Among Israel’s great patriarchs — Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — Isaac is something of a transitional figure. That doesn’t make him unimportant, but he is transitional. He’s important because he ...

The relationship between the brothers Jacob and Esau is shot through with dramatic tension: manipulation and deceit, violence and forced separation, conflict and unexpected rapprochement. So it seems ...

The Story of a Family, is one of Israel’s leading contemporary scholars of the Hebrew Bible. He teaches Bible at Bar-Ilan University and at Herzog College, where he has trained many students in ...

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 ...

Throughout the Scriptures, God introduces himself to his people as the “God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” His name would be forever associated with the Jewish patriarchs as a reminder that his promise ...

(RNS) — As the old rock song put it: ‘War — what is it good for?’ It is a very old question and it is not easy to answer. (RNS) — At the Thanksgiving table, the conversation quickly turned to the war.