The classic wrestling match in Biblical literature is that between the most dissimilar twins, Jacob and Esau. They began their struggle with each other even before they were born, in their mother ...

My Hebrew name is Ya’akov, Hebrew for Jacob. When I celebrated becoming a bar mitzvah years ago at the age of 13, the observance coincidentally coincided with readings in the Torah about the life of ...

The earliest midrashic commentaries on the story of Jacob and Esau portray Esau as thoroughly wicked. Since Jacob does not seem to emerge from the deception of his father with much credit, the ...

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I can imagine the first reading would sound a lot different if a public relations firm had a chance to polish it up a bit. Jacob and his mother, Rebekah, don’t come across well. They conspired to ...

Years ago, a college classmate provocatively announced that he planned to name his first son “after the most maligned figure in the entire Torah: Esau.” Let’s consider Esau’s defense. After we are ...

This is an adaptation of Looking Forward, a weekly email from our editor-in-chief sent on Friday afternoons. Sign up here to get the Forward’s free newsletters delivered to your inbox. I was thrilled ...

Sometimes Torah simply refuses to give us the straight dope. Were man and woman created simultaneously from God’s command (Genesis 1:26-27)? Or did God sculpt Adam out of clay (Genesis 2:7) and then ...