Guest Columnists

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

We also wrestle with spiritual doubts and conflicts.

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?

Suddenly, amidst all the noise, a wail pierced through the heavens. Mama Rachel, hearing her children’s cries, began weeping bitterly for her children. She was inconsolable. Her children were in pain!

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...

A person invites guests for dinner. He introduces the guests to his family, sits down at the table—and then not three minutes later, before the first morsel of food is served, the guests are shown the door...

Sometimes it’s just a camel when it’s supposed to be a cow. A non-kosher offering to a pagan god.

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.

We should never underestimate the power of our good behavior on others, even someone with a long history of belligerence like Esau.

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.