Toldot, תּוֹלְדֹת

How do we attain true divine blessing? There is a lot of grasping and chasing after blessing in this parsha, but there is also another model . . . (Click image to read more)

Sometimes we think, like Yaakov, that we have to pretend to be someone else in order to be blessed, in order to be loved, in order to be attended to.  We dress ourselves up like the cool flashy kids who are big and strong and wear leather jackets and know how to hunt.  We are

(Originally published in 2020) I want to focus on one word in our parsha, Rechovot, “wide open spaces.” (Click image to read more)

Who are your inner twins, the parts of you that are in conflict, constantly pulling you in different directions? (Click image to read more)

The Torah says that Yitzhak loved Esav ki tzayid befiv, “because” of the hunting that Esav used to bring him to eat, while Rivka loved Yaakov. There is no reason attached to Rivka’s love; she simply loved him. The rabbis cite this love as an example of ahavah she’einah teluya badavar, a love that, unlike Yitzhak’s, is

Vayitzak tze’akah gedolah umarah ad me’od. “He cried out an exceedingly great and bitter cry (Gen 27:34).” This is the Torah’s description of Esav’s reaction to the news that his brother Yaakov had stolen his blessing. We can rationalize Yaakov’s actions. He had in fact bartered for the first-born rights earlier in the parsha so

Avraham had many admirable characteristics, but he was not always the most attentive husband. His son, Yitzhak, on the other hand, now he was a good husband. Yitzhak’s response to Rivkah’s barrenness was quite different from Avraham’s response to Sarah’s. Yitzhak prays for her. What a novel concept! Avraham spends a parsha and a half waiting