Bereishit

Sarah's conspicuous absence from the dramatic Akeidah narrative is the subject of both traditional and scholarly interpretation. Michael Wolff offers an approach through the lens of gender roles.

There’s a miniature kaf at the beginning of the parashah. As Gabriel Slamovits explains, what the diminished letter says about how Abraham mourned for Sarah fits well with a prominent teaching of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, zt”l.

Zohar Atkins presents a new poem on the Akeidah.

David Schwartz explores thematic similarities between the Hanukkah miracle and Pharaoh’s dreams.

Batya Hefter uses the case of Isaac to illuminate how hasidic masters read the Bible.

Lazarre Simckes analyses Joseph’s dreams through the lens of trauma psychology.

Sharing his Torah commentaries in English for the first time, Nissim Bellahsen of France examines the role of Moses in the atonement for Joseph's sale.

Did Rabbeinu Bahya mention a lightning rod centuries before it was discovered? Yaakov Taubes takes us on a journey through science, magic, and religion to help explain this medieval commentator’s cryptic comment about the Tower of Babel.

Gavriel Lakser offers a new approach to the problem of evil based on the beginning of Genesis.

Benjamin Barer traces the word Hevel through Jewish texts, showing how the use of the same word can teach us both about the wisdom of Kohelet we read this past Shabbat and the character of Hevel who we will read about in this week's Parashah.