1,099 passages in Rabbinic Midrash
Individual passages from Sifrei Devarim, shown in source order. Page 9 of 23.
It’s a short passage, but it speaks volumes about how seriously our ancestors took the responsibility of caring for the poor. The passage begins with a fascinating thought experime...
The Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy, tells us about this family, the Nevlatah. They were desperately poor. So poor, in fact, that t...
Poof! Gone. Wiped clean. Sounds like a fantasy. But Jewish tradition actually envisions such a thing. It's called shemittah. It's wild. The verse in Sifrei Devarim lays it out pret...
The sabbatical year is not only about resting the land. In Sifrei Devarim, it becomes a debate over which debts are released and when. One perspective suggests that because a Hebre...
I do all the time! Take this passage from Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy. It's short, but packed with meaning. It essentially asks...
Our ancestors grappled with these very issues, and the Torah, in its wisdom, offered a radical solution: shemittah, the Sabbatical year. What exactly is shemittah? Well, it's more ...
Sifrei Devarim turns to The Sabbatical Release of Debts Inside and Outside Israel. Our passage starts with a verse from Deuteronomy (15:2), stating "because it has been declared sh...
They might sound distant, but their underlying principles still resonate. A system designed to periodically reset economic imbalances. That's the essence of Shemitah and Yovel. The...
The Torah, in its wisdom, grapples with this very human experience in the book of Devarim, Deuteronomy. Specifically, we find a fascinating discussion in Sifrei Devarim 112, explor...
Jewish law, especially when to a fascinating little corner of the Sifrei Devarim, a legal midrash on the Book of Deuteronomy, and see what it can teach us about the nuances of who ...
The Shmita, the Sabbatical year, mandated that every seventh year, all debts were to be forgiven. A beautiful concept. A clean slate, a chance for everyone to start fresh. As it sa...
It's like a cosmic riddle wrapped in ancient wisdom. Take this one for example from Devarim, the Book of Deuteronomy. First, we read (Deuteronomy 15:4): "But there shall not be in ...
It all starts with the Land. The Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal midrashim (rabbinic interpretive commentary) on the Book of Deuteronomy, offers a profound observation: "For ...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Every Commandment Matters Equally - Slight or Weighty. The passage focuses on the phrase, "to observe to do this entire mitzvah" (commandment). The message ...
It’s uncanny, really. This passage from Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy, does just that. It dives straight into questions of lendin...
It seems our ancestors grappled with it too. to a little piece of wisdom from Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal interpretations connected to the Book of Deuteronomy. This passa...
Who are we talking about helping here? "To your brother the pauper," the text specifies. It's that idea of inherent connection, that even in disparity, we are bound to one another....
That little voice inside that asks, "Am I doing enough?" When it comes to helping others, Jewish tradition doesn't just say "give." It dives deep into the how and the why. It's not...
Sifrei Devarim turns to A Pound of Meat from Sepphoris in Upper Galilee. This particular passage is short, sweet, and a little bit shocking: "And it also happened in Upper Galilee ...
We’ve all been there. But what if I told you that according to one ancient interpretation, that seemingly small act could be seen as something far more serious? Sifrei Devarim 117,...
" Imagine the scene: someone needs assistance, and you’re hesitant to give. The text says, "and your eye be evil against your poor brother, and you not give him, and he shall call ...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Give and Give Again Even a Hundred Times. The text then zooms in on the phrase "to him," suggesting a personal connection, a direct link between giver and r...
It's like a cosmic riddle, a puzzle begging to be solved. Take this one, for instance, from the Book of Deuteronomy. On the one hand, we have Devarim (Deuteronomy) 15:11, which sta...
The Torah recognizes this deeply, and in Sifrei Devarim 118, we get some beautiful guidance on how to actually act on that feeling. The verse tells us, "Therefore, I command you, s...
Our case in point comes from Sifrei Devarim 118, a commentary on the Book of Deuteronomy. It specifically asks why the Torah bothers mentioning both "the Hebrew man" and "the Hebre...
It deals with something seemingly simple: the rules of indentured servitude. Specifically, what does it really mean when the Torah says a servant must “serve you"? It's not as stra...
Take this one from Sifrei Devarim (Deuteronomy 15:13-14). It deals with releasing a Hebrew servant after six years of service, and the obligation to "bestow upon him", to give him ...
The ancient rabbis grappled with these questions, digging deep into the nuances of scripture to understand God's will. And their answers? Well, they might surprise you. The traditi...
Jewish tradition tackles this head-on, and a fascinating passage in Sifrei Devarim, a legal midrash on the book of Deuteronomy, offers some pretty profound answers. The verse Seems...
Specifically, The Torah outlines that a Hebrew slave is to be freed in the seventh year of their servitude. But what happens if the slave, presented with freedom, refuses it? What ...
The Hebrew slave who chooses to stay does not enter permanent service by feeling alone. The timing, family, and wording all have to line up, including the declaration in (Exodus 21...
Sifrei Devarim turns to The Ear-Piercing Ritual of the Slave Who Chose to Stay. The ritual was… striking. The master would take the slave to the doorpost of his house and pierce hi...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Where Exactly on the Ear a Servant Is Pierced. R. Eliezer Yuden Berebbi, a sage known for his insightful teachings, believed the piercing should be done spe...
The Torah talks about it, but sometimes the details are…sparse. to one fascinating passage from Sifrei Devarim, a legal commentary on the Book of Deuteronomy, and examine the laws ...
The Torah, it turns out, is overflowing with them. Take the laws surrounding freeing Hebrew slaves, for example. We find some fascinating details in Sifrei Devarim, a collection of...
Like winning the lottery. But what if there's more to it? What if we have a role to play? The Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal Midrash on the Book of Deuteronomy, tackles this...
Sifrei Devarim asks which sacred animals may not be sheared or worked, starting from one compact phrase in (Deuteronomy 15:19). Our starting point is a verse that reads at first: "...
Like one verse says, "Do this!" and another says, "Don't do that!" It happens more than you think. And that's where the beauty of rabbinic interpretation comes in, helping us untan...
Why You Cannot Work or Shear a Firstborn Animal is the question behind this passage from Sifrei Devarim. Rabbi Yehudah kicks things off with a clever distinction. He agrees, you ca...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Knowledge and Innocence of Jerusalem. That’s where the concept of a fortiori argument comes in. It's a method of logical inference, a way of saying, "If thi...
Sometimes, these little nuggets offer the biggest insights into how our ancestors lived and understood the world. to one. Seems straightforward. But the Rabbis of the Talmud, never...
It's not like you can just bring any old animal to the Temple. There are rules, of course, meticulously detailed in the Torah. And within those rules are layers upon layers of inte...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Observing the Month of Aviv and the Leap Year Calendar. (Deuteronomy 16:1) kicks it off: "Observe the month of Aviv." Seems straightforward. But the Sifrei ...
The answer, unsurprisingly, is a resounding "no." But the reasoning behind that "no" is to a passage from Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Deute...
" It sounds simple. Study and explain. But there's a depth charge hidden within those words. It's not enough to just passively absorb information. We need to confront it, to wrestl...
Sometimes, it's in those tiny details that we find the biggest revelations. Let's take a little dive into a passage from Sifrei Devarim (that's a collection of early rabbinic legal...
It turns out, the seeds of their monumental freedom were sown not under the blazing sun, but under the cloak of night. We read in Sifrei Devarim – a collection of early Jewish lega...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Slaughtering Sprinkling and Making the Pesach Offering. The answer, according to this passage, lies in the very same phrase: "and you shall make the Pesach....
