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to a fascinating passage from Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, specifically chapter 37, that wrestles with this very issue, focusing on the complex relationship between Jacob and Esau. The ...
That’s the unsettling image painted in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 38, a fascinating and often overlooked passage in Jewish tradition. It all begins with a cryptic verse from the prophe...
The story in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer paints a pretty vivid picture. Imagine the scene: Jacob, with his sons, grandsons, wives, the whole shebang, journeys to Kirjath Arba, wanting t...
It paints a picture of a final transaction, a division of inheritance, that has echoes even today. The story goes that Esau took all that his father, Isaac, had left. But then – an...
That’s the kind of secret we’re diving into today, a painful moment ripped from the story of Joseph and his brothers. We find ourselves in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, Chapter 38, a fas...
Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating early medieval Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), dives right into this question. It presents a somewhat… unusual… perspective on how...
The text tells us that Rabbi Ishmael reflects on a very specific moment. Ten times, the sons of Jacob addressed Joseph as "thy servant, our father." Ten times they repeated this st...
The scene: Jacob is on his deathbed. He summons his beloved son, Joseph. This isn't just a goodbye; it's a moment of profound importance. Jacob says, "O my son! Swear to me by the ...
The scene: The Cave of Machpelah in Hebron, the ancient burial ground purchased by Abraham himself. Jacob, also known as Israel, has passed away in Egypt, and his sons are bringing...
We read the story every Passover, we sing the songs, but sometimes the sheer horror of it can get lost in the ritual. Rabbi Akiva, a towering figure in Jewish tradition, pulls no p...
It's more than just good manners. It's a whisper echoing from a very, very old story. A story about Jacob, and a world without sickness as we know it. According to Pirkei DeRabbi E...
One place they did this was in Seder Olam Zutta, a later, shorter version of the Seder Olam Rabbah, a 2nd-century CE rabbinic text that attempts to chronicle history from creation ...
The Yalkut Shimoni, a compilation of rabbinic commentary on the Bible, in section 869 on Nach (the books of Prophets and Writings), brings up a fascinating idea about the verse "Th...
In the Book of Bamidbar (Numbers 19:1-2), we read: "And the L-rd spoke to Aaron and to Moses saying: This is the statute of the Torah, which the L-rd has commanded, saying: Speak t...
It turns out, this isn't just good manners – it might be ancient wisdom! The Sifrei Devarim, a collection of early Jewish legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy, teaches ...
It's so central to Jewish prayer, so foundational to our understanding of G-d, that we might sometimes take it for granted. But the rabbis of old saw so much depth and meaning pack...
According to Sifrei Devarim, before Jacob's passing, he gathered his sons. But it wasn’t just a sentimental family reunion. First, he rebuked them, each individually, and then he a...
The ritual of bringing bikkurim, the first fruits, required every Israelite farmer to recite a specific formula—a declaration of gratitude and remembrance. The Sifrei Devarim, a co...
The Book of Deuteronomy, Sefer Devarim, explores just that. In (Deuteronomy 32:9), we read, "For the portion of the L-rd is His people." This verse sparks a fascinating midrash, a ...
The ancient sages noticed this human tendency, too, and they saw it reflected in the relationship between Israel and the other nations. Sifrei Devarim, a legal midrash on the Book ...
And, surprisingly, it's a concept we find echoed even in the most sacred of texts when describing the relationship between God and the tribes of Israel. Sifrei Devarim 352 paints u...
And while definitive answers might elude us, Jewish tradition offers tantalizing hints and comforting assurances. Our exploration begins in Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal an...
Genesis 27 is one of the most psychologically complex chapters in the Torah—the aged Isaac, blind and dying, tricked by his own wife and son into blessing the wrong heir. The Targu...
When Esau and Jacob finally reunited after twenty years of separation, the Bible says Esau ran to his brother, embraced him, kissed him, and they wept (Genesis 33:4). It sounds lik...
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...
Rav Nachman once made a statement that shocked his colleague: "Jacob our father never died." Rabbi Yitzchak pushed back immediately. "They embalmed him. They eulogized him. They bu...
Jacob's deathbed blessings (Genesis 49) are among the most obscure passages in the Torah. Targum Onkelos does not merely translate them—he decodes them, turning cryptic poetry into...
The Hebrew Bible says Balaam saw "a star shall come from Jacob, and a scepter shall arise from Israel" (Numbers 24:17). Targum Onkelos renders this as: "A king has gone forth from ...
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...
Wars of Jacob against Sichem. Midr. Hagadol Gen. Vayyehi, f. 153 a. Midr. Vayisau. cf. Gen. R. ch. 80, 97. Jerahmeel, ed. Gaster XXXVI, 6, p. 80 and Introd. p. XXXI f. Bahya Com. G...
Dreams have at all times and among all peoples received much attention. In the youth of a nation, as in the youth of an individual, dreams are so vivid that they appear to be hardl...
The pattern repeats. Israel suffers, God rescues, and Israel sings. Then the singing stops, and the same behavior that caused the original suffering returns. The Holy One watches t...
The Assembly of Israel in exile cries out: "See, O Lord, the distress I am in! My heart is in anguish; outside the sword deals death; inside, the plague" (Lamentations 1:20). There...
"But Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me'" (Isaiah 49:14). And God answers — not with proof of presence but with a reminder of what "remembering" actual...
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 ...
It's a pretty wild idea, isn't it? That Jacob, the trickster, the wrestler with angels, the father of a sometimes-fractious family, is so central to the divine plan that his image ...
It seems like such a simple detail, but the Torah dedicates a lot of space to describing the precise arrangement of the tribes around the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. And the Rabbis, n...
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...
The passage begins with a curious question, referencing the Book of Job: "Will a man be more just than God...?" (Job 4:17). It seems like a rhetorical question, almost a challenge....
to one of those metaphors, found in Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Numbers. We begin with a beautiful verse from Numbers (24:5): "How goodly are...
It's not just about the surface story; the Rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) saw layers upon layers of meaning, connections between seemingly disparate verse...
It’s not random. Jewish tradition is full of layers, and even seemingly simple details are packed with meaning. to the offering of Avidan son of Gidoni, the prince of the tribe of ...
Our stories are woven into our lineage, and sometimes, those threads get tangled. to a fascinating passage from Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of N...
Sometimes, it really was – especially when it came to dividing the land of Israel among the tribes. But this wasn't just some random drawing. Oh no, this involved divine interventi...
Take the creation story in Genesis, for example. We read in (Genesis 1:16) that God made "two great lights" – the sun and the moon – to rule the day and the night. Seems straightfo...
We get glimpses, little whispers, from our tradition that paint a picture far grander than we might imagine. The Torah tells us, plainly enough, "God blessed them" (Genesis 1:28). ...
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...
It’s more profound than you might think. (Genesis 12:5) tells us, “Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot, son of his brother, and all their property that they had acquired, and the pe...
