2,344 related texts · Page 43 of 49
Rabbi Akiba was walking through a cemetery when he encountered something terrible — a dead man, naked and blackened, carrying an enormous load of wood on his back. He was running a...
Tamptation of Matia b. Heresh. J. Shabbat (the Sabbath), ch. 3. cf. Story of R. Meir in Kiddush (the sanctification blessing over wine)in. Midr. Abhir in Yalk. § 161. Midr. Decal. ...
Rabbi Johanan ben Matya gave his son a simple instruction: go and hire laborers, and make sure to feed them properly. The son went out, found workers, and promised them a meal. But...
Seven Good Years when Young. Midr. Zutta (Ruth) ed. Buber, p. 55. Nissim, f. 36b. Yalk. II, § 607. Rappaport, R. Nissim. Husin, Maase Nissim, No. 33. Yalk. Sip. Ill, pp. 107, no. c...
Man Who Would Not Swear. Ben Atar, No. 5, f. 23 a. Midr. Decalogue, III, 2. Nissim, Reprinted Sef. Hayashar, Livorno 1862, f. I39bf. Yalk. Exod. II, p. 138. Farhi, O. P. I, f. 26 a...
Bird’s Three Advices. Tendlau, Fellmeier, No. 21. Grunbaum, Jud. Dtsch. Chrest. p. 249. Ginzburg, Hagoren, 1923, p. 42. Benfey,Pantschat.I,38o. Barlaam u. Josaphat, v. Wiener, Jahr...
When Sarah died, Abraham aged overnight. The midrash says it plainly: old age came upon him the moment he buried her, as the verse notes — "Abraham was old, coming with days" (Gene...
"These are the generations of Isaac, son of Abraham; Abraham begot Isaac" (Genesis 25:19). The verse says it twice, and the rabbis asked why. Their answer: to show that the gift gi...
Before the sun existed, there was light. This is one of the oldest puzzles in Genesis — God creates light on the first day, but the sun and moon don't appear until the fourth. The ...
Jewish tradition offers some pretty amazing answers, and one of the most fascinating involves a celestial body known as the Council of Souls. Imagine a gathering of the most righte...
Take lentils, for example. Humble, unassuming… yet, in Jewish tradition, they're deeply tied to mourning and sorrow. Why lentils? The tradition tells us that when Cain killed Abel,...
That feeling, that raw, unfair sting, is at the heart of the story of Jacob and Esau, and the stolen blessing. The scene is set: Isaac, now old and with failing eyesight, calls for...
The story goes that after his less-than-amicable departure from his father-in-law Laban, Jacob found himself at the River Yabbok (Yabbok, a river in the Transjordan, now part of Jo...
Serah, daughter of Asher, one of Jacob's sons. We find her name nestled in the list of those who went down to Egypt with Jacob to escape the famine. You can find it in (Genesis 46:...
It wasn't a random free-for-all. The Book of Numbers gives us a fascinating glimpse into a highly structured encampment around the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. And Bamidbar Rabbah, a c...
It wasn't just packing up and hitting the road. Every aspect, down to who touched what and in what order, was meticulously planned and imbued with deep meaning. to just one small p...
It’s a midrash, a rabbinic interpretation, on a verse from the Book of Numbers – Bamidbar in Hebrew, which gives the whole book its name. The verse in question mentions "the tribe ...
It wasn't just about following instructions; it was about life and death. A fascinating passage in Bamidbar Rabbah 5 delves into the story of the sons of Kehat, whose job it was to...
The Torah, in its infinite wisdom, touches upon this very feeling when describing the Levites. We find in (Numbers 3:46), "All the counted, whom Moses and Aaron and the princes of ...
The ancient rabbis grappled with these questions constantly, searching for meaning in misfortune. One particularly fascinating exploration revolves around the affliction of leprosy...
It’s a question that our Sages grappled with, and Bamidbar Rabbah 14 dives deep into the reasons behind this seemingly small detail. The verse we’re focusing on is from (Numbers 7:...
Sometimes it feels like wading through ancient accounting ledgers. But hidden within those seemingly dry details are profound connections – whispers of cosmic harmony and echoes of...
Bamidbar Rabbah, that incredible collection of Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic teachings on the Book of Numbers, dives deep into this very question. It’s not just a ma...
The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), specifically Bamidbar Rabbah 15, tells us that crafting the menorah was uniquely challenging for Moses. More so than any other objec...
The story of the menorah, the candelabrum in the Tabernacle, as told in Bamidbar Rabbah 15, is a wild ride about just that. It's a reminder that even Moses, the ultimate receiver o...
to a story from Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Numbers, that explores just this. The story goes that God tells Moses to gather seventy men to he...
The Book of Numbers, Bamidbar in Hebrew, picks up the story after the tumultuous events at Sinai. In Bamidbar Rabbah 15, a Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), or interpreti...
It all starts with a seemingly simple verse: “Amalek dwells in the region of the south” (Numbers 13:29). But the rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) ask a poin...
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’s a tale of ambition, delusion, and a very dangerous offering. The scene is set: Moses, leading the Israelites. And then comes Koraḥ, a Levite, challenging Moses’s leadership, s...
It's not just about the big stories, but the tiny details, the way things are phrased. The Bamidbar Rabbah (Numbers Rabbah), a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Numbe...
It might be more than just luck. to a fascinating passage from Bamidbar Rabbah (Numbers Rabbah) 21, which uses the biblical verse "My offering, My food… you shall observe to presen...
The book of Numbers, Bamidbar in Hebrew, recounts the Israelites' journey through the wilderness. In chapter 32, we encounter the tribes of Reuben and Gad. "The children of Reuben ...
It might seem like a simple opening, but Jewish tradition finds layers of meaning even in the placement of God’s name in the very first verse. Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai, a prominent f...
We often think of creation as this grand, instantaneous act. But what if I told you that even in the very beginning, there was a sense of…guidance, even sorrow? That’s what I’ve be...
It’s easy to imagine grand, sweeping transformations, but sometimes, the most profound miracles are about containing the uncontainable – about fitting more into less. That’s what o...
And they all seem to stem from one little verse in Genesis (1:17): “God set them in the firmament of the heavens to illuminate upon the earth.” Rabbi Yoḥanan sees something special...
But dig a little deeper, and you’ll find some fascinating questions and interpretations. Now, there's a curious little detail about that verse. The Bereshit Rabbah, a classic colle...
There's a fascinating discussion in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Genesis, that tackles this very question. It all starts with the verse ...
Rabbi Elazar bar Rabbi Shimon grappled with this very question. He observed that the land is watered primarily at its upper layer. But what then, he wondered, about the carob tree ...
Why "the man" instead of just "man"? It seems to be alluding to someone specific… but who? Well, according to a fascinating interpretation in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of ancie...
It seems simple enough on the surface: "From every tree of the garden you may eat." But, like with so much in Torah, the rabbis saw layers upon layers of meaning hidden beneath the...
We all do it, usually for about a third of our lives. But what's going on when we drift off? Our sages pondered this deeply. In Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic commentari...
Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Genesis, digs into this very question. It focuses on the word ḥamas (חָמָס), often translated as "i...
Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis, delves into this very idea, exploring how God’s mercy permeates everything. The verse from...
It’s more profound than you might think. (Genesis 12:5) tells us, “Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot, son of his brother, and all their property that they had acquired, and the pe...
The ancient rabbis certainly did. to a fascinating story from Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis, and see what we can uncover. We star...
That liminal space is rich with meaning, according to Jewish tradition. And it all starts with a single verse. In (Genesis 15:12), we read: "It was as the sun was setting, and a sl...
