270 passages in Rabbinic Midrash
Individual passages from Kohelet Rabbah, shown in source order. Page 2 of 6.
It's like they're walking around with a spotlight shining on everyone else but themselves. Well, Kohelet Rabbah, the rabbinic commentary on Ecclesiastes, has some thoughts on that,...
"If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves upon the land," it says, "and if the tree falls in the south, or in the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it sh...
It all centers around a verse from (Ecclesiastes 12:3), a verse filled with cryptic imagery: "On the day that the guards of the house will tremble, the men of valor will be bent, t...
Gehenna – sometimes also called Gehinnom (the place of spiritual purification after death) – isn't exactly hell as you might picture it from other traditions. It's more of a purifi...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as it's known in Hebrew, certainly did. “One generation passes, and one generation comes; and the earth abides forever. The sun rises and the s...
King Solomon, the wisest of all men, certainly grappled with that question. And in the book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet, he gives us a glimpse into his own striving. The verse Simp...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as it's known in Hebrew, gets it. It’s a book that doesn't shy away from the complexities, the contradictions, the sheer messiness of being hum...
It’s a topic explored further in the rabbinic commentary on Ecclesiastes, Kohelet Rabbah, and it's a fascinating, and frankly, a little scary. The verse in question is (Ecclesiaste...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet, certainly does. And the rabbis, in their insightful commentary Kohelet Rabbah, really dig into this sense of transience. Take this verse from ...
Kohelet Rabbah, the rabbinic commentary on Ecclesiastes, dives deep into this idea. “The heart of the wise is in a house of mourning, and the heart of fools in the house of rejoici...
The verse at the heart of it all is (Ecclesiastes 8:4): "Since the king's word has power, and who will say to him: What are you doing?" But what does this really mean? Rabbi Bon, i...
There’s a fascinating story in Kohelet Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic commentaries on the Book of Ecclesiastes, that tackles this very question. It involves a sharp-tongued rabbi...
Kohelet Rabbah, a Midrashic (rabbinic interpretive commentary) commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes, tackles this idea head-on with the verse: "If the spirit of the ruler comes u...
Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as it's known in Hebrew, certainly thinks so. Chapter 12 is a powerful, poetic meditation on aging, and the Rabbis, as they so often do, dug deep to unlock...
This particular passage from Kohelet Rabbah 4 dives deep into the mystery of resurrection. Rabbi Levi and Rabbi Yaakov Gevulai, quoting Rabbi Ḥanina, present a rather striking imag...
Kohelet Rabbah, a fascinating exploration of the book of Ecclesiastes, explores this very idea, offering a surprisingly hopeful perspective. The verse they latch onto is a powerful...
We look back with nostalgia, imagining that the giants of the past held all the answers. But Jewish tradition challenges that very notion. The idea that each generation has its own...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet in Hebrew, grapples with this very question. And in Kohelet Rabbah, a collection of Rabbinic interpretations on Ecclesiastes, we find some fasc...
Take the verse from Ecclesiastes (1:5): "The sun rises and the sun sets, and it hastens to its place where it arises." Seems straightforward. But the rabbis in Kohelet Rabbah see s...
The verse in question: "I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted in them trees of every fruit" (Ecclesiastes 2:5). The rabbis weren't content with a simple reading. They w...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as it's known in Hebrew, wrestles with these very questions. And one particular verse, (Ecclesiastes 3:5), has sparked some fascinating interpr...
It’s a universal human experience. And it's something the ancient rabbis wrestled with too, as we see in Kohelet Rabbah, a fascinating commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes. The v...
We all have. But in Jewish tradition, the words we speak – and the intentions behind them – carry immense weight. Kohelet Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Bo...
The verse in question is (Ecclesiastes 6:5): “He has also not seen the sun, and did not know there is more gratification for that than for this.” What on earth does that mean? Well...
What does it really mean? Kohelet Rabbah, a rabbinic commentary on Ecclesiastes, dives right in. It suggests that "the rebuke of a wise man" refers to those who deliver homilies – ...
Kohelet Rabbah turns to Esther's Wisdom in Knowing the Time of Judgment. The verse Sounds a little cryptic. But that's where the beauty of Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet, puts it starkly: "For the living know that they will die; but the dead do not know anything, and they no longer have a reward, as their memory...
Kohelet Rabbah, a collection of Rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Ecclesiastes, explores this very human experience with the verse, "There is an evil that I have seen under t...
Maybe, just maybe, that's part of the point. (Ecclesiastes 11:5) tells us, "Just as you do not know the path of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb of one who is pregnant; ...
Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet, as it’s known in Hebrew, explores these very feelings in its twelfth chapter. It paints a poignant picture of aging, and Kohelet Rabbah, a Midrashic (rabb...
It paints a vivid picture of the sun, not just as a celestial body, but as a powerful force carefully managed by the Holy One. Rabbi Natan, as the verse says, taught that the sun a...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet in Hebrew, wrestles with this too. "The wind goes to the south, and turns to the north; around and around the wind turns, and on its rounds the...
The verse in question is (Ecclesiastes 2:6): “I made myself pools of water to irrigate from them a forest which grows trees.” Sounds straightforward enough. But what does it really...
Remember the famous lines, "A time to be born, and a time to die..a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted"? (Ecclesiastes 3:2). It goes on from there. Within ...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as it's known in Hebrew, has something to say about that. "A handful of tranquility is better than two handfuls of toil and herding wind" (Eccl...
It all starts with the verse from (Ecclesiastes 5:6): "So it is with a multitude of dreams and vanities and many words; rather, fear God.” The verse seems to be saying that too muc...
The ancient rabbis, in Kohelet Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on Ecclesiastes, really dig into this idea. The verse in question is (Ecclesiastes 6:6-7): “Were he ...
Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as it's known in Hebrew, tackles this very feeling. "For like the crackling of brambles under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool; this, too, is vanity...
We all do. And sometimes, that impulse leads us down a path we later regret. It's that tension between desire and consequence, between the immediate gratification and the long-term...
The verse that really gets us thinking is (Ecclesiastes 9:6): "Even their love, even their hatred and even their envy, have already perished; they will never again have a portion i...
The Book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet, certainly did. And the rabbis of old, in their interpretations, saw that same topsy-turvy world reflected in their own times. Kohelet Rabbah, ...
They found wisdom in the most unexpected of places: a farmer's field. The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet, as it's known in Hebrew, offers some surprisingly practical advice tucke...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as we know it, uses some pretty powerful imagery to describe the fragility of life and the descent into mortality. And the Rabbis, in their inf...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as it's known in Hebrew, poses this very question: "All the rivers go to the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place that the rivers go, the...
Kohelet, the book of Ecclesiastes, gives us a glimpse. In chapter 2, verse 7, it says, "I purchased myself slaves and maidservants and I had stewards. I also had great possession o...
King Solomon, wiser than anyone, certainly thought so. In the book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as we call it in Hebrew, he tells us, "A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to b...
The ancient sages grappled with that feeling too, and they left us some pretty intense imagery to describe it. Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as it's known in Hebrew, is a book all about...
The Book of Ecclesiastes – or Kohelet as it's known in Hebrew – grapples with this very feeling. It asks us: what do we do when we see injustice seemingly rewarded? Specifically, K...
