Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Vaera 5784

Rabbi Barenblat addresses the text which indicates that the Israelites were impatient and crushed by despair. She quotes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who said that to make justice a reality for all requires hard work; we cannot sit back and wait for it to happen. The world will not magically go back to pre-pandemic normal; we have to work.

Rabbi Sharon Brous: Parashat Miketz

In this passage, God indicates to Moses that He did not make Himself fully known to Abrahan, Isaac and Jacob; clearly a new and different Divine revelation is about to happen. Although God was known as the Creator of heaven and earth, they did not see nature as the work of one God, but of many – the sun, the rain, the sea, etc

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, z/l: Mikketz Sibling Rivalry

Rabbi Sacks writes that the root of human conflict is actually sibling rivalry: Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, and now Joseph and his brothers. He compares the sibling rivalry of the Torah to the 3 Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He reminds us of the early medieval period in Spain, when the religions lived together peacefully. That changed with the blood libels and expulsions later in Europe. Rabbi Sacks continues the analogy into the present, writing of the conflicts in the Middle East right now.