Jewish Texts

Both Jacob and Joseph understood the importance of imbuing their descendants with a commitment to the Land of Israel.

The Joseph story provides us with a domestic model for our national ability to move through reconciliation to solidarity.

By judging others favorably and responding to them with kindness, we add holiness to the world.

To be fully educated and human we must study a range of disciplines--humanities and sciences, secular and Judaic.

Joseph's status as an outsider, and the outsider status of the Jewish people, allow for critical insight into the deeper truths of the surrounding people.

How the rabbis tried to make sense of this strange dream.

Jacob's response to his dream provides us with two models of discovering God's presence.

Through his experiences with his nephew Lot, Abraham learns valuable parenting skills.

The sequence of the six orders follows the precedent of Scripture

In working out the ideas behind the statements of the rabbis, the Talmud serves not as a law code but as a work of Jewish legal theory.