Torah

Brotherhood’s Apex: Soviet Jewry March

Vayeshev, Genesis 37:1-40:23

By:

Rabbi Mark Robbins

Twenty-five years after freedom, our local Russian-speaking Jewish community remains strikingly separate — culturally, educationally, religiously and geographically. It’s time for Philadelphians to take the next step in bringing brothers together.

Torah

Who Is Israel? He Is a ‘God-Wrestler’

VAYISHLACH, Genesis 32:4 - 36:43

By:

Rabbi Adam Zeff

In this week’s Torah portion, a momentous event occurs. The patriarch Jacob is renamed “Israel,” and the Jewish people, as Jacob’s descendants, become the “Children of Israel.”

History & Nostalgia

The Secret Life of Letters

Decoding the Torah through gematria

By:

Melissa Jacobs, Inside Feature

If God wrote you a letter, would you read it? Well, God did, and you have. The letter is the Torah. For centuries, Jews have been reading the Torah again and again, poring through its stories, its heroes and villains, its messages and meanings. What about the language in which the letter is written? What about the Hebrew alphabet? The...

Torah

Holding Up a Mirror to Our Own Journeys

VAYEITZEI, Genesis 28:10-32:3

By:

Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell

This week, we continue making our way through Genesis, reacquainting ourselves with the foundational stories of our ancestors. This time it’s the compelling tale of Jacob, twin to Esau. The two are the sons of Isaac and Rebekah, the grandsons of Abraham and Sarah.

Torah

A Great Patriarch, Yes, but as a Parent?

TOLEDOT, Genesis 25:19-28:9

By:

Rabbi Joshua Runyan

Depending on how you look at it, Isaac, of all the Patriarchs, was the greatest. At age 37, says the Talmud, he allowed himself to be offered as a sacrifice by his father Abraham. And as attested to by this week’s portion, he spent most of his “career” re-establishing the wells his father had dug, cementing Abraham’s legacy in the...