In the vision of the haftara, Israel is no longer pursued, persecuted, and powerless. Instead, it will stand strong and proud ...

While reading Parshat Vayishlach this year, I was struck by the imbalance between speech and silence and what it suggests ...

This week’s Torah portion, Vayishlach, deposits us into the dramatic ongoing narrative of Jacob’s life, as he prepares to ...

In the Torah we are taught to love God, “with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might” “b’khol levav’kha, b’khol nafsh’kha, uvkhol m’odekha”. This is a totalistic demand, certainly ...

Thank you, Jacob. For what, you might ask? For reminding us never to miss a chance to do good, to say a kind word, to act with intention while we still have the gift of “now.” In one simple act, Jacob ...

These 15 stories by Jonas Kreppel feature the “Yiddish Sherlock Holmes” who saves Jews from various plights within the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the early 20th century.

A young woman is gingerly applying lipstick for her upcoming date, unaware of the horrible fate awaiting her. This may sound like the description of a new Netflix drama but it’s actually a scene in a ...

Nationhood is hard. Forming a cohesive people able to take the reins of its own national promise is a tortuous journey. It typically entails internal battles within the polity, and external ones with ...

How do we reconcile Jacob’s behavior, tricking his brother and lying to his father, with our vision of Yaakov as an ish emet, a man of truth? Through an analysis of several seemingly unimportant ...

One of the most powerful images in the Torah is that of Ya’akov (Jacob) struggling with a mysterious being (ish) before his anxiously awaited meeting with his brother Esav (Esau). (Genesis 32:25) The ...

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.-Carl Gustav Jung After twenty years, Jacob escapes from his treacherous father-in-law, ...