Daniel M. Kimmel
My Weekly Drash (a mini D'var Torah) - Vayetze
Posted by Daniel M. Kimmel | Tags: Vayetze
Poor Leah. The fourth matriarch gets a bad rap. She's the older sister foisted on Jacob who thought he was marrying his true love Rachel. As noted in Parshah Va-Yetzei she bears sons, hoping each one will finally make Jacob love her. Though she bears him six sons, his favorites are Rachel's...
My Weekly Drash (a mini D'var Torah) - Toldot
Posted by Daniel M. Kimmel | Tags: Toldot
God doesn’t just drop in. When he appears before Isaac in this week’s Parshah Toldot, it’s not because He just happened to be in the neighborhood. Isaac has prospered but keeps having unpleasant run-ins with the neighbors who stop up his wells and tell him to move on. It is at this point that God...
My Weekly Drash (a mini D'var Torah) -- Chayei Sarah
Posted by Daniel M. Kimmel | Tags: Chayei Sarah
In Chayyei Sarah we get something that seems like a merely descriptive sentence setting the scene: “And Isaac went out walking in the field toward evening…” (Gen. 24:63). The rabbis felt otherwise. They noted the similarity between the Hebrew words “suach” (to walk) and “siach” (to talk, to pray),...
My Weekly Drash (a mini D'var Torah) - Vayera
Posted by Daniel M. Kimmel | Tags: Vayera
In Parshah Vayera we encounter the Akedah, the story of the binding of Isaac in preparation for a sacrifice for which, thankfully, there is a last minute substitution. It is a story the defies easy explanation, and each time we read it we may have new questions. It begins as we’re told “God put...
My Weekly Drash (a mini D'var Torah) - Bereshit
Posted by Daniel M. Kimmel | Tags: Bereshit
As we start the Torah anew with Parshah Bereshit, think about the very first verse. Should we read it as “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth?” Or as “When God began to create heaven and earth?” How about, “In the beginning of God’s creating of the heaven and the earth?” All...
My Weekly Drash (a mini D'var Torah) - Lech Lecha
Posted by Daniel M. Kimmel | Tags: Lech Lecha
There’s much talk of names in Parshah Lech Lecha, with Abram and Sarai becoming Abraham and Sarah, and God being identified by different names as well. Perhaps lost in the shuffle is the identification of “Abram the Hebrew” (“Avram ha’Ivri”) in Gen. 14:13. What does it mean? The ancient...
My Weekly Drash (a mini D'var Torah) - Noach
Posted by Daniel M. Kimmel | Tags: Noach
It's one of those Bible stories we don't tell the kids. In Parshah Noach, Noah gets drunk and gets naked, and is discovered by his son Ham, who runs out to tell his brothers Shem and Japheth. For this he and his descendents are cursed. What did he do wrong? Instead of coming to his father's...
