3,200 related texts · Page 16 of 67
The ancient Rabbis did. They poured over the verses, searching for clues. And in Shir HaShirim Rabbah, the rabbinic commentary on the Song of Songs, we find some fascinating answer...
Vayikra Rabbah, a classical midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic text – meaning, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Torah – offers a fascinating perspective. I...
It's like a cosmic echo, a recurring theme of the powerful and the hungry, of oppression and redemption. Vayikra Rabbah 28, a section of the ancient Midrash Rabbah, explores just t...
Our ancestors felt it too. to a fascinating little piece from Vayikra Rabbah, a Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic collection that unpacks the book of Leviticus. This par...
Birth order, historical sequence. But what if there’s more to it than that? Vayikra Rabbah 36, a fascinating passage in the rabbinic commentary on Leviticus, flips that script on u...
They're not just labels, you know. In Jewish tradition, a name can be a destiny, a reflection of character, a clue to understanding the deeper story. Take Sarah, for example. Why i...
We're turning to the Midrash of Philo, a fascinating collection of interpretations that expands on the stories we find in the Hebrew Bible. Specifically, we're looking at a moment ...
The story, of course, revolves around Sarah, Abraham, and Hagar. Sarah, unable to conceive, gives her handmaiden Hagar to Abraham. But as we know, things get complicated. Hagar con...
We often think of affliction as purely negative, something to be avoided at all costs. But what if I told you that, according to some ancient wisdom, affliction can actually be… be...
The question is: Why? (Genesis 17:17) tells us that after God tells Abraham (who was then still called Abram) that his wife Sarah (then Sarai) will bear him a son, he "fell on his ...
to this because, as often happens with our tradition, there's more to it than meets the eye. The Midrash of Philo, a collection of interpretations attributed to the ancient philoso...
Today, we're diving into one of those: a chapter from the Book of Jasher. Now, the Book of Jasher isn't part of the Tanakh. Its authenticity and origins are disputed by scholars. B...
Beyond just having it, I mean. What does it take to establish a claim that lasts for generations? Chapter 24 of the Book of Jasher, an ancient text referenced in the Bible itself (...
There are so many fascinating texts that offer different perspectives and details on familiar narratives. Today, we're diving into a chapter from one of these books: the Book of Ja...
The Book of Jasher, an ancient Hebrew text referenced in the Bible itself (Joshua 10:13 and (2 Samuel 1:1)8), fills in some of those gaps. It's like a behind-the-scenes look at the...
The night Abraham was born, a star appeared in the sky and swallowed four other stars from the four corners of heaven. Nimrod's astrologers saw it and rushed to the king with a war...
According to Ginzberg's retelling in Legends of the Jews, Abraham didn't just decide one day to challenge the status quo. No, he was commanded by God, through the angel Gabriel, to...
But imagine the weight of a vow to the Almighty, left unfulfilled. According to Legends of the Jews, as retold by Ginzberg, Jacob found himself in just such a predicament. He'd mad...
The story of Abraham and Nimrod is a perfect example, and it's wild. We pick up the tale after Abraham has already begun to challenge Nimrod's authority, but now things are about t...
It wasn't exactly smooth sailing, especially when it came to his own family. According to Ginzberg's retelling in Legends of the Jews, Abraham actually encountered his parents in B...
Abraham certainly did. Imagine being thrown into a dark, dank prison, left to starve and thirst, all for standing up for what you believe in. That's exactly where our patriarch fou...
Now imagine you’re Abraham, and Nimrod wants you dead for refusing to worship idols. The story goes that Abraham’s own mother, desperate to save her son, pleaded with him to just g...
Take Abraham, for example. We know him as the patriarch, the father of our faith. But have you heard the legends of his battles? Ginzberg, in Legends of the Jews, paints a picture ...
The Jewish mystical tradition is rich with stories and visions of the afterlife, and one particularly fascinating account involves Abraham, led by the angel Michael himself. Imagin...
The patriarch Abraham did. And the encounter, as you might imagine, was… intense. The story goes that Abraham was sitting under the oak of Mamre, a place of significance in Genesis...
In the Torah, names aren't just labels; they're prophecies, echoes of the past, and whispers of the future. Take Leah, for instance, one of Jacob’s wives. Her story, as told in Leg...
Our ancestor Jacob certainly did. The Torah tells us that Jacob wrestled with an angel – a divine being – all night long (Genesis 32:25-30). But what really happened that night? Wh...
See, Joseph, sent by his father Jacob, arrives in Shechem. Now, Shechem wasn't just any town. According to the legends, it was a place already steeped in bad vibes. Ginzberg, in hi...
We often think of the eldest as holding a special place, but Jewish tradition sometimes flips that script in fascinating ways. Let's look at the tale of Ephraim and Manasseh, the s...
Because, according to some traditions, even the ten plagues weren't enough to soften the hearts of the Egyptians. The oppression of the Hebrews continued relentlessly, right up to ...
Jewish tradition grapples with these questions constantly, and sometimes the answers come from the most unexpected places. Take this story, for example, about the angel Michael, th...
"Jacob left Beer Sheva" (Genesis 28:10). Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev connects this verse to a surprising topic: Chanukah. The word Chanukah (חנוכה) derives from chinukh (חנוך...
The ancient rabbis certainly thought so. And they found echoes of this idea even in the seemingly simple words of the Psalms. Specifically, in Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rab...
We often picture them as these serene, obedient beings, but some ancient texts paint a different picture. A picture where angels actually… argue with God. That's exactly what we fi...
The verse we're focusing on is "Arise, O Lord." It's a plea, a call to action. But according to the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), it's also a reminder. A reminder of ...
Ever hear a story so wild, so larger-than-life, that you just have to lean in and ask, "Wait, really?" Well, buckle up, because we're diving into one of those tales today, straight...
The story goes that before disaster struck, the prophet Jeremiah pleaded with the people to turn away from their wrongdoings, to repent (do teshuva) so they could avoid exile. But ...
It all starts with a verse from the Song of Songs (3:11): "Go out and gaze, daughters of Zion, at King Solomon, at the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wed...
The verse tells us, "God's wrath was enflamed because he was going, and the angel of the Lord stood on the way as an impediment to him, and he was riding on his donkey, and his two...
The Torah gives us a fascinating glimpse of such a moment in the story of Bilam, the non-Jewish prophet hired to curse the Israelites. In Numbers, chapter 22, verse 31, we read: “T...
It's one of those biblical tales that's just packed with odd details, and the Rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) had a field day unpacking it all. We find a f...
That's where our story begins, drawn from the ancient wisdom of Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis. "The angel of the Lord found her i...
We find ourselves pondering this in Bereshit Rabbah 49, where Rabbi Eleazar raises a fascinating question. How do we understand instances in the Torah where individuals seem to be ...
to a beautiful passage from Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis, to explore just such a moment: the birth of Isaac. The verse we’re loo...
The story of Abraham burying Sarah in the book of Genesis, specifically as explored in Bereshit Rabbah 58, really brings that feeling to life. "Abraham arose from before his dead, ...
The ancient rabbis grappled with these questions constantly, poring over scripture for answers. One particularly poignant example comes from Bereshit Rabbah 65, as it tries to unde...
The Torah tells us in (Genesis 32:28) that after wrestling with a mysterious figure, Jacob is told, "No more shall Jacob be said to be your name; rather, Israel, for you have striv...
Our story begins in (Exodus 3:7): “The Lord said: I have seen My people’s affliction that is in Egypt, and I have heard their outcry because of their taskmasters, as I know their p...
