Divrei Mav

This week’s Parsha is called Parshas Vayeishev (VAH-YAY-SHEV). In this week’s Parsha we learn that Yosef (Josef) was the youngest and most favorite son of Yaakov (Jacob) because at that time Yosef was the only child of Rachel, the wife that Yaakov loved the most. Because of his great love for Yosef, Yaakov made Yosef a special overcoat of many colors. Yosef’s older brothers became extremely jealous of him and their jealousy lead them to want to kill their younger brother. One night Yosef had a dream that he shared with his older brothers in the morning. The dream was as follows: There were ten bundles of wheat which represented the ten brothers and they were encircling one large bundle of wheat in the center which represented Yosef. Then the ten bundles began to bow to Yosef's bundle. Upon hearing this dream, his brothers became furious with him and felt, “what do you think that you are going to be a ruler over us?” Because of his dream, Yosef was hated even more. The next night

This week’s Parsha is called, Vayishlach. In this week’s Parsha, Yaakov learns from his messengers (angels) that he and his brother Aisav (Esau) were on a collision course and Aisav was coming with four hundred men all ready for battle. So, Yaakov prepared for this monumental showdown with his brother. Yaakov prepared for the battle in three steps: First he sent gifts to his brother to try and appease him. Second Yaakov davened (prayed) to Hashem, and third Yaakov prepared for war. (Yaakov was certainly thorough in his preparations.) We are supposed to use Yaakov as an example of how to prepare for a battle. (1st send gifts to soften your enemy up, 2nd Daven to Hashem, and 3rd if all else fails be prepared for war. One night before Yaakov and Esau’s encounter, the passuk says that Yaakov was, “left alone,” and while he was alone the angel of Aisav, wrestled with Yaakov. They were both wrestling great, the score was tied as the angel could not get the best of Yaakov, and they wrestled

This week’s Parsha is called Parshas Vayeitei (VAH-YAY-TZAY.) In this week’s Parsha, Yaakov runs away to the house of Lavan (Rivka’s brother) his uncle, by the word of his mother Rivka. He spent 14 years learning Hashem’s holy Torah before reaching his destination. Yaakov casted his eyes upon the most beautiful woman he had ever seen…. Rachel. Yaakov went to his Uncle Lavan, Rachel's father, (who is not the nicest guy around) and asked him if a shidduch (match) could be arranged between them. Lavan told Yaakov, only on condition that Yaakov works for him for seven years. Well, Yaakov really didn’t have much of a choice because Yaakov really wanted to marry. Rachel but couldn’t marry her unless he did his part in the deal. So they reached an agreement. Seven years passed and Yaakov and his new wife were together and in the morning he realized that it was not Rachel but to his chagrin her older sister Leah.   Yaakov realized that Lavan tricked him and confronted him on the matt

This week’s Parsha is called, Parshas Toldos. In this week’s Parsha Rivka (Rabecca, Yitzchak’s wife,) became pregnant and was told by Hashem that she would be having twins. It is brought down that whenever Rivka would walk by a study hall where Torah was learned, one of the babies inside of her kicked and almost tried to get out. Also every time Rivka would walk by a house of idolatry the other baby inside of her would kick and try to get out. After a few times of this happening she realized that her two babies would grow up to be two total opposites 1 dedicated to Torah and the other to avoda zora (idolatry) - and it was so. The older of the twins, Aisav (Esau) which Yitzchak favored because of the way Aisav always honored his father, Rashi explains, was named Aisav because it meant “fully developed.” When Aisav was he born and covered with hair. We also learn in the passuk that Aisav came out of his mother red in color. This was significant because even from the start Aisav was