The Library

"For tomorrow we will die!" (Isaiah 22:13) והנה אנכי הולך למות ולמה זה לי בכרה "And Esau said, Look I am going to die, so of what use to me is a birthright?" What was the mindset of Esau that he could have so easily sold his birthright for just a pot of lentils? After al...

Vayehav Yitzchok ess Eisav .... v'Rivkah oheves ess Yaakov.Rivkah was not as great as Yitzchok. She was not able to love Eisav. Therefore, she only loved Yaakov. Yitzchok loved Eisav! [He also loved Yaakov, but that is not a chiddush!]What?! Why would Yitzchok love a Rash...

Veyitain veyachzor veyitain. Why twice? Ba'al aveida mechazer achar aveidaso. Ta'isi ke'seh oved. The yidden are the aveidah of the RBSO. The bracha was that the RBSO should give. And even though some Yidden aren't worthy or even aware of their need to receive, we ask tha...

Rashi says that Yaakov was entitled to the bechorah because, if you put two balls in a narrow tube, the one going in first will come out last. One could wonder whether this is accurate since babies move around in the womb. Moreover, Rashi already commented that there had ...

"Yaakov was sitting in Tents." While most explain this to say that Yaakov was in the Beis Midrash learning Torah - some meforshim say that he dwelled in the Tents -The Tent of Rachel & The Tent of Leah.The obvious question on this explanation is that Yaakov at this p...

(27:29) 'Cursed be those who curse you, blessed be those who bless you' Rashi points out that Yitzchok and Bil'om spoke in the opposite way: Bil'om 1st mentioned the blessing and then the curse. Rashi says, this is because tzadikim start off with suffering and end up wit...

'Vayizak za'akah, gedoloh ad me'od', 'vayistom eisov es yaakov'. I think that perhaps the initial pain and scream are understandable, he was human after all, and it was an immense shock and disappointment. However, here is an amazing example of how our resentments can ca...

Yitzchak Prayed...For She Was Barren: Baal HaTurim Notes Inverted Structure. At the end of Parshas Chayei Sarah, the Torah mentions the descendants of Eisav and concludes with the words "These were the years of Ishmael's life: a hundred years and thirty years and seven ...

The pasuk tells us that Esav was “tzayid befiv’. The common understanding of this is that Esav tricked Yitschok into thinking that he was really a righteous person and Chazal tell us that he would ask Yitschok halachic questions such as whether maser needs to be taken fro...

Everyone wonders, why did Yitzchok want to give the berachos to Aisav – it's true that Aisav managed to fool him to think he was a tzadik, but he certainly knew that Yaakov was the one who sat and learned Torah all day while Aisav had shortcomings (see Rashi on 27-21). I...

Isaac and Rebecca's son, Esau, married two pagan Hittite women, who were a source of agony to his parents, because they indulged in idol worship. The Midrash says that Isaac was more distressed by the pagan rituals than Rebecca, because Rebecca grew up in the home of her ...

Although going strong for 28 days now, I almost just lost it due to "a regular everyday news story". As I was logging on to my e-mail account, there was a story about a controversial picture on the front cover of a magazine. Out of habit I clicked on it, but soon came to ...

I just wanted to share something that I heard in name of R' Yerucham. It say in this weeks parsha that Rivka went to Beis Shem ve'Eiver to ask about her difficult pregnancy. They told her that she was going to have two entirely different types of children. The meforshim u...

Vayhi ra'av b'aretz... Vayeira eilav Hashem. (26, 1:2) After Yitzchok lost his source of parnassa because there was a famine in the place where he lived, he merited his first nevuah!! When things look bleak - they begin to shine the brightest!

(27:22) 'hakol kol yaakov, vehayodayim yedei eisov'. Eisav's way is fighting, our way is tefillah - we do NOT fight the disease, that's part of the disease, part of eisav. We use our voice - to speak to Hashem, forging a closer connection, or to speak to a friend about ou...