
For the week ending 16 October 2010 / 7 Heshvan 5771
Shechem The First Stop
When the Patriarch Avraham entered the land promised to him and his descendants, his first stop, we learn in this week's Torah portion, was at Shechem. There he prayed, say our Sages in the Midrash, for the success of his great-grandchildren in their battle against their enemies. Shechem today is the Arab city of Nablus whose only reminder of a Jewish past is the tomb of Yosef located there.