3,200 related texts · Page 27 of 67
The book of Devarim, Deuteronomy, in the Sifrei Devarim, hints at a pretty profound and maybe unsettling answer: yes, it kind of does. The text speaks of exacting a price "for the ...
The Sifrei Devarim, a collection of early rabbinic legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy, tells us about this pivotal place. It wasn't just any mountain; it was the plac...
The Targum's version of (Numbers 22) drops a bombshell in its opening verses that the Torah never states directly. Balak sent messengers not just to some foreign sorcerer, but to "...
The death of Moses in (Deuteronomy 34) is eight verses in the Torah. Targum Jonathan turns it into one of the most elaborate death scenes in all of ancient Jewish literature. From ...
When Moses ascended to heaven to receive the Torah, the angels were furious. According to Shabbat 88b, they confronted God directly: "What is a human being doing among us?" God tol...
The full scope of Moses's argument against the angels is recorded in Shabbat 89a, and it is a masterclass in turning your opponent's own premises against them. Moses went through t...
Every Friday night, two angels follow you home from the synagogue. One is good. One is not. According to Shabbat 119b, what they find when they arrive determines what happens next....
When the Egyptians were drowning in the Red Sea, the ministering angels wanted to sing. God stopped them cold. According to Megillah 10b, He said: "My handiwork is drowning in the ...
The Hebrew Bible says God told Abraham, "Fear not, I am your shield" (Genesis 15:1). Targum Onkelos renders this as "My Word is your strength." The shield becomes a Word. The prote...
The Hebrew Bible says God opened the mouth of Balaam's donkey, and it spoke (Numbers 22:28). Targum Onkelos translates this miracle without flinching. The donkey talks. No metaphor...
The Hebrew Bible says Moses died "by the mouth of God" (Deuteronomy 34:5). Ancient tradition interprets this as death by a divine kiss—the gentlest possible departure from life. Ta...
(10) R. Isaac said: "A year which is poor (Israel appears humble) in the beginning, will be rich in the end (Israel's request will be granted). What is the reason for it? For it is...
A Matrona asked R. Jose b. Halafta why the covenant of Abraham was not mentioned in the ten commandments and the reply was: "The proselyte mentioned therein implies to the covenant...
R. Johanan b. Zakai was asked by R. Eleazar b. Arach permission to expound some of the mysteries of the creation (Ma’ase Merkaba). R. Johanan dismounted from his ass, as angels mig...
Abraham, the Carpenter in Jerusalem, hac. saved some money through hard work. His neighbour stole it and ran away, but dropped down dead on the road. A young man found him, dug his...
A. & B. Abraham & Nimrod. Pirke de R. Eliezer, XXVI. Midr. Hagadol, Gen. Lekh Lekha. Gen. R. 38 § 19. Gen. R. of Moses Hadar- shan to 11, 28 and 46, 28. Horowitz, Eked, I, 40. Jera...
Rabbi Ishmael ben Jose was making his way to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage when a Samaritan stopped him on the road. The Samaritans — who lived on and around Mount Gerizim and claimed ...
King Solomon stood before God and prayed at the dedication of the Temple. "Master of the Universe," he said, "let everything else be set aside and focus on my prayer and supplicati...
What made Eli the priest live so long? The midrash gives a simple answer: Torah study. "Fortunate is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of ...
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,...
Maybe you drove past a friend's house without stopping, or forgot to say thank you to someone who deserved it. Imagine that feeling, amplified on a biblical scale. The Torah tells ...
Sounds simple enough. But there’s so much more packed into that little phrase than meets the eye. It’s all about beauty, acceptance, and, ultimately, our relationship with the Divi...
It all starts with a simple verse: "These are those who were counted of the children of Israel…" And from there, it launches into a deep dive about blessings, promises, and the end...
These aren't mistakes. They're invitations to delve deeper, to wrestle with the text and uncover hidden layers of meaning. Consider this: In (Hosea 2:1), we read about the children...
The ancient rabbis certainly wrestled with this idea, especially when pondering the future of the Jewish people. to a fascinating passage from Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabb...
And it's one that our sages grappled with too. This week, in our journey through Bamidbar Rabbah, specifically Bamidbar Rabbah 3, we stumble upon a fascinating exploration of being...
It wasn't just about slapping some tent poles together, you know. It was a meticulously orchestrated operation, each family of Levites having a specific, divinely appointed task. t...
We often talk about big, abstract ideas, but sometimes the most profound truths are found in the everyday acts of kindness, learning, and… well, building a really special house. to...
The Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Numbers, explores this very idea through a verse from Job: "Who preceded Me, that I should repay? Everything ...
The story of Moses and the rebellion of Korah, Datan, and Aviram in the Book of Numbers gives us a powerful example. The Torah tells us, “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Speak to...
It all starts in the Book of Numbers, Bamidbar (Numbers 19:2), with the words: “This is the statute of the Torah that the Lord commanded, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, a...
The story goes that when the Holy One, Barukh Hu (blessed be He), decided to create Adam, the first human, it wasn't exactly a unanimous decision up in the heavenly realms. Rabbi S...
It’s right at the beginning, in Bereshit (Genesis), when God says, “Let us make Man in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). "Us"? Who's the "us?" It sounds like God is talki...
According to Rabbi Hoshaya, they almost made a pretty big faux pas! The story goes like this. When the Holy One, blessed be He, created Adam, the ministering angels were... well, a...
to a fascinating comparison between Abraham and Jacob, two of our patriarchs, and see what Bereshit Rabbah 11 has to tell us. The key? Shabbat (the Sabbath). Yes, that's right, the...
Why does (Genesis 3:16) say, "To the woman He said: I will increase your suffering and your pregnancy; in pain you shall give birth to children, and your desire shall be for your h...
We often think of God as all-knowing, all-seeing, but the Rabbis in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of early Jewish interpretations of Genesis, dare to imagine a divine experience of...
In the book of Bereshit, Genesis, we find two such words used to describe key figures: tamim and haya. What do they really mean? , because the Rabbis of old sure had some fascinati...
Specifically, Bereshit Rabbah 30 dives deep into the nuances of "walking with God" by comparing Noah to another biblical giant: Abraham. Rabbi Yehuda offers a beautiful analogy. Im...
Why do bad things happen to good people? It’s a question that’s haunted humanity for millennia. Our tradition grapples with this head-on, not offering easy answers, but rather invi...
The Torah gives us glimpses, but it's in the rabbinic stories, the aggadah (non-legal rabbinic narrative), that we really get a sense of the spiritual climate. One story, found in ...
Take this story from Bereshit Rabbah 39, a midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) – that is, an interpretive commentary – on the Book of Genesis. Rabbi Berekhya, quoting Rabbi ...
The Torah portion Lekh Lekha begins with God's instructions to Abraham, "Go forth from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show y...
We get glimpses, fragments really, in the Torah, but the Rabbis, through their interpretations, give us access to a deeper understanding of his actions. Take, for example, the vers...
Today, we're diving into Bereshit Rabbah 42, a fascinating passage from the Midrash, the body of ancient rabbinic interpretations of Scripture. This passage looks at Genesis 14, sp...
The Book of (Genesis 14:15) tells us, "He divided up against them at night, he and his servants, and he smote them and pursued them until Ḥova, which is north of Damascus." But it’...
Abraham, our patriarch, knew that feeling. In (Genesis 15:2), he cries out, "My Lord God, what will You give me, seeing that I go childless, and the one who has charge of my house ...
We often think of them as paragons of faith, figures of unwavering strength. But what about their doubts, their fears about the future? The ancient rabbis, in their beautiful and i...
