Vayechi

There is spaciousness in these words, the spaciousness of dropping what we are doing and suddenly turning toward God amidst it all. (Click image to read more)

What if, the next time you are sad or hurt or angry, you paused and reflected on the essential aliveness of these feelings, the way they feel intense and living inside you . . . .? (Click image to read more)

The two parshiyyot in the book of Breishit whose topic is death are both called by names that indicate life: Hayei Sarah, in which Sarah, Avraham and Ishmael die, and this week’s parsha, Vayehi, in which Yaakov dies. At the very moment that we acknowledge that these ancestors died, we also proclaim something about their lives, something

On his death-bed, Yaakov gives the following blessing to his grandchildren, Menasheh and Efraim: The God before whom my fathers Avraham and Yitzhak walked,The God who has been my shepherd from my birth to this day,The Angel who has redeemed me from all harm—–Bless the lads [Hebrew, ne’arim].In them may my name be recalled,And the names of my