The Transition into History
The concluding parashah of Genesis has two roles: it provides closure through a burial theme, and it creates a bridge to the Exodus story.
Rabbi David H. Aaron
The Joseph Story - Part III: Absolute Exile
The most intractable theological conundrum of all monotheistic religions is the question of how God is manifest in history.
The Joseph Story - Part II: Fantasy, Jewish Style
Surely the most fanciful aspect of the entire Joseph story is the status achieved by Joseph in the administration of the Egyptian monarchy.
The Joseph Story-Part I: Lost Literature
Introduction to the Joseph Story Four parashiyot, or weekly readings, cover the Joseph story, the longest single narrative in the Book of Genesis.
A People by Any Other Name
Toward the end of my comments on Parashat Vayeitzei, I noted that the collator of the Genesis stories had before him a real challenge. How could he take this cluster of ancestral legends about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and end up with a people called Yisrael ?