Thoughts on Parashat Vayetze.
We live in a world that is so deeply divided ideologically that it is commonplace to rationalize the concept that people live in different, parallel realities. We see ideas of tolerance and pluralism, that were born from the Enlightenment, proliferated during the last 20 years –
Thoughts on parashat Toldot.
The Hebrew Bible has been accused of containing fictional or idealized events and phenomena, especially incredible or miraculous events. The main problem with this critique is that the Bible contains testimonies that are often non-falsifiable. The proposed “methods of verification”
The Torah portion for this week starts with the story in which Jacob leaves his hometown of Beersheba and journeys to Charan, a major ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia (today’s southeastern Turkey.) On this supposedly pretty long journey he encounters a certain place and sleeps there dreaming of a ladder connecting heaven and earth with angels