Robin Meyerowitz Early Childhood Director In this week’s  parsha, Vayeishev , Yaakov gives his favorite son Yosef the famous multicolored coat. Consumed by jealousy, Yosef’s brothers throw him in a pit. At that moment, we think of Yosef almost as a nobody. Nobody important, no one who would ever accomplish anything in life, just a boy who bragged about his dreams. However, as it says in Psalm 118:22, אבן מאסו הבונים היתה לראש פינה The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.   Yosef became the foundation stone of the Jewish people and our history.   Yosef had two prophetic dreams in which his brothers and parents bowed down to him. This made his brothers and even his father angry for assuming that they would bow down. However, as we all know, that turned out to be true.   Rabbi Yehuda Appel wrote this week that it is never easy to give fair and equal treatment to all of your children. He shared an example of a rabbi who, at his son’s  shalom ...

Noah Klein Class of 2025 In the beginning of this week’s  parsha ,  Vayetzei , Yaakov makes his way to Haran to find a wife. In the middle of his journey, he lies down on a rock and dreams of a stairway of angels going up and down between earth and heaven. Then  Hashem  appears to him and reaffirms Avraham’s  brit , describing how the Jews will be as numerous as the dust of the earth.   How we read the  pesukim  describing Yaakov’s encounter can shape our understanding of the spiritual relationship between him and  Hashem .  Pasuk  28:13 reads “וְהִנֵּה ה’ נִצָּב עָלָיו,” which, based on the meaning of עָלָיו, can reveal two different types of connections between  Hashem  and Yaakov. Rashi, based on the  Midrash , says that  Hashem  stood  above  Yaakov in order to guard him, reflective of a father-son, protective connection. However, some translations of the  pasuk  interpret עָלָיו to m...

Rabbi Shmuel Silberman Middle/Upper School Learning Center Specialist What does Judaism say about secular activities? We get a great insight into this question in  Parshat Toldot  this week.   There are 248 positive and 365 negative  mitzvot . While that’s a lot of required and forbidden activities, it leaves us wondering about the vast space in the middle. What about purely optional behaviors, such as playing sports, musical instruments, or games, or the countless other things people do much of the time? Does  Hashem  care what we do in this middle zone, and can these actions be religiously significant?   The answer is a resounding yes. “In all your ways know Him.” ( Mishlei  3:6) Optional activities are encouraged if they enhance a person’s spirituality. These activities can bring emotional fulfillment and physical or mental rejuvenation, among many benefits. They can be used to help others and to provide insight into  Hashem ’s greatness. ...

Michal Bessler Elementary School Principal Parshat Chayei Sarah  begins with the death of Sarah and ends with the death of Avraham.   The beginning of the  parsha  describes Sarah’s years as  “ מֵאָה שָׁנָה וְעֶשְׂרִים   שָׁנָה וְשֶׁבַע שָׁנִים ,” i  127   years, and Rashi says that  “ כֻּלָּן שָׁוִין לְטוֹבָה ” —all her years were equally good. The end of the  parsha  describes Avraham’s death, saying “וַיָּמׇת אַבְרָהָם בְּשֵׂיבָה טוֹבָה זָקֵן וְשָׂבֵע” —Avraham died in good old age and with contentment. How can we reconcile these  pesukim  with the hardships and struggles that defined much of their lives?   By the time Sarah died, the two of them had been challenged by infertility, famine, war, adversarial personal relationships,  Akeidat Yitzchak,  and more. All the while,  Hashem  promised that many nations and the future of the Jewish people would come through Avraham, and their children woul...

Rabbi Dov Huff ('00) Middle/Upper School Principal The first four  parshiyot  of  Sefer Bereishit  feature an interesting phenomenon which is unique to this section of the  Torah : The divine inner monologue, offering us a peek into the decision-making process of  HaKadosh Baruch Hu . But why are we allowed this glimpse behind the heavenly curtain? If we inspect these monologues closely, we notice a recurring theme around the purpose and function of mankind. Perhaps we can claim the following:  Each divine interlude marks a shift, a new iteration, in G-d's plan for man .   These interludes include G-d’s decision to create Adam (נעשה אדם בצלמינו כדמותינו) and then to improve on the plan by creating man and woman (לא טוב היות אדם לבדו). They include man fundamentally altering his status by partaking of the עץ הדעת טוב ורע and tapping into the realm of morality, which was meant exclusively for the divine. This necessitates G-d’s rethinking of the fun...

Rabbi Shimmy Trencher Executive Director of Community Engagement The first verse of this week’s  parsha  presents us with a curious grammatical construction: לֶךְ־לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ. Numerous commentators struggle with the strange doubling of לך. Doubling of a verb in Hebrew typically implies emphasis—for example, מוֹת יוּמַת means, “He shall  surely  die” and מָחֹה אֶמְחֶה means, “I will  completely  blot out.” In this case, however, while the first half of לֶךְ־לְךָ, the word לֶךְ, certainly means “go,” the second half, the word לְךָ, seems to not be a verb. So while לֵךְ מֵאַרְצְךָ would clearly mean “go from your land,” what does לֶךְ־לְך ָ  מֵאַרְצְךָ mean?   A quick look at the various English translations offered highlights the range of opinions. The Jewish Theological Seminary translates these words as “Go forth from your native land,” essentially viewing the extra word as providing emphasis. The Koren Jeru...

Dr. Howard A. Spielman                                              Former Maimonides School Faculty Member Lessons Learned in Rav Soloveitchik’s Living Room   In September 1974, fifty years ago, a new K-12 Science Coordinator and biology teacher arrived at Maimonides School. Having previously done cancer research at Sloan-Kettering Institute and biochemistry at Harvard University, he was prepared for science. When he appeared in late August, though, to get the science lab in order, he was not prepared for what he found — an ample supply of textbooks with the title  Biological Science: Molecules to Man .   To some, those words sound the clarion call of the “primordial soup theory” of the origin of life. In brief, that theory proposes that about four b...