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Joseph the Righteous
The Rabbis of the Talmud call Joseph “Joseph the Righteous” – “Yosef Ha-tsadik”. No other Biblical figure is described in this way. Why is Joseph singled out for this appellation? When Joseph is brought to Pharaoh, he makes it clear that it is not within his power to interpret dreams: And Pharaoh said to Joseph,…
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Pharoah’s Dream
According to the rabbis, there is an internal struggle between good and evil in the human psyche. The force that pulls us to act morally and to think of others is called the “Good Inclination”. The force that pull us to act against moral and ethical standards and to act selfishly is called the “Evil…
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Young at Heart
Our Torah portion for this week introduces us to Joseph, describing him as a “na-ar” – a youth. Rashi tells us that in using the term “na-ar” the Torah means to teach us that “his actions were childish: he curled his hair, and he touched up his eyes so that he should appear good-looking.” The…
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Praying Together or Alone?
The emphasis in Judaism tends to be on communal prayer. We need a “minyan”, a gathering of ten adults, in order to recite the mourner’s kaddish and other prayers in our liturgy. Jewish law states that one should make every attempt to pray in a synagogue with the community. The rabbis even maintain that one’s…
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I Did Not Know It!
In this week’s Torah reading, Jacob flees from his brother Esau and settles down for the night to sleep. Jacob dreams of a stairway stretching to heaven, with angels going up and down. At the top of the stairway is God, who blesses Jacob. When Jacob awakens he exclaims, “Surely God is in this place,…
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One Hundred Blessings a Day
In his poem, “The Speaker” Louis Jacobs writes of the danger of sleepwalking through life The speaker points out that we don’t really havemuch of a grasp of things, not only the big things,the important questions, but the small everydaythings. “How many steps up to your back yard? Whatis the name of your district representative?…
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The Days of Our Lives
Chesed is an important word in Jewish life. It means love, but a particular kind of love –generosity of spirit, kindness, compassion and open heartedness. Abraham is said to be the embodiment of this kind of love. Every day that Abraham lived, he did acts of Chesed. The Slonimer Rebbe (1911-2000) takes this further. He says…
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Broken Vessels
Our holy Torah knows of no unflawed or perfect people. Despite the high esteem that we hold for Abraham, the Bible does not present him as without faults. When a famine drives him and his wife to Egypt, the Torah tells us that Abraham is concerned for his own safety. (Genesis 12:10-20) What if the…
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God’s Business
“Excellence I can reach for. Perfection is God’s business” – Michael J. Fox In this week’s Torah portion (Genesis 16:2) we find Sarah and Abraham childless at an advanced age. Sarah has a maidservant named Hagar. She suggests that Abraham might have a child with her, who Sarah and Abraham could then adopt and raise…
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Praise Be!
“Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation”. In this first verse of our Torah reading for this week (Genesis Chapter 6:9) Noah is described as both “righteous” and “blameless”. But later on, (Chapter 7:1) when God addresses him directly, God says, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, for I have…
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Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph 