Why circumcise a child at 8 days? Should we not wait till the child attains the age of reason and make decisions then? Commitment goes beyond reason. It is the axiomatic bond that underlies the relationship, not reason. The baby, at 8 days, commits to G-d.
There is a saying, out of sight out of mind. Never did this adage apply more than with pregnancy. For so long we believed that the child’s is only influenced environmentally at birth. Now we know much better – influence begins well before, even from earliest stages of gestation. Paediatric medical journals are replete with…
Inevitably we find instances where children go astray and others in the same family toe the line. So it was with Yitzhak’s family – he had a Yaakov but he also had an Eisav. Did he go wrong with Eisav? Notes: We sometimes find in life that perfectly capable and good parents produce two divergent…
Two more sons with contrasting characters is the theme of this week’s Parsha, Toldot. Yaakov and Eisav are as different from each other as two brothers can be. One is fast-living larrikin who enjoys the sensory pleasures of life – including food (to the extent that he sell his birthright to his brother for a…
Jacob and Eisav were two very different natures and personalities – one a larrikin and one a serious-minded achiever. Was that predestined? No. We are given absolute freedom to choose right from wrong. People may be inclined more one way than another, but mastery and practice can create whatever outcomes we choose. Notes: • In…
Rivkah’s painful pregnancy is also a metaphor for our conflicted lives where we must choose between truth and temptation.
Rivka is pregnant with twins and she senses a mighty battle taking place within her womb between her two babies to be. Kabbala explains this as pointing to the conflict each one of us encounters within – the Nefesh Elokit and the Nefesh behamit – self centeredness and other centeredness. One was the reincarnation of…
