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Three days after his circumcision, Abraham sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day — sore, exhausted, ninety-nine years old. And God appeared to him (Genesis 18:1). ...
"The righteous will give thanks to Your name; the upright will dwell in Your presence" (Psalm 140:14). The rabbis noticed something beautiful in this promise — God does not judge I...
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...
“Haman saw that Mordekhai was not bowing and prostrating himself to him and Haman was filled with wrath” (Esther 3:5).“Haman saw that Mordekhai was not bowing and prostrating himse...
The fifth heaven of Sefer HaRazim marks a transition from the functional heavens below—weather, punishment, light, and the sun—to the more abstract and terrifying realms above. Her...
There’s this fascinating ancient text, the Book of Jubilees, a work that retells the stories of Genesis and Exodus but with a very particular slant. It’s not part of the Hebrew Bib...
Hagar knew that feeling intimately. We find her story, or at least a piece of it, echoed in the Book of Jubilees, an ancient Jewish text that retells and expands upon stories from ...
That’s the heart of one of the most powerful, and frankly, disturbing stories in the Hebrew Bible: the Akeidah, the Binding of Isaac. We all know the basic story from Genesis 22. G...
While not part of the accepted biblical canon, Jasher (meaning "Upright" or "Correct Record") offers a fascinating, if sometimes embellished, account of biblical events. And Chapte...
Sarah, wife of Abraham, certainly did when they journeyed to Egypt. to a fascinating episode from Legends of the Jews that shows just how powerfully things can turn around. Picture...
That’s the kind of awe that Abraham inspired, according to Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews. Even though the angels took on human form, hiding their true nature, Abraham’s sheer spir...
Fire and brimstone, a pillar of salt, and some very unhappy angels. But the details… the details are truly something else. According to Ginzberg’s Legends of the Jews, it wasn’t ju...
Our tale begins with angels leaving Abraham at midday, their wings carrying them towards Sodom as evening approached. Now, usually, angels are all about speed. They deliver their m...
Abraham, our ancestor Abraham, did just that. Think back to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. A harrowing tale. We read in the Torah about Abraham pleading with God to spare the cit...
Jewish tradition grapples with this feeling in fascinating ways, especially when it comes to ritual purity, or taharah. One particularly intriguing story comes from Heikhalot (the ...
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev opens his commentary on Parshat Vayera (Genesis 18:1) with a puzzle: the Torah says "God appeared to him," using only the pronoun "him" instead of...
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...
Our story starts with Abraham. Remember when he learns that his nephew Lot has been captured? (Genesis 14:13) tells us, "And there came one who had escaped, and told Abram the Hebr...
It's far more than just a nice story about hospitality. According to Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating early medieval text that weaves together biblical narrative and rabbinic ...
Sometimes, those threads are stronger than we imagine, woven with love and a touch of the divine. Our story today comes from Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating work of Jewish li...
The Hebrew Bible says three "men" appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre (Genesis 18:2). The Targum Jonathan tells you exactly what they were and exactly why each one came. They ...
"I will not break my covenant, nor change that which has come out of my lips" (Psalm 89:35). The binding of Isaac begins with this verse in Aggadat Bereshit — not with the command ...
The Torah, in its infinite wisdom, gives us a glimpse into this very idea through the contrasting actions of Abraham and Lot. We find ourselves in Genesis chapter 19, where Lot enc...
The story of Lot and the destruction of Sodom, as explored in Bereshit Rabbah 50, is a stark reminder of how attachment to material possessions can cloud our judgment and even enda...
Our story begins with the seemingly simple phrase, “After these matters [devarim]…”. The Hebrew word devarim can mean both "matters" and "words," and as we delve into Bereshit Rabb...
Beautiful. But what does that imagery evoke? Shir HaShirim Rabbah, a Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic collection (meaning a collection of interpretations and stories) f...
When harsh decrees threaten the Jewish people, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov prescribes an unexpected remedy: dancing and clapping hands. The logic runs through a teaching about what co...
We find Abraham, or Avram as he's known here, grappling with just that. The story picks up with Lot, Avram’s nephew, deciding to separate from him. Now, Lot wasn't just any relativ...
And it's a feeling that pops up in some pretty surprising places, even in our sacred stories. to one of those moments, found in the Book of Jubilees. The Book of Jubilees, for thos...
We find ourselves at a pivotal moment in his life, a moment fraught with emotional turmoil and weighty decisions. It all centers around Sarah, Abraham’s beloved wife, and Hagar, he...
Jubilees, considered scripture by some and an important historical text by others, paints a picture of Abraham's unwavering faith in the face of, let’s just say, a lot of challenge...
That’s the situation Abraham found himself in, according to rabbinic tradition. The story goes that God, observing the rampant wickedness in Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding ci...
Take Abraham's journey to Mount Moriah, the place where he was commanded to sacrifice his son, Isaac. It’s a story we think we know, but let’s pull back the curtain a little. The T...
It's more than just a tradition; it's a direct line back to one of the most pivotal moments in our history, the Akeidah, the Binding of Isaac. The story goes that after Abraham pro...
Abraham and Isaac returned to Beer-sheba after the binding on Mount Moriah, but Sarah wasn't there. A knot of worry tightens in their hearts. Where is she? They learn she's gone to...
Well, according to Legends of the Jews, a year after Sarah's death, Abimelech also passed away, at the ripe old age of one hundred and ninety-three! Can you imagine living that lon...
It’s a poignant moment, and the Torah is silent about Isaac's immediate reaction. But Jewish tradition, ever eager to fill in the gaps, gives us a fascinating glimpse into what mig...
Sounds epic. But Moses wasn't so sure. He argued. He pleaded. According to Legends of the Jews, compiled by Louis Ginzberg, Moses didn't just meekly accept his divine mission. He s...
That's the weight hanging over Abraham as our story begins. The Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating collection of stories and interpretations from around the 8th century, tells u...
That's the situation Moses faced in a powerful story found in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer (chapter 45). The story opens with a terrifying decree: God, in his anger, sends not one, but f...
The Binding of Isaac is terrifying in the Torah. In the Targum, it is something else entirely. Isaac was not a passive child led to slaughter. He was thirty-six years old, and he v...
Buried in Leviticus 22's rules about blemished offerings, the Targum Jonathan inserts one of the most beautiful passages in all of Targumic literature—a theology of sacrifice roote...
A voice cries in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God" (Isaiah 40:3). The Aggadat Bereshit connects this voice — the hera...
Jewish tradition certainly has something to say about that, especially when it comes to the story of Abraham and his monumental tests of faith. to Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collec...
The story of Sodom, as recounted in Bereshit (Genesis), is full of chilling moments, but one particular exchange, elaborated upon in Bereshit Rabbah 50, really gets to the heart of...
The story revolves around the destruction of Sodom, a city known for its wickedness. Lot, Abraham's nephew, is being led to safety, and the angel says to him, "Hurry; escape there,...
It's one of those stories from Genesis that's always felt a little... abrupt. "His wife looked behind him, and she became a pillar of salt" (Genesis 19:26). Poof! Salt. But the Rab...
That feeling isn't new. Our ancestors knew it well. Take Abraham, for instance. The Torah tells us, "Abraham traveled from there to the region of the south; he lived between Kadesh...
