Friends of Itamar

Leah’s Blog – Parashat Toldot 2026

Leah’s blog – TOLDOT – November 2026 – Everyone is asking “what is going on! What is going to be!” Whether it be about the elections here in Israel with no real outcome, or world events that leave no one not paying attention. Hardly is there time to answer since there is so much to do. This morning, before rolling up my sleeves, Yael and I were busy bopping what’s apps back and forth, and it wasn’t the usual Shabbat Shalom. This morphed into a long voice mail I sent – the memory of it hit me like lightening. I was running after Moshe on a cobblestone street that climbed upward a bit in Padova Italy. There were people sitting at a cafe on one side, and the house/ museum – our destination on the other. We came to see the home of the Rabbi we like to learn from every Shabbat. Harav Moshe David Vali lived in the 1700s and was a Kabbalist, Rabbi, physician, and scholar. Feeling so close to him and his insights on redemption memory place and middote it only made sense when in Italy we come to visit our mentor. Only on this hot August day I found myself running behind Moshe who always charges ahead. Probably in his eagerness he wanted to reach the house already. I holding a small bottle of water tripped and fell face down in that street there with cafe going onlookers clearly seeing that Moshe was not taking heed. His eyes were forward march. When we reached Rabbi Vali’s house the gate was locked and a sign said CLOSED today. I had learned so much from this Rabbi of blessed memory, like an insight into Yosef’s brothers who threw him in the pit were actually saving him from far worse outer sphere attacks by it being them, his brothers. Thoughts and understanding that we gleaned fell like a ball in a pinball machine into my psyche and clicked with every event happening now. What was what will be. We stumble, the door seems sealed, the windows shuttered yet the teachings are told. TOLDOT – We ask “are we living in this exact scenario not in the micro stories of the book of Berieshit but now in the macro. This is not a question. So much is uncovered and divulged to us in these parishas. Driving away from Padova and eventually returning home to Israel I tried to understand why I was humbled there. Why I fell on my face. The end we will only know when it happens and why all of these strange backward events play the front stage now. Here in Itamar we are doing what we can to dig in even deeper to His promise love and promised blessing. We strive to reveal a little more.

Shabbat Shalom dearest friends, blessings, Leah