In this week’s parashah, Jacob dreams of angels climbing a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, with God promising to return the descendants of Israel to the Land of Israel. Awaking with a jolt, Jacob is struck by the vividness of his dream. “Was it real?” asks Rabbi Ammi Hirsch. “Did God, in fact, communicate with Jacob and promise him everlasting security — or was it just a dream?” While rabbinic tradition cautions that dreams are only “1/60th of prophecy,” Rabbi Hirsch says, “Sometimes, dreams do create reality…”
In this week’s parashah, Esau trades his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew. While Jacob technically didn’t do anything wrong, Rabbi Dalia Samansky asks, “Was it the kind thing to do?” Looking forward to a holiday season filled with family — and drama — she explains: “shalom bayit is the concept that there is value in creating and maintaining peace in the home. It means sometimes we should default to kindness, while other times, we need to stand our ground…”
On the Friday before Thanksgiving, Rabbi Samantha Natov invites us to reconsider how we approach gratitude during these challenging times: “We shouldn’t just be thankful for the comforts and joys of life, but also for the less obvious gifts — those that come out of struggle…”
“We’re quick to judge Sarah” — who after finally giving birth to Isaac, insists Abram cast out his concubine Hagar and their son Ishmael — “but Sarah drew the short straw,” argues Rabbi Rena Rifkin. We demonize her for one cruel act “without understanding this moment in the context of her life,” she says. “If we treat others in our world the way we have treated Sarah, then we, like Sarah and Hagar, will forever be pitted against one another…”
Following Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election, Rabbi Hirsch worries about the future of democratic intuitions, reflects on the anti-Zionism and antisemitism and the left’s abandonment of liberalism that estranged many centrists and Jewish voters, and urges Americans to reach across the aisle and attempt to understand one another. “For better or for worse, this is the outcome America wanted,” Rabbi Hirsch says.
“In some ways, this election demands us to ask similar questions to those we asked ourselves over the High Holy Days,” says Rabbi Samantha Natov on the Friday before the presidential election. “What is it to be a good human being? How do we best organize our society to reflect this? In this week’s parashah we find two starkly contrasting depictions of societal structures: the stories of Noah’s Ark and the Tower of Babel…”
