2,028 related texts · Page 6 of 43
Take the tale of Jacob and Esau, those iconic twins from the Book of Genesis. We know their story. Isaac and Rebekah's sons, forever locked in sibling rivalry. But Pirkei DeRabbi E...
The people of Jebus, knowing the Israelites were coming, weren't about to just roll out the welcome mat. But how could they possibly hold off the Israelites, especially knowing abo...
Our guide today is a passage from Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a captivating work of Jewish legend and lore. Specifically, we're looking at Chapter 36, which touches on some pretty sign...
It paints a picture of a final transaction, a division of inheritance, that has echoes even today. The story goes that Esau took all that his father, Isaac, had left. But then – an...
The text tells us that Rabbi Ishmael reflects on a very specific moment. Ten times, the sons of Jacob addressed Joseph as "thy servant, our father." Ten times they repeated this st...
Pharaoh's daughter did not accidentally find Moses. According to Sotah 12b, she came to the river to immerse herself—not for bathing, but to wash away the spiritual impurity of her...
Rav Nachman once made a statement that shocked his colleague: "Jacob our father never died." Rabbi Yitzchak pushed back immediately. "They embalmed him. They eulogized him. They bu...
"The righteous will give thanks to Your name; the upright will dwell in Your presence" (Psalm 140:14). The rabbis noticed something beautiful in this promise — God does not judge I...
It might be more than just luck. to a fascinating passage from Bamidbar Rabbah (Numbers Rabbah) 21, which uses the biblical verse "My offering, My food… you shall observe to presen...
to a fascinating passage from Bereshit Rabbah, a classical rabbinic commentary on the Book of Genesis, to see how the ancients grappled with the unexpected. The story unfolds in Ge...
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...
Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman begins our story in Bereshit Rabbah 68, by interpreting a verse from Psalms (121:1) as referring directly to Jacob’s experience. “A song of ascents. I lift ...
In Vayikra Rabbah 37, the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) explores this idea through a fascinating lens: vows. Specifically, it looks at instances where individuals made...
The opening of Parashat Vayera—"And God appeared to him at the terebinths of Mamre" (Genesis 18:1)—seems straightforward. Abraham is sitting at his tent, and God appears. But Rebbe...
Hannah vowed at Shiloh — if God gives her a son, she will give him back (1 Samuel 1:11). Rabbi Berachiah used this verse to address four theological objections that people raise ag...
When the final redemption comes, God will redeem Israel from one place only: Zion. Not from the desert, not from the waters, not from any place of exile — from the Temple Mount. "F...
Jacob said: "My way is hidden from the Lord, and my justice has passed away from my God" (Isaiah 40:27). This was Israel speaking — the whole nation's complaint condensed into one ...
A voice cries in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God" (Isaiah 40:3). The Aggadat Bereshit connects this voice — the hera...
God is known in this world by bringing judgment upon those who need it. This is Aggadat Bereshit's uncomfortable claim: "The Lord is known for executing judgment; the wicked are en...
That unsettling feeling is something Abraham, our ancestor, knew all too well. Let's look at a particularly vivid scene from the Book of Jubilees, a text that expands on the storie...
We get glimpses in the Torah, of course, but sometimes other ancient texts offer fascinating expansions on those stories. Take the Book of Jubilees, for example. It's an ancient Je...
This is the weight of the story we're about to unpack, drawn from Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews. It begins with a warning, a plea really. "Therefore let these words of mine which ...
After winning favor with the queen – thanks to a bit of help from her hairdresser, naturally – Joseph finally approached Pharaoh with a request: to honor his solemn oath to his dyi...
After giving his final words of wisdom to his children, Simon, full of years – one hundred and twenty to be exact – breathed his last and joined his ancestors. Now, you might think...
Moses sure did. Imagine this: you’re tending sheep in the desert, happily married, a father. Then, BOOM! God appears in a burning bush and tells you to go liberate an entire nation...
The little shepherd boy who takes down the giant. But did you ever stop to think about why David was so determined to face him? It wasn't just bravery, or youthful exuberance. Acco...
Because let’s face it, we've all been there. The sages tell a story that speaks directly to this. It’s about a great Tanna (a sage of the Mishnaic period), Rabbi Eliezer, the son o...
Sometimes, it takes a little nudge from an unexpected source. Turns out, even the prophet Elijah was in the business of fostering future greatness. According to Ginzberg's retellin...
Sometimes, the most extraordinary lives begin with the most ordinary acts of kindness. Take the story of Rabbi Eliezer, father of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov – a name that echoes th...
Let's set the stage. Nebuchadnezzar, the powerful Babylonian king, had installed Zedekiah as a vassal king. He wanted to ensure Zedekiah’s loyalty, so he demanded an oath. Now, Zed...
King Zedekiah of Judah knew that feeling all too well. He made a promise he couldn't keep, and the consequences, well, they were devastating. Zedekiah's big mistake? Perjury. A bro...
Josephus, the first-century Romano-Jewish historian, gives us a fascinating glimpse into just that when describing Jewish law in his work, Against Apion. He points out something cr...
The Heikhalot (the heavenly palaces) Rabbati, a text within the Heikhalot literature – those mystical explorations of heavenly palaces and divine encounters – gives us a glimpse in...
And to understand this, we need to dive into a fascinating concept discussed in Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah, a Kabbalistic text concerned with the "138 Openings of Wisdom." Think about...
It's a sign you're doing something truly special. The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, specifically in section 89, delves into the power of unhindered prayer. It draws a fascinat...
The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a cornerstone of Kabbalistic literature, explores these secrets. And in Tikkun 111, we encounter a particularly intriguing idea: the Shekhina...
Rabbi Eliezer takes the most expansive position in this debate. Like the sages, he rules that a person fulfills the matzah obligation with all types of dough and with second-tithe ...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, discovers a hidden connection between two events separated by centuries — the plague of the firstborn in Egypt and Abraham's nighttim...
(Exodus, Ibid.) "Quaking has seized the dwellers of Plasheth": Once the dwellers of Plasheth heard that Israel had entered the land, they said: They have come to take revenge for t...
The Torah prescribes a vivid ritual for a Hebrew servant who refuses to go free after six years of service: "Then his master shall bore his ear" with an awl against a doorpost (Exo...
R. Eliezer says: Scripture speaks of a Canaanite (as opposed to a Hebrew) man-servant. You say this, but perhaps it speaks of a Hebrew? (This is not so, for) it is written here "hi...
Rabbi Eliezer employs one of the most powerful tools in the rabbinic interpretive arsenal: the gezeirah shavah, a comparison of two passages that share a common word. The word in q...
(Exodus 21:32) addresses the case of an ox that gores a bondservant: "If the ox gore a man-servant or a maid-servant." The Mekhilta explains that bondservants were already included...
Take, for example, the story of the oath to Noah after the flood. Why do our sages, according to Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, institute that we should mention the oath to Noah every sin...
Rab Huna, a prominent Amoraic Sage of the 3rd century, has something quite striking to say about it, preserved for us in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer. He suggests that the location of ou...
Jewish tradition has a lot to say about that, especially when it comes to oaths and bans. to a powerful teaching from Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, specifically chapter 38, that sheds li...
The text poses a hypothetical: How do we know the same person built both cities? Maybe a different architect was involved. The answer lies in the lineage of Cham, son of Noah. (Gen...
It deals with a ritual called eglah arufah (עגלה ערופה), the "broken-necked heifer." Now, before you imagine something gruesome, remember that this isn't about cruelty, but about a...
