1,056 passages in Rabbinic Midrash
Individual passages from Bereshit Rabbah, shown in source order. Page 3 of 22.
Bereshit Rabbah turns to Life of Hadrian. So, how did the Holy One, blessed be He, create His world? Rabbi Yoḥanan, in Bereshit Rabbah 10, paints a vivid picture. He says God took ...
Rabbi Hoshaya, relaying an idea that Rabbi Afes expounded in Antioch, suggests that the word vaykhulu – usually translated as "and they were finished" in the creation story – is ac...
The rabbis of old certainly did. In Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Genesis, they wrestle with the details of creation, offering us...
The answer is a resounding yes! Take Bar Sira, for example. He taught that God created medicines from the earth, empowering physicians to heal and pharmacists to create their compo...
We might swat them away without a second thought, but according to the Rabbis, even these creatures have a purpose. As we find in Bereshit Rabbah, even these so-called "superfluous...
It turns out, that feeling might be older – and trickier – than you think. The Torah tells us, "God completed on the seventh day His labor that He had made; He rested on the sevent...
It’s in (Genesis 2:2): "God completed [vayechal] on the seventh day." But wait a minute! Didn't God finish creating everything on the sixth day? The sages of the Midrash (rabbinic ...
The verse in question? (Genesis 2:3): "God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His labor that God created to make." What does it mean that G...
Bereshit Rabbah, a fascinating collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Genesis, offers some beautiful insights. The verse "God blessed the seventh day [and sanctified...
Because the answer, as is often the case with these things, is layered and lovely. We find a fascinating clue in Bereshit Rabbah, a classical collection of rabbinic interpretations...
It's a taste of paradise, a hint of the World to Come, a weekly reset button for the soul. And according to our sages, even the food tastes better! Rabbi Elazar, quoting Rabbi Yose...
The scene: Rabbi Akiva, a towering figure of Jewish wisdom, is being interrogated by the wicked governor, Tinneus Rufus. Rufus, dripping with imperial arrogance, poses a deceptivel...
It's a loaded question. The philosopher is implying that circumcision isn’t a divine command at all, but just… pointless. (Bereshit Rabbah 11). Rabbi Hoshaya, being the wise person...
The key? Shabbat (the Sabbath). Yes, that's right, the Sabbath. Rabbi Yoḥanan, quoting Rabbi Yosei bar Ḥalafta, makes a powerful point: Abraham, great as he was, inherited the worl...
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...
Even Shabbat, the day of rest, felt that way once. Isn't that incredible? Our sages grappled with a question: why did God specifically bless Shabbat? Bereshit Rabbah, a collection ...
Maybe, just maybe, you're missing the Shabbat (the Sabbath). That sacred pause in the week, that island of stillness in our often-frantic lives. But did you know the Sabbath itself...
They left us some fascinating insights in the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), specifically Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Gene...
The Torah tells us, "Because on it He rested from all His labor" (Genesis 2:3). But what does that really mean? Rabbi Pinḥas, quoting Rabbi Hoshaya in Bereshit Rabbah 11, offers a ...
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 ...
That feeling, that’s something the ancient rabbis wrestled with too. Our story begins with a seemingly simple verse from (Genesis 2:4): “These are the toledot (outgrowths, generati...
There's a fascinating discussion in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Genesis, that tackles this very question. It all starts with the verse ...
It's a notion that the very foundations, the shoresh – the roots – of absolutely everything were established during those pivotal six days of Creation. “There is nothing new under ...
Before (Genesis 1:1), when "the earth was without form and void?" Jewish tradition grapples with this very question. It's a question about origins, about chaos, and about the very ...
Rabbi Nehemya of Kefar Sihon starts us off by referencing (Exodus 20:11): "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, [the sea]…" He focuses on three essential elemen...
The book of Bereshit Rabbah, a classical collection of Rabbinic interpretations of Genesis, dives deep into this very idea, and it’s wild. Our entry point is a seemingly minor deta...
Our sages pondered this question deeply, and one fascinating exploration comes from Bereshit Rabbah, a classic Midrashic (rabbinic interpretive commentary) text, a collection of ra...
It might just be written in our origin story. Think about the very beginning. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). Bereshit Rabbah, that incredib...
In Bereshit Rabbah, one of our most beloved collections of Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) – stories that expand upon the Hebrew Bible – we find a fascinating perspectiv...
The world was created through God's Name. It’s a “wonderful and strange and great secret,” as Howard Schwartz puts it in Tree of Souls, that the Name by which heaven and earth were...
It turns out, even the shapes of the letters themselves can hold profound secrets about creation. to a fascinating interpretation from Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabb...
The ancient rabbis grappled with this question, diving deep into the creation story. And as we find in Bereshit Rabbah, the classic midrashic (rabbinic interpretive commentary) com...
Bereshit Rabbah, a classical collection of rabbinic interpretations on the book of Genesis, offers us a fascinating glimpse into their perspective. Specifically, in section 12, we ...
This particular section, Bereshit Rabbah 12, explores the lasting impact of creation. Rabbi Yitzḥak and Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, two prominent voices of their time, offer us contra...
Bereshit Rabbah turns to Shammai at the Dawn of Creation. The great rabbinic schools of Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel, known for their differing opinions on just about everything, h...
The sages of old grappled with this very question. How could a benevolent God create a world so full of suffering? The answer, according to Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of...
Their answer, as we find it in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis, is surprisingly poetic. A king. A newly crowned king, bursting with...
Bereshit Rabbah turns to Why Rain Did Not Fall Until Adam Prayed for It. (Genesis 2:5). It's a verse that but it's packed with layers. "All the shrubs of the field had yet to be in...
Our tradition teaches us that the natural world is alive with meaning, constantly communicating, if only we have ears to hear. In Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic homilies...
It might be more profound than just needing water for our lawns. Our tradition teaches that rain, the earth, and humanity itself are deeply intertwined, almost inseparable. It’s a ...
Rain isn’t just water falling from the sky. It’s something far more profound. Rabbi Hoshaya, a sage from the Talmudic era, makes a pretty bold claim in Bereshit Rabbah, a collectio...
Our Sages pondered that feeling deeply, especially when thinking about rain. Not just the physical rain, but what it represents. What is rain in the grand scheme of things? In Bere...
A recurring image? Water. Waters upon waters, in fact. Some mystical teachings say long ago, primeval waters covered absolutely everything. And get this: God, in His infinite creat...
Bereshit Rabbah turns to Rain Equals the Revival of the Dead in Power. Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba makes a bold statement: rain is of equal importance to techiyat hameitim, the revival of...
We take it for granted, but the ancient rabbis saw something profound in that simple act of nature, something deeply connected to humanity's purpose. Bereshit Rabbah, that incredib...
We see rivers flowing into the sea, day after day, year after year. Shouldn't the oceans be overflowing? It’s a question that puzzled even ancient rabbis, and it leads us to a fasc...
The ancient rabbis grappled with this question, turning to scripture and observation to understand the mysteries of the natural world. In Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of r...
Even the great rabbis of old disagreed about the answer! In fact, Rabbi Yoḥanan and Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish – two towering figures of Jewish tradition – had a fascinating debate ab...
