Words Fail Me
Jan 16, 2026 By Jan Uhrbach | Commentary | Va'era
That is the way the Zohar (the foundational text of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism) understands our exile in Egypt: as the exile of speech, a failure of words. In this reading, the breakdown of speech is both cause and effect of our enslavement, while healing and redeeming speech鈥攆inding our voice鈥攊s both the process and hallmark of redemption.
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Hearing the Cry: Miriam, Pharaoh鈥檚 Daughter, and Moral Courage
Jan 9, 2026 By Naomi Kalish | Commentary | Shemot
At times of difficulty, uncertainty, and strife, I often find comfort and courage in stories, especially stories about people who connect and transform or resolve conflict. This week鈥檚 parsha, Shemot (Exodus 1:1-6:1), gives me such a story of hope in its portrayal of the relationship between two people from groups in conflict.
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Pictures at a Benediction: Envisioning Jacob鈥檚 Blessing of his Sons
Jan 2, 2026 By Eliezer B. Diamond z”l | Commentary | Vayehi
what did Jacob鈥檚 bedchamber look like when the brothers came to receive their final blessings鈥攁nd curses? (Gen. 49) I have found numerous artistic renderings, but two in particular caught my attention because of how differently they paint the scene.
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A Song of Hope
Dec 26, 2025 By Burton L. Visotzky | Commentary | Vayiggash
In a curious foreshadowing of the book of Exodus, in this week鈥檚 Torah reading (Gen. 46:8) we read, 鈥淰e鈥檈leh shemot鈥擳hese are the names of the children of Israel who came into Egypt . . .鈥� This is verbatim the same report as the opening verse of the book of Exodus. But there, the names are limited only to Jacob鈥檚 actual sons, and the full enumeration of their own offspring is absent.
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A Light for One, a Light for a Hundred
Dec 19, 2025 By Marcus Mordecai Schwartz | Commentary | Miketz | Hanukkah
When I look at the Prato Haggadah in our exhibition at the Grolier Club, I think of the man who once protected it. His name was Ludwig Pollak. Born in Prague in 1868, Pollak became one of Rome鈥檚 leading Jewish scholars of classical art. He directed the Museo Barracco, advised the Vatican鈥檚 archaeological collections, and […]
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Judah and Tamar: Writing the Story
Dec 12, 2025 By Judith Hauptman | Commentary | Vayeshev
One of the most gripping stories in the entire Bible appears in this week鈥檚 parashah. Chapter 38, a self-contained unit, interrupts the ongoing Joseph saga to tell the story of Judah and Tamar.
The chapter opens with the somewhat strange statement that Judah leaves his brothers, meets up with Hirah the Adulamite, and there, in Adulam, finds himself a wife of Canaanite stock. He thereby violates God鈥檚 warning to the patriarchs to avoid Canaanite women (Gen. 24:3,聽28:1). Judah鈥檚 wife bears him three sons. He marries off his first son, Er, to Tamar. No information is provided about her lineage. Er dies because he was 鈥渄ispleasing to the Lord鈥� (v. 7).
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Jacob鈥檚 Fear
Dec 5, 2025 By Arnold M. Eisen | Commentary | Vayishlah
The Torah wants us to identify with the ancestors we meet in the book of Genesis; indeed, Abraham and Sarah and their children become our ancestors when we agree not only to read their stories, but to take them forward. Abraham 鈥渂egat鈥� Isaac in one sense by supplying the seed for his conception. He 鈥渂egat鈥� him as well by shaping the life that Isaac would live, setting its direction, digging wells that his son would re-dig, making Isaac鈥檚 story infinitely more meaningful鈥攁nd terrifying鈥攂y placing him in the line of partners with God in covenant. So it is with us. Nowhere is this impact of the ancestors more obvious than in the case of Jacob, who in this week鈥檚 parashah receives the name by which we heirs to the covenant call ourselves to this day: Israel. The ancestors are us, if we accept the Torah鈥檚 invitation to make them so. We are them: the latest chapter in the story that they lived and bequeathed to us, and which we have chosen to live and bequeath to others.
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