Torah Study Date Saturday, February 12, 2022 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 34:12-34:31 Next Session Saturday, February 19, 2022 Starting at Genesis 35:1 Last week we discussed Jacob’s sons speaking with guile when they answer Shechem and Hamor, and noted the term for guile, mirmah, was applied previously to Jacob when he took Esau’s birthright and […]
Hamor’s Offer to Jacob
Torah Study Date Saturday, February 5, 2022 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 34:3-34:11 Next Session Saturday, February 12, 2022 Starting at Genesis 34:12 Last week we discussed Shechem cleaving to and loving Dinah and wondered what that meant (was he attracted to her? In love with her? desirous of a connection with her—or with her people?). […]
Reconciliation and Degradation
Torah Study Date Saturday, January 29, 2022 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 33:10-34:2 Next Session Saturday, February 5, 2022 Starting at Genesis 34:3 Last week we discussed Jacob asking Esau to accept his gift and the fact that, more literally, he asked Esau to accept his blessing and we wondered about that blessing, what it was […]
Jacob and Esau Kiss
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 […]
Jacob Faces Esau
Torah Study Date Saturday, January 8, 2022 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 32:2-21 Next Session Saturday, January 15, 2022 Starting at Genesis 32:22 We discussed Jacob going on his way, angels coming upon him and him seeing them and calling the place Mahanaim (a pair of camps), we discussed the dual (not singular or plural but […]
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 […]
Leaving Lavan
Torah Study Date Saturday, December 11, 2021 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 31:4 – 31:29 Next Session Saturday, December 18, 2021 Starting at Genesis 31:30 Last week, we discussed Jacob calling Rachel and Leah to the field and telling them that, seeing their father, Lavan’s face, and that he was not like he had been before, […]
Jacob’s Payback Scheme
Torah Study Date Saturday, December 4, 2021 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 30:33-31:3 Next Session Saturday, December 11, 2021 Starting at Genesis 31:4 Last week we continued to discuss Jacob’s scheme for ensuring that he gets the pay he deserves from Laban, the speckled-and-spotted-goat/brown-lamb scheme, in which he would only keep the latter from among the […]
Children Born and a Wage Strategized
Torah Study Date Saturday, November 20, 2021 Verses Covered Bereishit (Genesis) 30:17-30:32 Next Session Saturday, December 4, 2021 Starting at Genesis 30:33 Last session we discussed God hearing Leah, Leah conceiving, bearing and naming fifth and sixth sons, Issachar because God rewarded Leah and Zebulun because God gave her a choice gift and her husband […]