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It might seem like a simple administrative task, but according to some fascinating Jewish traditions, there's a deeper, more spiritual reason behind it. The story goes that God com...
When God told Abraham, "Go to the land that I will show you" (Genesis 12:1), He was deliberately vague. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev reads this vagueness as a divine instructi...
The text recounts Hagar's desperate wanderings with her son. "And she departed and wandered," the passage begins, referencing (Genesis 21:14). But Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer interprets...
Take this passage from Sifrei Devarim, for example. It starts with the seemingly straightforward statement: "When the Most High caused nations to inherit…" But what does it really ...
The Torah tells us, "Abram passed through the land to the place of Shekhem, until the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land" (Genesis 12:6). But there's more to ...
The picture in the vision swayed. From its left side, a heathen people emerged. They fell upon those on the right side, the people of Abraham's seed, and pillaged them. Men, women,...
A sigh from a Jewish person can repair what is broken in the world. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught this not as poetry but as metaphysics. The sigh, the deep exhalation of grief or...
Was Sarah truly barren? Genesis tells us plainly that she "had no children" (Gen. 16:1). But what if I told you that she gave birth in a way that defied conventional understanding?...
When the Egyptians were drowning in the Red Sea, the ministering angels wanted to sing. God stopped them cold. According to Megillah 10b, He said: "My handiwork is drowning in the ...
The Torah tells us that Abraham did. But the story, like so many in our tradition, is layered with meaning, prompting centuries of interpretation and debate. The scene is set in Ge...
Specifically, we're going to explore Chapter 15, which focuses on the covenant between God and Abraham. This is a foundational story, one that echoes through Jewish history and ide...
According to Jasher, after Sarah's death, Abraham took another wife named Keturah, said to be from the land of Canaan. And she bore him six sons: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Is...
Chapter 28 opens with a famine, a stark reminder of the challenges faced by our ancestors. Just as his father Abraham had done before him, Isaac considers going down to Egypt for r...
They'd already made one harrowing trip to Egypt for food during a devastating famine. But now, the meager supplies they brought back were gone. The little children were crying, beg...
Abraham and Sarah, pillars of faith and compassion, have journeyed to Egypt seeking refuge and sustenance for their people. But instead of welcome, they face peril. Sarah's unparal...
But the story, as often happens, is richer and more nuanced than we might initially think. The Torah tells us that thirteen years after Ishmael's birth, God commanded Abraham to pe...
Sometimes, the stories behind them are even more incredible than the rituals themselves. Let's talk about brit milah, circumcision, and a story that links it to the holiest day of ...
It wasn't the battles with kings or the famine in the land that weighed heaviest on his heart. No, it was the separation from his son, Ishmael, that caused him the most profound gr...
It's often in those details that the real magic lies. Take Jacob, for example. We know he journeyed from Canaan to Egypt, a pivotal moment for his family and, ultimately, for the e...
It’s not just about knowing how many are present, but something far deeper, a spiritual accounting, if you will. When God led the Israelites out of Egypt, He didn't just release a ...
Abraham didn't just go to Egypt to escape famine. According to Josephus, he went to debate the priests. When drought struck Canaan, Abraham heard that Egypt was prosperous and deci...
(Proverbs 23:5) speaks to this feeling, saying, "When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings." But what does this really mean? One fascinating...
Our story starts with Abraham. Remember when he learns that his nephew Lot has been captured? (Genesis 14:13) tells us, "And there came one who had escaped, and told Abram the Hebr...
The patriarch Abraham experienced just such a moment, according to the ancient text, Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer. Imagine the scene: Abraham, fresh from his encounter with the divine, i...
Rabbi Jochanan, a prominent figure in the Talmud, offers some striking insights here. He states that gentiles, or "heathens" as the text puts it, who choose to come to Israel and c...
We read the story every Passover, we sing the songs, but sometimes the sheer horror of it can get lost in the ritual. Rabbi Akiva, a towering figure in Jewish tradition, pulls no p...
Rabbi Zakai of She'av offers a beautiful insight. He imagines the Israelites asking God: "Master of the universe, everywhere else You call it the land of Canaan, but here, ‘the lan...
We get glimpses, fragments really, in the Torah, but the Rabbis, through their interpretations, give us access to a deeper understanding of his actions. Take, for example, the vers...
The passage opens with Abram, later known as Abraham, learning that his brother has been taken captive. The text connects this to a verse from Isaiah (33:15): "He seals his ears fr...
Our journey begins in (Genesis 14:20): “And blessed is God, the Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand. He gave him a tithe of everything.” This verse is about Abraha...
As we find in (Genesis 15:3), Abraham cries out, "Behold, to me You have not given offspring, and a member of my household is my heir." He's pouring out his heart, expressing his d...
But how do you BECOME ready? Our exploration starts in Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis. Here, in section 49, we find a fasc...
It’s a question that perplexed some of our sages, too. Take Ishmael, for example. (Genesis 25:12) starts out: "These are the descendants of Ishmael son of Abraham, whom Hagar the E...
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...
Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Exodus, offers a fascinating perspective on this, likening the people of Israel to a vine. Rabbi Tanhuma bar ...
Today, we're diving into Shir HaShirim Rabbah, the commentary on the Song of Songs, and unpacking just such a verse. Get ready for a journey through noble lineage, the power of bri...
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...
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...
“I remember my song in the night; I meditate with my heart, and my spirit searches” (Psalms 77:7). Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Simon and Rabbi Aivu.58The text of the midrash (rabbinic i...
to a story from the book of Exodus, retold in Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews, where that's exactly what happened in ancient Egypt. Aaron, acting on divine command, stretched out hi...
He came and revealed Himself to the sons of Ishmael and asked them: Will you accept the Torah? They: What is written in it? He: "You shall not steal." They: But this is the blessin...
"I will make my opinions widely known" (Job 36:3). God called Abraham from the east — "calling a bird of prey from the east, a man of my counsel from a distant land" (Isaiah 46:11)...
And it's a feeling that pops up in some pretty surprising places, even in our sacred stories. to one of those moments, found in the Book of Jubilees. The Book of Jubilees, for thos...
We find ourselves at a pivotal moment in his life, a moment fraught with emotional turmoil and weighty decisions. It all centers around Sarah, Abraham’s beloved wife, and Hagar, he...
That feeling echoes through the ages, all the way back to the time of the Maccabees. And it’s where our story begins. These aren’t my words, mind you. This is straight from The Sec...
After Abram's bold declaration against idol worship (in the previous chapter), King Nimrod isn't too pleased. According to the Book of Jasher, Nimrod had Abram thrown into prison f...
Today, we're diving into one of those: a chapter from the Book of Jasher. Now, the Book of Jasher isn't part of the Tanakh. Its authenticity and origins are disputed by scholars. B...
When the people of Babylon decided to build a tower reaching heaven, everyone had to make bricks. Everyone had to write their name on their brick. But twelve men refused. According...
