2,248 related texts · Page 28 of 47
Rabbi Yitzchak found a verse that establishes blessings both before and after eating. (Exodus 23:25) reads, "And you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and...
Rabbi Chanina, the nephew of Rabbi Yehoshua, laid out the liturgical structure for communal blessing based on a verse from (Deuteronomy 32:3): "When I call upon the name of the Lor...
(Exodus 13:5) speaks of the land "which He swore to your forefathers." The Mekhilta asks a direct question: where exactly in the Torah did God swear this oath to each of the patria...
When the Israelites saw the Egyptian army bearing down on them and the Red Sea blocking their escape, the Torah says they "were exceedingly afraid." But what did they do with that ...
The Mekhilta draws yet another proof of prayer's supreme power from Jacob's blessing over the tribe of Judah. The Torah declares: "A lion's whelp is Judah" (Genesis 49:9). On the s...
Rabbi Bana'ah taught that God split the Red Sea for the Israelites in the merit of their ancestor Abraham. The proof lies in a striking verbal parallel between two verses. When Abr...
The Mekhilta reinforces Rabbi Tarfon's teaching about the tribe of Judah with a verse from Psalms. "When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from the people of a foreign t...
When God responded to the Israelites' hunger in the wilderness, He used a single Hebrew word that two rabbis read in completely different ways. (Exodus 16:4) records God telling Mo...
The Mekhilta decodes every word of Moses' declaration before the battle with Amalek. "The top of the hill" is not just a geographic feature — it is a spiritual map. "Top" represent...
Three men climbed to the top of the hill before the battle against Amalek: Moses, Aaron, and Chur (Exodus 17:10). The Mekhilta explains that their ascent was not a military decisio...
The Mekhilta continues cataloguing everything God showed Moses from Mount Pisgah. The question this time: how do we know that God showed him even the graves of the forefathers? The...
R. Yossi says: It is written (Isaiah 45:19) "Not in secrecy did I speak, in a place of darkness, etc." In the very beginning, when I gave it, I did not give it in secret or in a da...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael derives the practice of Kiddush, the sanctification of Shabbat (the Sabbath) over wine, from the commandment to "sanctify it." The phrase "to sanctify...
The Torah requires that the firstborn of both humans and animals be consecrated to God. A firstborn son must be redeemed through a payment to a Kohen (priest). A firstborn kosher a...
The Torah actually grapples with this very question, and the answer, as you might expect, is layered and fascinating. : Moses, standing before the burning bush, is tasked with lead...
It's a powerful, heartbreaking moment in our history. But what if I told you that in their darkest hour, God chose to share their pain, to literally go into exile with them? There'...
There's a story, a rather incredible one, about a rabbi who supposedly did just that. It all revolves around Rabbi Judah Loew, also known as the Maharal of Prague. This was a truly...
It all begins with Abraham. God Himself entrusted him with a profound secret, "the secret of the mystery of the Redeemer," as Howard Schwartz puts it in Tree of Souls. A heavy burd...
The story goes that after the Temple was torn down and Jerusalem was ablaze, God, in His infinite compassion, sought to soothe the city’s pain. As Pesikta Rabbati 30:3 tells us, Go...
It's a profound idea, isn't it? That death isn't the end, but a kind of pause. A cosmic holding pattern. The Tree of Souls reminds us that God keeps the souls of the dead alive. Im...
Jewish tradition certainly thinks so. And there’s a powerful story that illustrates just how deeply connected we are across generations, a story about the pleading of the fathers a...
According to Jewish tradition, it's not just about who gets in, but who gets to wake up first. Why are our patriarchs, the Avot – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – said to be buried in t...
It’s a question that’s captivated Jewish thinkers for centuries. And Jewish tradition actually gives us a glimpse, a stunning vision of just such an encounter. Imagine this: it's t...
The Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Psalms, offers a fascinating glimpse into this very question. "But his delight is in the law of the Lord," s...
Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Psalms, offers a fascinating perspective. It points to the tribe of Levi, specifically those who resisted ...
Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Psalms, grapples with this very question in its ninth section. And what emerges is a powerful, and sometim...
The 15th chapter of Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Psalms, offers a fascinating exploration of just that. It's not a simple checklist, but a ta...
The Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Psalms, offers a powerful glimpse into David's humility. It tells of David declaring, "I am a stain." A powe...
He's not just a character in a story; he's a blueprint, a model for living a life of faith and devotion. But how do we even begin to grasp the depth of his significance? Midrash Te...
The ancient rabbis knew that feeling well. And they found solace, not in denying the reality of loneliness, but in recognizing that even in the most desolate places, God is present...
Take (Psalm 81:2), for example: "Raise a song, strike the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp." But then it continues, "Sound the shofar at the New Moon, at the full moon for ...
And guess what? It's not always what you'd expect. The Midrash Tehillim, a collection of interpretations on the Book of Psalms, offers a particularly intriguing take. It suggests t...
Psalm 91 is all about that feeling, and Midrash Tehillim—an ancient collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Psalms—dives deep into its meaning. The verse declares, "I...
The ancient rabbis certainly did. And they found evidence of it woven throughout the stories of our ancestors. to a fascinating little gem from Midrash Tehillim (a collection of ra...
The sages of the Midrash Tehillim, a collection of interpretations on the Book of Psalms, knew that feeling well. In their exploration of Psalm 119, they grapple with this very hum...
Psalm 143, a heartfelt plea from David, grapples with exactly that. "Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my plea..." But the questions bubble up: Who among us can truly claim innocence...
In chapter 9, we find a surprisingly vivid image comparing rivers to the people of Israel. : rivers, in their natural course, are a blessing. As the text says, "All rivers flowing ...
The sages teach that sometimes, that very position – being between two good choices – is a blessing in disguise. Think about Samuel the Prophet. According to Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer...
Those little acts of kindness, those traditions that bind us together… sometimes, the answer is more surprising than you think. Let's talk about weddings, and a divine precedent fo...
Our sages certainly thought so, and they had some amazing stories to illustrate just that. to one, found in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, specifically chapter 16. It tells of Eliezer, Ab...
That, according to Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, is precisely what happened at the Tower of Babel. The story goes that the builders of the Tower, all speaking the same language, suddenly...
Jewish tradition is full of stories of righteous individuals who, facing persecution, chose to flee. And often, it was the very act of fleeing that led them to salvation and a deep...
The patriarch Abraham certainly did. The story begins with Sarah, Abraham's wife, making a demand. She tells Abraham to write a get, a bill of divorce, and send away his handmaid H...
We all know the story of the manna, the miraculous bread from heaven. But what about water? How did they quench their thirst in that desolate landscape? Well, according to Rabbi Ak...
Our guide today is a passage from Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a captivating work of Jewish legend and lore. Specifically, we're looking at Chapter 36, which touches on some pretty sign...
Jewish tradition has a fascinating way of showing us that sometimes, just sometimes, we need a little divine… addition. Let’s turn to a text called Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a wonder...
It wasn't just about interpreting dreams, you know. It was also about how he handled a massive food crisis. : a famine grips the land, and everyone is flocking to Egypt to buy grai...
Not just any rod, but the rod. A rod created in the twilight of creation itself, before the first Shabbat (the Sabbath). Rabbi Levi, a sage from the Talmudic period, tells us its s...
