538 related texts · Page 35 of 60
The Devarim Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Deuteronomy, wrestles with the verse, "The Lord your God will maintain for you…" What exactly will God maintai...
But 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 homilie...
A blessing, a curse, a promise kept, a promise broken... it all hangs on the power of speech. Kohelet, or Ecclesiastes, understood this deeply. In Kohelet Rabbah, a midrash (interp...
It’s a recurring theme in Jewish tradition, and one particularly striking example comes to us from Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Exodus. Th...
Rabbi Yitzchak, in Shir HaShirim Rabbah 6, offers a fascinating, if unsettling, interpretation of the events following the plague that killed twenty-four thousand Israelites. This ...
The ancient rabbis felt it too, especially after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. They saw the world changing, and not for the better. Midrash Tehillim, a collection ...
In chapter 9, we find a surprisingly vivid image comparing rivers to the people of Israel. : rivers, in their natural course, are a blessing. As the text says, "All rivers flowing ...
Here he is, a man learned in Torah, yet understandably terrified of receiving his father's curse instead of a blessing. Can you blame him? His mother, Rebecca, steps in, offering a...
The Sifrei Devarim, a collection of early rabbinic legal commentaries on the Book of Deuteronomy, certainly seems to think so. It explores this very idea through the seemingly simp...
