Humash

Building on ideas from Jacques Lacan and Rabbeinu Bahya ibn Pakuda, Zach Truboff offers an innovative psychological reading of the Cain and Abel story.

Yaakov Jaffe provides an ideological argument against including ideology in our Chumashim.

Beth Kissileff explains how Moses' complaint about not being the Israelite's nursemaid shows how he is unfit for leadership.

Nachum Krasnopolsky explains Rashbam's interpretation of the splitting of the sea as an educational experience.

In his letter to the editor, Gershon Klapper draws upon three medieval sources that undermine Ben Greenfield's recent reading of the Zohar on the three attributes of the Avot.

Ayelet Wenger weaves together the personal, historical and exegetical in advance of reading Sefer Shemot.

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.

Ezra Zuckerman Sivan examines the significance of the six barleys that Boaz gives Ruth in light of the story of Rachel, Leah, and the duda'im.

Abraham’s participation in the war of the four kings against the five fits uncomfortably in the broader narrative of his life. Rabbi Mark Glass argues that this Abrahamic episode articulates a core Torah perspective on military might.

Gavriel Lakser explains how the change from Zakhor to Shamor is one of the earliest examples of Oral Torah.