I noticed something peculiar in the story of our ancestor Jacob's young adult life. "And G!d went up from him." (Gen. 35:13) It looked almost as if God "lifted off" from him. Could it really be, I wondered, that with the ending of Jacob's conflicts with...

On March 16, 1968, soldiers of the 1st Battalion's Charlie Company committed one of the most notorious war crimes in American history when they brutally massacred over 300 villagers in the Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai. Was every soldier in the American...

Hanukkah is often referred to as the Festival of Lights. We add one candle to the Hanukkah menorah each of the eight nights of Hanukkah to commemorate the miraculous victory of the Macabees as well as the miracle of the small cruse of oil that lasted...

Boaz Genut has been back in Israel since 2006 but sometimes he still sounds like a St. Louisan. "Someone picked me up from the airport and was a little confused on how to go. I said just take 170 south and I'll direct you from there," laughed the rabbi,...

Less than a week before the start of the Jewish New Year, Erev Rosh Hashanah, our family was blessed with a new baby. Amid the joy of this fall, as we have entered him into the Covenant of Abraham and formally named him after beloved family members we...

As the Torah portion Vayetzei (Gen. 28:10 - 32:3) opens, our spiritual ancestor, Jacob, is running from his brother, Esau's, wrath after obtaining his brother's birthright blessing by trickery. Jacob makes camp, and has an amazing dream: angels are going...

Isaac entreats God, and God is entreated. Same verb, different structure. It is one of the words we encounter in Torah that is considered prayer.The same root, transitive and reflexive. Isaac entreats God, and God is entreated. We cannot actually translate...