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Jacob's upcoming encounter with his estranged brother Esau is a masterclass in diplomacy, and it holds surprising lessons even for emperors. In Genesis 32:5, Jacob instructs his me...
In fact, our ancestors grappled with it too. to a fascinating passage from Bereshit Rabbah, a classical rabbinic commentary on the Book of Genesis, and see how Jacob faced a simila...
It turns out, even our greatest heroes struggled with this. We find ourselves in Bereshit Rabbah 76, a section of the ancient rabbinic commentary on the Book of Genesis. The scene ...
Jacob, our patriarch, certainly did. In Genesis 32:11, after years of wandering and working, facing down tricksters and building a family, Jacob cries out, "I am unworthy of all th...
It’s easy to think of it as a simple sibling rivalry, a fear of physical harm. But when we delve into the ancient commentaries, a much larger, almost cosmic, fear emerges. The vers...
Genesis 32:17 tells us, "And he placed them in the hands of his slaves, each flock separately, and he told them: Go before me, and leave space between the flocks." Jacob isn't just...
Rabbi Ḥama ben Rabbi Ḥanina suggests that Jacob wasn't wrestling just anyone; he was battling Esau’s guardian angel! Remember when Jacob says, "For therefore I have seen your face,...
It’s the story of Jacob, our patriarch, and it's a story that the rabbis in Bereshit Rabbah, that great collection of Genesis interpretations, unpack with fascinating detail. We al...
It's never just a detail. Everything has meaning, layers upon layers waiting to be uncovered. We find this idea beautifully illustrated in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic...
