Jake Tapper is tweeting about Torah with … Lenny Dykstra?
Image by Getty Images
By David Ian Klein November 24, 2020
In what may be one of Jake Tapper’s Jewiest tweets ever, CNN host Jake Tapper and former Mets and Phillies player Lenny Dykstra got into a discussion of the weekly Torah portion on the social media network.
Just the common occurrence of a former star member of the @Phillies telling me that this week’s parsha is Vayeitzei⁰וַיֵּצֵא ⁰“And [Jacob] Left” https://t.co/6U8LrhHGAT
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 23, 2020
Dykstra’s reference to Jacob was less about the biblical patriarch and more about Phillies starter Jake Arietta. Dykstra probed Tapper, another Jacob, for his opinion on the player as well as on another Phillies starter Nick Pavetta. Tapper responded that he likes them both.
Tapper, a Philadelphia native, is a graduate of a Jewish day school who and tweets and speaks often about things Jewish. Dykstra is not Jewish; he came to Torah study following a federal prison sentence for bankruptcy fraud. According to the Jerusalem Post he learned Torah with a Chabad Rabbi on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
This week’s Torah portion, Vayeitzei, tells many of the stories connected to the patriarch Jacob, such as Jacob’s ladder, his marriage to Rachel and Leah and servitude under his father in-law, Laban.
Correction, Nov. 24, 7:45 p.m.: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the crimes for which Lenny Dykstra served time in federal prison.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
