The Author of Our Lives

…He forgot. The one time Joseph tries to be the author of his own story, he fails. The failure is decisive. Tradition added one final touch to the drama. It ended Parshat Vayeshev with those words, leaving us at the very point that his hopes are dashed. Will he rise to greatness? Will his dreams come true? The question ‘What…

To Wait Without Despair

The Parsha in a Nutshell This summary is adapted from this week’s main Covenant & Conversation essay by Rabbi Sacks, available to read in full via the left sidebar Something extraordinary happens between last week’s parsha and this one, almost as if the week’s break is itself part of the story. In Vayeshev, we saw Yosef in prison. Previously he…

The Courage to Live with Uncertainty

For each of us there are milestones on our spiritual journey that change the direction of our life and set us on a new path. For me one such moment came when I was a rabbinical student at Jews’ College and thus had the privilege of studying with one of the great rabbinic scholars of our time, Rabbi Dr. Nachum…

Refusing Comfort, Keeping Hope

The Parsha in a Nutshell The story now shifts from Yaakov to his children. The tension we have already sensed between Leah and Rachel is transferred to the next generation in the form of the rivalry between Yosef and his brothers, the story whose twists and turns take us to the end of the book of Beishit. Yosef is Yaakov’s…

The Three Weeks and Tisha B’Av

…Comfort, Keeping Hope,” in Covenant & Conversation: Genesis, Vayeshev, p. 257. Reflect How would Jewish history have been different if Jews had found comfort in their history instead of hope? As at the conclusion of Yom Kippur, so here – at the two supreme moments of the Jewish year – we pray Leshana haba’a biYerushalayim habenuya, “Next year in Jerusalem…

Refusing Comfort, Keeping Hope

The deception has taken place. Joseph has been sold into slavery. His brothers dipped his coat in blood. They bring it back to their father, saying: “Look what we have found. Do you recognise it? Is this your son’s robe or not?” Jacob recognises it and replies, “It is my son’s robe. A wild beast has devoured him. Joseph has…

On Not Humiliating

In Genesis 38, temporarily interrupting the story of Joseph, we read the fascinating story of Tamar, one of the more unexpected heroines of the Torah. The text gives us no inclination as to who she is. The chapter opens by telling us that Judah had separated from his brothers, and married a Canaanite woman by whom he had three children….

A Tale of Two Women

Who was she? We know little about her except her name, Tamar. Judah, fourth son of Jacob, had “gone down” from his brothers – a spiritual as well as physical decline. It was he who had proposed selling Joseph as a slave. Now he has left the family and married a Canaanite woman. He has three sons by her – Er, Onan…

The Angel who did not know he was an Angel

Pictured above: 1: Eddie Jacobson (left), with his friend, former President Harry S. Truman 2: Dorothy de Rothschild speaking at a political rally, c. 1945 The story of Joseph and his brothers, spread over four parshiyot, is the longest and most tightly-scripted of all the narratives in the Torah. Nothing is there by accident; every detail counts. One moment, however,…

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