1,056 passages in Rabbinic Midrash
Individual passages from Bereshit Rabbah, shown in source order. Page 6 of 22.
The Torah gives us a glimpse into the lives of Cain's descendants, painting a picture that's not always flattering. to what Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of Rabbinic interp...
Bereshit Rabbah turns to Kingdom of Lemekh. Rabbi Yosei bar Ḥanina offers a compelling interpretation: Lemekh is trying to convince his wives to have children. But they're hesitant...
Take the story of Adam and Eve after the tragic loss of Abel. We read in (Genesis 4:25), "Adam was further intimate with his wife and she gave birth to a son, and she called his na...
It wasn't just bad manners, folks. The story, as the rabbis tell it, is far more… complicated. Adam was made in God's image. And so was his son Seth, and Seth's son, Enosh. Accordi...
Bereshit Rabbah turns to Birth of Enosh. What's so special about Enosh? Why does the Torah bother to mention Adam, Seth, Enosh, and then.. just stop? That's the question that Abba ...
The discussion kicks off with Rabbi Simon, who makes a rather bold claim: that in three key places in the Torah, the word huḥal isn't just neutral. It’s actually "an expression of ...
Like you've pulled the wool over someone's eyes, maybe even... God's? Well, Bereshit Rabbah, that incredible collection of rabbinic interpretations of Genesis, has something to say...
It all begins, of course, with Adam. But did you ever imagine him… colossal? Our sages certainly did. In Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Bo...
Bar Kappara, a sage from the Land of Israel who lived around the 3rd Century CE, once opened up a fascinating idea based on a verse from Psalms. He looked at the verse, "May they b...
In fact, it explores the idea of divine restraint, of God actively preventing the world from being destroyed by, well, wind. We find this idea explored in Bereshit Rabbah 24, a mid...
Our story begins with the verse, "This is the book of the descendants of Adam" (Genesis 5:1). But what does that really mean? Bereshit Rabbah 24 digs into this, offering some truly...
The creation story, as we know it, tells of God fashioning the world, setting it firmly on its foundations (Tree of Souls, Ifa 7838). Then came Adam, the first human. God brought h...
The verse says, "This is the book of the descendants of Adam" (Genesis 5:1). Seems straightforward. But the rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) – those incredi...
It’s a breathtaking thought, isn't it? Where do they get this idea? They point to the verse in (Isaiah 44:11), “And craftsmen, they are me’adam”—literally, "from Adam." The implica...
Bereshit Rabbah turns to Did Enoch Die or Ascend to Heaven Like Elijah. The rabbis of the Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations of Genesis, wrestled wit...
In the Torah, names often carry a powerful weight, hinting at a person's destiny or reflecting a significant moment. Take Noah, for example. (Genesis 5:29) tells us, "He called his...
In Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis, we find this idea explored through a rather unsettling lens: famine. Specifically, the ...
Take Noah, for instance. The familiar story is this: the ark, the flood, the animals two-by-two. But what about Noah before the flood? What kind of person was he? Well, the book of...
The familiar story is this: the ark, the flood, the animals two by two. But have you ever stopped to wonder about the timing of it all? It's not just about the rain, but about the ...
(Genesis 9:18). It seems straightforward. But wait a minute... Was Yefet actually the eldest? That's what some of our Sages wondered. Why does Shem get top billing? Why not list th...
In the Torah, the word heḥel (הֵחֵל), meaning "began," is one of those words. It pops up in some pretty unsettling contexts. In Bereshit Rabbah 26, a classic collection of rabbinic...
The Bible, especially the Book of Genesis, grapples with this tension in some truly epic ways. And one of the most intriguing. And troubling, is the story of the "sons of God" and ...
The verse says, "The children of the great men [benei haelohim] saw the daughters of man, that they were fair, and they took for themselves wives, from whomever they chose." Simple...
This week, The verse at the heart of our discussion is (Genesis 6:3): “The Lord said: My spirit will not abide in man for eternity, for he too is flesh and his days will be one hun...
Ever read something in the Bible that just makes you stop and say, "Wait, what?" I get that feeling every time I stumble upon (Genesis 6:4): "The Nefilim were on the earth in those...
It’s a powerful, devastating verse that sets the stage for the Flood. But the Rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), in Bereshit Rabbah, weren't content with a s...
The verse in question is (Ecclesiastes 2:23): “For all his days are pains, and anger is his concern; even at night his heart does not rest. This too is futility.” But what does thi...
The Torah tells us, in (Genesis 6:5), that God saw the wickedness of humankind was "great" – raba in Hebrew – before the Flood. But what kind of "great" was it? Rabbi Ḥanina sugges...
The Torah tells us, in (Genesis 6:6), "The Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was saddened in His heart.” Whoa. Heavy stuff. But what does it really mean? The...
The flood narrative in Genesis is one of the most challenging passages in the Torah, wrestling as it does with divine regret and the wiping out of nearly all life. It all starts wi...
It's about something much deeper – a relationship, even a conversation, between God and the very elements of the universe. We find a fascinating take on this in Bereshit Rabbah, an...
The Book of Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of Genesis, grapples with just that question in section 28. It all stems from God’s statement, "I will obliter...
Bereshit Rabbah turns to When Even God Regretted Creating Humanity. We find a fascinating glimpse into this in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book...
Bereshit Rabbah turns to Noah and Creation of Flood. Rabbi Abba bar Kahana makes a pretty stark claim: that the ten tribes of Israel were even worse than the generation wiped out b...
Innocent creatures caught in the wake of human sin. But the ancient rabbis grappled with this question too, offering powerful, and perhaps unsettling, explanations. In Bereshit Rab...
The familiar telling remembers its benefits, but Jewish tradition also explores its potential pitfalls, especially when it comes to spiritual well-being. Rabbi Elazar, commenting o...
The animals? Did they really deserve to be wiped out along with everyone else? Well, the rabbis of old had some thoughts on that. Rabbi Azarya, quoting Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon, offe...
Rabbi Yoḥanan, a prominent Jewish sage, offers a fascinating, and perhaps surprising, perspective. He says that the sentence, the punishment, of the generation of the Flood lasted ...
That feeling, that precarious balance between merit and grace, is at the heart of a fascinating discussion about Noah in Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpret...
Noah is pictured as the good wine still hidden in a ruined cluster, the one life worth saving when a generation collapses. Rabbi Simon starts us off with a powerful image from (Isa...
God is often remembered as all-knowing, all-seeing, but the Rabbis in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of early Jewish interpretations of Genesis, dare to imagine a divine experience ...
In Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Genesis, we find a fascinating discussion about the depth of that relationship. Rabbi Yoḥanan, R...
Do we receive blessings because of our ancestors' good deeds? That idea feels familiar, doesn’t it? readers often hear that the Holy One, blessed be He, shows kindness to descendan...
Take the story of Noah. (Genesis 6:9) tells us: "These are the offspring of Noah; Noah was a righteous man, faultless in his generations; Noah walked with God.” And then, almost im...
The Torah portion Noah grapples with just that, the world after the flood. But even in this story of renewal, shadows of the past linger. The Rabbis in Bereshit Rabbah, that magnif...
The ancient rabbis certainly knew it. They saw it baked right into the words of the Torah itself. Take, for instance, the opening of Parashat Noah, the portion of Genesis that tell...
In a fascinating passage from Bereshit Rabbah, the ancient rabbinic commentary on Genesis, we find the figure of Noah held up as a source of just that: double relief. It starts wit...
Bereshit Rabbah turns to Fruits of the Righteous Are a Tree of Life. What are the fruits of the righteous? According to the Bereshit Rabbah, they are mitzvot (commandments) and goo...
