torah.wlessin.com

Archive

Every edition of the daily email, newest first. The archive grows by one each morning.

• 2026-11-08 Parashat Toldot (Genesis 25:19-28:9) — 'I am Esau your firstborn': Rashi's comma vs. Ibn Ezra's candor; the voice of Jacob and the hands of Esau
• 2026-11-07 Parashat Chayei Sara (Genesis 23:1-25:18) — Sarah's death and the Akedah: Rashi's causal midrash vs. Ibn Ezra's chronology; the Akedah as catastrophe-processing machine
• 2026-11-06 Parashat Chayei Sara (Genesis 23:1-25:18) — Isaac in the field at dusk: did the patriarchs invent prayer, or did prayer replace the sacrifices? Berakhot 26b
• 2026-11-05 Parashat Chayei Sara (Genesis 23:1-25:18) — who is Keturah? Rashi's reconciliation vs. Ibn Ezra's cap table; Sarah's tent as the first portable sanctuary
• 2026-11-04 Parashat Chayei Sara (Genesis 23:1-25:18) — 'blessed with everything': the bakol fight in Bava Batra, and what the founder actually left
• 2026-11-03 Parashat Chayei Sara (Genesis 23:1-25:18) — Rebecca's age and consent: Rashi's closed ledger vs. Ibn Ezra's plain sense; the estate settlement before Alexander
• 2026-11-02 Parashat Chayei Sara (Genesis 23:1-25:18) — Eliezer at the well: divination or due diligence? Rambam vs. Ra'avad
• 2026-11-01 Parashat Chayei Sara (Genesis 23:1–25:18) — the Machpelah deed: buying what you were already promised
• 2026-10-31 Parashat Vayera (Genesis 18:1–22:24) — Shabbat capstone: 'For I have known him' — Rambam vs. Ramban on whether providence follows minds or land
• 2026-10-30 Parashat Vayera (Genesis 18:1–22:24) — week closer: the Beersheba treaty, Rashbam's scandalous Akedah, and the price of trading land for quiet
• 2026-10-29 Parashat Vayera (Genesis 18:1–22:24) — the lie God tells: Sarah's laugh, the divine misquote, and truth vs. peace
• 2026-10-28 Parashat Vayera (Genesis 18:1–22:24) — the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael: R. Akiva vs. R. Shimon bar Yochai on 'metzachek', and ba'asher hu sham
• 2026-10-27 Parashat Vayera (Genesis 18:1–22:24) — the Akedah: what was the test actually testing?
• 2026-10-26 Parashat Vayera (Genesis 18:1–22:24) — the argument over Sodom: Avot 5:10 and the law against midat Sodom
• 2026-10-25 Parashat Vayera (Genesis 18:1–22:24) — week opener: were the angels real? Rambam vs. Ramban on the first verse
• 2026-10-24 Parashat Lech-Lecha (Genesis 12:1–17:27) — Shabbat capstone: the descent to Egypt, and Ramban's indictment of Abraham
• 2026-10-23 Parashat Lech-Lecha (Genesis 12:1–17:27) — the war of the kings and Malchizedek: Nedarim 32b, priesthood, and polemic
• 2026-10-22 Parashat Lech-Lecha (Genesis 12:1–17:27) — Hagar: Ramban's indictment of the matriarch
• 2026-10-21 Parashat Lech-Lecha (Genesis 12:1–17:27) — the covenant in the flesh: Akiva vs. Turnus Rufus, and Rambam on what milah is for
• 2026-10-20 Parashat Lech-Lecha (Genesis 12:1–17:27) — Nedarim 32a: why was the exile decreed?
• 2026-10-19 Parashat Lech-Lecha (Genesis 12:1–17:27) — the stars, the Covenant Between the Parts, and whether Israel has a mazal
• 2026-10-18 Parashat Lech-Lecha (Genesis 12:1–17:27) — the command to leave, and the exile written into the deed
• 2026-10-17 Parashat Noach (Genesis 6:9–11:32) — Shabbat: the heart that didn't change, and the oath of the waters
• 2026-10-16 Parashat Noach (Genesis 6:9–11:32) — erev Shabbat: Terach's stalled migration, and where Abraham was actually called
• 2026-10-15 Parashat Noach (Genesis 6:9–11:32) — the vineyard, Ham's crime, and the curse of Canaan
• 2026-10-14 Parashat Noach (Genesis 6:9–11:32) — did the Flood touch the Land of Israel?
• 2026-10-13 Parashat Noach (Genesis 6:9–11:32) — the seven laws of Noah: what Judaism demands of everyone else
• 2026-10-12 Parashat Noach (Genesis 6:9–11:32) — Babel: the sin of one language, and dispersion as design
• 2026-10-11 Parashat Noach (Genesis 6:9–11:32) — “righteous in his generations”: the man who built the ark and never argued
• 2026-10-10 Parashat Bereshit (Genesis 1:1–6:8) — Shabbat Bereshit: “and the LORD regretted” — divine regret, and the two Gods built for exile
• 2026-10-09 Parashat Bereshit (Genesis 1:1–6:8) — tzelem Elohim: what “the image of God” means, and the war that burned the Guide
• 2026-10-08 Parashat Bereshit (Genesis 1:1–6:8) — "God finished on the seventh day": Shabbat as the first portable institution
• 2026-10-07 Parashat Bereshit (Genesis 1:1–6:8) — Enoch, the bnei elohim, and the books the rabbis didn't keep
• 2026-10-06 Parashat Bereshit (Genesis 1:1–6:8) — the two creation accounts: Rav vs. Shmuel, Wellhausen vs. Soloveitchik
• 2026-10-05 Parashat Bereshit (Genesis 1:1–6:8) — Cain & Abel: the first murder, the first exile
• 2026-10-04 Simchat Torah → Parashat Bereshit (Genesis 1:1–6:8)
• 2026-10-03 Shmini Atzeret (Deut 14:22-16:17; maftir Num 29:35-30:1; haftarah I Kings 8:54-66) + Tefillat Geshem
• 2026-10-02 Simchat Torah: V'Zot HaBerachah (Deut 33–34) + Bereshit (Gen 1:1–2:3)
• 2026-10-01 Sukkot VI → Hoshana Rabbah (Num 29:26–34) — the willow, and the party that died with the Temple
• 2026-09-30 Chol HaMoed Sukkot V (Num 29:23–31) → Simchat Torah: V'Zot HaBerachah (Deut 33–34 + Gen 1) — who wrote the last eight verses
• 2026-09-29 Chol HaMoed Sukkot IV → Shmini Atzeret (Deut 14:22–16:17 + Kohelet) — the book they almost buried
• 2026-09-28 Chol HaMoed Sukkot III (Numbers 29:17–25) — the seventy bulls
• 2026-09-27 Shemini Atzeret (Deuteronomy 14:22-16:17; Numbers 29:35-30:1) — the eighth day, and the festival of the book
• 2026-09-26 Shabbat + Sukkot I/II (Leviticus 22:26–23:44; Numbers 29:12–16) — the year nobody shakes the lulav on day one
• 2026-09-25 Erev Sukkot → Sukkot I on Shabbat (Leviticus 22:26–23:44; Numbers 29:12–16) — the twenty-cubit ceiling
• 2026-09-24 Sukkot I (Leviticus 22:26–23:44; Numbers 29:12–16) — lulav after the Temple: Yohanan ben Zakkai's takkanah
• 2026-09-23 Sukkot I (Leviticus 22:26–23:44; Numbers 29:12–16) — the water-libation wars
• 2026-09-22 Sukkot I (Leviticus 22:26–23:44; Numbers 29:12–16) — Sukkot displaces the parasha
• 2026-09-21 Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16; Jonah at Mincha) — Sukkot I displaces the Shabbat parasha
• 2026-09-20 Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16; Numbers 29:7–11) — Erev Yom Kippur; no regular parasha this week
• 2026-09-19 Ha'azinu (Shabbat Shuva) — the haftarah's wager: words as legal tender for bulls
• 2026-09-18 Ha'azinu (Deut 32) — Shabbat Shuva; the textual fight over Deut 32:8
• 2026-09-17 Ha'azinu (Shabbat Shuva) + Kol Nidre — erev Yom Kippur week
• 2026-09-16 Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16; Numbers 29:7–11) — Ha'azinu/Shabbat Shuva week: does the day itself atone?
• 2026-09-15 Ha'azinu maftir (Deut 32:48–52) — Moses' death outside the land
• 2026-09-14 Yom Kippur reading (Leviticus 16) — Ha'azinu / Shabbat Shuva week
• 2026-09-13 Ha'azinu (Deut 32) — Shabbat Shuva, between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur
• 2026-09-12 Rosh Hashanah Day 1 (Genesis 21) / Day 2 preview (Genesis 22, the Akedah)