THE END OF POVERTY “If you shall lend silver to My people, to the poor who is with you, you shall not be a creditor to him, you shall not impose upon him interest.” (Shmot 22:24) ‘Poverty alleviation’ is a phrase that one often hears in South...

BE A SPORT! “The Lord said to Moshe: Until when do you refuse to observe My commandments and My laws? See that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore, He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Remain each man where he...

AHA! “Yosef said to his brothers: I am Yosef, does my father still live? And his brothers could not answer him because they were alarmed before him.” (Bereishit 45:3) Yosef’s brothers had experienced several months of extreme anxiety and uncertainty. When they initially travelled to Egypt to...

TAKING INITIATIVE “Pharaoh said to his servants: Can we find someone like this, a man in whom there is the spirt of God?” Pharaoh said to Yosef: After God has disclosed all this to you, there is none as insightful and wise as you.” (Bereishit 41:38-39) The...

AWAY FROM HOME There is a Talmudic dictum about the unpredictability of life, in general, and the fate of man, in particular.  The sages remarked that one's position can change suddenly, m'igra rama l'beira amikta, from a high roof to a deep pit. In the case...

AN UNUSUAL TEACHER “Then Yaakov sent messengers ahead of him to Esau his brother to the land of Seir, the field of Edom. He charged them, saying: “Thus shall you say, ‘To my lord, to Esau, so said your servant Yaakov: I have sojourned with Lavan...

SPINNING THE STORY Our father, Yaakov, was not blessed with the nicest father-in-law. From the first time Yaakov met Lavan until they parted ways some two decades later, the third patriarch was subjected to cheating, swindling and lies.  Perhaps the finest example of Lavan's unscrupulous behaviour...

SIBLING RIVALRY “The Lord said to her: Two peoples are in your wombs, and two nations shall be separated from your innards. One nation will prevail over the other nation and the elder shall serve the younger.” (Bereishit 25:23) During her difficult pregnancy, Rivkah set out to...

BIG DAY, BIGGER PRICE TAG “Yitzchak brought her (Rivkah) into the tent of his mother Sarah. He took Rivkah, she became his wife and he loved her. Yitzchak was comforted after his mother.” (Bereishit 24:67) After dedicating more than sixty verses discussing how Rivkah came to be...

NONE SO BLIND AS THOSE WHO WILL NOT SEE “They had not yet lain down when the townspeople, the people of Sodom, converged upon the house, from young to old, all the people from every quarter. And they called out to Lot and said to him,...