Jacob stands alone in the darkness by the river Jabbok, that narrow tributary of the Jordan where heaven once opened to him in a dream . Now the night feels far heavier. The promises of God seem distant, muffled by…
Vayetze – Finding Our Rosebud
Listen to an audio version The movie Citizen Kane has been voted by many film academies and publications to be the greatest American movie of all time. Though the film’s cinematography was cutting edge in 1941, it is certainly not…
Toldot – Fast Food vs. Soul Food
The story of Jacob and Esau is really a story about appetite, purpose, and the lifelong tension between living for the moment and living for meaning. Their struggle begins before they are born. Rebecca, feeling the chaos in her womb,…
Chayei Sarah – Snapshots of a Life Well-Lived
The Torah portion Chayei Sarah—“the life of Sarah”—begins with Sarah’s death. The contrast is deliberate. The Torah’s concern is not merely with the end of her days but with the meaning of her days. It records Abraham’s memorialization of Sarah’s…
Vayera – A Rock Feels No Joy
Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel once sang, I am a rock, I am an island. And a rock feels no pain, and an island never cries. In those few lines, they captured something hauntingly prophetic — the isolation of…
Lech Lecha – Faith, Covenant, and Risk
I’ve lived in the same house since 1997. My wife and I have raised our family there. We’ve filled it with books, photos, memories, and plenty of things we probably should’ve thrown out years ago. And the thought of moving —…