This week's parsha

Unless otherwise noted, "This week's Parsha" comprises articles taken from contributors to the Chabad.org website. We show the original author's name here, so that proper attribution is given. For the sake of brevity, footnotes cited in the original author's writings are omitted from this website. If you need to see the citations, please refer to the original articles on the Chabad.org website.

Old Age, Old Wine

Published: 13 November 2013 | Written by Shimon Posner

Antique sells. Even faux-antique sells. "Antiqued" furniture is scuffed and dinged at the end of the assembly line. Brand-new pewter pitchers are being coated with green stuff called patina. Multi-million-dollar homes are built to "have character." If you have no antique, buy some. The more old and worn-looking, the better: the elegance of aged has come of age. Old is good.

Except for old people. No one boasts of having their own senior citizen. Or of being one.

Why Jacob Loved Rachel ... but also had to marry Leah

Published: 05 November 2013 | Written by Rochel Holzkenner

The Torah describes Rachel as having beautiful features and a beautiful complexion, and Leah as having tender eyes.

It's unusual for the Torah to spill ink illustrating the people or places mentioned. It is also unusual that Leah is (seemingly) publicly disparaged. On principle, the Torah goes out of its way to avoid unnecessary critical descriptions, and yet it openly contrasts Rachel's beauty to Leah's tender eyes. In light of this principle, the biblical commentator Rashi deduces that Leah's tender eyes allude to her incessant weeping: her eyes were red and soft from the many tears she shed. She wept in prayer, entreating G-d to shift the course of her destiny. She had been destined to marry Esau, coarse and corrupt as he was, and she prayed earnestly that her fate be changed.

Esau the Transformer

Published: 31 October 2013 | Written by Tali Loewenthal

Our sacred Torah is often highly ambiguous. An example is the account of Jacob and Esau, the twin sons of Isaac in our parshah. Jacob is described as "a pure man, dwelling in tents," and Esau is "a man who knew how to hunt, a man of the field." This is understood as meaning that Jacob represents goodness, simplicity and purity, dwelling in the tents of Torah study, while Esau represents evil. He is hunter, a man of battle and of conquest. Yet the Torah adds also a note of ambiguity, which has challenged scholars for thousands of years: their father Isaac openly preferred Esau to Jacob.

If Jacob represents good and Esau represents evil, how could the great patriarch Isaac possibly prefer Esau?