Among the many lessons to digest from the story of Jacob’s life is the critical importance of the relationship between parents and their children. More pointedly between a father and his son; and in Jacob‘s case between a father and his sons, plural. Nothing, it seems, is unidimensional in Jacob‘s life.

The idea of a long process toward a distant goal feels daunting unless we’re rewarded along the way. What happened to perseverance—to enduring hardship so that, when we look back, we can see how much stronger we’ve become because of it?

Parashat Miketz — meaning “at the end” — opens with the words “At the end of two full years…” referring to the final stretch of Joseph’s imprisonment following the false accusations from Potiphar’s wife. But behind those two years lies a far longer story of waiting, injustice, disappointment, and perseverance.

Chanukah is usually told as the story of a jar of oil. Yet the oil miracle, beautiful as it is, appears only in the Talmud—recorded centuries after the Maccabean revolt. If we look more closely at the earliest sources, something surprising emerges. Chanukah was once focused not on the menorah, but on the altar.

Each of us will struggle with God, but hang on in your wrestling—don’t let go until you realize the blessing! Be reconciled. If you wronged someone, seek forgiveness; if you were wronged, give forgiveness freely without prompting.

Rosebud was the name of Citizen Kane’s childhood sled, an emblem of simpler days, a symbol of a time when he knew joy, safety, and belonging. What makes that symbol powerful is not its sentimental value. It is what it represents: the longing for a spiritual home.

The relationship between Jacob and Esau is a foundational relationship in the Scriptures: Israel and the Nations in shalom, under one Shepherd, sharing in each other's destinies through humility and turning toward the other.

Sarah is a woman well worth remembering, one who continues to be an example to each generation. Sarah’s story is a picture of what it takes to journey through life as an imperfect human. All the while, we seek God; He knows us, He knows our value to His plan.

If Abraham and Sarah could see our world today, I think they might weep. We’ve traded tents for walls and neighbors for networks. We are more “connected” than any generation before, yet loneliness has become the epidemic of our age.

In the one place where life is lived daily under threat, where rockets, wars, and uncertainty are part of the national daily experience, Israel stands unique among western nations in maintaining a sustainable, even vibrant, birth rate.