Toldot 5786: Words That Shape Worlds

Posted by Pardes Faculty on November 18, 2025
Topics: Tanakh, Pardes from Jerusalem, Bereishit (Genesis), Torah, Toldot

If words can create worlds, how should we choose the ones we speak?

In this episode, Zvi Hirschfield and Rabbi Raphael Polisuk explore Parshat Toldot through the lens of prayer, blessing, and the extraordinary power of human speech. They discuss Yitzchak’s deeply active model of prayer—la’ator, a language of turning reality—and how the rabbis imagine his tefillah transforming both himself and God. The episode then turns to the drama of the blessings, asking why words matter so profoundly in Torah and how language can create, heal, or harm.

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