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Story of Eldad the Danite, Narrative B In the name of the LORD God of Israel, blessed be His name, of our God the King, King of kings, Who chose Israel from among all nations and g...
How does R. Eliezer arrive at these conclusions? Does he apply the signs to the beginning or to the end of each watch? If he applies his signs to the beginning of each watch, then ...
(3) (Fol. 10b) We have been taught that R. Eliezer says: "In the month of Tishri the world was created; in the month of Tishri the Patriarchs [Abraham and Jacob], were born, and in...
Benjamin the Righteous served as the guardian of the community charity fund. Every donation that came in, every disbursement that went out, passed through his honest hands. The peo...
A Jew who mixed with the Gentiles, had given up everything in order to carry favour with them. Once when he was invited to the prince, an enemy of his put some boys to jeer at him ...
Three clever Jewish slaves, sold into captivity after the destruction of the Temple, outwitted their Roman masters using nothing but their wits. Each was given an impossible task, ...
Miriam [Hannah) & Her Seven Sons Martyr*. II Bk. Maccabees, ch. VII. IV Bk. Maccabees ch. VIII, ff. Ketubot, f. 64. J. Ketubot, V, II. Gittin, f. 56 b. Pesik. R. Rabati,XLIII. Tana...
A venomous serpent terrorized a certain neighborhood, biting anyone who came near its den. People were dying. The townspeople came to Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa and begged him to do som...
The Talmud in tractate Baba Batra (8a) records a teaching about almsgiving that medieval Jewish communities took very seriously — so seriously that it became the foundation for how...
Three Clever Tricks. Midr. Lament. I. Lament. R. I § 4. Yalk. Sip. IV, p. 86. Maase Buch No. 187. Helvicus, Historien, I, ch. 21, p. 91. Grunbaum, Jiid. Dtsch. Chrest. p. 428. Tend...
Seven Good Years when Young. Midr. Zutta (Ruth) ed. Buber, p. 55. Nissim, f. 36b. Yalk. II, § 607. Rappaport, R. Nissim. Husin, Maase Nissim, No. 33. Yalk. Sip. Ill, pp. 107, no. c...
God’s Justice. Meg. Esther (Yiddish) *593- Griinbaum, Jiid. Deutsch. Chrest. p. 215—18. Behrnauer, ZDMG. XVI, p. 762. Brockhaus, ZDMG., XIV, p. 7o6f. Gellert, Das Schicksal. Gesta ...
The article describes the flood narrative from Genesis vi.9-ix.17, where God destroys humanity due to wickedness, sparing only Noah's family and two (or seven) pairs of every livin...
The Torah gives us a glimpse into such an experience with the story of the Ohel Mo'ed, the Tent of Meeting. The Book of Exodus describes how Moses would set up this tent "outside t...
In Jewish mysticism, there's a powerful story about exactly that – the story of the Shekhinah, the divine feminine presence, and her long journey to find a home. The kabbalists, th...
A potter takes clay, formless and without purpose, and shapes it into something beautiful, something useful. The clay spins on the wheel, and with skillful hands, the potter molds ...
Jewish tradition offers some pretty amazing answers, and one of the most fascinating involves a celestial body known as the Council of Souls. Imagine a gathering of the most righte...
Jewish tradition has some fascinating, and frankly, answers. The idea starts with this: it's a five-hundred-year journey between one firmament and the next! That's how vast the cos...
I'm not talking about God, necessarily, but about the powerful figures who manage the day-to-day operations of the cosmos. Well, buckle up, because we're about to dive into the sto...
Before the sun, the moon, the stars... before anything? Jewish tradition has some pretty mind-bending answers, and one of the most fascinating involves the Torah. Not just the one ...
Yet, Jewish tradition suggests just that. The story goes that as God dictated the Torah atop Mount Sinai, Moses, ever the diligent scribe, meticulously wrote down every word. But t...
Young Abraham did. And his confusion led him to a profound realization about the nature of… well, everything. Imagine being a kid, really seeing the world for the first time. Abrah...
What would you ask for? According to tradition, as his time drew near, Moses made one final, powerful request of God. It wasn't for more life, or for comfort, or even for himself a...
Jewish tradition, particularly in esoteric texts, grapples with this very question. Imagine a cosmic courtroom, a beth din, in the time to come. God, seated on His Throne of Justic...
Today, let’s dive into one tiny, but fascinating corner of that history, exploring the origins of prayer times and blessings. Our story begins in the Book of Numbers, in Hebrew, Ba...
The ancient rabbis certainly wrestled with this idea, especially when pondering the future of the Jewish people. to a fascinating passage from Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabb...
It all starts with the verse, "Bring the tribe of Levi near and stand it before Aaron the priest, and they shall serve him" (Numbers 3:5–6). This is where our sages begin to unpack...
It wasn't just packing up and hitting the road. Every aspect, down to who touched what and in what order, was meticulously planned and imbued with deep meaning. to just one small p...
The ancient rabbis grappled with these questions constantly, searching for meaning in misfortune. One particularly fascinating exploration revolves around the affliction of leprosy...
It's not just about physical cleanliness, but a whole system of ritual purity and impurity that touches upon nearly every aspect of life. Today, we’re diving into a fascinating pas...
It starts with the seemingly simple phrase: “Ish ish” – which, in this context, means "be like all men." But what does that even mean? The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary...
to a fascinating, and frankly, a little disturbing, passage from Bamidbar Rabbah (Numbers Rabbah) 9 that explores exactly that. We're going to unpack the strange case of the sotah,...
to a fascinating passage from Bamidbar Rabbah 10, a midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic commentary on the Book of Numbers, specifically dealing with the laws of the nazir,...
Jewish tradition has a lot to say about that moment – that before and after. And it all starts with a verse from Song of Songs: "Behold the bed of Solomon..." (Song of Songs 3:7). ...
The Torah portion Naso, particularly in Bamidbar Rabbah 13, delves into this very concept, using the offerings of the princes as a springboard. It's a fascinating exploration of Is...
It’s like a beautiful song with a simple melody, but underneath, there's a complex harmony of hidden meanings and connections. Today, we're going to explore just such a passage fro...
It might seem like a minor detail in the Book of Numbers, but Jewish tradition finds profound meaning in every nuance of the Torah. "On the twelfth day, prince of the children of N...
These are the kinds of questions that ripple through the ancient texts. In Bamidbar Rabbah, we find a fascinating exploration of the verse, "He heard the Voice speaking with him" (...
It’s a question the rabbis grappled with centuries ago, and their insights, drawn from the Torah itself, are surprisingly relevant today. We find a fascinating discussion in Bamidb...
Jewish tradition teaches that there's a profound spiritual power in gathering together, a power that even resonates in the heavens. But is any gathering automatically holy? The Mid...
And what do these four seemingly disparate things have in common? They're all described as chukim – decrees or statutes – things we do simply because God commanded them, even if th...
to a fascinating exploration of just that, drawing from the ancient wisdom of Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Numbers. Our starting point is the ...
That’s kind of the vibe we get right at the very beginning of Bereshit Rabbah, the classic rabbinic commentary on the Book of Genesis. The text opens with a powerful, almost fierce...
It might seem like a simple opening, but Jewish tradition finds layers of meaning even in the placement of God’s name in the very first verse. Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai, a prominent f...
But, like with so much in Jewish tradition, there are layers upon layers of interpretation. , shall we? Specifically, let's look at that phrase "dominate over the fish of the sea."...
And their answer, as we find it in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis, is surprisingly poetic. Imagine a king. A newly crowned king, b...
We get a glimpse into that, and a whole lot more about marriage, divorce, and forbidden relationships in this fascinating passage from Bereshit Rabbah 18. It all starts with the fa...
Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" (Genesis 3:11). I mean, come on, God knows everything. So why the question? The rabbis of old grappled with this to...
