By Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Why Jacob? That is the question we find ourselves asking repeatedly as we read the narratives of Genesis. Jacob is not what Noah was: righteous, perfect in his generations, one who walked with G d. He did not, like Abraham, leave his land, his birthplace and his father’s house in response … Read more
Rabbi Chanan Morisson Based on the writings of Maran Harav Kook According to an intriguing Midrash (Tanchuma Toldot 4), Abraham would not have made it out of his hometown of Ur Casdim alive were it not for the intervention of his grandson Jacob. King Nimrod ordered Abraham to be thrown into a fiery furnace because … Read more
Jack Engelhard What is the model of an Arab state upon which Israel can put its trust? Where, to be blunt, do Arabs live in harmony even among their own? Reuters In the name of peace thousands of Israelis have been killed in their synagogues, homes, schools, buses, shopping malls, restaurants, roads, sidewalks and on … Read more
Moshe Kempinski Life Lessons from the Torah Reading The accepted meaning of Jacob’s ( Yaacov) name in the world is “he who supplants and undermines. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Those that ascribe that meaning to the name are using the definition that comes from the lips of a man who hated … Read more
Rabbi Chanan Morisson The Torah counts the years of Sarah’s long life: “A hundred years and twenty years and seven years; these were the years of Sarah’s life” (Gen. 23:1). Noting the verse’s wordiness, the Sages commented that throughout all the years of her life — whether at age seven, twenty, or a hundred — … Read more
Dr. Richard L. Cravatts, College newspapers display shocking and one-sided anti-Israel bias on behalf of Palestinian Arabs. When Elmer Davis, director of FDR’s Office of War Information, observed that “. . . you cannot do much with people who are convinced that they are the sole authorized custodians of Truth and that whoever differs from … Read more
Moshe Kempinski Life Lessons From the Torah Portion Chayei Sarah Genesis 23:1–25:18 Time passes us by like raging river and most of humanity simply attempts to tread water. Yet the onslaught of time seems unstoppable. As more of that river of time has passed us, the raging river begins to feel more frightening. Shakespeare in … Read more
Rabbi Chanan Morisson based on the writings of Maran Harav Kook “Abraham rose early in the morning, to the place where he had [previously] stood before God.” (Gen. 19:27) What does it mean that Abraham “stood before God”? The Talmud interpreted this phrase to refer to prayer. (The central prayer is called the Amidah, meaning … Read more
