This is perhaps the most dramatic narrative in the entire Torah. Why did Yosef suddenly conclude the charade?
In the end, Rachel and Leah are is not a competition, but a single system.
Last week we celebrated Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights - which is all about Miracles. Why are miracles so important? Watch and find out.
Eight Jews stood in a Soviet courtroom like upright candles and declared their loyalty to the Jewish people. It happened during the dark days of Communism when that could mean exile to Siberia or worse. A true story.
There is really no way to leave a state of depression unless one has the courage and boldness to dedicate their energies to developing and honing their talents and doing something worthwhile for society.
We are now in transition, from Hannukah, the holiday of light and celebration, to a day of fasting and mourning. How do we do that?
The primary role of the members of the Tribe of Levi is to lead the army spiritually, and see to its disciplined behavior.
As in Miketz, after two years of war, we look back and glance at what is happening. It feels like a dream. And it goes on - like a prophecy.
In Judaism, there is a core and ancient teaching that we should strive to learn an important lesson from every experience in our lives, especially when that experience is connected to a significant and Divinely inspired holiday like Hanukkah. What we learn from olive oil.
There is no guarantee that our enemies will no longer attack us here in Israel - but at least their sadistic joy is guaranteed to be short-lived and thoroughly repaid. And one day we will sing a Psalm for the coming of Mashiach.
Hanukkah does not offer simple answers, nor does it lessen the pain. It asks something deeper of us: to hold on to faith even when matters are unclear and the Hand of G-d seems concealed.
The interpreter has a key function in the realization of a dream: his analysis can determine how the dream will come to pass.
We already know that everything that was created with man, was worthy of existing - except for the foreskin, as the Torah commanded us to remove it.
There are three awe-inspiring similarities between Yosef and the Hanukkah lights, starting with his name.
The prophet does not deny the danger. He transcends it.
When Mashiach comes, we will realize that we are currently in a dream. Our life is a living paradox, yet it seems to make sense to us as if it were normal.
From the Yeshiva's Beit Midrash in the Arab Quarter (actually the Old Jewish Quarter) of the Old City, Rabbi Aviner talks about miracles, why we don't say Hallel on Purim, and more.
Someone asked me if there is any way that we can forgive the Australian government and what it would take for them to regain trust of Australian Jewry. So, let’s talk about Yosef.
What was the real conflict?
Grappling with questions of faith, forging a heightened awareness of God’s presence in daily life, and making the Creator accessible to the tens of thousands of Jews who thirst for His voice must stand at the very top of our educational agenda, but it is not on this one.
Rashi explains in the name of the Sifrei that the light of God’s countenance “gives you grace.”
How should Yosef have dealt with the Chief Butler so that his plight would be remembered after interpreting the two prisoners' dreams?
The four letters on the dreidel are not the same in Israel and the Diaspora. They tell us something we should pay attention to.
It is all too easy to look around us and feel hopeless...
It's time for a Hanukkah that simply says: As a Jew, I am the inheritor of Jews who fought for the political independence of the Jewish state. I am a Zionist just like Judah the Maccabee. Op-ed.
When darkness strikes one corner of the Jewish world, the shadows are felt in the heart of every single Jew globally. Your pain is deeply, personally our pain.
Why does the blessing mention one light when we light an ascending number of candles on the holiday?
Words of encouragement for Hanukkah.
The Tanya compacts four millennia of Jewish wisdom to answer the great personal and existential questions of life. It has revolutionized the way we think about G -d the human soul, the world and our place in it.
The victory in war and the dedication of the altar are one and the same. And in our time we have been privileged to see both.
Numerous Kohanim and the Levites participated in the wars of Israel. Even before they participated in wars as regular soldiers, they led the soldiers of Israel in their fighting.
The eternal challenge of Jewish leadership is knowing when to stand firm and when to acknowledge reality, when to pursue the ideal and when compromise is necessary.
Rav Yitzchok Hutner's thoughts on the significance of the Maccabees' victory over the Greeks: 'The rekindling of the Temple Menorah on Hanukkah represents a new era of Torah transmission.'
“Peace will prevail in the future,” Rabbi Kook concludes, “when people come to recognize clearly that all of the different, individual lights are truly one single light." And who would lead them?
Why did Joseph go to the brothers he knew hated him - and why did Jacob send him, knowing the same?
Sometimes what I perceive to be good for me could actually be bad, and what I think is bad could actually be something absolutely extraordinary for me.
The many impure sources of Redemption are a defense against the Satan - the adversary, whose purpose is to prevent the Redemption from coming into the world.
The Parsha shows us how individuals can go astray, The Haftorah shows us how nations do.
Yaakov thought there was no need for a future exile after all he had gone through. The Medrash explains.
The prophet Jeremiah brings G-d's comforting words to Mother Rachel, but how can she find comfort when the promise of redemption is far into the future?
The point of the Torah is not that great people are saints who never do wrong. They are ordinary humans who are imperfect beings and capable of serious mistakes.
In this parasha, we learn about Judah, the leader of the tribe that will give the Israelites the kingdom of David and ultimately, the Messiah.
A disagreement does not undo our connection. A quarrel cannot touch the neshamah within.
The Tanya compacts four millennia of Jewish wisdom to answer the great personal and existential questions of life. It has revolutionized the way we think about G -d the human soul, the world and our place in it.
G-d assured Yaakov that Eisav’s rule will eventually end. All Yaakov had to do was to ascend the ladder in his dream himself, and he would prevent this version of history from ever happening. Yet Yaakov refused to ascend the ladder.
The Maggid of Mezritch's yahrzeit is also the day the Alter Rebbe was released from Czarist prison - and the day that, many years later, Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Neria, founder of the Bnai Akiva yeshiva network, returned his soul to his Maker. Here are their stories.
Look at Joseph and his brothers as a model. The spark of holiness within every Jewish soul can bring people back together no matter what their differences.
My Jewish brethren, come to Eretz Yisrael - here you will know that you are alive, living a life that is worthy of its name, in the land of life.
This day marks the “birth” of Chabad Chassidism, when the long-hidden secrets of Judaism emerged from the womb of mysticism to illuminate and transform the totality of Jewish life.
What defines Eisav? Is it the vicious Jew-hatred which has defined so much of Christian civilisation? Or is it the genuine Christian love and support for Jews and for Israel that we have seen, particularly in this current war?
According to many halakhic authorities, the Torah obligation for men is to wear tefillin every day for just a brief moment. Others argue that one is obligated to wear tefillin all day, as was customary in the time of the Mishnah and Talmud.
Read how the human brain-arguably the most complex physical structure in the known universe-reflects the same archetypal numerical framework that Jewish mysticism describes spiritually.
The brit is how we identify ourselves as Hashem’s people and is a symbol of our relationship with Him. And of what that signifies in our personal lives.
“And I Will Remove the Sin of That Land in One Day”
Every human being is invited into a hero’s journey, maybe not quite as dramatic as Yosef’s or the Maccabees,’ but equally holy.
The prohibition of gid ha-nasheh is meant to project a broad ethical aspiration, beyond the issue of how we should treat animals.
“For Israel Shall Be Your Name.”
Standing at the crossroads, the Torah reminds us that hatred of the Jew has never been cured by Jewish self-erasure. It has never been softened by Jewish timidity.
One of the greatest of all minchas is actually, the ring that the groom gives to a bride under the chuppah. In order to show that he loves and cares for her.
