A Jewish man studying Torah, despite the Nazi prohibition, Kovna Ghetto, Lithuania (1944)

 

Ramsés II

 

 

 Facial depiction of Ramses II (2022)

 

Vida

 

 

 

A wild Siberian tiger in Tianqiaoling forest area in north-east China’s Jilin province

 

Sepharad

 

 

"Origins of Sephardic Jewry", Henry Abramson (2017)

Rabbi David Wolpe

 

 

 

The Alice & Nahum Lainer Learning and Lunch with Rabbi Wolpe

Malka Simkovich

 

 

"Jews, Jesus and the Jerusalem Temple"

Zohar Atkins

This Wound Was Created For Me

The Price of Tradition Is Personal Confrontation

 

Every person should say: “The whole world was created for me.” (Likkutei Moharan 5:1)

When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he wrenched Jacob’s hip at its socket, so that the socket of his hip was strained as he wrestled with him…That is why the children of Israel to this day do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the socket of the hip, since Jacob’s hip socket was wrenched at the thigh muscle (gid hanashe). (Genesis 32:26-33)

If my father touches me, I shall appear to him as a trickster and bring upon myself a curse, not a blessing.” (Genesis 27:12)

Isaac said to Jacob, “Come closer (gisha na) that I may feel you, my son—whether you are really my son Esau or not.” (Genesis 27:21)

Jacob is a clever and multi-faceted man. First, he comes out holding his brother’s heel (for which he is so named). Then, he tricks his brother and father into letting him assume his brother’s place. Finally, in this week’s parasha, Vayishlach, he becomes himself, confronting his brother directly, wrestling with an angel, and receiving a new name. Jacob is no longer to be named “the guy who holds onto his brother” (Yakov) but instead “the guy who holds onto God” (Yisrael).

The story of Jacob’s transformation is one of the most powerful in the Torah. It is the story of wit humanized, of head heartened, of deceit made transparent to itself. Many commentators emphasize Esav’s objective fearsomeness, but the story points us to a different emphasis—Jacob is responsible for his own being regardless of the game theory of how his brother behaves. Jacob cannot be defined by Esau, his twin. His wrestling match which bestows him a new name, and which takes place when Jacob is l’vado, alone, suggests that winning a battle against Esav is itself a losing battle. “Competition itself is for losers.”

The text offers us a sonic clue. Isaac tells Jacob “gisha na” — come close — precisely when Jacob is pretending to be his brother. When Jacob is alone, by contrast, the angel wounds him in his gid ha nashe. As if to say that Jacob draws even closer, and truer, when he allows himself to be felt in his vulnerability. The fake drawing close to Isaac is contrasted with the genuine closeness of Jacob’s embrace of the angel. Why this parallel at all?

My hypothesis is drawn from the simple claim espoused by Nassim Taleb: People take more care when they have “skin in the game.” When Jacob pretends to be someone else he is less invested in the blessing he receives, and the covenant he inherits, because it doesn’t feel like his. To become its proper custodian he must make it his. He can only do this by accepting the blessing as his and not someone else’s. He can only do this by taking a new name, one that is defined in the positive rather than the negative, one that is defined by mutuality rather than inferiority. The dislocated hip socket is the sign of Israel’s skin in the game.

Julius Caesar is purported to have said, “If you want it to happen, go, if you don’t want it to happen, send.” Executives demonstrate their priorities by deciding what work not to delegate. Jacob begins the parasha with sending—he sends people and gifts ahead of himself to Esav. The word vayishlach means “he sent” and recurs with emphasis in the opening of the parasha. The irony is that the messengers Jacob sends are mediators. Yet the same word messenger (malach) can also mean angel. When Jacob wrestles with the angel he no longer mediates by sending; instead he confronts himself as both the messenger and the message. He goes himself. The malach transforms from decoy to alter ego, from source of distraction to site of recognition.

Why does Moses shatter the first set of stone tablets? Is it because he was angry? Is it because he felt the need to discipline the people for their idolatrous transgression? These common answers address the local problem, but there’s a macro-point to be made, too: Moses is less attached to the tablets that God has inscribed. The second time, Moses is the one to write the tablets. The second time, Moses has skin in the game. It is easy to lose someone else’s book, much harder to lose your own. Will we treasure a Torah that is only God’s? Or only a Torah belonging to a different generation? Or a particular school of thought? No. We will treasure it only when it is ours. Moses humanizes the Torah, further, a second time, making it palatable for life on earth. The first tablets, as it were, correspond to the blessing that is not ours. The second to the blessing that can become ours only if and when we become ourselves.

Jacob becomes Israel, suggesting a jump from the personal to the collective. But Jacob also teaches us that the collective known as Israel will only flourish when its members undergo their own personal journeys to claim their inheritance rather than default into it. In the end, the birthright doesn’t pass from Esau to Jacob, nor the blessing from Isaac to Jacob, until the name passes from the angel to Jacob. Cultural inheritance is not enough. We need to go to the mat, often engaging in intense turmoil, before it can become ours. Transmission isn’t merely a question for Isaac (which son merits the blessing?) but for Jacob (how do I make it mine?).

Kol haolam lo nivra ela bishvili— “The entire world was created for my sake.” Far from self-aggrandizing, this teaching means to say that the covenant of Abraham isn’t real until it is also my covenant, the blessing of Isaac isn’t real until it is my blessing, the name change of Jacob isn’t complete until it is my own name change. When we treat tradition as already decided, as a done deal, as an objective, static thing, we still treat it like the blessing of Esau. The tradition isn’t something that can be sold or bought for a bowl of lentils. It’s not something that can be traded for a dish of game. Tradition is a part of us. It is the wound we are awarded when we persevere.

Zohar Atkins, 'Etz Hasadeh'

 

 

Hanukkah

 

 

 

Archaeologists have uncovered a cache of 2,200-year-old silver coins near the Dead Sea, 

which they say is the first physical proof that Jews fled to the Judean Desert 

during the upheaval and persecution under Hanukkah villain Antiochus IV Epiphanes

 

Vida

 

 

 

A silky anteater in Chigorodó, Colombia, after being rescued by firefighters

 

Shabbat

 

 

 

Meaning & Methods of Prayer with Cantor Feldman | Class 4 (Beginning of Shabbat Morning)

Egipto

 

 

 

Mummy portrait found in Fayoum, Egypt (Ptolemaic-Roman Period)

Michael Wyschogrod

 

 

 

"God & The Chosen People: Exploring the Thought of Michael Wyschogrod" - 

Rabbi Dweck & Rabbi Meir Soloveichik

Kabbalah

 

 

 

"What is Kabbalah & What is is not?", Rabbi Mordechai Becher (2020)

 

Família

 

 

Wednesday Morning Torah with Rabbi Wolpe

 

 

וּלְקַחְתֶּ֞ם אֲגֻדַּ֣ת אֵז֗וֹב וּטְבַלְתֶּם֮ בַּדָּ֣ם אֲשֶׁר־בַּסַּף֒ וְהִגַּעְתֶּ֤ם אֶל־הַמַּשְׁקוֹף֙ וְאֶל־שְׁתֵּ֣י הַמְּזוּזֹ֔ת מִן־הַדָּ֖ם אֲשֶׁ֣ר בַּסָּ֑ף וְאַתֶּ֗ם לֹ֥א תֵצְא֛וּ אִ֥ישׁ מִפֶּֽתַח־בֵּית֖וֹ עַד־בֹּֽקֶר  

Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and to the two doorposts. None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning.

וְעָבַ֣ר יְהֹוָה֮ לִנְגֹּ֣ף אֶת־מִצְרַ֒יִם֒ וְרָאָ֤ה אֶת־הַדָּם֙ עַל־הַמַּשְׁק֔וֹף וְעַ֖ל שְׁתֵּ֣י הַמְּזוּזֹ֑ת וּפָסַ֤ח יְהֹוָה֙ עַל־הַפֶּ֔תַח וְלֹ֤א יִתֵּן֙ הַמַּשְׁחִ֔ית לָבֹ֥א אֶל־בָּתֵּיכֶ֖ם לִנְגֹּֽף 

For יהוה, when going through to smite the Egyptians, will see the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, and יהוה will pass over the door and not let the Destroyer enter and smite your home. 

Exodus 12:22-23

 

Vida

 

 

 

A snow leopard caught by a camera trap high up in the Indian Himalayas 

 

Shabbat

 

 

 

Meaning & Methods of Prayer with Cantor Feldman | Class 3 (Shabbat Evening Amidah)

Rebbes

 

"Three Radical Rebbes - Pshischa, Kotzk & Ishbitz", Rabbi Mordechai Becher

Rabbi Shai Held

 

 

"Standing Before God: Theology of the High Holidays"

 

 

 

"Three Minutes - A Lengthening" (Trailer)

 

 

 

"Deliver Us", The Prince of Egypt

 

Robert Alter

 

 

"A Life of Learning" (2013)

 

Futuro

 

 

 

"The Future of Judaism", Rabbi Jonathan Sacks" (2013)

 

Vida

 

 

 

A spotted orbweaver, or barn spider, photographed at midnight in a Neem treeat Tehatta, West Bengal, India

 

Egipto

 

 

Thebes under Ramesses II (c. 13th century BCE)

 

Rembrandt

 

 

"Abraham serving the angels" (1646) 

 

Paula Fredriksen

 

 

"When Christians were Jews: The First Generation" (2019)

 

Shabbat

 

 

 

Meaning & Methods of Prayer with Cantor Feldman | Class 2 (Shabbat Evening Service) 

 

הָלֹ֡ךְ וְֽקָרָ֩אתָ֩ בְאׇזְנֵ֨י יְרוּשָׁלַ֜͏ִם לֵאמֹ֗ר כֹּ֚ה אָמַ֣ר יְהֹוָ֔ה זָכַ֤רְתִּי לָךְ֙ חֶ֣סֶד נְעוּרַ֔יִךְ אַהֲבַ֖ת כְּלוּלֹתָ֑יִךְ לֶכְתֵּ֤ךְ אַֽחֲרַי֙ בַּמִּדְבָּ֔ר בְּאֶ֖רֶץ לֹ֥א זְרוּעָֽה 

I remember of you the kindness of your youth, your love when you were a bride; how you walked after Me in the desert, through a land not sown.

Jeremiah 2:2

 

Ben Shapiro

 

 

Lex Fridman

 

Vida

 

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks זצ״ל

 

 

2nd Yahrzeit (20 Marcheshvan, November 13-14)

 

Maimónides

 

 

 

 "Persecuting Ideas: The Case of Maimonides", Alan Mittleman

 

Kristallnacht

 

 

 

British Jews protest against immigration restrictions to Palestine after Kristallnacht (November 1938)

 

Kabbalat Shabbat

 

 

 

"Meaning & Methods of Prayer with Cantor Feldman | Class 1"

Yitzhak Rabin

 

 

(1922-1995)

 

Lion Feuchtwanger

 

Vida

 

 

The Indian pond heron, or paddybird 

 

Moshe Halbertal

 

 

 

"On the Fragility of the Human. Améry on Counter-Enlightenment"

 

כִּ֤י הֶהָרִים֙ יָמ֔וּשׁוּ וְהַגְּבָע֖וֹת תְּמוּטֶ֑ינָה וְחַסְדִּ֞י מֵאִתֵּ֣ךְ לֹא־יָמ֗וּשׁ וּבְרִ֤ית שְׁלוֹמִי֙ לֹ֣א תָמ֔וּט אָמַ֥ר מְרַחֲמֵ֖ךְ יְהֹוָֽה         

For the mountains may move
And the hills be shaken,
But my loyalty shall never move from you,
Nor My covenant of friendship be shaken
—said the LORD, who takes you back in love.

Isaiah 54:10

Avivah Zornberg

 

"Desire in the Wilderness" (2020)

 

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

 

 

"Confronting Violence in the Name of God" (2014)

 

Ruth Wisse

 

 

 

"Faith in America": Rabbi Meir Soloveichik in Conversation with Professor Ruth Wisse

Benjamin Sommer

 

 

"Written in Stone? Writing and Rewriting the Bible"

 

Vida

 

 

 

A female greater flameback (Chrysocolaptes guttacristatus) 

sits on a decaying moringa tree to eat insects in Tehatta, West Bengal, India

 

 

וַיִּגַּ֨שׁ אֵלִיָּ֜הוּ אֶל־כׇּל־הָעָ֗ם וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ עַד־מָתַ֞י אַתֶּ֣ם פֹּסְחִים֮ עַל־שְׁתֵּ֣י הַסְּעִפִּים֒ אִם־יְהֹוָ֤ה הָאֱלֹהִים֙ לְכ֣וּ אַחֲרָ֔יו וְאִם־הַבַּ֖עַל לְכ֣וּ אַחֲרָ֑יו וְלֹא־עָנ֥וּ הָעָ֛ם אֹת֖וֹ דָּבָֽר 

Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you keep hopping between two branches? If the LORD is God, follow Him; and if Baal, follow him!” But the people answered him not a word. 

1 Kings 18:22

Zion

 

 

 

 "The Return to Zion: From Ancient Times (Tanach) to Modern Israel", Tova Ganzel

Roma

 

 

Rome commemorates deportation of Jews in 1943

Christine Hayes

 

 

"How to Answer a Fool"

 

Bari Weiss

 

 

 

"Bari Weiss on Post-Mainstream Media Life and Her Battles in the Culture Wars"

Simchat Torah!

 

Vida

 

 

 

 White-eared bulbuls perch on a tree branch as the waxing gibbous moon rises in Kuwait City

 

Kohelet

 

 

"Lessons from Kohelet: A Succot Shiur", Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (2016)

Sucot!

 

Seganim

 

 

 

In the Life of Bevis Marks Synagogue, with Rabbi Shalom Morris

 

Yom Kippur

 

 

"Avivah Zornberg on the Book of Jonah"

 

Rosh Hashanah

 

 

"Believing in your life", Rabbi David Wolpe

 

Feliz Ano Novo!

 

Livros

 

 

 

"Blood Libels, Responsa, and a Pig Bible: Pinny Stieglitz's Private Collection"

 

Tefilah

 

 

 

"Meaning & Methods of Prayer with Cantor Feldman" | Class 3

 

Vida

 

 

A golden eagle in Scotland

 

Saul Kripke ז״ל

 

Moisés

 

 

"Moshe: Man of God, Man Among Men", Yael Ziegler

 

Animais

 

 

 

"Nonhuman Others: The Jerusalem Talmud on Animal Ethics", Alexander Weisberg

 

Tefilah

 

 

 

 Meaning & Methods of Prayer with Cantor Feldman | Class 2

 

"The U.S. and The Holocaust" de Ken Burns

 

 

 

Preview

 

9/11

 

וַיְהִ֥י דְבַר־יְהֹוָ֖ה אֵלַ֥י לֵאמֹֽר  

The word of the LORD came to me:

מַה־לָּכֶ֗ם אַתֶּם֙ מֹֽשְׁלִים֙ אֶת־הַמָּשָׁ֣ל הַזֶּ֔ה עַל־אַדְמַ֥ת יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל לֵאמֹ֑ר אָבוֹת֙ יֹ֣אכְלוּ בֹ֔סֶר וְשִׁנֵּ֥י הַבָּנִ֖ים תִקְהֶֽינָה  

What do you mean by quoting this proverb upon the soil of Israel, “Parents eat sour grapes and their children’s teeth are blunted”?

חַי־אָ֕נִי נְאֻ֖ם אֲדֹנָ֣י יֱהֹוִ֑ה אִם־יִהְיֶ֨ה לָכֶ֜ם ע֗וֹד מְשֹׁ֛ל הַמָּשָׁ֥ל הַזֶּ֖ה בְּיִשְׂרָאֵֽל  

As I live—declares the Lord GOD—this proverb shall no longer be current among you in Israel.

הֵ֤ן כׇּל־הַנְּפָשׁוֹת֙ לִ֣י הֵ֔נָּה כְּנֶ֧פֶשׁ הָאָ֛ב וּכְנֶ֥פֶשׁ הַבֵּ֖ן לִי־הֵ֑נָּה הַנֶּ֥פֶשׁ הַחֹטֵ֖את הִ֥יא תָמֽוּת

Consider, all lives are Mine; the life of the parent and the life of the child are both Mine. The person who sins, only he shall die.  

 

Ezekiel 18:1-5

Vida

 

 

Maasai Mara, Kenya

David Ben-Gurion

 

 

 

"David Ben-Gurion in War and Peace", Eliot Cohen

Mizrahi Book Store

 

 

 

"Inside the World’s Most Interesting Jewish Book Store", 18Forty

 

Matti Friedman

 

 

"Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai", with Abigail Pogrebin

Jacob Glatstein

 

 

וַיָּ֣בֹא נֹ֗חַ וּ֠בָנָ֠יו וְאִשְׁתּ֧וֹ וּנְשֵֽׁי־בָנָ֛יו אִתּ֖וֹ אֶל־הַתֵּבָ֑ה מִפְּנֵ֖י מֵ֥י הַמַּבּֽוּל

Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the Flood. 

Genesis 7:7

Hugo Bettauer

 

Vida

 

 

Swans at the ancient holy pond Guajhara, India

 

Ger

 

"The Problem with the Convert", Dr. David Kramer 

 

Mizrahi Book Store; Brooklyn, NY

 

 

 

"How Do You Organize 500,000 Books?" Inside Mizrahi Book Store (Part 1)

Elul

 

Arise from your slumber, you who are asleep ... turn in repentance and remember your Creator.

Mishneh Torah, Repentance 3:4

Babel

 

 

 

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"l speaking at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies Beit Midrash (2014)

 

Talmude

 

 

18Forty

 

"Three Minutes: A Lengthening" de Bianca Stigter

 

 

 

Trailer

 

Vida

 

 

A baby green turtle hatches on a beach in Samandağ, Turkey 

 

Azerbaijão

 

 

 

"Discover the centuries-old culture of Mountain Jews in Azerbaijan"

 

Alexandre o Grande

 

 

"Alexander, Was He Great?", Benjamin Levy (JTS)

 

 

 

לָֽמָּה־פָנֶ֥יךָ תַסְתִּ֑יר וְתַחְשְׁבֵ֖נִי לְאוֹיֵ֣ב לָֽךְ  

Why do You hide Your face,
And treat me like an enemy?

Job 13:24

 

Salmo 19

 

 

 

 "Finding God in Nature and Torah: Exploring Psalm 19", Rabbi Shai Held

 

Judaica

 

 

"Columbia Collected Judaica for Over 250 Years"

Vida

 

 

 

White Beluga whales swim near the Svalbard islands, Norway

 

Tisha B'Av

 

 

 Painted by Maurycy Trębacz (1903)

 

Ketubah

 

 

A Venetian Ketubbah

 

Pragas

 

 

 

"Ten Plagues on Pharaoh’s House: Why?", Yael Ziegler (2016)

 

Artscroll

 

 

"The Story of Rabbi Nosson Scherman" (2021)

 

Circuncisão

 

 

"The circumcision", Rembrandt (1630)

 

Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik

 

 

"The Appointment of Joshua" (1963)

Vida

 

 

Gould’s jewelfront hummingbird

 

Gershom Scholem

 

 

"The Religious Dimension of Judaism"

 

"From Where They Stood" de Christophe Cognet

 

 

 

Trailer

 

Uriel d'Acosta

 

 

 

"Uriel d'Acosta instructing the young Spinoza", Samuel Hirszenberg (1901)

Casamento

 

 

 

Wedding Ceremony among Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam (top) 

and Wedding Ceremony among German Jews (bottom), Bernard Picart (1740)

 

רבי אליעזר הקפר אומר הקנאה והתאוה והכבוד מוציאין את האדם מן העולם:

Rabbi Elazar HaKappar says, Jeolousy, desire, and glory remove a man from the world.

Mishna Avot 4:28

 

Lawrence Kushner

 

 

Shabbat Torah Study

Vida

 

 

 

A Guatemalan beaded lizard (Heloderma horridum charlesbogerti), 

an endemic lizard in danger of extinction, at the Niño Dormido municipal regional park. 

Niño dormido, or ‘sleeping child’, is one of the names by which the reptile is known

 

Moritz Daniel Oppenheim

 

 

"Shavuot" (1880)

 

Akedah

 

 

 

"Passion and Violence: The Sacrifice of Isaac as a Philosophical Story", Miriam Feldmann Kaye

 

Vel d’Hiv

 

 

16 and 17 July 1942

 

Benzion Netanyahu

 

Baal Shem Tov

 

 

 

 "A Fire in the Forest: The Life and Legacy of the Baal Shem Tov" (2012)

 

Rembrandt

 

 

 

“Saskia van Uylenburgh as Ruth”, Rembrandt (c. 1643)

 

Vida

 

 

An egret wades while hunting

 

James Caan ז״ל

 

 

(1971)

Sepharadim

 

 

 

"When Sepharadim met Ashkenazim: Philosophy & Kabbalah",  Moshe Halbertal

Avivah Zornberg

 

 

 

Book Launch: "The Hidden Order of Intimacy" | Avivah Zornberg, Ilana Kurshan

 

Ezequiel

 

 

 

“Ezekiel Kneeling by the Death Bed of His Wife”, William Blake (1793)