Yaakov has to run away from home because of Esav’s threat to kill him. But Rivkah knows that if she says that to her husband he might not believe her because of his bias towards to his first born. So, she uses the argument that to find a wife for Yaakov, he, like his father before him has to go…
Author: Jeremy Rosen
Genetic Engineering
Jacob worked for twenty one years for Lavan. During that time, he had eleven sons from two wives and two concubines. Having worked for Lavan all this time as a shepherd in charge of Lavan’s flocks, Jacob approached him with a proposition that would not cost Lavan, but could enrich Jacob. He asked for nothing. All he requested was that…
Idos
When Jacob took his family and fled from Lavan, Rachel stole the teraphim Lavan’s household gods. When Lavan pursues them and catches them up he is furious at being betrayed. Why, he asked, didn’t you let me know in advance? I would have given you goodbye party, sent you on your way with celebrations, I could have kissed you all…
No Sir, She is not my Wife. She is my Sister
The Torah repeats three times with variations, a narrative twice about Sarah and once of Rivkah being taken into a King’s harem because their husbands say they were sisters not wives. The first time, in Genesis Chapter 12, tells how Avram and his entourage had to go down to Egypt because of a famine. He fears that there, they will…
Esav
Here’s a quote from Shakespeare’s The Tempest “ Good wombs have borne bad sons.” I can’t think of a more apposite quote for this week’s Torah reading. Rivkah produced twins, one good, Yaakov, and the other bad Esav. Both had the same parents, the same upbringing and yet they turned our very differently. Shakespeare’s day it was an argument between…
Deception
How can we revere a man like Jacob, Yaakov, who, it seems from the text of the Torah, cheated his own father? The Torah after all puts respecting one’s parents before all the other ethical rules for human behavior! Yet the fact is that Yaakov only acted because his mother insisted. He kept on repeating that this was deceptive, that…