1,676 related texts · 3 related myths · Page 33 of 35
Our story comes from Bereshit Rabbah, a classic midrashic (rabbinic interpretive commentary) text that dives deep into the Book of Genesis. Specifically, It starts with a verse God...
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 ...
Rabbi Aivu starts us off with an intriguing observation. Before Israel had a king, Edom did. (The text is supplemented here based on the Matnot Kehuna, Nezer HaKodesh, and Etz Yose...
It revolves around Jacob's grief over the apparent loss of his son, Joseph. The verse It's a powerful image of a father's devastation. But the rabbis, ever keen to find deeper mean...
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, th...
Our ancestors certainly did. This week, Specifically, we'll be looking at the moment when Jacob, now known as Israel, sends his sons back to Egypt. Famine grips the land, and they ...
The scene: Joseph, now a powerful figure in Egypt, is reunited with his brothers, though they don't recognize him. He asks them, "Is all well with your father? Is the elder whom yo...
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) explores the strength – and the thirst! – of t...
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 explores the profound consequences...
Rabbi Levi offers a compelling insight: "One who ate the dish knows its taste." In other words, Moses' own experiences, his own brushes with danger and the law, gave him a unique u...
We make choices every day about who or what we'll put our faith in. What if the best choice wasn't about picking the flashiest option, but choosing the source of all blessings inst...
Devarim Rabbah turns to Hell and Its Gates of Edom. What's Gilad got to do with anything? Well, Reish Lakish, whose teachings are often cited in the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive ...
Devarim Rabbah, a collection of homilies on the Book of Deuteronomy, offers a fascinating glimpse into how our sages understood the balance between divine justice and mercy. It all...
Jewish tradition explores this feeling on a national scale, focusing on the ancient Israelites' request for a human king. God, the ultimate King, has been leading the Israelites. B...
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, illuminates ...
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, explores the meaning of a verse from Ecclesiastes (9:11): "I again saw under the sun that the race is...
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 ...
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 imag...
The Book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as it's known in Hebrew, certainly grapples with this very human feeling. And within Kohelet Rabbah, the rabbinic commentary on Ecclesiastes, w...
The Rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), in Kohelet Rabbah, take this even further, using stories and interpretations to examine the weight of those feelings. ...
Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai, a prominent figure in the Zohar (the foundational text of Jewish mysticism), puts it this way: a good name is more beloved than the Ark of the Covenant itse...
These questions, and more, bubble to the surface as we explore a fascinating passage from Kohelet Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Ecclesiastes. Our ...
It all starts with the verse, "May your garments be white at all times, and may the oil on your head not be lacking" (Ecclesiastes 9:8). What does that even mean? Is it literally a...
A blessing, a curse, a promise kept, a promise broken... it all hangs on the power of speech. Kohelet, or Ecclesiastes, understood this deeply. In Kohelet Rabbah, a midrash (interp...
Kohelet Rabbah turns to Kingdom of Cyrus. Who is this verse talking about? Kohelet Rabbah, a fascinating collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Ecclesiastes, offers ...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as it's known in Hebrew, wrestles with that very idea. It's a book of wisdom, attributed to King Solomon, but some of its verses have sparked d...
The rabbis of old, in their infinite wisdom, dove deep into its poetic verses, finding layers of meaning we might miss today. Specifically, we’re unpacking a rather… vivid interpre...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as we know it, uses some pretty powerful imagery to describe the fragility of life and the descent into mortality. And the Rabbis, in their inf...
Not just the biblical Ruth, but the Ruth we meet in the rabbinic imagination – a figure so compelling that her story continues to resonate with us centuries later. The familiar ver...
Their story, as told in Shemot Rabbah, is a powerful reminder of resilience, faith, and the strength of community. Pharaoh, wasn't just content with enslaving the Israelites. He wa...
It's one of those burning questions that lingers after you read the Book of Exodus. We celebrate Passover every year, retelling the story of the Exodus, and Moses is the central fi...
Spoiler alert: it doesn't end well. Shemot Rabbah, a classic collection of Midrash (interpretive stories) on the Book of Exodus, dives deep into this very idea. It identifies four ...
The Book of Exodus tells us, "Moses extended his staff toward the heavens and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the ground, and the Lord rained hail upon the lan...
The ancient rabbis felt that way about the Israelites in Egypt. generation after generation born into slavery. It's a crushing weight. But what if, suddenly, that debt was cancelle...
As we explore Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Exodus, we find a particularly beautiful and insightful answer. This teaching presents an alter...
