Bereshit

This week's Torah portion of Noah takes us up to (and past) the birth of Avraham Avinu, in the year 1948 after Creation – and nary a word seems to be mentioned about the Land of Israel throughout these almost two millennia! Is this not very strange, considering that the Foundation Stone – Even HaShtiyah – from where the world was actually created, is located in the Land, on what later became the Temple Mount? The longed-for Garden of Eden, too, is located in our Holy Land. How could the Land play such a minor role in the first 2,000 years of human history?

Once upon a time, a man came to see a marriage counselor, and began to complain: "My wife is too passive and quiet. I do all the cooking and cleaning, and she barely helps out. And I even have to do all the talking – if I don't start a conversation, you'd be able to hear a pin drop in our house. I always have to initiate and start discussions. I can't go on this way!"...

The desired Garden of Eden is here in Yerushalayim..

The eternal connection between the Torah's final and first verses – in praise of Israel.

Have faith in God’s faith in us and you will find the path from darkness to light.

Humans are destined to conflict so long as contending groups each claim to have a monopoly of the truth. The only way they will learn to live at peace is by realising that they will never in this life achieve truth as it is in Heaven.

With typical Torah irony, the parsha of Vayechi – “and he will live” – is centered around death. Both Yakov & Yosef, two of the greatest personalities in all of Jewish history, will pass away in this final sedra of Sefer Bereisheit.

Judaism and the Jewish people always look toward the future even when their current circumstances are bitter and sad. Jacob himself appraised it when he said he would receive his reward tomorrow.