1,050 texts in Midrash Rabbah
It’s a question that's haunted philosophers and theologians for millennia, and Jewish tradition definitely has some answers. At the very heart of it all, there is ONE God. Absolute...
having a voice, but God has feet that enable him to walk. In the Talmud, Rabbi Abahu said: "The Holy One, blessed be He, said: 'I am He who walked in the Garden of Eden'" (Taanit 2...
In Jewish mysticism, there's a powerful story about exactly that – the story of the Shekhinah, the divine feminine presence, and her long journey to find a home. The kabbalists, th...
Jewish tradition has some pretty amazing, awe-inspiring imagery about that very question. Imagine this: a God of pure, untamed power, riding not on a cloud, but on the very wings o...
Worlds created, then...undone. The image is striking, isn't it? Before our familiar heaven and earth, the Infinite, utterly alone, conceived of creation. The spark of Ein Sof, the ...
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." It's a statement of immense power, a foundation upon which an entire worldview is built. But what does it really mean? to t...
The Torah tells us God spoke, and the world came to be. But how? Jewish tradition is rich with stories filling in those gaps, painting vivid pictures of the cosmic artistry involve...
It’s a question that’s captivated mystics and scholars for centuries. And Jewish tradition offers a stunning answer: the world was created through God's Name. It’s a “wonderful and...
Jewish tradition has something fascinating to say about that very idea. It's a notion that the very foundations, the shoresh – the roots – of absolutely everything were established...
Jewish tradition offers some pretty wild and wonderful cosmologies. And a recurring image? Water. Waters upon waters, in fact. According to some mystical teachings, long ago, prime...
Some traditions suggest that God didn't just create one Adam, but two. Think of it as a cosmic prototype. According to these accounts, this first Adam wasn't sculpted from earthly ...
But instead of doing it all Himself, He delegates a portion of the task. To whom? To Chokhmah (Wisdom), Wisdom. "Let us make man," He says, as it's written in (Genesis 1:26). A see...
to one. Before Adam was even a twinkle in God's eye, the Big G was contemplating a cosmic dilemma. As we learn from Tree of Souls, there were already two kinds of beings populating...
The Book of Genesis tells us, "The Lord God said, 'It is not good for man to be alone; I will make a fitting helper for him.'" (Gen. 2:18). A "fitting helper." That's a loaded phra...
A potter takes clay, formless and without purpose, and shapes it into something beautiful, something useful. The clay spins on the wheel, and with skillful hands, the potter molds ...
Jewish tradition offers some pretty amazing answers, and one of the most fascinating involves a celestial body known as the Council of Souls. Imagine a gathering of the most righte...
But Jewish tradition paints a surprisingly collaborative picture. A picture of the Heavenly Court. It's a pretty amazing concept, isn't it? The idea that even God, in all God's glo...
Before the sun, the moon, the stars... before anything? Jewish tradition has some pretty mind-bending answers, and one of the most fascinating involves the Torah. Not just the one ...
We often think of rewards, of rest, of being in the presence of the Divine. But what does that mean, practically? What do we do? Well, imagine this: God, the ultimate teacher, pers...
Yet, Jewish tradition suggests just that. The story goes that as God dictated the Torah atop Mount Sinai, Moses, ever the diligent scribe, meticulously wrote down every word. But t...
Maybe, just maybe, you're missing the Shabbat (the Sabbath). You know, the Sabbath. That sacred pause in the week, that island of stillness in our often-frantic lives. But did you ...
Like everyone else has a partner, a purpose, a connection that you're just... outside of? Well, according to some beautiful old stories, even the Sabbath felt that way. The Sabbath...
Young Abraham did. And his confusion led him to a profound realization about the nature of… well, everything. Imagine being a kid, really seeing the world for the first time. Abrah...
The story of Abraham's negotiation with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, found in the book of Genesis, is a powerful exploration of justice, compassion, and the courage to ...
We all know the story: Abraham and Sarah, finally blessed with a child in their old age. But what if there was more to the story than meets the eye? What if, as some ancient texts ...
The story of the Akeidah, the binding of Isaac, is one of the most powerful and disturbing in the Hebrew Bible. We usually focus on Abraham's faith, Isaac's (near) sacrifice, and G...
To have a little piece of the Garden of Eden right in your own backyard... or, in this case, your own tent flap? Jewish tradition paints a beautiful picture of Sarah's tent, offeri...
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,...
That feeling, that raw, unfair sting, is at the heart of the story of Jacob and Esau, and the stolen blessing. The scene is set: Isaac, now old and with failing eyesight, calls for...
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 ...
That’s the kind of dream Jacob, later known as Israel, had as he fled from his brother Esau. It wasn't just a random jumble of images, but a direct encounter with the divine. The T...
You know the one – stretching all the way from earth to heaven, angels going up and down, up and down. He jolted awake and said, "In truth, the Glory of the Shekhinah (the Divine P...
The story goes that after his less-than-amicable departure from his father-in-law Laban, Jacob found himself at the River Yabbok (Yabbok, a river in the Transjordan, now part of Jo...
would rest his head. God then performed a miracle and made all the stones into one. According to another tradition, Jacob placed all the stones under his head and they were fused t...
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 ...
Serah, daughter of Asher, one of Jacob's sons. We find her name nestled in the list of those who went down to Egypt with Jacob to escape the famine. You can find it in (Genesis 46:...
Did you know that God prays? It seems a little… unexpected, doesn't it? We tend to think of prayer as something we do, directing our hopes and needs toward the Divine. But accordin...
We all know the story – the forbidden fruit, temptation, and the fall. But tucked away in the rich tapestry of Jewish tradition, there are layers upon layers of interpretation that...
It wasn't just bad manners, folks. The story, as the rabbis tell it, is far more… complicated. Adam was made in God's image. And so was his son Seth, and Seth's son, Enosh. Accordi...
The Bible just drops them into the story. Where did they come from? It's one of those questions that has kept Jewish tradition busy for millennia. The simple answer? Adam and Eve d...
Yet, Jewish tradition whispers of just such a mystery: that the Messiah himself will descend from the side of evil. How can this be? Well, the story starts with King David, the anc...
The sages of old grappled with this very question, and their insights are captured in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Genesis. to the very ...
It's more than just a beautiful poem about light and darkness, waters above and waters below. It's actually a powerful argument against a very old accusation. Rabbi Yehoshua of Sik...
We often think of creation as a solo act by the Almighty, but the ancient rabbis, wrestling with the very first verse of Genesis, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the...
Jewish tradition, particularly in the ancient collection of Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)im called Bereshit Rabbah, grapples with this very question. It's a mind-bendi...
That’s kind of the vibe we get right at the very beginning of Bereshit Rabbah, the classic rabbinic commentary on the Book of Genesis. The text opens with a powerful, almost fierce...
Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon starts us off with a powerful verse from Daniel (2:22): "He reveals the deep and the hidden [umsatrata]." Now, what exactly is being revealed? Rabbi Yehuda c...
Rabbi Yitzchak did. He started with a verse from Psalms: “The beginning of Your word is truth…” (Psalms 119:160). And then he dove right into Genesis, the beginning itself. Rabbi Y...
