Why did Moses tell Pharaoh, if not a lie, then less than the full truth? Here is the conversation between him and Pharaoh after the fourth plague,   arov , “swarms of insects”: … more

M oses’ second question to G-d at the Burning Bush was, “Who are You?” He asks G-d in the following way: So I will go to the Israelites and say, “Your fathers’ G-d … more

At almost every stage of the fraught encounter between Joseph and his family in Egypt, Joseph weeps. There are seven scenes of tears: 1. When the brothers came before him in Egypt for the first … more

One of the most fundamental questions about the Torah turns out to be one of the hardest to answer. What, from G-d’s calling to Abraham in Genesis 12 to the death of Joseph in Genesis 50, is … more

Why is Jacob the father of our people, the hero of our faith? We are “the congregation of Jacob,” “the children of Israel.” Yet it was Abraham who began the Jewish journey, … more

A passage from the Haggadah on Pesach — evidently based on this week’s parsha, Vayetzei — is extraordinarily difficult to understand: Go and learn what Laban the Aramean sought … more

Ten years ago, when the National Library of Israel’s new facility was in its initial planning stages, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks put forward a controversial proposal. He suggested that important … more

It is the deep, reverberating question at the heart of Toldot. Why did Rebecca tell Jacob to deceive Isaac and take Esau’s blessing? Her instruction is brisk and peremptory: Now, my son, … more

One of the most striking features about Judaism in comparison with, say, Christianity or Islam, is that it is impossible to answer the question: Who is the central character of the drama of faith? … more

There is an image that haunts us across the millennia, fraught with emotion. It is the image of a man and his son walking side-by-side across a lonely landscape of shaded valleys and barren hills. … more