Parsha VAYETZEI | The Blogs

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Shammai Engelmayer

Nov 30, 2017, 5:34 PM

The Torah is no way to excuse abuse

A forthright look at how Jacob treated women and the Jewish law that makes it clear he did wrong

Josie Glausiusz

Nov 27, 2017, 10:23 PM

A Poet Emerges from the Cash Machine

A brand new, crisp yellow 100-shekel note popped out of the cash machine yesterday. I was delighted to see that it features a picture of Lea Goldberg (1911-1970) one of the most significant Israeli poets of the early 20th...

Avraham Bronstein

Nov 27, 2017, 6:57 PM

One Place With Two Names

As if the National Football League was not facing enough heat in the Trump-era culture wars, its Washington, D.C. team played a home game on Thanksgiving Day for the first time, prompting statements of disappointment from several Native American...

Nov 27, 2017, 7:05 AM

The late Meta Skulsky — gone but not forgotten.

This past Sunday evening, I received a phone call from a friend to ask whether I could conduct the funeral of a distant relative the following day. There would be very few mourners present at the funeral, he said, as the...

Nov 26, 2017, 6:37 AM

Jacob and his wild animals

Jacob's Dream by Adam Elsheimer (via Wikimedia Commons)

Setting an example for all men, the biblical patriarch, takes steps to protect himself from...himself

William Hamilton

Nov 24, 2017, 4:59 PM

Empathy or Apathy?

“In a high-trust relationship” writes Stephen Covey, “you can say the wrong thing and people will still get your meaning. In a low-trust relationship, you can be very measured, even precise, and they’ll still misinterpret you.” Suspicion has become more...

Rachel Anisfeld

Nov 24, 2017, 4:58 PM

Parashat Vayetze and Thanksgiving: The Power of Awareness

Behold, God is in this place and I, I did not know. אכן יש ה' במקום הזה ואנכי לא ידעתי Behold God is here, right now, and I am not aware of it. God is in the moment of traffic in...

Sharona Margolin Halickman

Nov 24, 2017, 12:44 AM

The mothers named all of the tribes

After each tribe was born, Yaakov did not get involved in naming the children. His wives were given the space to choose each child’s name and speak from the heart as they explained its significance: Leah’s first four sons: Reuven: “God...

Nov 23, 2017, 2:49 PM

Out of the depths

Like Jacob, who found God in a heart of darkness, I too encounter Him when I feel inadequate and disdained (Vayetzei)

Nov 22, 2017, 11:20 PM

How many children of Israel were trans?

'The Rape of Dinah,' by Giuliano Bugiardini, circa 1554. (Wikimedia Commons)

The LGBTQ community has been part of the Torah's society since the very beginning

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