Vayeshev, וַיֵּשֶׁב

Vayeshev, וַיֵּשֶׁב
And He Settled
37:1-40:23

ESSAY: Learning To Surf Like Yosef (Parashat Vayeshev)

Yosef has a difficult life, but he doesn’t seem to suffer through it like his father Yaakov.  He seems to ride the ups and downs with equanimity, grace and success.    How We Navigate the Pits Consider the image of the pit.  Yosef is thrown into the pit first by his brothers and later by Potiphar, […]

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MEDITATION: Learning To Surf Like Yosef (Parashat Vayeshev)

Yosef has a difficult life, but he doesn’t seem to suffer through it like his father Yaakov. He seems to ride the up and down waves with equanimity, balance and steadiness. In this meditation, we explore this capacity of Yosef’s and try it on for ourselves, looking at Yosef’s trust and sense of perpetual connection

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ESSAY: Crying with the Inconsolable (Parashat Vayeshev)

Dedicated to the memory of Gavriella Bader, z”l, a caring friend to my children and a beautiful human being. May her memory be a blessing, as her life was a blessing. Yaakov is inconsolable at what he thinks is his son Yosef’s death.  His children come to comfort him and vayema’en lehitnahem, “he refuses to

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MEDITATION: Crying with the Inconsolable (Parashat Vayeshev)

This meditation is dedicated to the memory of Gavriella Bader, z”l, a caring friend to my children and a beautiful human being. May her memory be a blessing, as her life was a blessing, and may the family be comforted by God among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem. In this meditation we consider Yaakov’s

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SHORT ESSAY: Becoming a Vessel (Chanukah and Parashat Vayeshev)

(Originally published in December 2020) The Chanukah menorah is a kli, a vessel, to hold the oil or the candles that bring light into the world.    Light needs a container.  In order for blessing to enter this world, it needs a container.    In the book of Kings (II Kings 4), when a destitute woman

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SHORT ESSAY: On Seeking Brotherhood (Parashat Vayeshev)

Et Ahai Anokhi Mevakesh. “It is my brothers that I am seeking,” says Yosef to the mysterious “man” who helps him along his way when he is sent out by his father to check on his brothers. This statement seems a deep truth about the Yosef story as a whole. The seeking of brotherhood drives

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SHORT ESSAY: Hope at the Bottom of the Pit (Parashat Vayeshev)

How quickly and how far does the family of Yaakov descend in this parsha! Hatred festers unchecked among the brothers, and turns to violence against Yosef who is thrown down into a pit and sold “down” to Egypt as a slave. The Torah draws a parallel between this descent of Yosef’s (hurad) and that of

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