by Sarah Gazitt | Jan 18, 2026 | Torah Reflections
VaEira Exodus 6:2 – 9:35 Every year, as I meet the text narrating the plagues of Egypt, I am confronted with the same paradox. God commands Moses to ask Pharaoh to free the Israelites. Pharaoh refuses. God brings down a plague, and Pharaoh yields to Moses’...
by Sarah Gazitt | Jan 9, 2026 | Torah Reflections
Shemot Exodus 1:1 – 6:1 The Book of Exodus opens with an accounting of the sons of Jacob—the brothers of Joseph—who have been living in Egypt at the invitation of Joseph and with permission from the pharaoh. After that first generation died out, we are...
by Sarah Gazitt | Dec 29, 2025 | Torah Reflections
Vayigash Genesis 44:18 – 47:27 Chapter 45 is pivotal in the Book of Genesis. Here, Joseph reveals himself to the brothers who had sold him into slavery some twenty-two years earlier. His brothers recoil in fear, but Joseph, in a tearful embrace, forgives...
by Sarah Gazitt | Dec 7, 2025 | Torah Reflections
Vayish’lach Genesis 32:4-36:43 In the previous Torah portion, we read about Jacob’s vision of the ladder that came to him in a dream. At the end of that vision God appears to him to say: “And here I am, with you. I will guard you wherever you go, and I...
by Sarah Gazitt | Nov 30, 2025 | Torah Reflections
Vayeitzei Genesis 28:10-32:3 One verse above all others in this Torah portion encompasses the entirety of Kabbalistic thought: “Waking from his sleep, Jacob said, ‘Truly, the Eternal is in this place, and I did not know it!’” (Gen. 28:16). The verse includes a...
by Sarah Gazitt | Nov 16, 2025 | Torah Reflections
Chayei Sarah Genesis 23:1-25:18 “The cry of the shofar is the tears of Sarah.” Thus says a midrash describing the moment when Sarah was told that Abraham had taken her son Isaac and had slaughtered him on an altar as a sacrifice. “Sarah began to cry and moan...
