This is an adaptation of Looking Forward, a weekly email from our editor-in-chief sent on Friday afternoons. Sign up here to get the Forward’s free newsletters delivered to your inbox. I was thrilled ...
In this week’s Torah portion, Toldos, we are introduced to Jacob and Esau. On the surface, the story is one of sibling rivalry, but its mystic depths contain some of the most profound secrets of our ...
Have you ever read the same book or watched the same movie over and over again, and hope beyond hope that it has a different ending just this one time? As the Jewish community considers the Jacob and ...
"In the story of Esau, one can hear the heart-wrenching cry of a young man who has lost his rightful place in his family." ...
We know little about the birth of most Biblical personalities. Yet, the Torah describes in detail the birth of Jacob and Esau and their respective naming. “The first one came out reddish, hairy all ...
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My Hebrew name is Ya’akov, Hebrew for Jacob. When I celebrated becoming a bar mitzvah years ago at the age of 13, the observance coincidentally coincided with readings in the Torah about the life of ...