By Rav Reuven Tradburks The Parsha begins in the middle of the story. Yosef has just told Yehuda and all the brothers that Binyamin, the thief, will become a slave to Yosef. All the others are free to leave. Our Parsha begins with Yehuda’s long and...
By Rav Reuven Tradburks Yosef ascends from jail to complete control of Egypt. Paro has a dream. The Butler remembers Yosef in jail. Yosef tells Paro of 7 impending years of plenty followed by 7 of famine. Yosef is appointed to manage the hoarding of food...
By Rav Reuven Tradburks Yaakov’s challenges never seem to end. He returns to the land of Israel. He is fearful of a confrontation with Esav. He prepares by dividing his entourage. A man fights him through the night, changing his name to Israel from Yaakov at...
By Rav Reuven Tradburks Our Parsha begins with Yaakov fleeing the land of Israel from Esav’s murderous intent and it concludes with his return to the land of Israel. He dreams as he leaves of a ladder reaching to Heaven with G-d promising that He will...
Rav Reuven Tradburks This is the parsha of Yitzchak and Rivka’s life. Rivka has twins, Esav and Yaakov. Yaakov buys the birthright from Esav. Yitzchak goes to Gerar in a famine, is told not to leave the land, digs the wells Avraham dug and renews the...
By Rav Reuven Tradburks Parshat Noach describes: the destruction of the world through the Flood, Noah and his family, the story of the Tower of Babel and the introduction of Avraham’s family. The first 2 parshiot in our Torah, Breishit and Noach, are essentially parallel creation stories,...
By Rav Reuven Tradburks Day 1. The Torah reading for the first day is Genesis, Chapter 21, v. 1-34. This chapter describes the birth of Yitzchak, the insistence of Sarah to send Yishmael away, and Hagar and Yishmael’s near death in the desert before being saved. It...
By Rav Reuven Tradburks With Parshat Nitzavim we begin 4 very short parshiot that are the conclusion of the Torah. Although this parsha has but 40 verses, the emotional impact is hard to match. The Talmud says that the curses of Parshat Ki Tavo should be read...
By Rav Reuven Tradburks The Parsha begins the conclusion of our Torah. The book of Devarim consists of Moshe’s long speech at the end of his life. His speech is crafted beautifully, a magnum opus of past, present and future. He began with a review of...
By Rav Reuven Tradburks Parshat Ki Teitsei The Parsha contains 74 mitzvot, the most of any parsha in our Torah. It is the third of the parshiot of Mitzvot; Ekev, Shoftim and Ki Teitsei. Moshe began his long address in Sefer Devarim with narrative, reviewing the central...
