Rabbi Claude's Scribbles

Joseph had everything going for him. " Genesis 37:2 At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended the flocks with his brothers, as a helper to the sons of his father’s wives, Bilhah and Zilpah." He was following the family tradition of being a shepherd. He fitted into the mould, alongside his brothers. However, not all is well as we told in the same verse: Genesis 37:2 And Joseph brought bad reports of them to their father." You would expect the Torah to tell us that Jacob admonishes Joseph for tale-bearing. Wouldn't that be the logical follow-on to this episode? However, strangely, the next verse informs us that: " Genesis 37:3 (3) Now Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him an coat of many colours." Chizkuni, a 13th Century French commentator explains that:   (The word פסים   -"of many colours" can be seen) as a 'compensation,' for being a h

What must it have felt like to be Yaacov early in the morning on the day he met Esav again? He had just endured a physically exhausting fight with a stranger - perhaps, according to Rashi, Esav's Guardian Angel, who assaulted him all the while, in the guise of a man. They've fought all night. Yaacov is no youngster either. He is close to 100 years of age. Dawn has broken and the only way the "man" can prevail is by aggressively kicking Yaacov in the thigh, to the point that he has dislocated his hip.  Yaacov has been renamed Yisrael and he has little time to think of the consequences because he's in pain. Deep, deep pain. Now, he walks wearily towards his twin brother who is standing across the plain accompanied by four hundred strongmen. The last time they were together, twenty-two years earlier, he was about to run for his life, escaping a death sentence.  Now, he has no idea how Esav, a volatile character, will react when they finally

We are going to play a game. I will quote a slogan devised by a council or city and see if you can guess which area I am referring to:  1. 'The County of Opportunity' (Hertfordshire) 2. 'Putting the Community First' (Barnet) 3. 'Building a Better Borough' (Brent) 4. ' Home of the Derby' (Epsom) 5. 'Inspiring Capital’ (Edinburgh) 6. 'It's not quite heaven, but it's better than Devon'/ (Cornwall - also 'where we sell proper pastys' and other witty examples.) 7. 'Surrey welcomes you to.... Surrey' ‘Public relations’ is key in being able to sell a location to people, who might wish to either visit an area or live there.  Let's look at how the Torah 'sells' Sodom to anyone who wished to live there (a few choice verses) ....  Genesis 10:19 The [original] Canaanite territory extended from Sidon as far as Gerar, near Gaza, and as far as Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, ne

"In the last Great Invasion of the Last Great War, the Greatest Danger for Eight Men was Saving...One...." This was part of the tagline for what is arguably one of the greatest war films ever made - 'Saving Private Ryan'. When it came out 21 years ago, veterans of the D-Day Landings, such as G.I. Frank DeVita, said that the first twenty minutes of the film were accurate. Others said that they represented the closest that non-combatants could get to the horror that faced the soldiers who risked (and in many cases, lost) their lives on 6th June, 75 years ago on Omaha Beach, Dog Green Sector. Frank was only 19. If you've seen the film, you know how harrowing some of the scenes are, as the eight soldiers fight their way through France to find the elusive Private Ryan and save him - his parents last remaining child. The only one of the his brothers who hasn't been killed in battle. The Israeli Army has a dictum that no soldier is ever left out o