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We know the story: God commands Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son. But what about the whispers, the doubts, the anxieties that surely must have plagued them both? The Book of Ge...
We all know the story: Abraham, tested by God, is asked to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. He obeys, bringing Isaac to Mount Moriah. Just as Abraham raises his knife, an angel in...
He's stood on Mount Moriah, knife raised, ready to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac. The tension is almost unbearable. And then? (Genesis 22:20) tells us, "It was after these matter...
It’s a beautiful image, isn't it? But what does it really mean? Our sages, grappling with this very verse, connected it to something we say every day: a blessing. Specifically, the...
The ancient rabbis certainly did, and they explored this question through stories, through midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) – those beautiful, imaginative expansions on t...
The Torah tells us, "Abraham came to lament for Sarah, and to weep for her" (Genesis 23:2). Simple enough. But where did he come from? That's where things get interesting. The sage...
He needs to acquire a burial plot. And what unfolds is a fascinating negotiation, a real estate transaction steeped in cultural nuance, as recorded in Bereshit Rabbah (Genesis Rabb...
Our focus is (Genesis 23:17-18), describing how Abraham acquired the field of Ephron, including the cave of Makhpela, as a burial place. "The field of Ephron that was in Makhpela t...
The Torah, as it often does, gives us clues, and this time it’s wrapped up in the story of Abraham burying his beloved Sarah. In (Genesis 23:19), we read, “Then, Abraham buried Sar...
Our sages, in the ancient collection of rabbinic homilies known as Bereshit Rabbah, delve deep into this very question. They find an answer woven into the fabric of Torah itself. T...
The Psalmist certainly pondered this. "Even when I am old and gray, God, do not forsake me" (Psalms 71:18). A simple plea. But Rabbi Aḥa, in Bereshit Rabbah, asks a deceptively sim...
It might sound surprising, but the ancient Rabbis certainly thought so! The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), specifically Bereshit Rabbah 59, delves into a fascinating i...
The Torah tells us that Abraham was old, zaken (Genesis 24:1). But the rabbis in Bereshit Rabbah 59 ask, what does that really signify? The rabbis dig deep, finding layers of meani...
We often think of blessings as material wealth, good health, maybe even a long life. But what if the true blessing is something far deeper, something almost…invisible? Let’s turn t...
It begins, "Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his household, who was in charge of everything that was his: Please, place your hand under my thigh" (Genesis 24:2). Under his...
We often focus on practicalities, but sometimes, the ancient texts remind us that there’s much more at stake than meets the eye. Take the story of Abraham sending his servant to fi...
The Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, is so concise, that every word, every phrase, even a name, can hold layers of meaning. Take Ketura, for example. Who was she, r...
In Bereshit Rabbah, the classic midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic (interpretive) text on Genesis, we find a fascinating discussion, a divergence of opinions on the natur...
The Torah, and later rabbinic texts, offer some fascinating, and comforting, glimpses. Let’s start with Abraham. (Genesis 25:7) tells us, "These are the days of the years of Abraha...
We find a poignant example in the story of Abraham's burial, as recounted in Bereshit Rabbah 62, a section of the classic midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic collection th...
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...
Take the story of Jacob and Esau and that fateful bowl of lentil stew. We often think of it as a simple transaction, a hungry Esau trading away his birthright for a quick meal. But...
Let’s look at Isaac, the son of Abraham. The book of Genesis tells us, "There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was during the days of Abraham, and Isaac went...
But did he just follow the big commandments, the obvious ones? Or was there something more? (Genesis 26:5) tells us that Abraham "heeded My voice, and observed My commission, My co...
The ancient rabbis certainly did. And they found a beautiful way to express that feeling with a single word: Hamakom (המקום), "The Place," a name for God. But why "The Place"? (Gen...
It’s the story of Jacob, our patriarch, and it's a story that the rabbis in Bereshit Rabbah, that great collection of Genesis interpretations, unpack with fascinating detail. We al...
Take the reunion of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 33. We read how Jacob arranged his family as he approached his brother, placing the maidservants and their children first, Leah and he...
It wasn't just about being born into the right family. According to ancient texts, active conversion played a huge role. to a fascinating passage from Bereshit Rabbah that sheds li...
She was a widow, promised to Judah's youngest son, Shelah. But Shelah was growing up, and Judah just… wasn't making good on his promise. He was worried, see, because Tamar's first ...
That’s exactly what happens when we delve into the story of Tamar and Judah in Genesis 38. It's a tale filled with deception, bravery, and some pretty intense family drama. Today, ...
The book of Genesis tells us, "It was at the conclusion of two years, and Pharaoh was dreaming: and, behold, he stood at the Nile" (Genesis 41:1). But Bereshit Rabbah, that incredi...
According to Devarim Rabbah, there's a whole world of meaning packed into those words. It wasn't just a one-time instruction to Moses. The Holy One, blessed be He, was saying, "Not...
Today, we're diving into a fascinating discussion from Devarim Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy, focusing on the Shema, Judaism's central...
That feeling, that singular connection, is at the heart of Devarim Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Deuteronomy. Specifically, the second section, where it...
It all starts with the verse, “You shall know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God” (Deuteronomy 7:9). Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba uses a parable to unpack this idea. Imagi...
I’m talking about amen. (Deuteronomy 28:1) promises, "It will be if you will heed the voice of the Lord your God to observe, to perform all His commandments that I am commanding yo...
Water, wine, honey… it's a veritable feast of metaphors! But what's the meaning behind it all? Devarim Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the book of Deuteronomy, explor...
Take reading from the Torah, for example. The verse we're looking at is from (Deuteronomy 29:2): "Moses summoned all Israel, and he said to them: You have seen everything that the ...
The verse in question comes from (Proverbs 31:29): "Many women have performed valiantly, but you have surpassed them all." But who is the "you" being referred to here? According to...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as it's known in Hebrew, wrestles with this very idea. "Of laughter, I said it is confounded; and of joy, what does it accomplish?" (Ecclesiast...
The Book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as it's known in Hebrew, wrestles with this tension beautifully. And the Rabbis in Kohelet Rabbah, a classic midrash (rabbinic interpretive com...
Kohelet, or Ecclesiastes, grapples with these questions, and the rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), specifically Kohelet Rabbah, offer some pretty fascinatin...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet in Hebrew, grapples with this very idea, and the rabbinic commentary on it, Kohelet Rabbah, digs even deeper. It all starts with that famous li...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as it’s known in Hebrew, dives right into that feeling. One particular verse, (Ecclesiastes 4:8), really hits home: "There is one and not anoth...
And the Rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), in Kohelet Rabbah, take this even further, using stories and interpretations to unpack the weight of those feeling...
Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, throws us a curveball right from the start: "A good name is better than fine oil, and the day of death than the day of one's birth" (Ecclesiastes 7:1). Whoa....
Sometimes, the explanations seem… unexpected, even poetic. to a passage from Kohelet Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Ecclesiastes, where we explore ...
But it’s actually a question pondered in Kohelet Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Ecclesiastes. to the fascinating ways our Sages understood the seem...
