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,...

P.T.S.D. On Tuesday night, I attended an event honouring former Hamas hostage, Noa Agramani. It took place at the Gardens Shul which was packed to capacity with a wide range of members of the Cape Town Jewish community. Noa is a softly-spoken, unpretentious young lady who...

THE GREAT DEFENDER There is a famous teaching in Pirkei Avot (5:2) concerning the first twenty generations of mankind: “There were ten generations from Adam to Noah, in order to make known how long-suffering He is; for all those generations kept on provoking Him, until He...

SHEMINI ATZERET Even though Shemini Atzeret is attached to Sukkot and its name means ‘an assembly/gathering on the eighth day [from the beginning of Sukkot]’, it is, in fact, a festival in its own right. This is indicated by the fact that the mitzvoth of the...