The classic wrestling match in Biblical literature is that between the most dissimilar twins, Jacob and Esau. They began their struggle with each other even before they were born, in their mother ...

My Hebrew name is Ya’akov, Hebrew for Jacob. When I celebrated becoming a bar mitzvah years ago at the age of 13, the observance coincidentally coincided with readings in the Torah about the life of ...

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Years ago, a college classmate provocatively announced that he planned to name his first son “after the most maligned figure in the entire Torah: Esau.” Let’s consider Esau’s defense. After we are ...

Approaching his home after decades abroad, Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to inform his brother that he was coming and that he hoped that they could put their past conflicts behind them. The ...

I can imagine the first reading would sound a lot different if a public relations firm had a chance to polish it up a bit. Jacob and his mother, Rebekah, don’t come across well. They conspired to ...

Many years separated the two brothers Jacob and Esau. Their sibling rivalry led to long estrangement. Neither knew whether or when they would meet again, and whether they would become friends or ...

Sometimes Torah simply refuses to give us the straight dope. Were man and woman created simultaneously from God’s command (Genesis 1:26-27)? Or did God sculpt Adam out of clay (Genesis 2:7) and then ...

The first ethnic joke in the Bible is in chapter 25 of Genesis. Rebekah gives birth to twins, and the first comes out red and hairy all over, so she and Isaac name him Esau. They name him “Hairy.” ...

Esau and Jacob is a scenic community that sits on the outskirts of Region Five, at the very end of the Mahaicony Branch Road. Though the village spans a large section of Branch Road, it is home to a ...