To be honest, that year, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to Chanukah, and hadn’t really had much time to think about it. Our armored battalion had recently come down from a few months up in Lebanon and, while I was thankful we would be spending the winter in Israel and not up in the freezing cold mountains of Lebanon, we were still in the process of overhauling the tanks; not a particularly enjoyable task. more

There are many ways to analyze Yosef’s strategy with his brothers--what was his intent, his plan, and his goal in having them go through all the “tzurres” he gave them over their younger brother and their father. The superlatives run from “cruel” to “brilliant” and from “vindictive” to “well thought out.” more

On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a concert at Lincoln Center in New York City. Anyone who has ever been to a Perlman concert, knows that getting on stage is no small achievement for him, having been stricken with polio as a child, with braces on both legs and walking with the aid of two crutches. more

I recently overheard two fathers of teenagers comparing their approaches to their sons’ shul attendance on Sundays and other “days off.” One of them came to me afterwards to discuss his related concerns about “texting on Shabbos.” With a little insight from Parshat Vayishlach, perhaps there is a simple answer to both questions. I accept that I may be hopelessly naïve. But the stand I propose at the end of this will not be, if followed, what turns your children away from Judaism. Much bigger issues bring about such a result. Having said that, let us see how we can find parenting-inspiration from our forefather Yaakov. more

Cold; so cold it cuts through the rags that were once clothes, straight to the bone. There was a time this cold so occupied your very being, you could concentrate on nothing else. But that was long ago. Darkness; so dark it sometimes seems more than the mere absence of light; it seems almost tangible. You vaguely recall a time when you were obsessed with determining exactly where you were, pacing in the darkness to examine your environs. You figured out you were in some sort of a concrete cell, perhaps six feet square, but not much more than that. You used to wonder what color the walls were, never having been allowed to see them, but that curiosity has long ago been replaced with more basic needs. more

Jacob sent angels ahead of him to his brother Esau, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom. And he commanded them, saying, “So shall you say to my master to Esau, ‘Thus said your servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban, and I have tarried until now. And I have acquired oxen and donkeys, flocks, man-servants, and maidservants, and I have sent to tell [this] to my master, to find favor in your eyes.’” The angels returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother, to Esau, and he is also coming toward you, and four hundred men are with him.” (Sefer Bereishit 32:4-7, this and all Tanach and Rashi translations, The Judaica Press Complete Tanach) more

There was no love lost between Yaakov and his father-in-law Lavan. Lavan criticizes Yaakov for having “stolen” his family, and Yaakov responds saying he had been cheated numerous times over a period of 20 years working for Lavan. more

Once again, Israel, which so longs for peace, is being forced to ready her children for war.... As missiles fall on the South and parts of the coastal region, and leaves are cancelled, there will be many families whose tefillot (prayers) will have special meaning and urgency this Shabbat. more

The Torah describes one interaction between Avraham and Yishmael (his banishment in chapter 21), one interaction between Avraham and Yitzchak (the “Akedah” of chapter 22), and one interaction between Yitzchak and his sons in the blessing episode of chapters 27-28. From an objective perspective, judging only the human element without the divine instructions to listen to Sarah and to take Yitzchak to a mountain, Avraham’s parenting skills don’t pass muster. more

If you would have asked me what Abir would end up doing with his life, I would have imagined him as a bouncer.... Abir, an ex-paratrooper, is one of the unsung heroes of the battle of the Chinese chicken farm, when a battalion of paratroopers in the Yom Kippur war had to take a crucial Egyptian position by running up 300 yards of open ground; most of the battalion never made it out of there. I could easily have imagined him grabbing one of the first planes out after the war, maybe to New York or Los Angeles. more