In this week’s Torah portion, we learn about the reunion of Joseph and his family. How appropriate for the name of the portion to be called Vayigash, which means, “and he came near.” After a long period of being apart from his family, Joseph was able to come near his family. Not only did Joseph reveal himself to his brothers after the long wait for his plan to succeed, but he was also reunited with his father who had given up hope of Joseph’s survival years beforehand.
Everyone enjoys a good magician. They appear to do what seems completely impossible. Although they can entertain people for hours on end, the craft of a magician is based on illusion and misdirection. They draw our attention to one thing in order to distract us from another. If they want us to watch what one hand is doing, then the other hand is doing the real “magic.” If they point at an object, it’s generally misdirection. But we don’t mind this. In fact, we pay money to be misguided and have our point of view misled.
This week’s Torah portion begins with one of the most mysterious and little-understood events recorded in the Torah. When Jacob spent the night in what he later calls Beit-El, he had a curious dream charged with spiritual import:
Parashat Toldot gives us the backstory of the conflict between Jacob and Esau. It tells of their birth in the account of Jacob coming out with one hand holding onto Esau’s heel, Esau selling his birthright, and Jacob receiving the blessing of the firstborn from Isaac (albeit in an underhanded manner). It also gives us some interesting information about Isaac and his life. When he settled in Gerar, he needed a source of water. Rather than digging new wells, he unearthed the wells his father had dug:
I’m about to introduce you to five books that have changed my life and hopefully will change yours as well. These books are some of the very first books I ever read that helped me discover not only the Jewishness of Jesus and the New Testament, but also why knowing about this is important. Stick around and I’ll share these five resources with you, along with links to where you can pick up copies for yourself.
