5
Jan

The Character in the Storm Part Two

by Rabbi Simcha Weinberg in Portion of the Week

the-character-in-the-storm

We left off in “The Character in the Storm” with Rachel, having incorporated Jacob’s lessons (“Strength from Brokenness“) in her relationship with Leah, but wondering whether Leah understood Rachel’s message. I wonder whether Jacob was prepared for the storm that awaited him upon his return home. We must also see how Jacob incorporated the gains [...]

read more »

Share/Save/Bookmark

5
Jan

Vay’hi:-Zealotry and Tolerance by David Hazony

by developer in Portion of the Week

Protests-Israel-Religious-Secular

The time of patriarchs was reaching its end. Jacob was dying, and alongside his dictation of burial arrangements, he also gave final words to his twelve sons, words in which he would tell them “what will befall you in the end of days.” We usually read them as his final “blessings.” But in the case [...]

read more »

Share/Save/Bookmark

4
Jan

Haftarah-Vayechi-Reading the Text-David and Yoav I-Abner Part Four

by Rabbi Simcha Weinberg in Portion of the Week

David-Solomon-Deathbed-Balance

In our journey of “Balance,” “David, Yoav & Abner I,” “Part Two,” and, “Part Three,” we’ve been studying David’s opening charge to Solomon urging him to balance his dual roles as person and king (Be a Man). We have watched as Joab battles the king’s sense of balance, and how he was willing to place [...]

read more »

Share/Save/Bookmark

4
Jan

Haftarah-Vayechi-Reading the Text-David and Yoav I-Abner Part Three

by Rabbi Simcha Weinberg in Portion of the Week

David-Solomon-Deathbed-Balance

It is clear in “Balance,” “David, Yoav & Abner I,” and “Part Two,” that David’s opening charge to Solomon is to urge him to balance his dual roles as person and king (Be a Man). We’ve begun to see how Joab is anti-balance, and why David includes his instructions regarding Joab in his opening charge. [...]

read more »

Share/Save/Bookmark

4
Jan

Is Israeli Society Unraveling? by Caroline B. Glick

Protests-Israel-Religious-Secular

We have far more that unites us than separates us. If we focus on this, there is no force either within or without our society that can defeat us.
On balance, Israeli society is extremely healthy.
Unemployment is at record lows. At a time of global recession, the Israeli economy is growing steadily.
Israeli Jewish women have the [...]

read more »

Share/Save/Bookmark

4
Jan

Haftarah-Vayechi-Reading the Text-David and Yoav I-Abner Part Two

by Rabbi Simcha Weinberg in Portion of the Week

David-Solomon-Deathbed-Balance

In “Balance,” and “David, Yoav & Abner I,” we began to explain David’s opening charge to Solomon from his deathbed, urging him to balance his dual roles as person and king (Be a Man). We’ve seen how David dealt with Abner, but we still must explain his reaction to, and his instructions regarding, Joab.
We continue [...]

read more »

Share/Save/Bookmark

4
Jan

The Character in the Storm

by Rabbi Simcha Weinberg in Portion of the Week

the-character-in-the-storm

“Talents are better nurtured in solitude, but character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe).”
We have been accompanying Jacob as he traces backwards the steps of his life in this life-defining portion, “Jacob Lived,” as his mission to reverse the steps taken by those who distanced themselves from [...]

read more »

Share/Save/Bookmark

4
Jan

Haftarah-Vayechi-Reading the Text-David and Yoav I-Abner

by Rabbi Simcha Weinberg in Portion of the Week

David-Solomon-Deathbed-Balance

We concluded Part One wondering how David’s opening message of balance to Solomon bears on all the instructions that follow. We pay close attention to the way the prophet formats the text, where he places an open space, indicating a new topic, or a closed space, indicating a related topic. The following verses are included [...]

read more »

Share/Save/Bookmark

4
Jan

Haftarah-Vayechi-Reading the Text

by Rabbi Simcha Weinberg in Portion of the Week

David-Solomon-Joab-Abner-Balance

When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son. “I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, become a man, and observe what God your Lord requires: Walk in His ways, and guard preciously His decrees and commands, His [...]

read more »

Share/Save/Bookmark

4
Jan

Power of Softness

by Rabbi Simcha Weinberg in Portion of the Week

Joseph-the-Child

“Softness triumphs over hardness, gentleness over strength .
The flexible is superior over at the immovable.
This is the principle of controlling things by going along with them,
of mastery through adaptation (Lao-Tzu).”
“Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years, and the years of his life were a hundred and forty-seven. When the time drew near for Israel to die, [...]

read more »

Share/Save/Bookmark

Google Analytics integration offered by Wordpress Google Analytics Plugin