Parshat Bereshit

This page is dedicated to categorizing and slightly expanding the blurbs of each article on the parsha. Instead of presenting here per how things were written chronologically (in the order of the years each was written), the goal is to divide in the order of the narrative's subject matter.

Creation - Adam and Chava

What We Know From Bereishis - There is much mystery in how we understand the opening chapters of the Torah. But there is one thing that comes across loud and clear...

Lessons from Chava - How to Live A Successful Jewish Life - Chava's fall to eating from the tree taught valuable lessons that we can apply to our own every day living

The Meaningful Life - As Indirectly Taught by Adam and Eve - Understanding the Mishnah that speaks of women dying from childbirth, and more importantly, learning from our mistakes, and applying the lessons going forward

An "Ezer" Against Him - on husbands, wives and marital spats

Garden of Eden

Man's Purpose - Eden Ideal and Beyond Eden - Would humanity ever have been given a chance to eat from the forbidden fruit? How would we have come to know of good and evil were it not for the tree's fruit?

Making the Most of Life - The immediate aftermath of Gilad Shalit's return to Israel - People make mistakes, and some people have incredible second-chances to make the most of the gift of life. Where do we stand?

How Humans Are Wired + Rejection of the Nachash - October 7 2023 taught us that there are human beings who value life and there are others who only wish to destroy. We can not let the barbarian types destroy our morale. 

Kayin and Hevel

The Crouching Sin - what sin plagues the Jewish people in this generation? The concerns over "sinat chinam" aren't unfounded. Our task is to read the script as it unfolded and learn the lessons we are to glean from the Kayin and Hevel tale

Cain and Hevel's 'Conversation' - The Torah does not say what Kayin said to Hevel, but the rabbis had different ideas as to what their conversation was about

Cain's Shidduch Crisis - Kayin got married... but to whom? Where did she come from?

Generations of Kayin's Family and Shet (Seth)'s Family

Maximizing Our Time on Earth - Looking at Chanokh and Lemekh - These two men lived the "shortest" of all those of their time period... 

Chanokh, Who Made the Most of His Years - a related thought to the previous, includes a special tribute to my Rebbe, Rabbi Moshe Tendler, Z"L.