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Vayigash 5784: Overcoming Pain as a Family

Can the pains of the past be overcome, opening the way for relationships to heal and be redefined?

In this week’s parsha, we witness the emotional reunion between the sons of Israel, with Yosef revealing himself to the brothers who had once thrown him into a pit and, ignoring his pain and pleas, sold him into slavery. Rabba Shani Gross joined our host Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield to discuss the relationship between Yosef and his brothers, in particular Yehuda, and how the power of speech helped bridge the terrible divide within this family. The discussion turns to today, and how better communication and listening to one another may help heal some of the rifts within our own world.

Credits: Rabba Shani Gross and Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield – Pardes Faculty

Shani Gross

Rabba Shani Gross is Senior Director of Education at Pardes, where she is driven by the belief that Jewish texts can serve as a shared language connecting Jews to their tradition and to one another. Before joining Pardes, Shani was the Founding Director of the Silicon Valley Beit Midrash. She received rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva Maharat and earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Yeshiva University.

Shani is a Hillel International Fellow for Rabbinic Entrepreneurship, a Wexner Graduate Fellow/Davidson Scholar, and a fellow of Va’tichtov, a program dedicated to advancing Jewish women’s scholarship. She has studied at a number of batei midrash, including Migdal Oz, Drisha, and Pardes, and particularly enjoys teaching Tanakh, Talmud and Midrash. Shani lives in Berkeley, California with her husband Chaim and their three sons.