Vayechi 5775 The Patriarchs

January 16, 2015 by Rabbi Yaakov Grunewald

For the past ten weeks we have been reading the stories of the Patriarchs and their faltering steps in the 18th century BCE, at the time of the birth of our nation. The story of Abraham tells of his spectacular rise to fame in the midst of a pagan civilization. For the first time in […]

Vayechi 5774

January 9, 2014 by Rabbi Yaakov Grunewald

The Sidra of Vayechi begins with the information that Jacob lived in the Land of Egypt for 17 years, and that he was now 147 years old. It would seem that these 17 years were the happiest years of his life. The mediaeval commentator Rabbi David Kimchi makes the observation that Joseph was 17 when […]