Because the Torah is not a book of fairy tales in which righteous people live peacefully ever after. The Torah is a book about real life, not life as we wish it to be, but life as we experience it: ...

“A unified understanding- that encompasses all the events of life- brings us to the level of comprehension known as ‘ruach ...

Delve into Parshat Vayeshev, where we uncover the story of Jacob, a symbol of righteousness and humility in the Torah.

With an Modern Orthodox, Sephardi background, Rabbi Olivier Benhaim has been a student of Torah and of the Jewish way for most of his life. He lived in Israel for close to 10 years, where he studied ...

Robert Alter parallels the twins Peretz and Zerach with the better known twins Jacob and Esau. In his words, “the name Zerach means ‘shining’ as in the dawning of the sun, and so is linked with the ...

The parsha does not show a clash of good vs evil, but a deep disagreement about leadership and the path by which the people of Israel should take.

In Genesis Chapter 38, the second chapter of our parsha this week, we learn about a particularly challenging episode in the lives of Judah and Tamar, including how Tamar tricked Judah into having ...

Joseph is one of the most complicated and controversial characters in the Torah. Is he doing exactly what God wants him to do so the Israelite people can eventually leave ancient Egypt and be freed, ...

It is hard to believe that I am writing again, while sitting shiva once again, this time for my older sister (by six years) who died on Shabbat, parshat vayishlach. Despite the geographic distance ...

Hard decisions are certainly part of leadership; however, decisions made without accepting responsibility are a shallow form of it. Anyone can seize authority and impose his will on others – ...

In this selection of essays, op-eds and speeches, the first piece written six months after his son’s murder, Pearl gives us words that are, yes, sometimes heartbreaking, but also funny, profound, ...