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It's easy to get caught up in the moment, to think that the way things are now is how they'll always be. But Jewish tradition encourages us to look deeper, to see the hand of somet...
It's woven right into the fabric of our stories, even in the most sacred texts. to a tiny verse that packs a big punch: (Deuteronomy 32:37). The verse reads, "And he will say: Wher...
We find a glimpse of a possible answer tucked away in Sifrei Devarim, a collection of early rabbinic legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy. Specifically, in section 328,...
Today, we're diving into a fascinating passage from Sifrei Devarim 352, which explores this concept through the story of the tribe of Benjamin and a mysterious plot of land in Jeri...
We tend to focus on the big ones – the plagues, the splitting of the Red Sea – but Jewish tradition suggests the miraculous was woven into the very fabric of their experience. It w...
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 5) does something extraordinary with the Ten Commandments. Where the Hebrew gives each commandment as a prohibition, the Targum expands every si...
When Israel went out of Egypt, Moses said ‘the sea saw them and fled, the Jordan turned backward’ (Psalms 114:2); and when Israel went out of Jerusalem, Jeremiah said ‘by the river...
When Israel went out of Egypt, Moses said ‘and in the wilderness, where you saw how God your God carried you, as a man carries his son’(Deuteronomy 1:31); and when they went out of...
When they went out of Egypt, Moses said ‘while you, who held fast to God your God, are all alive today’ (Deuteronomy 4:4); and when they went out of Jerusalem, Jeremiah said ‘the t...
When they went out of Egypt, Moses said ‘and the cloud of God was on them by day’ (Numbers 10:34); and when they went out of Jerusalem, Jeremiah said ‘[You have screened Yourself o...
"Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) Vayisu": It is based on the verse "They journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were around them, and they did not pur...
[From the Sefer Raziel] Rabbi Ishmael said, "I saw the King of Kings sitting on a high and exalted throne, with His legions standing before Him, upon His right and upon His left. T...
Miriam and her seven sons died as martyrs for their holy faith. Each of her sons refused to worship idols quoting the appropriate passages from the Bible. When the last boy was cal...
The prophet Elijah — who never died but ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire — appeared to Rabbi Joshua ben Levi, one of the greatest sages of the third century, and offered him...
Abraham, the Carpenter in Jerusalem, hac. saved some money through hard work. His neighbour stole it and ran away, but dropped down dead on the road. A young man found him, dug his...
When the Roman legions surrounded Jerusalem and cut off every supply route, the famine inside the walls became unspeakable. People chewed leather. They ate grass from between the s...
The Prophet Elijah, who never died but was taken up to Heaven in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11), was known to appear to the righteous in moments of great need. One such visit was...
Gog makes his plans in secret. He thinks his strategies are hidden — the alliance-building, the schemes against Israel, the invasions planned in quiet rooms. "On that day, thoughts...
At the end of days, the prophet Malachi says, you will be able to tell the righteous from the wicked at a glance: "You shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked...
Let’s rewind a bit. Remember the story of the golden calf? MOSES smashes the first set of tablets. Talk about a bad day! Afterward, Moses pleads with God, reminding Him that He bro...
The Torah tells us they wandered, but the rabbinic imagination really kicks it up a notch. This wasn't just any desert. We're talking serpents, lizards, scorpions – the whole terri...
Let’s take a journey into Bamidbar Rabbah, a treasure trove of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Numbers. We’re looking specifically at the second section, which dives into t...
They're not mistakes. They're breadcrumbs, little hints that something deeper is going on beneath the surface of the text. And they invite us to pause, to question, to delve into t...
It's more than just letting your hair grow long! The Book of Numbers (6:6) states: “All the days of his abstinence to the Lord, he shall not approach a dead person.” Bamidbar Rabba...
to a story from Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Numbers, that explores just this. The story goes that God tells Moses to gather seventy men to he...
The book of Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Numbers, sheds light on this very question. We find ourselves at a pivotal moment in the Israelites' ...
Our journey starts with a verse: "Say to them: This is the fire offering that you shall bring to the Lord: unblemished lambs in the first year, two each day, a continual burnt offe...
Jewish tradition, particularly in the ancient collection of Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)im called Bereshit Rabbah, grapples with this very question. It's a mind-bendi...
Take the creation story in Genesis, for example. We read in (Genesis 1:16) that God made "two great lights" – the sun and the moon – to rule the day and the night. Seems straightfo...
to a fascinating comparison between Abraham and Jacob, two of our patriarchs, and see what Bereshit Rabbah 11 has to tell us. The key? Shabbat (the Sabbath). Yes, that's right, the...
According to Bereshit Rabbah 20, a collection of rabbinic homilies on the Book of Genesis, this wasn't just a symbolic statement. The text paints a dramatic picture: When God, bles...
Why do bad things happen to good people? It’s a question that’s haunted humanity for millennia. Our tradition grapples with this head-on, not offering easy answers, but rather invi...
Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis, tackles this very question, and it turns out, it's a battle as old as time. The text starts with a...
The passage in Genesis (9:24) tells us, "Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done to him." Now, Bereshit Rabbah, that incredible collection of rabbinic int...
We all know the story: humanity, united in language and ambition, dared to build a tower reaching to the heavens. God, displeased, scrambled their languages, scattering them across...
The Torah gives us glimpses, but it's in the rabbinic stories, the aggadah (non-legal rabbinic narrative), that we really get a sense of the spiritual climate. One story, found in ...
Jewish tradition certainly has something to say about that, especially when it comes to the story of Abraham and his monumental tests of faith. to Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collec...
Take this story from Bereshit Rabbah 39, a midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) – that is, an interpretive commentary – on the Book of Genesis. Rabbi Berekhya, quoting Rabbi ...
The Torah portion Lekh Lekha begins with God's instructions to Abraham, "Go forth from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show y...
The text opens with a powerful promise from God to Abraham: "I will bless those who bless you, and one who curses you, I will curse, and all the families of the earth shall be bles...
We often imagine triumphant parades and grateful citizens. But what about the really awkward moments? Like when the defeated villains try to become your new best friends? That’s ki...
Specifically, verse 17: “It happened when the sun had set, that there was extreme darkness, and, behold, there was a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch that passed between those ...
In Jewish tradition, it's more than just a label. It can be a destiny, a prophecy, a divine decree. : names echo through generations, carrying stories and meanings. But what about ...
Specifically, we're looking at Bereshit Rabbah 46, where the rabbis are puzzling over something quite profound: where in the Torah do we find the use of acronyms? And more importan...
Our story revolves around a verse from (Genesis 17:22): "He concluded speaking with him, and God ascended from upon Abraham." This simple line, as interpreted by the sages in Beres...
Today, let’s delve into a fascinating passage from Bereshit Rabbah, a classical rabbinic commentary on the Book of Genesis, that explores just that. The passage opens with a quote ...
(Genesis 18:1) tells us, "He was sitting [yoshev] at the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day." But there's more to it than meets the eye. Rabbi Berekhya, quoting Rabbi Levi...
We find an intriguing exploration of just that in Bereshit Rabbah 48, a section of the ancient midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic collection on the book of Genesis. It al...
