“Shalom,” our word for wholeness, is the ultimate goal of a life lived with individuation. Through it, a person comes to ...

This week’s portion of Vayeshev introduces us to Joseph, the beloved first-born son of Rachel and Jacob, whose personality will dominate the last five portions of Genesis. Yet strangely, Chapter 38 ...

Jacob is playing outright favorites through his unabashed preference for Joseph (“Now Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons…” Gen 37:3). Joseph associates only with the sons of the maidservants ...

There is a story in the scriptures whose background is based on a particular directive from the Lord our God, which reads: “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no sons, the wife ...

The story of Judah and Tamar shows us the power of admitting when we are wrong. The narrative concerning Judah and Tamar in Chapter 38 of this week’s parish, Vayeshev, seems to be an interruption in ...

I the latter half of the book of Genesis, the two major figures are Joseph and Judah. Although most of the emphasis, both in the text and the commentaries, focuses upon the story of Joseph, it is the ...

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This week's Torah portion (Vayechi) tells the story of Jacob's final conversation with his children. In astonishing candidness, moving prose, and profound vision, Jacob speaks to each of his sons, ...

I just finished reading “The Other Einstein” by Marie Benedict, published in 2016. How disturbing was this depiction of Albert Einstein’s first wife and collaborator, Mileva Maric, a brilliant ...