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Jacob Siegel

Jacob Siegel

Jacob Siegel is a student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School. He cares passionately about sustainability, both within Jewish tradition and in the broader world. In 2009, he founded a not-for-profit initiative to offer martial arts and spiritual non-violence training to at-risk youth in North St. Louis. He has run educational and therapeutic programming for youth affected by HIV/AIDS in Washington, DC, and co-founded a Jewish food justice collective there. Jacob is certified as a shochet, able to slaughter his own kosher poultry; he offers regular workshops on shechita and on creating a just food system. Jacob is also a proud rebbetzin-in-training of his partner, Ruhi Sophia, who is a student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Jacob can be reached at jacobsiegel.ajws@gmail.com.

|  5775

Miketz

Parashat Miketz continues the narrative of Joseph and his brothers. It describes Joseph’s ascent to power, the trust he earns from Pharaoh and his power as a minister over all of Egypt. It also mentions, in passing, a woman whose life becomes entwined with Joseph’s: Osnat, daughter of the Priest of Ohn. Osnat receives a bare four sentences, and is never again mentioned in the Tanach. Who is she, and what can we learn from her presence in the text?

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|  5774

Behar

While the Israelites are still wandering in the desert, God instructs them in the laws of the shmita year, which will take effect once they enter the Promised Land. Once every seven years, instead of farming, they are to let the land lie fallow. The people of Israel will forage communally from the trees and the fields, eating the fruits that grow naturally in the land. The shmita year, we learn in Parashat Behar, parallels Shabbat—the seventh day of rest—on a grander scale: a year of rest for the land, once every seven years.

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|  5774

Miketz

Parashat Miketz continues the narrative of Joseph and his brothers. It describes Joseph’s ascent to power, the trust he earns from Pharaoh and his power as a minister over all of Egypt. It also mentions, in passing, a woman whose life becomes entwined with Joseph’s: Osnat, daughter of the Priest of Ohn. Osnat receives a bare four sentences, and is never again mentioned in the Tanach. Who is she, and what can we learn from her presence in the text?

Read More