Menachem Mirski PhD

In my reflection on the previous parashah, I presented Joseph as a sensitive person, traumatized and torn by emotions. In this week’s reflection, I will focus a different aspect of his character. Joseph is of course torn by strong emotions, but at the same time, as we learn from these parashot, he is also often […]

Imagine yourself at 25. Just out of college, perhaps: learning how to cook something that isn’t spaghetti, maybe with an unfortunate tattoo or some bell bottoms… now imagine yourself again, at 25, but instead of bell bottoms you are wearing a lusciously soft and brightly colored robe. You are walking through warm sand with your […]

And Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is coming up to Timnah for the sheepshearing.” So she took off her widow’s garb, covered her face with a veil, and, wrapping herself up, sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, yet she […]

Thoughts on Parashah Vayishlach Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, and instructed them as follows, “Thus shall you say, ‘To my lord Esau, thus says your servant Jacob: I stayed with Laban and remained until now; I have acquired cattle, asses, sheep, and male […]

“Thereupon Jacob put his children and wives on camels; and he drove off all his livestock and all the wealth that he had amassed, the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan. Meanwhile Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and […]

In Parashat Toledot we see yet another of the stories for which Genesis, Bereshit, is so famous. You’re probably familiar with the basics of the story– Yitzhak and Rivka have two sons, the firstborn Ezav and the second-born Yaakov. Ezav is a man of the land, favored by Yitzhak , while Yaakov is described as […]