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The Muscle Esau Never Built

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Thoughts on Parashat Toldot 5786

Parashat Toldot… Toldot means “Generations”And if you’re talking about generations… You’re talking about a whole lot of drama. So we have a plot, an unethical plot for many commentators, then the reaction to it – anger, fear, reward, punishment… and some would say that some sort of karma. I will focus only on the beginning of the story today: Jacob, Esau and the birthright takeover. Long story short: Two brothers, Jacob and Esau, started to wrestle with each other already inside their mother’s womb, so violently that she cried. God told her “two nations are struggling within your body, two peoples already divided, the elder destined to serve the younger.” They struggle during their birth; then they grow up and become opposite characters, Esau a rugged, impulsive hunter; Jacob a calm, quiet tent-dweller, a kind of social intellectual.[…]

Death and Legacy in a Secular Age

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Thoughts on Parashat Chayei Sarah 5786

The opening verse of Parashat Chayei Sarah is stark: “Sarah’s lifetime—the years of Sarah’s life—came to 127 years” (Gen. 23:1). The repetition of “life” is not redundancy; it is reverence. Sarah dies, and the Torah pauses to count every year, as if to say: this life mattered, and its end demands attention. Immediately, Abraham rises to secure a burial place. He does not mourn in abstraction; he acts. He negotiates, pays, and purchases the Cave of Machpelah from Ephron the Hittite for four hundred shekels of silver—full price, publicly weighed, legally binding (Gen. 23:16–18).[…]

Finding Meaning in Creation’s Rhythm

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Thoughts on Parashat Bereshit 5786

As we open the Torah to Parashat Bereshit (Genesis 1:1–6:8) in 5786, we are invited to reflect on the very act of creation—a divine process that brings order from chaos and imbues the world with purpose. The Talmud, in Shabbat 119b, teaches us that “the Sabbath gives meaning to the work of creation.” This insight, rooted in Genesis 2:1–3 where God rests on the seventh day, frames the Sabbath not merely as a pause but as the culmination and purpose of the six days of creation. The Sabbath transforms the act of making into an act of meaning, offering a profound counterpoint to a worldview that sees the universe as devoid of purpose. In this D’var Torah, we explore how Bereshit’s vision of creation, crowned by Shabbat, reveals a universe infused with divine order, human purpose, and the delicate balance of chaos and stability.[…]