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It’s a question that's haunted philosophers and theologians for millennia, and Jewish tradition definitely has some answers. At the very heart of it all, there is ONE God. Absolute...
That’s what we’re talking about when we talk about God. famous verse from Exodus (3:14), where God tells Moses, "I shall be what I shall be." It’s so much more than just a name. It...
We tend to picture Him as all-powerful, which He is, but the ancient texts sometimes paint a more… visceral picture. A picture of YAHWEH, the Warrior God. Think about the Exodus st...
having a voice, but God has feet that enable him to walk. In the Talmud, Rabbi Abahu said: "The Holy One, blessed be He, said: 'I am He who walked in the Garden of Eden'" (Taanit 2...
The Torah gives us a glimpse into such an experience with the story of the Ohel Mo'ed, the Tent of Meeting. The Book of Exodus describes how Moses would set up this tent "outside t...
In Jewish mysticism, there's a powerful story about exactly that – the story of the Shekhinah, the divine feminine presence, and her long journey to find a home. The kabbalists, th...
Jewish tradition has some pretty amazing, awe-inspiring imagery about that very question. Imagine this: a God of pure, untamed power, riding not on a cloud, but on the very wings o...
Worlds created, then...undone. The image is striking, isn't it? Before our familiar heaven and earth, the Infinite, utterly alone, conceived of creation. The spark of Ein Sof, the ...
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." It's a statement of immense power, a foundation upon which an entire worldview is built. But what does it really mean? to t...
The Torah tells us God spoke, and the world came to be. But how? Jewish tradition is rich with stories filling in those gaps, painting vivid pictures of the cosmic artistry involve...
It’s a question that’s captivated mystics and scholars for centuries. And Jewish tradition offers a stunning answer: the world was created through God's Name. It’s a “wonderful and...
Jewish tradition has something fascinating to say about that very idea. It's a notion that the very foundations, the shoresh – the roots – of absolutely everything were established...
Jewish tradition offers some pretty wild and wonderful cosmologies. And a recurring image? Water. Waters upon waters, in fact. According to some mystical teachings, long ago, prime...
Some traditions suggest that God didn't just create one Adam, but two. Think of it as a cosmic prototype. According to these accounts, this first Adam wasn't sculpted from earthly ...
But instead of doing it all Himself, He delegates a portion of the task. To whom? To Chokhmah (Wisdom), Wisdom. "Let us make man," He says, as it's written in (Genesis 1:26). A see...
to one. Before Adam was even a twinkle in God's eye, the Big G was contemplating a cosmic dilemma. As we learn from Tree of Souls, there were already two kinds of beings populating...
The Book of Genesis tells us, "The Lord God said, 'It is not good for man to be alone; I will make a fitting helper for him.'" (Gen. 2:18). A "fitting helper." That's a loaded phra...
A potter takes clay, formless and without purpose, and shapes it into something beautiful, something useful. The clay spins on the wheel, and with skillful hands, the potter molds ...
Jewish tradition offers some pretty amazing answers, and one of the most fascinating involves a celestial body known as the Council of Souls. Imagine a gathering of the most righte...
Jewish tradition has some fascinating, and frankly, answers. The idea starts with this: it's a five-hundred-year journey between one firmament and the next! That's how vast the cos...
I'm not talking about God, necessarily, but about the powerful figures who manage the day-to-day operations of the cosmos. Well, buckle up, because we're about to dive into the sto...
The story goes that before disaster struck, the prophet Jeremiah pleaded with the people to turn away from their wrongdoings, to repent (do teshuva) so they could avoid exile. But ...
But Jewish tradition paints a surprisingly collaborative picture. A picture of the Heavenly Court. It's a pretty amazing concept, isn't it? The idea that even God, in all God's glo...
Jewish tradition gives us a pretty vivid, and frankly terrifying, answer: Gehenna. Now, Gehenna – sometimes also called Gehinnom (the place of spiritual purification after death) –...
We usually think of the sun, a lightbulb, maybe even a particularly inspiring idea. But Jewish tradition takes it a step further, suggesting light itself has a deeper, more ancient...
Not just any mountain, but Mount Sinai itself, the very place where God met Moses. It’s a mind-bending image, isn't it? That's how some of our tradition describes the moment of rev...
Before the sun, the moon, the stars... before anything? Jewish tradition has some pretty mind-bending answers, and one of the most fascinating involves the Torah. Not just the one ...
We often think of rewards, of rest, of being in the presence of the Divine. But what does that mean, practically? What do we do? Well, imagine this: God, the ultimate teacher, pers...
Yet, Jewish tradition suggests just that. The story goes that as God dictated the Torah atop Mount Sinai, Moses, ever the diligent scribe, meticulously wrote down every word. But t...
What if the Torah, the sacred scroll that has guided Jewish life for millennia, were to… change? It’s a mind-bending thought, isn’t it? For so many, the Torah – with its 613 mitzvo...
Let’s rewind a bit. Remember the story of the golden calf? MOSES smashes the first set of tablets. Talk about a bad day! Afterward, Moses pleads with God, reminding Him that He bro...
Some traditions whisper that it’s so much more. Imagine this: The Red Sea is splitting, a monumental miracle unfolding before the eyes of the Israelites. According to some, at that...
Maybe, just maybe, you're missing the Shabbat (the Sabbath). You know, the Sabbath. That sacred pause in the week, that island of stillness in our often-frantic lives. But did you ...
Like everyone else has a partner, a purpose, a connection that you're just... outside of? Well, according to some beautiful old stories, even the Sabbath felt that way. The Sabbath...
It's called Shabbat, the Sabbath. And it’s powerful. The mystics teach us that keeping Shabbat is more than just refraining from work. It's about entering a different dimension of ...
Young Abraham did. And his confusion led him to a profound realization about the nature of… well, everything. Imagine being a kid, really seeing the world for the first time. Abrah...
The story of Abraham's negotiation with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, found in the book of Genesis, is a powerful exploration of justice, compassion, and the courage to ...
We all know the story: Abraham and Sarah, finally blessed with a child in their old age. But what if there was more to the story than meets the eye? What if, as some ancient texts ...
The story of the Akeidah, the binding of Isaac, is one of the most powerful and disturbing in the Hebrew Bible. We usually focus on Abraham's faith, Isaac's (near) sacrifice, and G...
To have a little piece of the Garden of Eden right in your own backyard... or, in this case, your own tent flap? Jewish tradition paints a beautiful picture of Sarah's tent, offeri...
Take lentils, for example. Humble, unassuming… yet, in Jewish tradition, they're deeply tied to mourning and sorrow. Why lentils? The tradition tells us that when Cain killed Abel,...
That feeling, that raw, unfair sting, is at the heart of the story of Jacob and Esau, and the stolen blessing. The scene is set: Isaac, now old and with failing eyesight, calls for...
Maybe you drove past a friend's house without stopping, or forgot to say thank you to someone who deserved it. Imagine that feeling, amplified on a biblical scale. The Torah tells ...
That’s the kind of dream Jacob, later known as Israel, had as he fled from his brother Esau. It wasn't just a random jumble of images, but a direct encounter with the divine. The T...
You know the one – stretching all the way from earth to heaven, angels going up and down, up and down. He jolted awake and said, "In truth, the Glory of the Shekhinah (the Divine P...
The story goes that after his less-than-amicable departure from his father-in-law Laban, Jacob found himself at the River Yabbok (Yabbok, a river in the Transjordan, now part of Jo...
would rest his head. God then performed a miracle and made all the stones into one. According to another tradition, Jacob placed all the stones under his head and they were fused t...
It's a pretty wild idea, isn't it? That Jacob, the trickster, the wrestler with angels, the father of a sometimes-fractious family, is so central to the divine plan that his image ...
