Parashat Vayeshev/Hanukah/Thanksgiving 
Genesis 37:1-40:23

The era of the Patriarchs virtually ends with this Torah reading. The Patriarchal system rested on the myth that all power and control over the destiny of the family and the extended group was in the hands of that central figure. It is a significant organizing myth, even if the reality is always much more complicated. All the Torah’s stories until now have both affirmed this myth but also undermined it in many ways. Fathers decide who their heir will be, who their heir’s spouse will be, who will get the blessing – except, of course, when other factors intervene.
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Inaccurate depiction of the conditions of slaves on George Washington’s plantation. – Stearns, Junius Brutus

Parashat Vayishlah 
Genesis 32:4-36:43

The stories of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs and their children often present their actions in a questionable or even objectionable light. And, as we are introduced to the sons of Jacob, in this Torah portion and beyond, we cannot but notice that they are not exemplars of great spiritual or moral stature. I have written about this phenomenon in the past. (See, e.g., Sparks for this Torah reading from 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2020.) But one thing is clear, our sacred Scriptures have not chosen to forget these disturbing evidences of moral failure. On the contrary! They form the very substance of our Torah! And the rest of the Torah will continue to unflinchingly retell stories of Israel’s transgressions and corruptions.
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Parashat Vayetze 
Genesis 28:10-32:3

The Torah mixes her metaphors, moving from “ladder” to “house” to “gate.” The place Jacob encounters affords him an overwhelming experience. In his sleep he dreams that the earth upon which he lies is the grounding for a ladder that leads up to heaven. When he awakes, he exclaims “How awesome is this place. It is none other than the House of the Almighty and this is Heaven’s gate.” (Gen. 28:17)
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Parashat Toldot 
Genesis 25:19-28:9

In last week’s Torah portion we saw that Abraham, in the concluding decades of his life, stepped down from his world-significant plane of living to become just another person, living his private life as best he could. The change – freely chosen or imposed by destiny – is not described by the Torah as being stressful or challenging.

In contrast, this week’s portion brings us into a moment of great and painful stress when one of our protagonists, Esau, is forced to cross the bridge leading from one of those two planes of living to the other. Esau has sold his birthright, but he still expects to receive his father’s blessing. However, his brother, Jacob, and his mother engineer it so that Isaac bestows the blessing upon Jacob, instead. Continue reading →

Parashat Hayyei Sarah 
Genesis 23:1-25:18 

Our Torah portion begins by informing us that our Mother Sarah lived 127 years.  At the end of the portion we learn that Abraham lived 175 years. We know from earlier texts that Abraham was 10 years older than Sarah. Thus, we can conclude that Abraham was 137 years old when Sarah died. We therefore deduce that Abraham lived 38 years after his wife, Sarah, died.

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Parashat Vayera
Genesis 18:1-22:24

The first verse of our Torah portion tells of God’s appearance to Abraham. That visit is  immediately interrupted and cut off in the very next verse: “And he (- Abraham) lifted his eyes and he saw three men standing before him (- nitzavim `alav), and he saw, and he ran to greet them….” (Gen. 18:2) Readers have often remarked over the energetic response that Abraham evinces, running after these strangers even though he is recuperating from his circumcision procedure and even though God is appearing to him! Continue reading →

Parashat Lekh L’kha
Genesis 12:1-17:27

Our Torah portion opens with God’s dramatic command to Abraham to “Get thee going! – lekh l’kha.” (Gen. 12:1) Since the Hebrew could have been stated more simply – as just “Get going! – lekh!” – without the “thee – ‘l’kha” (- literally “for you, to you”), this imperative is often interpreted as meaning that Abraham had to go “into himself” or “on behalf of himself.” In our time that is so focused on personal journeys, it is inspiring to conceive of Abraham and Sarah embarking on their own spiritual quest.

But that is not the whole story. From the beginning God explains that the journey is for the sake of the entire world, so that all the world would be blessed from it. (Gen. 12:2-3) And we are told that Abraham and Sarah start their trip with many others who follow them, including – and besides Lot, their relative – “the souls they made (`asu) in Haran.” (Gen. 12:5) Who are these people, and what does it mean that they were “made” by Abraham and Sarah? Continue reading →

Only Noah is a righteous person among the myriads of humans who inhabit the earth. The mystery of how he succeeded in maintaining his goodness in the midst of a thoroughly corrupt society has been a perennial question.

Perhaps one small factor that contributed to his decency can be discerned in the way the Torah describes his birth, as mentioned in last week’s Torah portion. There we find a long list of generation after generation of human beings living and having children and dying without any sense of their individuality. (There is one obscure exception – Hanokh [Enoch], but that is for another discussion.) Each generation is described through the name of one person who then has a child, whose name heads the next generation. But we do not have any mention of who gives these names to the people, or why. They just get born and get a name and live and die.

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Parashat Bereshit
Genesis 1:1-6:8

The story begins anew. We read of the creation of the world, and most especially, the creation of human beings. Many have noticed that the story has two versions. The longer, second version is very well known. It reports that Adam was created as a male and that Eve was derived afterwards, from Adam’s body. (Gen. 2:21-22) But the shorter, less well-known, first version says simply: “And the Almighty created the human (Adam) in God’s image, creating him in the image of the Almighty, creating them male and female.” (Gen. 1:27) In this first version “Adam” is both male and female, created as such in one act of creation.
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