Learning Torah

Yosef was thrown in to the pit. "VihaBor Rayk Ain Bo Mayim" - "The pit was empty there was no water inside. Rashi asks, if the pit was empty, obviously there wasn't any water inside! Why is it necessary to say," Ain Bo Mayim"? Rashi answers, "Mayim Ayn Bo Aval Nichashim ViAkrabim Yesh Bo" - "There wasn't water in the pit, but there were snakes and scorpions."

The Baalei Mussar explain this Chazal concerning Torah. The Gemara in Taanis says that Torah is compared to water. The pasuk is saying, "VihaBor Rayk Ain Bo Mayim" - if a person is empty without Torah (Mayim), "Nichashim ViAkrabim Yesh Bo" - you can be sure that he is filled with snakes and scorpions - Bad Middos and other Aveiros. A person can not say , "I can still be a good Jew without learning Torah".
http://www.thejewisheye.com/rev_pvayeishev.html

The following is an excerpt from a Time article by Karl Vick.

Genesis 23 lays out the details of his grave in Deed Office detail, including the price (30 shekels) paid for the cave and the adjoining field from Ephron the Hittite. There’s not much about the site that’s in doubt, including what Palestinian officials aim to do with the property if they get control of it — stop Jews from praying there.

IsraelMatzav correctly points out, "Actually, the price was 400 shekels. Maybe Vick ought to go back and read the bible again."

One wonders why Mr. Vick couldn't be bothered to pick up a bible or to google the information that it was indeed 400 shekels. Perhaps he got confused with the 30 pieces of silver in the Judas story. But when an easy to research fact is recorded incorrectly, one wonders how much journalism is based on slipshod reporting and not on truth. Here's an article at Camera about Karl Vick. And here's another opinion about his reporting

Bereshit Chapter 23

14 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him:

15 'My lord, hearken unto me: a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead.'

16 And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the hearing of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.

17 So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the border thereof round about, were made sure

18 unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city.