The word “vayigash” (“he approached”) opens one of the most dramatic scenes in the Torah: a climactic moment in the tense encounter between Yehudah, the brothers and Yosef, a moment in which the fate of the entire family rests on the words and actions of a single person. “And Yehudah approached him and said…” (Genesis 44:18).

For generations our relationship with God has been mediated through texts written almost entirely by men. In these sessions, Rabbi Avi Killip explores a collection of midrashim, written by contemporary Israeli women writers, exploring images of God that are uniquely female oriented while being deeply rooted in the images and language of the Torah and classical midrash. “Birthing Worlds,” the second class in this series, introduces midrashim on the life experience of birthing and pregnancy loss as windows into the divine experience of creation and revelation. Recorded in Summer 2025.

Source sheet: https://mechonhadar.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mh_torah_source_sheets/KillipBirthingWorlds2025.pdf

Parashat Mikeitz teaches that dreams hold immense power: the power to bring downfall or renewal, life or death, destruction or creation, war or peace. This means that the way we, as human beings, pursue a dream—whether out of spiritual emptiness or fullness, with an expectation that it will disconnect or connect—places before us both choice and responsibility.