At the end of this week’s parsha, Yitzchak and Rivkah send Yaakov to Lavan to find a wife. When Esav sees this, he finally realizes that his parents did not want their children to marry Canaanite women—a standard he himself had ignored when he married two Canaanite wives. In response, Esav decides to take a third wife, this time from a different family: “Esav perceived that the daughters of Canaan were evil in the eyes of Issac, his father. So Esav went to Ishmael and took Ma

In this week’s parsha, Avraham sends his trusted servant Eliezer to Charan to find a wife for Yitzchak. Bereishis  chapter 24 recounts in detail how Eliezer arrived at the well, prayed for success, and immediately encountered Rivka, who fulfilled the exact signs of kindness he had asked from Hashem. After meeting Rivka and being invited to her home, Eliezer retold the entire sequence of events to her brother Lavan and her father Bethuel. When he finished, they responded: “T

In this week’s parsha, Avraham poses a remarkable and challenging question to G-d : “Will you also stamp out the righteous along with the wicked? What if there should be fifty righteous people in the midst of the city? Would you still stamp it out rather than spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people within it?” (Beraishis 18:23-24) Avraham was pleading with G-d to spare the people of Sodom. But this raises a difficult question: Why would Avraham do so? The p

After Sarai, Avram’s wife, recognized that she could not have any children, she offered her maidservant Hagar to Avram as a wife so Avram could have a child. Once Hagar became pregnant, however, her attitude changed: “And when she [Hagar] saw that she had conceived, her mistress [Sarai] was lowered in her esteem.  (Beraishis 16:5). Rashi explains that Hagar’s arrogance stemmed from her pregnancy. She reasoned that Sarai could not truly be righteous—otherwise, she would have

Before the Flood, Hashem told Noach: “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with robbery through them; and behold, I am about to destroy them from the earth. Make for yourself an Ark of gopher wood…”  (Beraishis 6:13-14). Although Hashem informed Noach that the world would be destroyed, He did not initially explain how this destruction would occur. Instead, Hashem gave Noach detailed instructions on how to build the Ark — its materials, design, and

As we begin reading Sefer Bereishis, the Torah describes the creation of mankind: “And G-d said, ‘Let us make Man in Our image, after Our likeness. They shall rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and over the animals, the whole earth, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’”” (Beraishis 1:26) To whom was G-d speaking to when He said: “Let us make man”? The Talmud (Sanhedrin 38b) explains that G-d was addressing the angels: “Rav Yehuda says that Rav

This Shabbos we read Sefer Koheles, which is attributed to Shlomo HaMelech (King Solomon). A key verse in the book is cited in a Mishnah...

Torah is Never Empty The Torah tells us (Devarim 32:46–47): “…Instruct your children to be careful to perform all the words of this...

On Yom Kippur afternoon, we read the Book of Yonah. Hashem commands the prophet: “Go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim against it,...

This week’s parsha introduces the 613 th , final mitzvah of the Torah: Hakhel (some count it as the 612th):   “ Moshe commanded them,...