How Syria Waited Out Its Crisis and Lost Its Pariah Status
For Bashar al-Assad, mass-murder and support for terrorism paid off.
December 17, 2021
The Recurring Patterns of Biblical, and Jewish, History
“Our father Jacob never dies.”
This week’s Torah reading of Vay’ḥi (Genesis 47:28-50:26) is mostly concerned with the final days and death of Jacob in Egypt. And while its opening phrase is generally translated “And Jacob lived,” the absence of a single dot in the Hebrew spelling of the first word allows it to be read “And Jacob will live”—leading to the midrash that “Our father Jacob never dies.” Interpreting this teaching through a kabbalistic lens, and drawing on the rabbinic dictum that “the deeds of the fathers are a sign [of what will befall] the children,” David Wolpe concludes that we ought to see in Jacob’s life the repeating patterns of Jewish history:
December 17, 2021
In Conceding Defeat, Yohanan ben Zakkai Paved the Way for the Restoration of Jewish Sovereignty
Returning Yavneh to the Zionist story.
The Fate of Saudi Arabia in a Changing Middle East
Pivoting away from the region only helps China.
When the U.S. Tried to Keep Vichy France in Its Backyard
FDR asked De Gaulle to return two North American islands.
The Recurring Patterns of Biblical, and Jewish, History
“Our father Jacob never dies.”