Parsha Vayishev: A Little of the Torah Barleycorn

Hello from the heart of darkness… Ok, maybe I am exaggerating, but we are coming into the darkest week of the year, the week of the new moon closest to the winter solstice.  And what do the children of Yisrael (Israel) do during the darkest week?  They light candles! Now perhaps I should have saved this intro for the shabbat that falls during the week of Hanukah, but I couldn’t resist using it here.  We’ll see how it fits into … Continue reading

Parsha Vayichi: Communicating for Life

I hope everybody is doing well.  This week we finish the book of Genesis or Breisheit as it is referred to in Hebrew.  We also saw the end of Jacob/Israel and Yoseph.  Before Israel passes from us, however, he does give us some final pointers on how to interact with people. The parsha (weekly Torah portion) starts out with Yaakov/Jacob knowing he is near death and so he asks his son Yoseph to swear to bury him at the ancestral … Continue reading