Torah Study Date Saturday, January 22, 2022 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 33:1-9 Next Session Saturday, January 29, 2022 Starting at Genesis 33:10 Last week we discussed Jacob seeing Esau coming with 400 men and then dividing the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maids. We wondered if that was tantamount to using them as […]
Struggling with God and People
Torah Study Date Saturday, January 15, 2022 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 32:22-32:33 Next Session Saturday, January 22, 2022 Starting at Genesis 33:1 Last week we discussed Jacob taking his maidservants, wives, and children and crossing the Jabbok ford and noted the text refers to eleven children when there actually were twelve (eleven sons and one […]
Sitting on the Gods
Torah Study Date Saturday, December 18, 2021 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 31:30 – 32:1 Next Session Saturday, January 8, 2022 Starting at Genesis 32:2 Starting with Genesis 31-29 –Laban says to Jacob, “I have the power to harm you, but the God of your father told me not to do you any harm.” We noted […]
Jacob Loves Rachel
Torah Study Date Saturday, October 23, 2021 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 28:20-29:22 Next Session Saturday, November 6, 2021 Starting at Genesis 29:23 Last week we discussed the vow Jacob made in Beth El and its conditional nature (if God stays with me and watches me on my way, gives me bread and clothing, and I […]
Esau Wants a Blessing, Too
Torah Study Date Saturday, October 9, 2021 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 27:26-46 Next Session Saturday, October 16, 2021 Starting at Genesis 28:1 Last week we discussed Isaac continuing to try to figure out whether the one before him is Esau or not by asking him to come close and kiss Isaac, Isaac finding his smell […]
Does Isaac Recognize Jacob? Is Lying Ever OK?
Torah Study Date Saturday, October 2, 2021 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 27:18-25 Next Session Saturday, October 9, 2021 Starting at Genesis 27:26 Last week we discussed whether Isaac really did not recognize Jacob. Some of the reasons we gave for thinking he did recognize him were that a father would distinguish the voice of one […]
Isaac Blessing His Son
Torah Study Date Saturday, September 25, 2021 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 26:18 – 27:17 Next Session Saturday, October 2, 2021 Starting at Genesis 27:18 Last week we discussed Esau marrying two Hittite women, Judith and Basemath, and the general issue of marrying outside one’s group or religion, then and now, as well as the idea […]
Isaac Digs Up Abraham’s Wells
Torah Study Date Saturday, September 4, 2021 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 26:18-34 Next Session Saturday, September 25, 2021 Starting at Genesis 26:35 I wasn’t present at our last Torah Study but three angels—some interpreters say it was four angels–came to me and told me we discussed Isaac re-digging the wells that had been dug during […]
Isaac Becomes Very Great
Torah Study Date Saturday, August 28, 2021 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 26:10-17 Next Session Saturday, September 4, 2021 Starting at Genesis 26:18 Last week we discussed Abimelech saying someone could have lain with Isaac’s wife (because Isaac lied and said she was his sister), who and how that might be (a rapist? Abimelech himself?), the […]
Isaac Follows in His Father’s Footsteps
Torah Study Date Saturday, August 21, 2021 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 26:1-9 Next Session Saturday, August 28, 2021 Starting at Genesis 26:10 Last week we discussed the famine in Gerar (after the previous famine in Abraham’s time), YHVH telling Isaac not to go to Egypt yet (in case he might think the exile to Egypt […]