Say what you will about what Esau, it is hard to read this week’s sedra without feeling sorry for him. Having traded away his birthright, he now loses his blessing, as well. The Torah portrays the ...

What is worth striving for? Fighting for? Dying for? This week’s Parsha, Vayetzei, focuses on how Jacob became Israel, the next in line after Abraham and Isaac, the successor in the covenant that ...

(Note that Esau did not inform Issac that earlier, Esau had “sold his birthright” to Jacob, who teased Esau with a bowl of fresh stew when his twin was “famished” after hunting.) Enter the twins’ ...

In this week’s Torah portion, Jacob is grappling with fear at the prospect of returning home to his parents’ house more than 20 years after he left. Last he heard, his father Isaac was dying, his twin ...

But whose mouth? And what kind of love leaves one son hungry for a blessing, and the other aching to serve? It was near sundown. The sky hung low and red over the dry hills, and dust clung to the hem ...

One of the most anguished and compelling sections of the Book of Genesis tells the story of Jacob and Esau vying for their father’s blessing. As many of us know, Jacob—with the help of his mother, ...