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Turns out, even God has had those thoughts about humanity. We find a fascinating glimpse into this in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Genes...
We often think of God as all-knowing, all-seeing, but the Rabbis in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of early Jewish interpretations of Genesis, dare to imagine a divine experience of...
In the book of Bereshit, Genesis, we find two such words used to describe key figures: tamim and haya. What do they really mean? , because the Rabbis of old sure had some fascinati...
We all know the story: the flood, the animals two-by-two, a rainbow of hope at the end. But what about the blueprints? How did Noah actually build this thing? The Torah, in (Genesi...
We all know the story: the flood, the ark, two of every animal… but the logistics! How did he feed them all? What did he eat? The Torah tells us, "And you, take for you from all fo...
We often picture Noah releasing the dove, seeing the rainbow, and rebuilding the world. But the Torah tells us a less rosy story, a story of wine, exposure, and consequences. A sto...
We all know the basic narrative: humanity, united by a single language, decided to build a tower reaching to the heavens. God, displeased with their ambition, confused their langua...
It turns out, our sages have been wrestling with that feeling for centuries. Rabbi Yoḥanan opens with a powerful proverb: "One who repays good with evil, evil will not move from hi...
It's like a song with a recurring chorus, reminding us of something vital. Let's look at one of those refrains, the reassurance "Fear not, Abram," and see what echoes it holds. The...
The ancient rabbis grappled with that all the time, and their discussions, preserved in texts like Bereshit Rabbah, offer some fascinating, and sometimes surprising, insights. We f...
That’s the kind of feeling I get when I think about Abraham and that young bull. Let's set the scene. Remember when three divine guests show up at Abraham's tent in the heat of the...
to a fascinating passage from Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis, specifically section 55, and see what wisdom we can unearth. The pas...
The story of Abraham burying Sarah in the book of Genesis, specifically as explored in Bereshit Rabbah 58, really brings that feeling to life. "Abraham arose from before his dead, ...
We often think of blessings as material wealth, good health, maybe even a long life. But what if the true blessing is something far deeper, something almost…invisible? Let’s turn t...
Our story begins with the verse: "It was after the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac his son, and Isaac lived beside Be’er Laḥai Ro’i" (Genesis 25:11). Be’er Laḥai Ro’i, meaning ...
The rabbis of old grappled with this question, too. And they found answers woven into the very fabric of our sacred texts. Rabbi Abbahu, a fascinating figure from the 3rd century, ...
We often think of the big players – kings, prophets, warriors – as isolated figures. But Jewish tradition reminds us that even the mightiest oak grows from the smallest acorn, and ...
Rabbi Ḥama ben Rabbi Ḥanina suggests that Jacob wasn't wrestling just anyone; he was battling Esau’s guardian angel! Remember when Jacob says, "For therefore I have seen your face,...
Jewish tradition has some pretty insightful things to say about that, especially when it comes to knowledge and humility. Our story comes from Bereshit Rabbah, a classic midrash (r...
Take the poignant moment when Rachel, mother Rachel, goes into labor. (Genesis 35:16) tells us, "They traveled from Beit El, and it was still some distance to arrive at Efrat, and ...
to a fascinating piece of ancient wisdom from Bereshit Rabbah, specifically section 83, that does just that. Rabbi Aivu starts us off with an intriguing observation. Before Israel ...
The Torah is brimming with them, and Jewish tradition loves to unpack their layers of meaning. Take the dream of the chief butler in the Joseph story. In (Genesis 40:9), he recount...
That’s kind of what happened to Jacob after Joseph disappeared, according to the ancient commentary, Bereshit Rabbah. The Torah tells us, "Jacob saw that there was grain [shever] i...
The scene: a devastating famine grips the land. Jacob's sons have returned from Egypt with grain, but it’s gone. They need to go back, but the mysterious Egyptian ruler—who we, the...
Our ancestors certainly did. This week, we're diving into Bereshit Rabbah 91, a section of the great Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic collection that unpacks the Book o...
to a fascinating passage from Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis, and see how it illuminates a poignant moment in the Joseph s...
Beyond being one of the twelve tribes of Israel, it carries a unique promise, a prophecy intertwined with leadership, lineage, and ultimately, the coming of the Messiah. to a fasci...
The Torah gives us stories of such people again and again, and one of the most striking is Samson. Our text from Bereshit Rabbah (98) delves into the strength – and the thirst! – o...
Sometimes, a single verse can unlock a whole world of meaning, revealing connections between different figures and events throughout Jewish history. to one such verse from (Genesis...
The sages grappled with this question, and their answers reveal fascinating insights into divine justice and human fallibility. Our story begins, as it often does, in the Book of G...
This is a theme that echoes powerfully through Jewish tradition, and it's something we see vividly in the Devarim Rabbah. This particular passage delves into the profound consequen...
Today, we're diving into a fascinating passage from Devarim Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy, that explores just that, through the lens o...
We make choices every day about who or what we'll put our faith in. But what if the best choice wasn't about picking the flashiest option, but choosing the source of all blessings ...
We're diving into the word ekev, which means "because" or "in consequence of." But it's not just a simple "A leads to B" kind of situation. It's layered with history, Divine promis...
Jewish tradition grapples with this very idea, and it finds a rather poetic expression in Devarim Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Deuteronomy. The passage...
Jewish tradition grapples with this tension, too. Devarim Rabbah, a collection of homilies on the Book of Deuteronomy, offers a fascinating glimpse into how our sages understood th...
Jewish tradition teaches us that we have far more influence than we might realize. Devarim Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the book of Deuteronomy, sheds light ...
Devarim Rabbah, a collection of homiletic teachings on the Book of Deuteronomy, offers a powerful and surprising answer, focusing on God's relationship with the Israelites during t...
Devarim Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Deuteronomy, delves into the meaning of a verse from Ecclesiastes (9:11): "I again saw under the sun that the race...
Day follows night, the seasons turn, the land stays put, the sea stays… well, you get the idea. But what if I told you that this order, seemingly immutable, has actually been bent ...
We look back with nostalgia, imagining that the giants of the past held all the answers. But Jewish tradition challenges that very notion. The idea that each generation has its own...
Kohelet Rabbah, the commentary on Ecclesiastes, gets it. It starts with the line "all matters are wearying." But it doesn't stop there with the doom and gloom. It actually dives in...
Kohelet Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Ecclesiastes, suggests that "all matters are wearying" – especially matters of heresy. But what does that re...
That feeling of existential dread isn't new. In fact, it’s wrestled with in some of our most ancient texts. to a passage from Kohelet Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretatio...
Kohelet Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Ecclesiastes, dives into this very idea, using the verse "The wise man, his eyes are in his head, but the fo...
It’s a topic explored further in the rabbinic commentary on Ecclesiastes, Kohelet Rabbah, and it's a fascinating, and frankly, a little scary. The verse in question is (Ecclesiaste...
"Sweet is the sleep of the laborer, whether he eats a little or a lot; but the satiety of the wealthy does not allow him to sleep" (Ecclesiastes 5:11). It's a powerful image, this ...
And it’s one that the ancient rabbis grappled with in the text of Kohelet Rabbah. Two rabbis, Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Neḥemya, offer contrasting perspectives. Rabbi Yehuda uses the ...
