10,800 related texts · Page 222 of 225
Devarim Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the book of Deuteronomy, opens our eyes to just how deeply Torah can impact us. It starts with a verse from Proverbs (4:22): “...
In (Deuteronomy 31:14), God says to Moses, "Behold, your days are approaching to die; summon Joshua, and stand in the Tent of Meeting and I will command him." This verse, "Behold, ...
The Book of Deuteronomy, or Devarim in Hebrew, opens with Moses preparing to bless the Israelites before they enter the Promised Land. But the Rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic inter...
It sounds almost unbelievable, doesn't it? Yet, according to Devarim Rabbah, this is precisely the monumental struggle Moses faced at the end of his life. Rabbi Yoḥanan tells us th...
It starts with a bang: "Vanity of vanities, said Kohelet; vanity of vanities, everything is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 1:2). But what does that even mean? What is this "vanity," this he...
"For to the man who is good before Him, He gave wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner He gave the task to gather and to amass, to give to one who is good before God. This, ...
And the ancient Rabbis, in their commentary called Kohelet Rabbah, dive deep into a specific verse that really makes you think: "What has been, already is, and what will be has alr...
That’s a feeling woven deep into the tapestry of Jewish tradition, a feeling the rabbis grappled with intensely. how they expressed it. The story begins with the passing of Ḥiyya b...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as it's known in Hebrew, wrestles with these very feelings. One verse in particular, (Ecclesiastes 6:10), really gets to the heart of it: "What...
And it's not just some nice little add-on. It's woven into the very fabric of our faith. Rabbi Berekhya, in Kohelet Rabbah, makes a powerful point: acts of kindness appear at the b...
King Solomon, wisest of all men, apparently felt that too. (Ecclesiastes 7:23) reads, "All this I attempted with wisdom; I said: I will become wise, but it is far from me." What do...
The passage centers on a verse describing a certain kind of woman – a figure that becomes a symbol for temptation itself: "Whose [heart] is snares and nets." (Ecclesiastes 7:26). W...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as it's known in Hebrew, grapples with this constantly. And one particular verse, (Ecclesiastes 8:10), has sparked a lot of fascinating interpr...
The book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible grapples with these very feelings. There's a verse in chapter 9, verse 11, that really gets to the heart of it: "I again saw under the sun tha...
Take this one, from Kohelet Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Ecclesiastes. It's a powerful allegory, and one we can all relate to. The story begins: ...
Our sages grappled with it too, and one place where they explore this idea is in Kohelet Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Ecclesiastes. The verse in ...
The passage starts with a simple statement: "wisdom is better." Better than what? Better "than instruments of battle." Kohelet Rabbah illustrates this with a remarkable tale involv...
It all starts with a verse from Ecclesiastes (10:10): “If the iron is dull, and one did not whet the edge, he must intensify his exertion; the advantage is in preparation with wisd...
Kohelet Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Ecclesiastes, delves into this very human experience, urging us to be mindful of our thoughts and words, esp...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet, as it’s known in Hebrew, ends with this rather stark line: "For every action God will bring to judgment, for every unknown, whether good or ev...
"These are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; each came with his household" – that’s how the Book of Exodus begins. But what does that have to do wit...
"He said to his people: Behold, the nation of the children of Israel is more numerous and mighty than us" (Exodus 1:9). This is Pharaoh, setting the stage for oppression. But Shemo...
And their story, as told in Shemot Rabbah, is a powerful reminder of resilience, faith, and the strength of community. Pharaoh, wasn't just content with enslaving the Israelites. H...
Our story begins in ancient Egypt, where the Israelites are flourishing, a little too flourishing for the liking of the Pharaoh. He sees their growing numbers as a threat, and so, ...
We all know about Moses, about the plagues, about the parting of the Red Sea. But what about the women who defied a king's cruel decree and saved countless Israelite babies? The To...
The Torah tells us that Pharaoh, increasingly paranoid about the growing Israelite population, ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill all newborn baby boys (Exodus 1:16). But the midw...
But what exactly does that mean, "He made houses for them?" The text presents two perspectives, attributed to Rav and Levi. One suggests that God rewarded the midwives with priestl...
"A man from the house of Levi went and he took a daughter of Levi" (Exodus 2:1). Simple enough. But the Rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), in Shemot Rabbah, ...
It’s a story filled with palace intrigue, near-fatal tests, and a touch of divine intervention. We all know the basics: baby Moses in a basket, found by Pharaoh's daughter. But She...
But as is so often the case with Torah, the rabbis unpack layers upon layers of meaning. What did it really mean when it says "he saw that there was no man"? The ancient rabbis of ...
It all centers around Moses, and a rather interesting agreement he makes with Jethro (also known as Yitro), his future father-in-law. Remember, Moses has just fled Egypt after, sha...
The ancient rabbis certainly understood that feeling. In the book of Exodus, we read, “It was during those many days that the king of Egypt died and the children of Israel sighed d...
“An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of the bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, but the bush was not consumed” (Exodus 3:2). ...
In the story of Moses, that moment is captured in a single, powerful scene – the burning bush. The book of Exodus tells us (3:3) that Moses said, "I will turn now, and see this gre...
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...
We find ourselves in (Exodus 3:8), where God tells Moses, "I have come down to deliver them from the hand of Egypt and to take them up from that land to a good and expansive land, ...
That's the situation Moses found himself in. In (Exodus 3:11), Moses cries out to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should take the children of Israel out of ...
In the book of Exodus, specifically (Exodus 3:19), God tells Moses, "And I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go, except by a mighty hand.” It's a pretty direct warning. ...
The ancient rabbis saw that struggle playing out in the life of Moses, as he stood on the cusp of his world-changing mission. The book of Exodus (4:18) tells us, "Moses went and re...
to one of those fascinating in-between moments, found in Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Exodus. The text focuses on a seemingly simple phras...
A seemingly insignificant phrase can carry immense weight, altering the course of destiny. to a curious observation from Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on ...
(Exodus 4:20) tells us, "Moses took his wife and his sons, and mounted them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses took the staff of God in his hand." Simple enou...
The Torah tells us, "The Lord said to Moses: When you go back to Egypt, see all the wonders that I have placed in your hand and perform them before Pharaoh; but I will harden his h...
The answer, they suggest, might lie in the seemingly simple phrase, "I will harden his heart." But what does it mean to harden someone's heart? According to Shemot Rabbah, a collec...
The book of Exodus tells us that God spoke, but the how… that’s where the Jewish tradition gets truly wondrous. Our exploration starts with a seemingly simple verse: “The Lord said...
The ancient Jewish texts delve into this very idea, and one particular passage in Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Exodus, offers a powerful i...
The verse we're looking at is (Exodus 4:30): "Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses, and performed the signs before the eyes of the people." According to Shem...
We all know the story, but Shemot Rabbah, a classic collection of midrashim (rabbinic interpretive commentary) – interpretations and expansions – on the Book of Exodus, offers a fa...
