Here is a verse on which I have never commented before: “These were the descendants of Seir the Horite who were settled in the land: Lotan, and Shoval, Tzivon Anah. Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan”(Gen.36:20f). I know! How have I allowed such a scintillating text to escape examination? Perhaps I have been distracted by Jacob’s midnight…
Category: VaYishlah
We have so much: VaYishlah 5779
How much do you have? That question is never purely objective nor purely subjective. Whether discussing physical assets like money and possessions or social assets such as honor and power, our sense of wealth depends both on personal need and comparison to the possessions of others. Do we answer the question in reference to our…
Diminished by Fear: VaYishlah 5778
Jacob is afraid to die. He is also afraid to kill, at least according to the Midrashic reading of Genesis 32:8, with its two verbs, he was afraid, and he was anguished. Bereshit Rabba explains, “he was afraid that he would kill [Esau], and anguished that he would be killed.” But even more, Jacob is…
Sweetening the Bitter Waters: VaYishlah 5776
Between the split sea and the fiery mountain, Israel is a wounded, frightened people. True, they have been emancipated from four centuries of enslavement, but they are not entirely free. Like many who have endured trauma, they are prone to extreme reactions, rejoicing with song at the sea, but exploding with bitter complaints and accusations just…
Two Camps of Contemporary Jewry: VaYishlah 5775
“And Jacob split the people with him…into two camps…saying ‘if Esau comes upon one camp and smites it, the other camp will be a remnant.’” The ancient sages discerned that Jacob prepared for his fraught fraternal encounter with three strategies—with gifts, with prayer and with battle preparations. He sent generous gifts to placate Esau, he…
Dina, the Dangerous Sister: Vayishlah 5774
If you could write a subtitle for the book of Genesis, what would it be? My entry would be Genesis: Oh, Brother! That’s because brothers, and the fraught relationships between them, are the beams upon which the structure of this book is built. Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, and of course…
Rabbi Danny Nevins 