3,200 related texts · Page 10 of 67
It’s a question that's sparked debate and interpretation for centuries. Today, we're diving into Bereshit Rabbah 45, a fascinating passage from the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive c...
Specifically, we're looking at section 47, which tackles the tricky subject of God's promises to both Ishmael and Isaac. The passage centers around (Genesis 17:20), where God says,...
Our story revolves around a verse from (Genesis 17:22): "He concluded speaking with him, and God ascended from upon Abraham." This simple line, as interpreted by the sages in Beres...
Even King David, the sweet singer of Israel, felt that way sometimes. And the ancient rabbis grappled with this very question too. In Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic homi...
The story of Isaac blessing Jacob instead of Esau is one that resonates with that feeling, and the Rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) grappled with it intense...
The collection of rabbinic homiletic interpretations of Song of Songs, Shir HaShirim Rabbah, dives deep into this very question. Rabbi Berekhya offers a surprising take: how can ho...
The Book of Jubilees, considered by some to be pseudepigraphal – meaning it's attributed to a biblical figure but not actually written by them – offers a unique perspective on bibl...
Abraham did everything the angel commanded. He slaughtered the animals, divided them, and gave the portions to the angels who had appeared beside him. Iaoel took the birds. Abraham...
Angels, messengers of God, have rescued Lot and his family, leading them away from the impending destruction. They're given one crucial instruction: don't look back. Don't even thi...
Jewish tradition says it does. Absolutely. God sees it all, and nothing goes unrewarded. Not even a respectable word. Think about Lot's daughters. A pretty uncomfortable story. Aft...
Rabbi Yishmael examined a verse about the priests serving at the altar and found a surprising teaching hidden inside what appeared to be a redundancy. The verse warns: "so that you...
We know he was driven out, but... where to? It's a question that's haunted Jewish tradition for millennia. The book of Genesis tells us, "So he drove out the man" (Gen. 3:24). Simp...
We all know the basic outline – wickedness, angels, fire and brimstone – but some of the details tucked away in Jewish tradition add layers of complexity and, frankly, a lot of hea...
It all starts with the phrase "this good mountain and the Lebanon." This isn't just any mountain, you see. It's the mountain. Everyone, it seems, calls it that. Abraham calls it a ...
This particular passage, Sifrei Devarim 292, takes a rather dim view of disagreements. The text starts with the verse from Deuteronomy (25:11), "If men strive together..." But the ...
We know he gazed out at the Promised Land, the land he would never enter. But the Torah tells us he saw more than just hills and valleys. He saw everything. But what everything, ex...
The destruction of Sodom in Genesis 19 is swift and merciless. Fire and brimstone rain down, and the city is gone. But the Targum Jonathan inserts a detail that changes everything:...
Sarah died at one hundred and twenty-seven years old. The Torah records the number. The Targum records the aftermath: Abraham came from "the mountain of worship"—Mount Moriah, wher...
Twenty generations passed between Adam and Abraham without old age being mentioned once. Not because people didn't age — but because no one had earned the particular beauty of visi...
to a fascinating link between Lot, of Sodom and Gomorrah fame, and King David, the shepherd-turned-king. It all starts in a cave… (Genesis 19:30) tells us, "Lot ascended from Tzoar...
Our question comes from (Genesis 16:4): "When she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes." Seems simple enough. Hagar, Sarai’s maidservant, becomes pregn...
We all know Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Esau. But there's so much more to these stories! The Book of Jubilees, for those unfamiliar, is an ancient Jewish text t...
After journeying from Shechem to Hebron to be with their father Isaac, Jacob's sons settled in the valley. The pastures of Shechem were still good, and that’s where they tended the...
The Aramaic Levi Document (ALD) is one of the oldest texts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls—parts of it may date to the 3rd century BCE, making it older than most of the books of t...
The Garden of Eden is not a meadow. It is a city of palaces. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, there are...
All of a person's sins are engraved on their bones. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle compiled by Jerahmeel ben Solomon, Rabbi Isaac ben Par...
According to some accounts, Tzadkiel isn't just any celestial being. He's the one who lovingly clothes each soul arriving in Paradise with garments of incredible purity, woven by t...
It turns out, Abraham, the patriarch of monotheism, was no exception. His story isn't just about grand pronouncements from God; it's also about family drama, petty squabbles, and e...
The story begins with Abraham, who, concerned about finding the right wife for his son Isaac, sends his trusted servant Eliezer on a mission to Haran. Eliezer is laden with gifts a...
We all know the story of Abraham and Isaac, the binding, the near sacrifice. But the details, as the legends tell it, are astonishing. Imagine the scene: Abraham, hand raised, knif...
The Jewish tradition offers some pretty powerful ways to navigate those moments, drawing strength from the stories of our ancestors. Imagine Esther, poised to enter the court of Ki...
He was down. Like, really down. After the whole ordeal with having to lead Mordecai around in royal robes – a humiliation orchestrated by the very man he wanted to destroy – and th...
Our story today takes us to 16th-century Safed, a center of Jewish mysticism, and introduces us to Rabbi Abraham Berukhim, a man known for his profound connection to the Divine. Th...
"And Sarah's lifetime was one hundred years and twenty years and seven years" (Genesis 23:1). Rashi offers his famous comment: at one hundred she was like twenty (free from sin), a...
And thus do you find with the forefathers, that they deported themselves with circumspection (in this regard), viz.: (Genesis 22:3) "And Abraham arose early in the morning," (Ibid....
(Exodus 12:41) "and it was at the end of four hundred and thirty years": We are hereby apprised that when the time arrived, the L–rd did not delay them for one moment. On the fifte...
(Exodus 13:17) "And it was, when G–d sent ("shalach") the people": "sending" in all places is accompaniment, viz. (Genesis 18:16) "And Abraham went with them to send them," (Ibid. ...
"by way of the land of the Philistines, for it was near": Near (i.e., "close") is the thing of which the Holy One Blessed be He spoke to Moses (Exodus 2:12): "When you take the peo...
Jewish tradition has some fascinating – and sobering – ideas about that transition. It's a moment watched over, judged, and ultimately, a reckoning. Imagine this: As a person breat...
We all know the tale of Noah, the ark, and the animals. But what if the water wasn't just… water? A fascinating idea emerges from the depths of Jewish tradition: the generation of ...
Jewish tradition teaches us that names hold prophetic power, hinting at a person's destiny, their very purpose. And sometimes, the reason behind a name isn't clear until long after...
Jacob said: "My way is hidden from the Lord, and my justice has passed away from my God" (Isaiah 40:27). This was Israel speaking — the whole nation's complaint condensed into one ...
Our story centers on Sarai (later Sarah) and Abram (later Abraham), a couple facing the heartbreaking reality of childlessness. Sarai, in a desperate attempt to fulfill the divine ...
We know the story: God commands Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son. Abraham, after a terrible internal struggle, obeys. At the last moment, an angel intervenes, and a ram is sacr...
It's a poignant moment, and the book of Devarim Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Deuteronomy, sheds light on the depth of that experience. "You are crossin...
It reveals a surprising strategy employed by the righteous when approaching the Divine. The text opens with the curious phrase "write for yourself," and then it proposes that the r...
Jewish tradition is full of stories exploring this very idea. Today, we're diving into a fascinating passage from Vayikra Rabbah, a Midrash on the book of Leviticus, that unpacks t...
“The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground, are silent. They have placed dust on their heads, have girded themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem have lowere...
