Because he can interpret dreams, Joseph is released from prison. How was it known that Joseph had this skill? In jail, he meets two depressed prisoners and asks them what's wrong: Joseph asked Pharaoh's courtiers who were with him under guard in his lord's house, saying, "Why are your faces downcast today?" And they said

And Dinah, Leah's daughter...went out...Shechem the son of Hamor...saw her and...abused her. Dinah is referred to as "Leah's daughter" and Rashi says the daughter was like her mother. Earlier the Torah records that one day Leah went out, ahead of her sister Rachel, to seize Jacob; now the same happens, Dinah, Leah's daughter...went out and

And Jacob lifted his feet and went on to the land of the Easterners...Picking up on this strange expression: Jacob lifted his feet...the Sforno points out that some people walk with purpose, and others walk aimlessly. When a person knows what they want from life, and where they're going, then they lift their feet and

The Midrash reports that Esau asked "How do we tithe straw and salt?" Rabbi Zevin explains that food was "fixed" through tithing. And as straw and salt are not food, neither of them need to be "fixed." Straw is lower than food, and salt is beyond food. Straw represents things that can never be "fixed,"

While no parasha carries the name of a patriarch, this week's parasha - Hayyei Sarah - is named for our matriarch Sarah. Eishet Hayyel is a poem from the Book of Proverbs that is sung on Friday nights and extolls "womanhood." A rabbinic interpretation claims it was Abraham's eulogy for Sarah. A competing rabbinic tradition