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The Book of Genesis touches on this very question, and the Rabbis of the Midrash, never ones to shy away from a good debate, certainly had opinions. Our story comes from Bereshit R...
And, according to Jewish tradition, Adam, the very first human, had the unique privilege of naming… well, just about everything! We find this idea in the book of Genesis (2:19): "T...
We all do it, usually for about a third of our lives. But what's going on when we drift off? Our sages pondered this deeply. In Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic commentari...
Take, for example, the verse in Genesis 2:21, "He took one of his sides [mitzalotav]..." Now, mitzalotav can mean either "one of his ribs" or "one of his sides." So, which was it? ...
The story goes that a noblewoman, clearly not shy about asking tough questions, once approached Rabbi Yosei. "Why," she demanded, "did God create Eve as if by theft? Why take Adam'...
The ancient rabbis did! And they weren't shy about asking some pretty direct questions. Let's take a peek into a fascinating passage from Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic ...
The Torah tells us, "The Lord God built the side that He had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man" (Genesis 2:22). Simple. But as is so often the case, our s...
It's not just some offhand detail in the Book of Genesis. Our sages saw a universe of intention packed into that single act of creation. The Midrash, specifically Bereshit Rabbah, ...
The Midrash, those collections of rabbinic commentaries and stories that expand on the Hebrew Bible, often offer surprising perspectives. Here, in Bereshit Rabbah, a midrash on the...
