Parshah Columnists for Vayishlach

The plain reading of the relevant verses suggests this; however, there is debate about what actually occurred.

Whatever the nature of a conflict, it is not the objective facts that drive it, but our thoughts that create the story around it.

Why did Simeon and Levi kill the people of Shechem? Were their actions morally justified? Morally imperative? And why do they serve as the prototype for the law of bar mitzvah, the Jewish boy’s attainment of maturity and responsibility?

A man with tens of millions, the owner of several homes around the world and a private jet, related wistfully of a colleague who built his own landing strip...

In this world, we cannot attain absolute perfection, absolute truth, or absolute good. What is required of us is an incredibly difficult form of existence. We must live continually with partial truth, which stems from compromise.

Don’t get caught on a single-minded track just because it’s always worked for you. Be Like Jacob, and think outside the box.

Having a lot is no guarantee for happiness; in fact, it can actually make happiness more elusive because the more one has, the greater his appetite for more.

Twenty years after Jacob stole the blessing, he was about to meet Esau once more. There was much at stake, not only for Jacob and his family, but for all of the cosmos.

Over the centuries, numerous “reasons” have been advanced to explain the phenomenon of Antisemitism. But perhaps there is no reason!

How many Jewish Rothschilds are left in the world? G-d knows we could have used them...

How we inject spirituality into the butchering process

Capturing youth is canning wine, at best.

Where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob failed, a young girl could have succeeded

Why is life such a dark and difficult battle?

“This was not during the rainy season, when I could claim that it was because of the mud that I did not bring her to Hebron. The roads were dry and good. Still, I buried her alongside the road to Ephrath . . .”

G‑d created Adam and Eve unclothed, and they walked around the Garden of Eden . . . naked. If public nudity was fine with G‑d, why does the Torah tell us to be modest, to cover up, to subdue our natural allure? What changed?

There is only one incident of sexual abuse that is recorded explicitly in the Torah. It is quite a tragic read, and the repercussions are curiously significant.

All day, I couldn’t shake the haunting image of a child, shaken from sleep, startled out of complacency, crying instinctively for his mother.

Jacob straddled the river, one foot planted on each bank. He passed his family and possessions across the divide. He now had to make the move himself . . . The hosts of heaven gathered to see which way he would lean.

What are angels? How do they come into existence? What do they do for us?

Jacob when seeing his brother Esau ready to confront him, he prepared for the war in three ways. A timely message on the immediate response Jacob prepared for Esau.

You can stay in your comfort zone. Or you can learn Jacob’s secret of kotonti.

I doubt if the stirring cry "Never again," has, on its own, dissuaded even one young man or woman from assimilating. If the only message our children hear is "remain Jewish, because of the Holocaust" wouldn't this, if anything, propel the process of assimilation?

The disciples of Rabbi DovBer of Mezeritch gathered around his bed to hear their teacher speak about Jacob's angels. It was the last Shabbat of the chassidic master's life...

The “child” and the “servant” exist in all relationships: in the family, in the workplace, and in our divine service.

Evil exists because it is so much more powerful than good. Is there lover in the world who loves with the intensity that a hater hates? Is there a light as bright as darkness is black? Has there ever been an act of kindness unleashed with the force and ferocity contained in an act of cruelty?

The closer G‑d brings us to Him, the more keenly aware of our own utter nothingness that should make us.

A dilemma is a situation in which there is no right answer. It arises in cases of conflict between right and right, or between wrong and wrong – where, whatever we do, we are doing something that in other circumstances we ought not to do.

Hearing that his brother Esau is coming to meet him with a force of four hundred men, Jacob was terrified.

What is the significance of Jacob's names? If Israel is so special, why keep Jacob?