Parshat Lech Lecha

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God calls Abraham to leave his homeland for Canaan. Covers Abraham and Sarah in Egypt, the separation from Lot, the war of the kings, and the covenant between the pieces. Genesis 12:1-17:27.

Pillars of Existence and There

Midrash Rabbah Bereshit Rabbah 28:1

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...

CreationHell/GehennaJobRepentance

Acts of Creation and Yudan

Midrash Rabbah Bereshit Rabbah 28:6

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...

CreationNoah & Flood

Noah and the Origins of the World

Midrash Rabbah Bereshit Rabbah 28:8

But 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, ...

CreationNoah & Flood

The Great Flood

Midrash Rabbah Bereshit Rabbah 28:9

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 ...

CreationHell/GehennaNoah & FloodSolomon

Saga of Noah

Midrash Rabbah Bereshit Rabbah 29:5

It’s a question that's been wrestled with for centuries, and it pops up in the most unexpected places in Jewish tradition. : Do we receive blessings because of our ancestors' good ...

Noah & Flood

The Great Flood and Rabbis

Midrash Rabbah Bereshit Rabbah 30:2

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...

Noah & FloodJob

Wisdom of Noah and Abba

Midrash Rabbah Bereshit Rabbah 30:7

It's easy to imagine everyone just carrying on, oblivious, but Jewish tradition suggests otherwise. The Torah tells us, "Noah was a righteous man [ish]" (Genesis 6:9). Seems simple...

CreationNoah & FloodJob

Account of Noah

Midrash Rabbah Bereshit Rabbah 31:2

We often think of the sheer scale of the wickedness, but sometimes the details are what really bring the picture into focus. Bereshit Rabbah, that incredible collection of rabbinic...

Noah & FloodJob

Noah's Transgression and the Wilderness

Midrash Rabbah Bereshit Rabbah 31:4

It's easy to point to general "wickedness," but the details, as always, are far more interesting, and speak to timeless human failings. Bereshit Rabbah, that incredible collection ...

Noah & FloodKing DavidJob