by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on October 14, 2021
The Amidah prayer opens with a blessing about the forefathers. It begins like this: “Blessed are you God, Our God, God of our forefathers,” and it then continues to name those forefathers explicitly: “God of Avraham, God of Yitzchak, God of Yaakov.”…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on October 29, 2020
The Jewish story begins with parshat Lekh-Lekha, when G-d tells Avraham “Go to the land which I will show you.” The patriarch faithfully sets out towards the land of Cannan, which later becomes the Land of Israel. To understand the religious character of Avraham, it is helpful to compare him to Noah, the main character of the previous parasha.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on October 17, 2018
QUESTION: I am the father of a newborn beautiful baby boy. The bris is coming up in a few days. Since I have a mitzvah to give my son a bris, and the mohel is just an agent, is it better that I do the bris myself (after the mohel sets everything up, of course)?…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on November 10, 2016
I have recently begun learning Midrash Tanchuma weekly with Rabbi Avi Weiss, and this week, I share some reflections on the two opening passages of Midrash Tanhuma to parashat Lekh Lekha. In the middle of the first passage, the Midrash portrays a classic rabbinic image of Avraham as a devout Jew who kept every detail of the halakha: We find with Avraham, that he was punctilious in observing the mitzvot and therefore he was called the beloved of God, as it is written, “The seed of Avraham my beloved.”……
by Rabbi Haggai Resnikoff
Posted on September 7, 2016
The principle of מעשה אבות סימן לבנים most famously propounded by the Ramban has relevance to us as parents and potential parents. Rather than seeing Avraham’s travels as a supernatural oracle for his children, I see the resemblance between Avraham’s life and the history of Israel as an example of the inevitability of parental modeling.…
by Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot
Posted on May 25, 2016
At the opening of our parsha, Abraham, our founding father, leaves his homeland and birthplace on the journey towards finding the promised land. In truth, however, this is not the first journey that the Torah has presented to us in relation to Abraham and his father.…
by Rabbi Avi Weiss
Posted on May 21, 2016
November 4-5, 2011/ 8 Cheshvan 5772 Terah, Avraham’s (Abraham) father, is often viewed as an evil man and nothing more than an idol worshipper. A review of the text indicates otherwise. First of all, Terah’s son, Haran, dies during Terah’s lifetime.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on October 21, 2015
Avraham and Noach stand in stark contrast to one another. Noach was a follower. He did what he was told, exactly what he was told, no more and no less. He was told to build an ark, “and Noach did all that God had commanded him” (Bereishit, 6:22).…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on October 30, 2014
Why was Avraham chosen? The Torah doesn’t say. Without preamble, God commands Avraham and sends him on his mission. “And the Lord said to Avraham, lekh lekha, get yourself out… and go to the land that I will show you” (Breishit, 12:1).…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on October 11, 2013
The following is the parsha thought that Rabbi Linzer shared at the installation of Rabbi Asher Lopatin this last Sunday. Why Avraham? We know why God chooses Noach. God even tells him why: “for you I have seen righteous before me in this generation.”…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on October 26, 2012
Why did God choose Avraham? In parashat Noach, we read: “And Noach was a righteous man, perfect in his generations; with God did Noach walk (6:9). It is only after introducing Noach’s greatness that the Torah tell us that God spoke to Noach and chose him to be saved from the flood.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on November 4, 2011
After two failed attempts at directing humanity to a life of holiness and goodness, God, in Lekh Lekha, begins the grand experiment that will be the narrative of the entire Torah and the story of the People of Israel. With the generations of Adam, God stepped back to see if human beings, having chosen to “know good and evil,” to think and choose for themselves, could choose for themselves a life of holiness. …
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