Jacob then made a vow, saying, “If God remains with me, if He protects me on this journey that I am making, and gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and if I return safe to my father’s house — Adonai shall be my God. And this stone, which I have set up [...]
In the early lines of parashat Toledot, Yitzchak pleads with God because his wife Rivka has not yet conceived. God responds, the text tells us, to this plea; Rikva does conceive — but she feels the dangerous struggle in her womb, and she says, “If so, why do I exist?”
The story continues from there [...]
Sarah’s lifetime — the span of Sarah’s life — came to one hundred and twenty-seven years. Sarah died in Kiriath-arba — now Hebron — in the land of Canaan; and Abraham proceeded to mourn for Sarah and to bewail her. Then Abraham rose from beside his dead, and spoke to the Hittites, saying, “I am [...]
At the very beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Vayera, God appears to Abraham by the terebinths of Mamre, immediately on the heels of Abraham’s circumcision. (Well, we read about one right after the other. Though one exegetical principle holds that Torah needn’t necessarily be read in a linear way, the simple linear reading [...]
“Go you forth,” “Go out of your land” (or maybe “Go to yourself”) — so begins this week’s parsha, Lekh Lekha. God calls Abraham forth to leave what’s familiar and comfortable to him — his origin, his roots, his old patterns of behavior and belief — and to venture forth into an unknown world, to [...]
BS”D
A version of the d’var Torah I gave over last Shabbes in St Paul:
Parshat No’ach
B’reyshit/Genesis 6:9 states:
àÅìÌÆä, úÌåÉìÀãÉú ðÉçÇ–ðÉçÇ àÄéùÑ öÇãÌÄé÷ úÌÈîÄéí äÈéÈä, áÌÀãÉøÉúÈéå: àÆú-äÈàÁìÉäÄéí, äÄúÀäÇìÌÆêÀ-ðÉçÇ.
Eyleh tol’dot No’ach — No’ach ish tzadiq tamim hayah, be-dorotav; et-ha-El@him, hit’halekh-No’ach
These are the generations of No’ach. No’ach was a man righteous and whole-hearted in his generation; [...]