“Toldot,” meaning generations, immediately begins with the stories about Jacob and Esau. They are destined to be eternal rivals. This week’s sedrah is really about Jacob, and the next twenty

Our Torah portion is usually translated as the “life of Sarah,” but these opening verses actually deal with the death of the matriarch, Sarah. She is old in numbers, but

Our Torah portion begins with Abraham at the door of his tent, about to encounter three “men,” or strangers. The question is, who are these visitors, are they human or

Our Torah portion begins with the essential purpose for which the entire Hebrew Bible was written. It begins to trace the saga of the people of Israel, known as the

This entire Torah portion is given over to the adventures of Noah, one of the early humans on the earth. The purpose of these chapters is phenomenology. It seeks to

We begin our cycle of Torah readings this Shabbat, having completed the festival of Sukkot. Certainly we all know the opening words of Genesis, “in the beginning God created the