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God asks him, "Where is your brother Abel?" And Cain replies, cool as you please, "I do not know: am I my brother's keeper?" (Genesis 4:9). Now, this moment, this exchange, gets so...
What does it symbolize? The Torah is full of these deceptively simple questions that open up to reveal universes of meaning. Take the story of Cain and Abel. A primal scene. Siblin...
The ancient sages certainly did. And they found answers in the most unexpected places. Take, for instance, the story Philo, the 1st century Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, tell...
Much older. The Midrash of Philo, a collection of interpretations and expansions on the Hebrew Bible attributed to the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria, explores just that id...
This comes from the story of Cain, right after, well, you know. He's just murdered his brother Abel, and God confronts him. The earth itself is now cursed because of the spilled bl...
Jewish tradition has been grappling with this very idea for millennia. The Midrash of Philo—a collection of interpretations and elaborations on the Torah attributed to the philosop...
The ancient texts grapple with this feeling, painting a stark picture of the despair that comes from feeling forsaken. As the Midrash of Philo poignantly puts it, "In truth there i...
The Midrash of Philo gives us some fascinating possibilities to consider. Imagine being Cain. He’s just committed fratricide. His brother Abel lies lifeless, and the weight of his ...
The story of Cain, the first murderer, wrestles with these very questions. And there's one particular verse, a single, chilling promise, that really gets to the heart of it all: Ge...
