Pharaoh was confounded – even disturbed. His dreams were recurrent and thus important. But he was unable to decode them. Fortunately, the cup-bearer remembered how successful Joseph was in interpreting his dream and quickly made the recommendation to bring Joseph...
In the Biblical narrative, the word “vayehi” is taken to mean “it was,” from the root meaning “to be.” It often introduces a particular episode which the Rabbis consider woeful (from the combination of “vay” and “hee”). In Genesis 39:2 “vayehi” appears three times in...
Consumed with worry over the Kishinev Pogrom (1903), the Russo-Japanese War (1904), the Bolshevik Revolution (1917), and World War I, the heads of European yeshivot considered fleeing with their students rather than waiting for the threats to pass. Joe Bobker (To Flee...
Despite the fact that Song of Songs (1:2) speaks of how deep love is expressed with kisses on the mouth, centuries later Rabbi Akiva speaks admiringly of the early Persians (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 8a) who preferred kissing hands. Call it the changing nature of...
In two Hebrew words the text compresses the years of childhood development into a matter of size: “The youths grew” (Genesis 25:27). Readers gain no insights into the personalities of Esav and Jacob, their hopes and dreams, how their failures or achievements affected...
Since its debut in 1964, Fiddler on the Roof has remained one of the most beloved of all Broadway shows. Aside from the nine Tony awards it garnered, Fiddler was the first musical to surpass 3,000 performances and, at one time, held the record for longest-running...
The building boom that followed World War II was very good for my family. My grandfather and two uncles started a business that prospered by supplying pre-made doors that went into the construction of the new suburban communities of Long Island, New York....
Part of biblical scholarship consists of orthography, the study of the conventional spelling of Hebrew words. Since the Hebrew language requires differentiation according to gender and number, departures from the norm become fertile grounds for examination, often...
Michell First considers the three possible roots of the Hebrew word “mabul,” usually translated as “flood.” One possibility is that the word derives from the root b.l.l., meaning “confusion” or “chaos.” Like the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel where the...
In his 2022 book entitled The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward Daniel Pink, a human behavioral scientist, identifies four core categories of regrets: foundation regrets, boldness regrets, moral regrets, and connection regrets. Foundation regrets...