3,330 related texts · 11 related myths · Page 70 of 70
It sounds radical, I know. Some accounts say God bestowed immense honor upon Moses, gifting him dominion over the entire earth, the seas, the rivers – all the elements themselves. ...
Maybe that feeling is a tiny glimpse into the ultimate truth: that everything is sacred. Philo, the 1st-century Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, certainly thought so. He envisio...
Isn't it frustrating when someone twists your words, puts ideas in your mouth, and generally acts in bad faith? That's the vibe I get from this next section of "The Wars of God." S...
Someone is being called out for criticizing the act of diligently seeking to understand the sacred texts. The response is sharp: "Who gave you the authority to seek and investigate...
You're not alone! The tradition teaches that deep understanding requires dedication, effort, and a willingness to truly explore the text. The power to investigate and inquire withi...
It's a desire that sometimes leads to conflict, as we see when examining certain debates within Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition. In this particular instance, we're diving i...
Philo, the 1st-century Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, grappled with this very question in his own way. In what we call "The Midrash of Philo," he argues that Adam must have be...
Death is often remembered as the end, a full stop. But what if it's just a… transition? Philo, that brilliant Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, wrestled with this very idea. He w...
There's a perspective, woven into ancient Jewish thought, that offers a slightly different angle?Now, midrash (מדרש) itself, broadly speaking, is a way of interpreting and expandin...
When we say "The Midrash of Philo," it's important to clarify we aren't talking about a midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) in the classic rabbinic sense. Instead, it refers...
The ancient sages certainly did. And they found profound meaning in that feeling. to a fascinating interpretation of a well-known biblical passage, explored in the Midrash of Philo...
That’s the feeling swirling around in this passage from the Midrash of Philo, an ancient commentary attributed to Philo of Alexandria, as it grapples with the moment someone encoun...
The mystics imagined it, and what they saw is The story goes that when God decided to create Adam, it wasn't a snap of the fingers. It was a process. A cosmic sculpting project, if...
The story of Abraham and Isaac, the Akeidah (the binding), grapples with these very questions. Abraham and Sarah, living in the Land of Israel, yearned for a child. Their lives wer...
The very concept of the Temple in Jerusalem, that sacred place, was envisioned at the dawn of creation itself. As Howard Schwartz recounts in Tree of Souls, God, in His infinite wi...
The Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying: “fear not” (Gen. 15:1). Scripture says elsewhere in allusion to this verse: Then Thou spokest in vision to Thy godly ones, and saids...
And the Lord remembered Sarah, as he had said (Gen. 21:1). Scripture states elsewhere in allusion to this verse: God is not a man that He should lie; neither the son of man, that H...
Another interpretation: "As those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to soothsayers and augurs." Jeremiah the prophet said (Jeremiah 10:11), "Thus shall you say to the...
