10,602 related texts · Page 38 of 221
The rabbis of old grappled with this very question. How high did the water actually get? The Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations of Genesis, dives int...
It’s a question that’s haunted humanity for millennia. Is there any rhyme or reason to it all? Our sages grappled with this, too, and in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic i...
But in Bereshit Rabbah, that foundational midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic text, the rabbis unpack layers of meaning from even a single word. The verse uses the Hebrew ...
In the Torah, we find Abraham, the patriarch, facing just such a moment when sending his servant, Eliezer, to find a wife for his son, Isaac. It's a journey fraught with responsibi...
We find ourselves in Bereshit Rabbah 60, a treasure trove of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Genesis, wrestling with just that. The verse in question, (Genesis 24:33), desc...
They're often far more than just labels; they're prophecies, reflections of emotions, and even glimpses into the future. Remember the story? Leah, unloved by her husband Jacob, fin...
The ancient rabbis certainly did. to a fascinating passage from Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Genesis, and see what they had to say about...
"They sat to eat bread…" Rabbi Aḥva bar Ze’eira points out something profound here. He says, "The transgression of the tribes is remembered forever; it gave hope to the world." Isn...
The story starts with a quote from (Genesis 49:5): "Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of villainy are their heritage." But what does it really mean? Bereshit Rabbah, an ancient...
In Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations of Genesis, they dig deep into this verse, connecting it to the story of Samson, the legendary strongman from t...
We find ourselves in Bereshit Rabbah, a treasure trove of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Genesis, wrestling with Jacob's final blessings to his sons. And when he gets to D...
The answer, according to our Sages, might surprise you. In Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Exodus, we find a fascinating discussion about the Ark, ...
Shir HaShirim Rabbah, the rabbinic commentary on the Song of Songs, explores this idea in a powerful way. It teaches us that before we sin, even the creatures of the world are in a...
We start with a verse: “Emerge, daughters of Zion, and gaze at King Solomon, at the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, and on the day of the rejoici...
We find ourselves pondering just that in a fascinating discussion rooted in the verse from (Song of Songs 4:16): "Awake, north wind, and come, south wind; blow upon my garden, that...
Shir HaShirim Rabbah, the commentary on the Song of Songs, delves into this very question, taking a single verse – "How fair you are and how pleasant you are, love, in delights" (S...
Rabbi Aḥa ben Elyashiv, in Vayikra Rabbah 35, offers a powerful answer, drawing on the words of Isaiah: "It will be that he that is left in Zion and he that remains in Jerusalem sh...
“And did not remember His footstool [hadom raglav],” Rabbi Ḥanina bar Yitzḥak said: The Holy One blessed be He does not remember that blood [hadam] that was between the legs of the...
Specifically, we're looking at how some Kabbalists have tried to depict the Almighty, and the potential pitfalls of using shapes and forms to describe the indescribable. It's a fas...
Philo, the great Jewish philosopher of Alexandria, who lived in the first century CE, offers some mind-bending insights. In his Midrash of Philo, he suggests that those things crea...
What’s the deeper, almost mystical, undercurrent?We're going to look at a teaching that grapples with the verse from Genesis (2:24): “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his...
Ancient Jewish wisdom has something profound to say about that very human struggle. Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish philosopher living in Egypt in the first century CE, offered a uni...
The ancient texts grapple with this feeling, painting a stark picture of the despair that comes from feeling forsaken. As the Midrash of Philo poignantly puts it, "In truth there i...
It turns out, that feeling might be older than you think. to a fascinating piece of ancient Jewish thought that wrestles with just that—the heavy inheritance of sin. We're going to...
to a fascinating interpretation from the Midrash of Philo, a collection of interpretations attributed to the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria. The passage in question revolve...
What is written prior to the episode in which Moses was keeping the flock? Many things are designated for certain purposes even before they are introduced into the world.14This is ...
I'm talking about the Akedah, the binding of Isaac. We all know the story: Abraham, tested to the absolute limit, raises his knife to sacrifice his son Isaac. It's a scene that chi...
This brings us to a little story, a fragment really, told by the great Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav. You probably know him from his famous Sippurei Ma’asiyot, his collection of thirte...
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, commenting on the Torah portion of Noach (Genesis 6:9), distinguishes between two types of righteous people, and the difference has cosmic conseq...
Take the tale of Jacob and Esau, for instance. We all know the basic outline: Jacob, aided by his mother Rebecca, deceives his blind father Isaac to steal the blessing meant for hi...
The story of Abraham and Isaac, the Akeidah (the binding), grapples with these very questions. Abraham and Sarah, living in the Land of Israel, yearned for a child. Their lives wer...
But there are other ancient Jewish texts that fill in the gaps, offering fascinating, sometimes startling, glimpses into what might have been. One of those is the Book of Jubilees....
When God told Moses that his time had come, Moses refused to accept it. He drew a circle on the ground, stood inside it, and declared: "I will not move from this place until the de...
God drew up the blueprints for a world. They failed. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle compiled by Jerahmeel ben Solomon and first translate...
God continued speaking to Enoch, and the story of creation grew stranger and more terrible. He had made the heavenly circle firm. He commanded the waters below heaven to gather int...
He doesn't just offer condolences. He asks God for permission to personally prepare Adam's body for burial. for a second. The head honcho angel, requesting to handle this deeply hu...
That feeling gets at the heart of a powerful concept in Kabbalah, particularly when we delve into the wisdom hidden within the Zohar. Now, the Zohar, that foundational text of Kabb...
It sounds intimidating, I know, but let's break it down. First, a little background. In Kabbalah, the sefirot (singular: sefira) are the ten emanations of God's light, often visual...
It's not just some vague, formless energy. In Kabbalah, the divine manifests in intricate structures called partzuf (a divine configuration)im (divine countenances or configuration...
In Kabbalah, the ancient Jewish mystical tradition, there's a concept that speaks directly to this feeling: the idea that everything – every level of existence, every aspect of our...
Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition, has a few secrets up its sleeve about that. And today, we're going to peek into one of them: the sealed Ḥokhma of Arikh Anpin. Now, let's b...
We're talking about the "second level of brains of maturity." What does that even mean? Well, in Kabbalistic thought, it refers to the seven lower sefirot (divine attributes or ema...
In Kabbalah, that feeling, that yearning, is incredibly powerful. It's the engine that drives creation itself. And it all starts with what's called the ascent of the "feminine wate...
Kabbalah, with its intricate symbolism and profound insights, offers a breathtakingly complex answer. to a particularly fascinating corner of this mystical tradition: the partzuf (...
Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, offers a breathtakingly intricate account, and today we're diving deep into one specific, fascinating element: the formation of partzuf (a divine config...
In Kabbalah, the mystical tradition of Judaism, this feeling isn't just a human experience – it's a fundamental stage in the creation of the universe itself. We’ve been walking thr...
Today, let’s delve into a fascinating aspect of this construction process, focusing on the partzuf (a divine configuration) of Sag and how it expands and evolves. Now, the term par...
That’s kind of the question we’re grappling with today. Imagine someone turning to you and saying, "Why should I bother with all this talk about S'firot? Why should I be compelled ...
