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Yaakov Avinu’s last words recover a maternal and conservative ethic of guidance, inheritance, and restraint. Parshas Vayechi is not a loud parsha. It does not announce itself with fire or spectacle.

Rabbi Shlomo Zarchi is the rabbi of Congregation Chevra Thilim, the oldest Orthodox synagogue in San Francisco. He comes from a Hasidic family of rabbis that goes back many generations. Growing up in ...

After decades of difficulty on the way to leadership greatness, Jacob breathes his last in this week’s sedra, Vayechi: “When Jacob finished his instructions to his sons, he drew his feet into the bed ...

Parshat Vayechi has always been a special Parsha for me as it was my older brother’s Bar Mitzvah portion. I was in 4th grade for the weekend spectacular at the Washington Hotel (may its memory be for ...

I believe in the power of brachas. My father’s favorite way to end a conversation is “many blessings” – and I’ve adopted it for myself, trying to say it a few times a week to different people and say ...

Rabbi Samantha Frank and Rabbinical student Rena Singer are the founders o @Modern_Ritual, an Instagram account. This week’s Torah portion- Parashat Vayechi (Genesis 47:28-50:26)- is the final parsha ...

This week’s Parshah concludes the Sefer of Bereishit; the initial generations of our ancestors have coalesced into the Hebrews\Israelites, and after 210 years in the iron furnace of Egypt, will emerge ...

Notified that his father Ya’akov (Jacob) is sick, Yosef (Joseph) takes his sons Ephraim and Menashe to see their grandfather. As they enter, Ya’akov proclaims “mi eileh“? “Who are these”? (Genesis ...

When writing a Torah column, you naturally wonder how much you are repeating other columns, lectures and interpretations that have gone before. But I suspect that no commentator has started an ...

In parashat Vayechi, the last in the Book of Genesis, the conclusion of the patriarchal era is described. We already read about Jacob and his family’s descent from the land of Canaan to Egypt last ...