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Abraham, our patriarch, knew that feeling. In (Genesis 15:2), he cries out, "My Lord God, what will You give me, seeing that I go childless, and the one who has charge of my house ...
one such verse, rich with meaning and implication. In (Genesis 15:14), God tells Abraham, "And also that nation that they will serve, I will judge, and after that they will go out ...
We find ourselves asking this question in Bereshit Rabbah 44, a midrash – a collection of rabbinic interpretations – on the book of Genesis. The verse in question: "On that day, th...
The Torah touches on this very issue, and the Rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), those ancient interpreters of scripture, offer some pretty fascinating expla...
It's like a linguistic puzzle, where sometimes a single letter can shift the whole meaning of a word. And that brings us to a curious little detail in the Torah, one that our sages...
The verse that kicks it all off: "Lot's two daughters conceived from their father" (Genesis 19:36). Simple enough on the surface. But immediately, the rabbis of the Midrash (rabbin...
We’re going to do just that, diving into a fascinating interpretation from Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic commentary on the Book of Genesis. It all starts with a...
The story revolves around Abraham and Avimelekh in Genesis 21. Abraham, as the verse tells us, "reprimanded Avimelekh regarding the well of water that Avimelekh's servants had stol...
We know the story: God commands Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son. But what about the whispers, the doubts, the anxieties that surely must have plagued them both? The Book of Ge...
The ancient rabbis certainly did, and they explored this question through stories, through midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) – those beautiful, imaginative expansions on t...
Our sages, in the ancient collection of rabbinic homilies known as Bereshit Rabbah, delve deep into this very question. They find an answer woven into the fabric of Torah itself. T...
to one such passage from Genesis, chapter 24, where we find Rebecca on her way to meet Isaac. The verse tells us, "Rebecca and her maids rose, and rode upon the camels, and followe...
We find a poignant example in the story of Abraham's burial, as recounted in Bereshit Rabbah 62, a section of the classic midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic collection th...
But did he just follow the big commandments, the obvious ones? Or was there something more? (Genesis 26:5) tells us that Abraham "heeded My voice, and observed My commission, My co...
Take the tale of Isaac, Jacob, and Esau. We all know the basics: Jacob deceives his father, Isaac, and steals Esau's blessing. But what happens after? What was Isaac really thinkin...
Dreams have always held a special fascination, and Jewish tradition is no exception. Take the famous dream of Jacob in (Genesis 28:12): "He dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set on...
It turns out, this isn't just a modern observation. Our sages recognized this dynamic thousands of years ago. Rabbi Ḥama bar Ḥanina, in Bereshit Rabbah 69, starts us off with a quo...
We’re talking about Leah, wife of Jacob. You remember Leah: first wife, given in a switcheroo by her father Laban! By this point, she’s already given Jacob a whole bunch of sons. B...
It turns out, this isn't just a modern consideration. The ancient rabbis were thinking about this too! Our story today comes from Bereshit Rabbah (Genesis Rabbah), a collection of ...
We pick up the story with Jacob preparing to leave Laban. Remember the scene? Jacob, after years of hard work and trickery (and being tricked himself!), is finally heading back to ...
King David certainly did. In Psalms, he repeatedly begs God to rise up and intervene. But what does it really mean for God to "arise"? And when will that moment finally come? Our s...
(Genesis 32:17) tells us, "And he placed them in the hands of his slaves, each flock separately, and he told them: Go before me, and leave space between the flocks." Jacob isn't ju...
It’s a fascinating story that takes us back to the very beginnings of our people, to Jacob wrestling with a mysterious figure. The Torah tells us, in (Genesis 32:33), "Therefore, t...
In (Genesis 33:10), Jacob pleads with Esau, saying, "Please, no, if I have found favor in your eyes, receive my gift from me, for therefore, I have seen your face, as the sight of ...
The Torah tells us, "Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and Ḥamor his father with guile, and spoke, as he had defiled Dinah their sister” (Genesis 34:13). But was it really just guile? ...
Dina, Jacob’s daughter, goes out to visit the women of the land, and is defiled by Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite. Shechem then asks his father to obtain Dina as his wife. Ja...
He starts with a verse from Ezekiel, "Of oaks from Bashan they crafted your oars; [your rudder they made of ivory inlaid in boxwood from the isles of the Kitites]" (Ezekiel 27:6). ...
Our ancestor Jacob knew it well. We find ourselves in Bereshit Rabbah (Genesis Rabbah) 84, a collection of rabbinic homilies on the Book of Genesis. The text opens with a seemingly...
Our story comes from Bereshit Rabbah, a classic Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic (interpretive) text that expands on the book of Genesis. We find Joseph, already a long...
But Jewish tradition, with its beautiful layers of interpretation, sees something far deeper. The rabbis of Bereshit Rabbah, an ancient and profound commentary on the Book of Genes...
One minute you're celebrating abundance, the next you're facing scarcity. The story of Joseph in Egypt gives us a powerful glimpse into this precarious balance, and the ancient rab...
The story begins with Jacob observing his sons. "Why do you make yourselves conspicuous?" he asks them. But what exactly did he mean? According to this Midrash (rabbinic interpreti...
The ancient rabbis certainly did, and they found fascinating insights in the story of Joseph in Egypt. In Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of G...
Turns out, sometimes, there's a whole universe of emotion and history packed into those few words. Take, for example, the passage in (Genesis 46:21): "And the sons of Benjamin: Bel...
The verses state, "All the people who were coming with Jacob to Egypt, the products of his loins, aside from the wives of Jacob's sons; all the people were sixty-six" (Genesis 46:2...
Take the story of Joseph and his brothers in Egypt. In (Genesis 47:2), we read, "From among his brothers he took five men, and he presented them before Pharaoh." Okay, seems simple...
We're going to explore a verse about the tribe of Zebulun and how it unexpectedly leads us to... the prophet Jonah. The verse in question is (Genesis 49:13): "Zebulun will dwell at...
First, "Naphtali is a doe let loose [sheluḥa]." The Rabbis connect this to the land of Naphtali being full of irrigated fields [beit hashelaḥin]. They point to (Deuteronomy 3:17), ...
It’s a universal feeling, and it echoes even within the ancient texts of our tradition. The verse in question is (Genesis 49:23), part of Jacob's blessing to his sons: "They embitt...
Specifically, we're looking at Bereshit Rabbah 100, which delves into the mourning of Jacob. The verse in (Genesis 50:3) tells us, "Forty days were completed for him, as so are the...
It's easy to read the Torah as a collection of individual stories, but the rabbis of old saw something more: echoes, parallels, and meaningful connections woven throughout the gene...
The verse in question is (Genesis 49:28): "This is what their father Jacob spoke to them." But the Rabbis in Bereshit Rabbah notice something subtle. It doesn't say, "This is what ...
Jewish tradition has a lot to say on the subject, and some of the stories might surprise you. Our jumping-off point is the verse in (Deuteronomy 2:3), "You have circled this mounta...
to Devarim Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Deuteronomy. There's this fascinating passage that starts with the phrase, "You have circled enough..." or "Rav...
The Book of Proverbs nails it: "Expectation deferred sickens the heart" (Proverbs 13:12). But what does that really mean, especially when we're talking about something bigger than ...
It's not just about being polite! It’s about life itself. (Deuteronomy 32:1) begins, “Listen, heavens, and I will speak, and the earth will hear the sayings of my mouth.” A simple ...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet in Hebrew, grapples with this very question. And in Kohelet Rabbah, a collection of Rabbinic interpretations on Ecclesiastes, we find some fasc...
Take the verse from Ecclesiastes (1:5): "The sun rises and the sun sets, and it hastens to its place where it arises." Seems straightforward. But the rabbis in Kohelet Rabbah see s...
