1,879 related texts · 4 related myths · Page 39 of 40
It all hinges on a seemingly simple phrase. It comes from Vayikra Rabbah 30, a fascinating section of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary). Midrash, by the way, is a meth...
There's a profound reason why. Rabbi Yitzḥak opens Vayikra Rabbah 31 with a powerful image, quoting (Psalms 119:140): “Your saying is exceedingly pure, and Your servant loves it.” ...
The Vayikra Rabbah, a fascinating midrashic (rabbinic interpretive commentary) collection on the Book of Leviticus, explores this very idea. It opens with the verse "If you follow ...
Vayikra Rabbah turns Jacob's delayed vow at Bethel into a warning about promises made before God. Our starting point is (Leviticus 27:2): “Speak to the children of Israel, and say ...
“She weeps bitterly at night and her tears are on her cheeks; she has no comforter from all her lovers. All her allies have betrayed her, have become her enemies” (Lamentations 1:2...
“I remember my song in the night; I meditate with my heart, and my spirit searches” (Psalms 77:7). Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Simon and Rabbi Aivu.58The text of the midrash (rabbinic i...
“He destroyed, in His ire, the strongholds of the daughter of Judah.” Rabbi Yudan said: Each and every castle that was in Jerusalem was not fit to be conquered in any less than for...
“Even now, our eyes fail toward futile help. In our waiting, we awaited a nation that cannot save” (Lamentations 4:17).“Even now, our eyes fail.” What would the Ten Tribes do? They...
“Your iniquity is completed, daughter of Zion; He will not continue to exile you. He will reckon your iniquity, daughter of Edom, He will expose your sins” (Lamentations 4:22).“You...
“To do as every man desired.” The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘I do not fulfill the wishes of all My creatures, and you seek “to do as every man desired?”’ The way of the world is...
It is written: “You have seen, for You behold mischief and spite; to requite is in Your hand: the helpless man commits himself to You; You are the helper of the orphans” (Psalms 10...
The Book of Esther opens with a single verse that the rabbis of Esther Rabbah read as a cry of anguish: "It was during the days of Ahasuerus" (Esther 1:1). But to understand why th...
The rabbis of Esther Rabbah made a stunning claim: every time the Hebrew word vayhi ("it was") appears in the Torah, it signals disaster. Rabbi Tanhuma, Rabbi Berekhya, and Rabbi H...
The exile of the Jewish people under Ahasuerus was not an accident. According to Esther Rabbah, it was prophesied in detail centuries before it happened, embedded in verses from Is...
Jewish tradition has a name for that feeling: Shekhinah (the Divine Presence). But what exactly is it? It’s a word we hear often, especially when talking about exile and redemption...
Are we, heaven forbid, idolaters, bowing down to wood and parchment? Rabbi Menasheh ben Yisrael, of blessed memory, addressed this very concern in his book, Teshuat Yisrael. He fel...
The story goes that when the seventy-two elders presented it to him, he didn't just nod politely. He rose from his throne, and prostrated himself before it not once, but seven time...
Remember how we talked last time about the "Wars of God," those intellectual battles fought over the proper approach to divine wisdom? Well, buckle up, because the debate rages on!...
That feeling, that sense of unease, might be more than just good manners telling you to speak up. According to Jewish tradition, it's practically a commandment. The Torah tells us,...
It's a harsh rebuke, a stark reminder of the damage that lashon hara – evil speech – can inflict. The writer directly confronts his friend, accusing him of believing falsehoods wit...
This is a tricky concept, one that's tripped up even seasoned students of Kabbalah. The question at hand is: why doesn't Adam Kadmon – the primordial man, a concept representing th...
The answer, as with so many profound questions, lies deep within Jewish tradition, and grapples with some pretty mind-bending concepts, especially when we explore Kabbalah. But som...
My dear friend, it all boils down to the core of our faith: the absolute and singular authority of God. Our sages, whose wisdom stretches back to Moses himself, taught us that the ...
Why wasn't she just... there? Well, according to a fascinating interpretation found in the Midrash of Philo 22, it's not just a random detail. It speaks to something much deeper ab...
The Midrash of Philo turns to Philo's Hidden Meaning in Adam's Garments of Skin. A reader can dismiss this detail. So, God makes clothes. Big deal. But, as Philo of Alexandria, a J...
The Midrash of Philo wrestles with the heavy inheritance of sin through the strange confession of Lamech, a descendant of Cain. Philo was a Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandr...
Death is often remembered as the end, a full stop. But what if it's just a… transition? Philo, that brilliant Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, wrestled with this very idea. He w...
There's a perspective, woven into ancient Jewish thought, that offers a slightly different angle?Now, midrash (מדרש) itself, broadly speaking, is a way of interpreting and expandin...
It's like we're trying to soften the blow, to create a little distance between the person and the negative action. Well, it turns out this isn't just a quirk of human interaction; ...
The Torah tells us that after the flood, God set a bow in the clouds as a sign of the covenant with Noah, a promise never again to destroy all life with a flood (Genesis 9:13). But...
Take the covenant God makes with Abraham in Genesis 15. It's a big moment. God promises Abraham this whole huge swathe of land for his descendants. But then it gets…well, geographi...
The Torah, in its often subtle way, touches upon this very question. Our passage focuses on a seemingly small detail in the story of Sarah and Hagar. You remember the story. Sarah,...
Take this passage from The Midrash of Philo. Now, Philo of Alexandria, he was a fascinating figure – a Jewish philosopher living in Egypt during the Roman era. He tried to bridge t...
That’s certainly true when we explore the deeper interpretations of brit milah, the covenant of circumcision. The familiar version gives us the physical act: the circumcision of th...
Our ancestor Abraham knew that feeling well. We find him in a fascinating moment in the Midrash of Philo, confronting hope, faith, and the very definition of a "blessing." Philo, t...
And the Lord appeared unto him by the terebinths of Mamre (Gen. 18:1) May it please our master to teach us: How many benedictions must a man pray each day? Thus do our masters teac...
And the Lord remembered Sarah, as he had said (Gen. 21:1). Scripture states elsewhere in allusion to this verse: God is not a man that He should lie; neither the son of man, that H...
And he sent Judah before him (Gen. 46:28). Jacob sent Judah before him to establish an academy wherein he might teach the Torah as he had previously done for the tribes. You know t...
And it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanite (Exod. 13:5). (Scripture mentions) five nations though there were (in fact) seven nations.17Cf. Mekhil...
And the Lord went before them by day (Exod. 13:21). Has it not already been said: Do not I fill heaven and earth? (Jer. 23:25), and also: The earth is full of His glory (Isa. 6:3)?...
When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel (Exod. 30:12). R. Judah said in the name of R. Samuel the son of Nahman: This may be compared to a king who has many silk garment...
And the Lord said unto Moses: “Write thou these words, for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel” (Exod. 34:27). Scripture states elsewher...
For example, Bezalel, who built the ark, was extolled before the Holy One, blessed be He, and the angels. He was praised in the upper regions and in the terrestrial regions, as it ...
The tabernacle of the testimony (Exod. 38:21). This refers the Torah in which they labored. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Because of the Torah and the sacrifices, I will rescu...
(Lev. 7:12:) “If he offers it for a thanksgiving, and he shall sacrifice.” See how the Holy One, blessed be He, forgives the sins of Israel. See what did they offer to the Holy One...
Another interpretation (of Lev. 19:23), “When you come into the land.” This text is related (to Ps. 105:44-45), “He gave them the lands of nations […]. In order that they might kee...
(Lev. 27:1-2:) “Then the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, ‘Speak unto the Children of Israel [and say unto them], “When anyone explicitly vows to the Lord [the value (rt. 'rk) of hum...
(Numb. 2:2:) “Each with his standard.” This text is related (to Deut. 32:10), “He found him (i.e., Jacob) in a desert land.” [It was] a great find, [when] the Holy One, blessed be ...
