9,687 related texts · Page 147 of 202
“It was on the third day, Esther donned royalty and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, facing the king’s palace, while the king was sitting on his royal throne in the t...
“The king said to her: What troubles you, Queen Esther, and what is your request… Esther said: If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet… The king sa...
After he erected the gibbet, he went to Mordekhai and found that he was sitting in the study hall with the children sitting before him, with sackcloth on their waists, engaging in ...
“Haman entered, and the king asked him: ‘What is to be done to the man whom the king wishes to honor?’ Haman said in his heart: Whom would the king delight to honor besides myself?...
“Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had befallen him. His advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him: If Mordekhai, before whom you have begun to fall, is...
“The Jews gathered in their cities in all the provinces of King Aḥashverosh, to lay hand on those who sought their harm. And no one stood against them for the fear of them had fall...
Rabbi Ḥiya Raba and Rabbi Shimon ben Ḥalafta were walking in the valley of Arbel and they saw the breaking of the dawn’s light. Rabbi Ḥiya Raba said to Rabbi Shimon ben Ḥalafta: So...
King Saul was told to destroy Amalek completely. He did not. Centuries later, according to Esther Rabbah, the Jewish people paid for that moment of misplaced mercy with a genocidal...
The exile of the Jewish people under Ahasuerus was not an accident. According to Esther Rabbah, it was prophesied in detail centuries before it happened, embedded in verses from Is...
Jewish tradition offers some truly fascinating perspectives on creation, and one that particularly intrigues me is the idea that God didn't just make things. He consulted with them...
Sometimes, the deepest truths are hidden in plain sight, masked by complexity or sheer volume of information. This is something the author of The Wars of God seems to anticipate. R...
Sometimes, that happens with our understanding of the Divine, too. There's a fascinating debate, captured in letters from Jewish scholars of generations past, about how we relate t...
But what if you perform those actions for someone else? Does that automatically make you an idolater? The Talmud, in Sanhedrin (the supreme rabbinic court), tackles this very quest...
Sometimes, understanding a practice means understanding its context. The medieval philosopher Maimonides, in his Mishneh Torah, specifically in "Laws of Idolatry," grappled with th...
How do we know what's real, especially when it comes to something as immense as the Divine? How do we stay on the path, the derech, when so many voices clamor for our attention? Th...
It’s a question that’s been wrestled with for centuries in Jewish tradition. What if someone says Elijah himself appeared to them? According to some, that person might be peddling ...
It goes deep, friends. Really deep. We're talking about a system where, as the esteemed Kabbalist, the master of the Chamber of Blessing, of blessed memory, tells us, the court has...
We've all been there. And sometimes, the debate gets heated! Imagine a conversation, or rather, a spirited disagreement, where someone feels like their carefully considered questio...
Isn't it astonishing how different interpretations can arise, even when dealing with texts we hold sacred? We're left scratching our heads, honestly, reading your words. Are you su...
Isn't it frustrating when someone twists your words, puts ideas in your mouth, and generally acts in bad faith? That's the vibe I get from this next section of "The Wars of God." S...
The Zohar, that foundational text of Kabbalah, opens up some fascinating perspectives on this. In section 4, verse 22, Rabbi Shimon dives into the meaning of the verse, "See now th...
The great medieval philosopher Maimonides, in his "Guide for the Perplexed," grapples with this very question in Chapter 6. He presents two fascinating possibilities. The first sug...
Our sages, zichronam livracha, may their memory be a blessing, were extremely careful to distance themselves from any notion that the Almighty needed His creations or relied on the...
The Zohar, that mystical cornerstone of Kabbalah, gives us a glimpse into their inner world. In Parashat Bereshit, 34a, it speaks of God’s reign in layered terms: "The Lord is King...
How did they know which aspect of God they were connecting with? It's a profound question that touches on the very heart of our faith. to a fascinating passage from the tractate Me...
It’s a question that’s plagued theologians and spiritual seekers for centuries. Are we addressing the Infinite, the unknowable source of all creation? Or is there… something more? ...
The text challenges a particular assumption: that every detail of Jewish law, every halacha (Jewish religious law), was directly given to Moses at Sinai. To illustrate this, it del...
Isn't it amazing how sometimes the most profound questions come from wrestling with what seems like a tiny detail? Like, really, really tiny. Let's consider something truly mind-bo...
The book "HaB'rit," in a chapter written by the author of "Ma'amar Kuf" in "Yashar Levav," touches on this very idea: that the very name of God is ever-present on our lips. When we...
It’s a question that has occupied countless scholars, mystics, and everyday spiritual seekers for centuries. And the answer, as we find when delving into the intricate world of Kab...
And it's a desire that sometimes leads to conflict, as we see when examining certain debates within Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition. In this particular instance, we're divi...
It’s a recurring theme in Jewish thought, this tension between reason and revelation. The Kabbalists, those mystics who plumb the depths of Jewish esotericism, they didn’t hold bac...
And in the Midrash of Philo, we find a truly intriguing answer. (Genesis 2:6) poses a bit of a puzzle, doesn't it? "A fountain went up from the earth, and watered all the face of t...
But the rabbis of old, they didn't miss a trick. They saw layers of meaning in every word, every phrase. And this one, from (Genesis 2:9), really got them thinking: Why does Moses ...
Where’s the headwaters for such majesty? (Genesis 2:10) tells us, "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads." But...
And one intriguing perspective comes to us from the writings attributed to Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish philosopher who lived in Egypt during the time of the Second Temple. In "Th...
Specifically, I’m thinking of (Genesis 2:14). It's not just that the Euphrates river is mentioned. Oh no, we also get that the Pishon "goes round all the land of Evilat," the Gihon...
Philo of Alexandria, that brilliant Jewish philosopher who lived in the first century CE, had some pretty compelling ideas about this. And they're not just philosophical musings; t...
It’s something that’s been pondered for centuries, and even makes an appearance in ancient Jewish texts. The Midrash of Philo, a collection of interpretations and elaborations on t...
After all, this is God we're talking about! Surely, the Almighty doesn't need Adam's help with a little taxonomy. (Genesis 2:19) tells us "He brought the animals to Adam, that he m...
What does it mean to name something? The book of Genesis gives us a glimpse into this very idea. In (Genesis 2:19), it says, "And whatever Adam called each living thing, that was t...
God takes a rib from Adam and fashions it into Eve. Simple enough story. But what if there's so much more hidden beneath the surface? The Torah tells us in (Genesis 2:21-22) about ...
That’s the question posed in the ancient text known as The Midrash of Philo, specifically in fragment 22. A seemingly simple question, but one that unlocks a whole world of underst...
Why wasn't she just... there? Well, according to a fascinating interpretation found in the Midrash of Philo 22, it's not just a random detail. It speaks to something much deeper ab...
What’s the deeper, almost mystical, undercurrent?We're going to look at a teaching that grapples with the verse from Genesis (2:24): “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his...
Our starting point here is a fascinating text referred to as "The Midrash of Philo." Now, when we say "Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)," we're talking about a particular...
It wasn't just about the lush vegetation or the talking animals, although I’m sure those were According to this Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), Adam and Eve weren't ash...
It’s a question that’s nagged at theologians and storytellers for centuries. Why does Moses, in the book of Genesis, specifically call out the serpent as being the craftiest of the...
