813 related texts · Page 1 of 17
The Hebrew Bible records Moses's great farewell poem, the Song of Ha'azinu (Deuteronomy 32), a sweeping poetic indictment of Israel's future unfaithfulness. Targum Onkelos translat...
... Another reading: “Comfort, oh comfort My people” (Isaiah 40:1) Said the Holy Blessed One: Who needs to be comforted? For one whose wife died, not the husband? Thus was Zion ana...
It’s more than just pretty imagery. It goes deep into how we understand divine favor and the very nature of Torah itself. : water is life. But not all water is created equal, at le...
The destruction of Sodom in Genesis 19 is swift and merciless. Fire and brimstone rain down, and the city is gone. But the Targum Jonathan inserts a detail that changes everything:...
The Book of Genesis (19:24) tells us plainly: "And the Lord rained down brimstone and fire upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah from the Lord, from the heavens." But the rabbis, in their e...
to a fascinating passage from Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis, that grapples with just that question in the fiery destructi...
The book of Vayikra Rabbah, a treasure trove of rabbinic interpretations on the book of Leviticus, dives deep into this very idea. It all starts with a quote from the prophet Jerem...
The ancient rabbis wrestled with that feeling too, especially when considering the relationship between Israel and the other nations. We find a powerful, raw expression of this in ...
The prophet Ezekiel delivered an oracle of terrifying certainty: "Behold, it has come; it has arrived, says the Lord God. This is the day of which I spoke" (Ezekiel 39:8). But when...
Isaiah says God is "calling from the east a bird of prey, a man of my counsel from a distant land" (Isaiah 46:11). The rabbis identified that bird of prey as Abraham. He came from ...
“See, Lord, for I am in distress, my innards burn, my heart overturned within me, for I have been defiant. Outside the sword bereaves; in the house, it is like death” (Lamentations...
Midrash on the death of Aaron "I lost the three shepherds in one month" (Zecharia 11:8); and thus, in one month, Aaron, Miriam, and Moses died. Miriam died on the 1st of the month ...
“If it pleases the king, let it be written to eliminate them and I will weigh out ten thousand talents of silver by the hands of the king's craftsmen, to bring to the king's treasu...
A single prophet against four hundred. That was the lineup on Mount Carmel, and Elijah liked his odds. The backstory is bleak. King Ahab had married Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, k...
And thus do you find with the men of Sodom, that You gave them a grace period for repentance and they did not repent. As it is written (Genesis 18:20-21) "And the L–rd said: The ou...
We often think of grand, cosmic forces, but sometimes the most profound answers are hidden in the details, in the specific places we call home. Take the Land of Israel, for example...
The ancient rabbis certainly did, and they wove some incredible tales to help us understand it. to one, found in Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the B...
That feeling isn't new. Our ancestors knew it well. Take Abraham, for instance. The Torah tells us, "Abraham traveled from there to the region of the south; he lived between Kadesh...
Not just a little hunger pang, but the gnawing, desperate emptiness that turns societies upside down. That’s the scene we’re walking into. "The grain that we put aside during the g...
That’s the situation Moses found himself in after Miriam’s well vanished. According to Legends of the Jews, as retold by Louis Ginzberg, the miraculous well that had sustained the ...
The Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael draws attention to a striking pattern woven through Scripture: when the prophets speak, they echo words that God already uttered long before. The chai...
And thus do you find with the men of Sodom, that with what they vaunted themselves before Him, He exacted punishment of them. As it is written (Iyyov 28:5-8) "A land from which bre...
Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Psalms, opens up this very question. It tells us that the Holy One gifted the world no less than three core elem...
Specifically, in Midrash Tehillim 103, we find a fascinating exploration of God's abundant forgiveness. The text opens with a simple statement: "Doing righteous deeds is of the Lor...
Our tradition is full of fascinating interpretations of seemingly simple phrases. Take, for instance, the verse in Deuteronomy (32:2), "Let my teaching drop as the rain." The Sifre...
The Jewish tradition grapples with these questions in powerful, sometimes terrifying, imagery. to one such image: the cup of retribution. It all starts with a verse from Psalms (75...
Jewish tradition grapples with this very idea – the seeming imbalance between what we offer God and what God offers us. The passage in Bamidbar Rabbah 21, a collection of rabbinic ...
It's more than just a colorful arc in the sky. In fact, according to Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of Rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis, the rainbow holds pro...
It's not just the giving, but the way we give, the intention behind it. And in the story of Abram and the King of Sodom, found in Bereshit Rabbah (Genesis Rabbah) 43, we see a mast...
The verse says, "it was when Pharaoh let the people go," (Exodus 13:17) which leads us to (Song of Songs 4:13): "Your branches are an orchard of pomegranates." Rabbi Levi uses a pa...
Our tradition certainly does. In Vayikra Rabbah, specifically chapter 7, we find a powerful thread connecting arrogance and divine retribution, often in the form of fire. It's a po...
We often think of life itself, perhaps, or the beauty of nature. But according to Jewish tradition, some gifts are so profound, so foundational, that they shape our very existence....
Bar Haddaya, the dream interpreter who gave favorable readings to paying clients and devastating ones to non-payers, eventually paid for his corruption with his life. Berakhot 56b ...
When will the Messiah come? According to Sanhedrin 97a, the Talmud presents a seven-year countdown—and then immediately undermines it. The Sages taught: in the Sabbatical cycle dur...
The Jewish people were redeemed from Egypt because of the righteous women. According to Sotah 11b, Rav Avira taught that while the men had given up hope under Pharaoh's slavery, th...
Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) Yitbarach (May He Be Blessed) Blessed be the name of the King of kings, the Holy One blessed be He, who lives and endures forever and eve...
The Small Letters and their Purposes The ALEPH in ויקרא And He called (Leviticus 1:1) is small, to teach that the Holy Blessed One is only revealed to the nations of the earth thro...
When a lion roars, every animal in the forest freezes. Even the ones who have never been hunted. Even the ones too far away to be prey. The sound itself is the message: there is so...
“Gone from the daughter of Zion is all her splendor. Her princes are like deer that have not found pasture; they went powerless before the pursuer” (Lamentations 1:6)“Gone from the...
Rabbi Levi in the name of Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman said: It is written: “The hair of His head like pure wool” (Daniel 7:9); that He has no debt to any creature. Rabbi Yudan in the n...
Rabbi Azarya began: “Do not see wine in its redness, for one who sets his eye on the cup will walk the straight path” (Proverbs 23:31). Rabbi Azarya said: “Do not see wine in its r...
The Book of Jubilees, a fascinating text from around the 2nd century BCE, wrestles with these very questions. It's a retelling of Genesis and Exodus, but with some major expansions...
Our tale begins with angels leaving Abraham at midday, their wings carrying them towards Sodom as evening approached. Now, usually, angels are all about speed. They deliver their m...
"Vengeance shall be taken" — the Torah declares this regarding a master who kills his bondservant. But what does "vengeance" mean in legal terms? The Mekhilta identifies it as deat...
The Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy, delves into this very question. Specifically, it looks at the verse that promises blessings "f...
Rain brings life. Torah brings life. Case closed. But hold on. Is it really that simple? The ancient sages, grappling with this very question in Sifrei Devarim 306, weren't so sure...
We mortals are bound by seconds, minutes, years. But what about the Holy One, Blessed be He? The Sifrei Devarim offers a glimpse into this very question, revealing a profound diffe...
The Sifrei Devarim, a collection of early rabbinic legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy, offers us a beautiful glimpse into this idea, through its exploration of Moses'...
