Finding a Prayer Voice

Dec 13, 2008 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Vayishlah

This past Sunday, the New York Times ran an article on praying for “God’s bailout.” Accompanying the article was an image of hundreds of worshipers gathered at the Greater Grace Temple in Detroit praying for the miraculous resolution to the imminent bankruptcy of the auto industry. Gripping much of the country and the world, this recession is particularly impacting the communities of metropolitan Detroit-autoworkers, executives, and salespeople alike. All find themselves searching, through whatever inspiration and revelation possible, for an end to the financial crisis. As the article reported, “While Congress debated aid to the foundering Detroit automakers Sunday, many here whose future hinges on the decision turned to prayer” (New York Times, December 7, 2008, “Detroit Churches Pray for “‘God’s Bailout'”). Delivering a sermon entitled, “A Hybrid of Hope,” Bishop Ellis of the Greater Grace Temple said to his congregants, “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but we need prayer. When it’s all said and done, we’re all in this thing together.” 

Wrestling Over Sacred Issues

Dec 9, 2006 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Vayishlah

Appropriately enough, this week’s Torah reading is Parashat Vayishlah.

Personal Transformation

Nov 20, 2010 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Vayishlah

A close examination of Genesis 34 and contemporary responses to its narrative will show how one of the Torah’s most troubling passages can inspire us to take action. We must, in the words of Proverbs 31:8, “speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.” We must address similar injustices in today’s society in order to protect the living.

A Painful Embrace

Dec 10, 2011 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Vayishlah

Rarely do I find a midrash like the one above that reflects love and hate, admiration and anger, in a single passage about how Jews relate to Christians. While the two rabbis quoted here agree that a peculiar scribal feature is crucial to understanding Jacob and Esau’s reunion, they fundamentally disagree about what that detail signifies.

Jacob’s Struggle Is Our Struggle

Nov 24, 2007 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Vayishlah

“In olden times when wishing still helped, there lived a king whose daughters were all beautiful, but the youngest was so beautiful that the sun itself, which was seen so much, was astonished whenever it shone in her face.”

True Power

Dec 13, 2003 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Vayishlah

Power – who has it, how it’s used, and what it results in, is a major theme in the Bible. In an early example of the use of power, Cain overpowers Abel and kills him. The first murder is immediately preceded, though, by a non-use of power. God warns Cain:

Surely, if you do right, there is uplift. But if you do not do right, sin couches at the door; Its urge is toward you, yet you can be its master. (Genesis 4:7)

The Reconciliation that Wasn’t

Nov 23, 2002 By Melissa Crespy | Commentary | Vayishlah

I am struck, on this reading of Parashat Va-Yishlah, by the dramatic tension between Jacob and Esau, as they anticipate meeting and as they finally cry together after 20 years of not seeing or speaking to each other. Though not many of us “run off with the birthright” of our siblings these days, many of us have difficult relationships with a brother or sister with whom we try to reach reconciliation. But it is not easy. And sometimes, it is impossible.

The Connection between Twins

Dec 17, 2005 By JTS Alumni | Commentary | Vayishlah

By Rabbi Lyle Fishman

While each family relationship in Genesis elicits dorsheini (“investigate, probe, and derive a lesson”), for me the relationship between Esau and Jacob holds especial interest. I am the younger of identical twin brothers. Although the biblical twins were clearly distinguishable by both outward appearance and personality traits, their “twinness” is intriguing.