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completely new way.
The rewards are not only intellectual. Many
of Rabbi Sykes’s insights are spiritual and
emotional. For example, the parallels he
finds between the shidduch of Yitzchak and
Rivka, and that of Moshe Rabbeinu and
Tzipporah lead to the teaching that an
element of a successful shidduch is
performing above-and-beyond acts of
chessed for one’s spouse. Through the study
of Chumash, the sefer can have an
immediate impact right in our daily lives.
Time and again, Rabbi Sykes shows how the
negatives can, through teshuva and
following the correct path, be turned into
brachos, thus leaving the reader with a
positive, uplifting experience.
As we head into Pesach, I find it profoundly
meaningful to review the story of Yosef
Hatzaddik. Much of the sefer is devoted to
Breishis, but as the words “and Beyond” in
the title promise, there are extras, such as a
chapters about David Hamelech and
Batsheva, Moshe Rabbenu, Yocheved and
Miriam, the concubine of Gibea, and a
fascinating discussion of water and the
Exodus.
From the cover:
In his Book of Psalms (19:8), King David
declares: “God’s Torah is whole.” These
words have been the guiding light for this
book’s approach to the interpretation of the
Torah. In this work, verbal and thematic
links between Biblical accounts, especially
in the Book of Genesis, are noted and
Pesach 2015
expounded upon, and are shown to be
present in a consistent and systematic way.
These connections also combine to form a
network of patterns, an integrated whole.
Throughout the millennia, many
commentators have pointed out such
connections; in this work, their
observations are adduced and built upon.
The uncovering of patterns in the Torah
has no end, as the holy Torah is of infinite
depth.
When I reached the end of the sefer, my first
thought was: Is there another volume to look
forward to?
According to the forward by Rabbi
Menachem Davis, Rabbi Sykes has been
perfecting Patterns in Genesis for thirty-six
years. Interesting that it took that long for
the hidden lights illuminated by his work to
be revealed. It would be worth waiting
another thirty-six years for another volume.
But in the meantime, there is plenty, plenty
to discover and delve into here.
Much of this sefer formed the basis of Rabbi
Dr. Sykes’s PhD thesis at Yeshiva
University. Since then, Rabbi Sykes has
moved to Monroe, New York, where he is a
certified life coach and Torah teacher.
You can listen to Rabbi Sykes being
interviewed about his sefer here.
Self-published.
Purchase now from Amazon.
FrumJewishBooks.com vol 1 Pesach 5775 -2015
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