3,492 related texts · Page 16 of 73
Ever stumble across a name in the Bible and wonder, "Who was that person?" The Torah is full of these little mysteries! Let's talk about one that always gets my attention: Iscah. Y...
It's more than just a nice sentiment; it's a springboard for some incredible midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic interpretations. The Midrash Mishlei, a collection of inte...
The ancient text Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating collection of stories and interpretations, dares to explore just that. It tells us about ten kings who, in their time, held d...
It's not exactly the Bible, but it's an ancient retelling and expansion of biblical narratives, filled with legends and interpretations. Think of it as a really engaging, slightly ...
The scene: King David, poised to capture the city of the Jebusites. But this wasn't just any siege. The Jebusites, confident in their defenses, had placed idols upon their walls – ...
Not just any hand, mind you, but the hand of the Holy One, blessed be He. Rabbi Ishmael, in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer (Chapter 48), unveils a fascinating idea: each finger on God's ri...
Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai grappled with this very question. He believed that it wasn't truly kiddush (the sanctification blessing over wine) Hashem, a sanctification of God's name, i...
That’s the image Sifrei Devarim 318 paints for us, riffing on the verse "and the blood of the grape will you drink as wine." It’s not about hard work, the text suggests. No more ti...
R. DOSA B. HARKINAS SAID: MORNING SLEEP, AND MIDDAY WINE, [AND CHILDREN’S TALK, AND SITTING IN THE MEETING-HOUSES OF THE IGNORANT] DRIVE A MAN OUT OF THE WORLD.MORNING SLEEP—what d...
The Hebrew Bible says the "sons of God" saw that human women were beautiful, and took wives from among them (Genesis 6:2). That's all it says. The Targum Jonathan rewrites the scen...
The Hebrew Bible says God told Noah to enter the ark, and that rain would begin in seven days (Genesis 7:4). It does not explain why seven days. The Targum Jonathan does, and the e...
The Binding of Isaac is terrifying in the Torah. In the Targum, it is something else entirely. Isaac was not a passive child led to slaughter. He was thirty-six years old, and he v...
Chapter 1 From Adam to the Flood was 1656 years, and this is their enumeration: Adam 130, Seth 105, Enosh 90, Kenan 70, Mahalalel 65, Jared 162, Enoch 65, Methuselah 187, Lamech 18...
... 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...
The Holy One created twenty-two good attributes in His world. All of them were nullified and in the future the Holy One will return them to Israel in the time to come. They are: fo...
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...
Abraham was ninety-nine years old when God renewed the covenant (Genesis 17:1). The sons of Korah composed a psalm about this moment — "Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty on...
Worlds created, then...undone. The image is striking, isn't it? Before our familiar heaven and earth, the Infinite, utterly alone, conceived of creation. The spark of Ein Sof, the ...
We're talking about way back in the beginning, just after the expulsion from Eden. We often skip ahead to the flood, but there's a fascinating, and unsettling, little passage in (G...
(Genesis 9:18). It seems straightforward. But wait a minute... Was Yefet actually the eldest? That's what some of our Sages wondered. Why does Shem get top billing? Why not list th...
But what if I told you that true greatness lies not in squashing the competition, but in celebrating it? That’s the kind of wisdom we find nestled within the ancient texts of our t...
We make them all the time – to loved ones, to ourselves, and, if we believe, God makes promises to us. But what happens when the very foundations of the world seem to shift? What t...
That frustration, that sense of futility, echoes through a powerful passage in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis. Rabbi Abba kicks th...
In fact, the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), specifically Kohelet Rabbah, connects them to something much deeper: the consequences of our actions and, specifically, our...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet in Hebrew, certainly does. And the rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), in Kohelet Rabbah, wrestled with it too. Specifica...
to one, from Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Exodus. The verse we're looking at is simple, yet profound: “God saw the children of Israel, and...
The passage we're looking at begins with God instructing Moses: "Go and gather the elders of Israel, and say to them: The Lord, the God of your fathers, God of Abraham, of Isaac, a...
The passage begins by linking the manna, that miraculous bread from heaven, to a verse in Proverbs (9:5): "Come, partake of my bread, and drink of the wine I have mixed." What's th...
According to Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Exodus, there are four specific things that God longs for from His creation. The passage begins ...
The Torah tells us, "He was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. He wrote upon the tablets the words of the covenant, ...
The ancient rabbis certainly thought so. We find this idea beautifully illustrated in Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Exodus. It uses a verse...
It's more than just about wine, you see. It's a metaphor, a living, breathing symbol of the Jewish people themselves. We find this beautiful idea elaborated on in Vayikra Rabbah 36...
Philo, that brilliant Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, had thoughts on this. He saw the story of the "younger" son not just as a matter of birth order, but as a reflection of th...
[These are the generations of Noah (Gen. 6:9).] May it please our master to instruct us concerning the number of transgressions for which women die during childbirth. Thus have our...
And God spoke to Noah, saying: “Go forth from the ark” (Gen. 8:15). May our master instruct us whether one is permitted to place saliva upon an ailing eye on the Sabbath. R. Hiyya ...
And the sons of Noah left the ark (Gen. 9:18). May it please our master to instruct us whether man or woman is enjoined to fulfill the commandment to Increase and multiply (Gen. 1:...
And he planted a vineyard (Gen. 9:20). Noah was one of four men who introduced four things. Noah introduced planting, as it is written: And he planted a vineyard; cursing when he s...
Some traditions suggest that Adam, the first human, wasn't just made on Earth, but actually brought something vital to Earth – fire and light themselves! Imagine this: Before Adam ...
The Hebrew Bible says "the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were fair" (Genesis 6:2). Targum Onkelos changes "sons of God" to "sons of rulers." This single substitution el...
Ten miraculous objects were created in the final moments before the first Shabbat (the Sabbath), squeezed into existence during the twilight of the sixth day of Creation. The Mekhi...
The story of the Tower of Babel, found in Genesis, offers a powerful explanation, but it's in texts like Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer – a fascinating collection of stories and interpreta...
THERE WERE TEN GENERATIONS FROM NOAH TO ABRAHAM. What need is there for mankind to [know] this? It is to teach that all those generations were provoking Him, and there was not one ...
With ten utterances the world was created. And what does this teach, for surely it could have been created with one utterance? But this was so in order to punish the wicked who des...
From the very first moment of creation, God assigned every major figure in history a specific role. Esther Rabbah preserves a remarkable list, attributed to Rabbi Berekhya, that re...
Take the phrase, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed" (Genesis 9:6). Sounds simple enough. An eye for an eye. But is it really that simple? The ancient rabb...
And God did prove Abraham (Gen. 22:1). Observe this difference between the earlier generations and the later generations: The earlier generations were tested by the Holy One, bless...
And it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanite (Exod. 13:5). (Scripture mentions) five nations though there were (in fact) seven nations.17Cf. Mekhil...
I’m not talking about clashing colors, but something far more fundamental. The Book of Jubilees, an ancient Jewish text that expands on the stories in Genesis, tells us that one of...
