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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...
It all starts in the Book of Numbers, Bamidbar (Numbers 19:2), with the words: “This is the statute of the Torah that the Lord commanded, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, a...
It sounds like something straight out of a fantastical tale, but it's at the heart of our story today, found in Bamidbar Rabbah 20. We’re diving into the episode where Balak, king ...
The scene opens with Balak, the king of Moab, terrified by the Israelites. He’s hired Bilam, a non-Jewish prophet known for the power of his blessings and curses, to, well, curse I...
The ancient rabbis certainly did. They found that very human feeling reflected in the Torah itself, specifically in the book of Numbers, Bamidbar in Hebrew. And they explore it in ...
Our tradition, as always, has some fascinating ideas. to Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis. Specifically, we're looking at th...
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...
That feeling, that’s something the ancient rabbis wrestled with too. Our story begins with a seemingly simple verse from (Genesis 2:4): “These are the toledot (outgrowths, generati...
The book of Bereshit Rabbah, a classical collection of Rabbinic interpretations of Genesis, dives deep into this very idea, and it’s wild. Our entry point is a seemingly minor deta...
And in Bereshit Rabbah, one of our most beloved collections of Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) – stories that expand upon the Hebrew Bible – we find a fascinating perspe...
We find a fascinating discussion about this in Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis. The passage focuses on the verse, "On the d...
The ancient rabbis grappled with this question, and their answers, tucked away in texts like Bereshit Rabbah, offer a fascinating glimpse into the human condition. The passage in B...
The ancient rabbis certainly did! And they wrestled with these questions in fascinating, sometimes mind-bending ways. One such exploration comes from Bereshit Rabbah 14, a section ...
We find ourselves with Lemekh, a descendant of Cain. He's talking to his wives, Ada and Tzila, and things are… complicated. He says, "Hear my voice, wives of Lemekh, listen to my s...
Turns out, even God has had those thoughts about humanity. We find a fascinating glimpse into this in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Genes...
We read in (Genesis 6:9), "These are the offspring of Noah; Noah was a righteous man." A pretty great opening line. But what does it really mean? The Rabbis of the Bereshit Rabbah,...
(Ecclesiastes 9:14) tells a strange little story: "There was a small city, with few men in it, and a great king came against it and surrounded it." What does it mean? In Bereshit R...
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...
We're going to look at the story of the cities of Babel and Nineveh and what their fates reveal. Our journey starts with (Genesis 10:10): “The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, a...
Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis, delves into this concept with a powerful verse from Isaiah: "They do not know and they do not unde...
The story of Abraham begins with just such a call. (Genesis 12:1)—a verse etched into the heart of Jewish tradition—tells us: "The Lord said to Abram: Go you, from your land, and f...
Bereshit Rabbah, a classic compilation of Rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Genesis, offers a stunningly beautiful image to explain Abraham’s rise to greatness. It all starts...
Our guide? The ancient Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis. Specifically, we're looking at ...
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...
Our ancestors dealt with that too, as we see in the story of Abraham and his nephew Lot. The book of Genesis (12:4) tells us, "Abram went, as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot we...
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 ...
It's easy to imagine them springing forth, fully formed, ready to face any challenge. But what about the times before the heroism, the moments of vulnerability, the struggles that ...
The rabbis of old, wrestling with this very question, spun a fascinating tale in Bereshit Rabbah 40, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis. The story begi...
The ancient rabbis certainly did. And they found evidence of it woven right into the fabric of the Torah itself. Take the story of Abraham, our forefather. He goes down to Egypt to...
The ancient rabbis certainly thought so. They saw echoes of the Exodus, the defining moment of Jewish liberation, shimmering even in the life of Abraham. We find this idea beautifu...
Today, we're diving into a fascinating little debate from Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis. Specifically, we're looking at C...
Our ancestor, Abraham, knew that feeling well. God promised him descendants as numerous as the dust of the earth and an eternal inheritance of land. But what did that really mean? ...
Today, we're diving into Bereshit Rabbah 42, a fascinating passage from the Midrash, the body of ancient rabbinic interpretations of Scripture. This passage looks at Genesis 14, sp...
That’s the situation Abram faces in (Genesis 14:14): "Abram heard that his brother had been taken captive…” But what’s truly fascinating isn't just the event, but Abram's reaction....
We all know the story: Lot gets captured, Abraham bravely rescues him, and then… what happens to the spoils? (Genesis 14:16) tells us, "He returned all the goods, and also his brot...
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...
Who was this Malkitzedek? Why is he offering bread and wine? And what's the deal with Salem? The Rabbis of Bereshit Rabbah, that rich collection of early Jewish interpretations of ...
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...
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...
We're looking at Bereshit Rabbah 44 here, and the central question revolves around God's promise to Abraham: "Fear not, Abram, I am a shield for you; your reward is very great" (Ge...
Abraham, our patriarch, knew that feeling. In (Genesis 15:2), he cries out, "My Lord God, what will You give me, seeing that I go childless, and the one who has charge of my house ...
We often think of them as paragons of faith, figures of unwavering strength. But what about their doubts, their fears about the future? The ancient rabbis, in their beautiful and i...
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...
The verse reads, "Behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying: This man will not inherit you; rather, one who shall emerge from your loins, he will inherit you." It’s a pretty...
It all starts with God promising Abraham countless descendants: "Look now to the heavens, and count the stars, if you can count them… So will your offspring be." But it's the phras...
We find this powerful verse in (Genesis 15:7), where God says to Abraham, "I am the Lord who took you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it." It seems sim...
The Torah uses powerful imagery to describe just such a feeling in (Genesis 15:11): “Birds of prey descended upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.” But what does it really...
