The second book of the Torah, Shemot, “Names,” talks about the stay of the descendants of Yaakov in Egypt, which lasted 210 years. During the last 116 of these 210 years, the Jewish People endured bitter enslavement. But the Almighty did not forget His covenant with Avraham and rescued the
Yaakov returns to his native land. Here, he will meet with his twin brother Eisav—and Yaakov has every reason to believe that Eisav wants to kill
The parashah of Vayeitzei (“And [Yaakov] departed”) begins with Yaakov heading to Charan, to Lavan the Aramean, the brother of his mother Rivkah, in
The Torah begins with the story of the creation of the universe—telling us immediately that it was created from absolute nothingness.
The first
