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Take Noah's Ark, for example. We all know the story: the flood, the animals, the dove with the olive branch. But then you get to (Genesis 8:4), and it hits you with, "The ark settl...
The Torah tells us (Genesis 8:10) that Noah waited seven more days and then released the dove again. But why? The Midrash of Philo tackles this head-on, asking a simple but profoun...
We see potential, and we want to help it blossom. But how do you actually do it? The Midrash of Philo, a collection of interpretations and homilies attributed to the philosopher Ph...
Sometimes, it's those little details that hold the biggest secrets. That single olive branch. (Genesis 8:11) tells us, "The dove returned to him in the evening, and there in its be...
The Torah tells us Noah sent it out not once, but twice. The first time, it came back with an olive branch – a sign of hope! But the second time… nothing. It just... didn’t return....
You remember the story: the floodwaters are receding, and Noah sends out a dove to see if there's dry land. The first time, she returns with nothing. The second time, with an olive...
Philo, in his Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), dives headfirst into this question when talking about Noah and the flood. It's a fascinating exploration of time, virtue, ...
We're talking about the exact day, the precise number...it's all there for a reason. Take, for instance, the end of the Great Flood. (Genesis 8:14) pointedly tells us, "the earth w...
Philo, a Jewish philosopher living in Alexandria in the first century CE, delved deep into the Torah, seeking wisdom and hidden meanings. And in one particular midrash – a kind of ...
In (Genesis 7:13), when describing who enters the ark, we read about Noah and his sons first, “and after them his wife and his sons’ wives.” But (Genesis 8:18) flips the script whe...
To think that the Creator of the Universe might look back and say, "Oops, maybe I went a little too far there..." That's precisely the question that bubbles up when we read (Genesi...
A verse that rolls off the tongue easily: "Sowing-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and spring, shall not cease day nor night." Simple enough on the surface. But what's reall...
Take the moment after the Flood, when the world is starting over. God gives Noah and his family a new covenant, a new set of rules. And smack dab in the middle of it, we find this:...
He saw the world – and especially our inner world – as a kind of living midrash, a constant interpretation of the Torah and reality itself. And in his unique way, he understood the...
Ever stumble across a verse in the Torah that just... sticks in your craw? A line that seems simple at first glance, but the more you chew on it, the more questions it raises? That...
Maybe you’re striving for perfection but keep falling short. Well, the ancient sages had something to say about that, something that resonates even today. Philo, a Jewish philosoph...
Take Noah, for example. We all know the story: the ark, the flood, the animals two-by-two. But then, (Genesis 9:20) hits us: "Noah began to be a cultivator of the earth." Okay... s...
(Genesis 9:21). It's a head-scratcher. What are we supposed to make of that? The question itself isn't new. Generations of interpreters have wrestled with this verse. And one fasci...
We all know the story of the Ark, but what happened after the flood? The text tells us that Noah planted a vineyard and "drank of the wine, and was drunken" (Genesis 9:21). A simpl...
It's in these tiny seeming inconsistencies that some of the most fascinating interpretations are born. Take the story of Noah and his sons, for instance. We all know the story: the...
Philo tackles a seemingly simple question: why are Shem, Ham, and Japhet, the sons of Noah, listed in that specific order? Some might assume it's based on age, with the first-named...
Let's take a detour into the world of ancient Jewish thought, specifically, a fascinating text known as the Midrash of Philo. Now, Philo of Alexandria was a Jewish philosopher livi...
Even Abraham, the patriarch of faith, had moments of doubt. Our question comes from the Midrash of Philo, an exploration of the Hebrew Bible through the lens of the writings of Phi...
We’re promised something amazing, something life-changing, but a little part of us whispers, "Show me. Just a little sign." That tension is ancient. And it’s right there, simmering...
The Torah, in its unflinching honesty, doesn't shy away from these tough questions. to one particularly weighty example. In (Genesis 15:13), God tells Abraham – Avraham, the patria...
Take, for instance, that cryptic line in (Genesis 15:16): "For the sins of the Amorites were not as yet completed." What does that even mean? It's a verse that on the surface seems...
It’s a theme that echoes throughout Jewish tradition, doesn't it? And it makes you wonder: why that particular miracle? Well, one perspective comes to us from a fascinating text at...
Our question comes from (Genesis 16:4): "When she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes." Seems simple enough. Hagar, Sarai’s maidservant, becomes pregn...
Our story revolves around a "wise man" – and we aren't explicitly told who, which almost makes him universal. He's speaking about a woman who has conceived a child with him. Now, h...
That’s the feeling swirling around in this passage from the Midrash of Philo, an ancient commentary attributed to Philo of Alexandria, as it grapples with the moment someone encoun...
Sometimes, it’s in those tiny nuances that we find the biggest revelations. Take the story of Sarah. We all know Sarah. Wife of Abraham, matriarch of our people. But have you ever ...
The question is: Why? (Genesis 17:17) tells us that after God tells Abraham (who was then still called Abram) that his wife Sarah (then Sarai) will bear him a son, he "fell on his ...
The answer, again and again, comes back to this: God is everywhere. It's right there in the scriptures. As it says, "His presence fills all the earth" (Isaiah 6:3). We're not talki...
Because the eyes of God, we're told, are everywhere. It's a powerful image, isn't it? From His throne in Heaven, God's eyes observe absolutely everything that takes place in the wo...
Jewish tradition grapples with this question in some pretty fascinating ways, using metaphors and imagery to try and wrap our finite minds around something truly beyond comprehensi...
The mystics imagined it, and what they saw is The story goes that when God decided to create Adam, it wasn't a snap of the fingers. It was a process. A cosmic sculpting project, if...
The creation story, as we know it, unfolds over six days. But have you ever noticed how God seems to be balancing things? Like a cosmic choreographer, making sure everything is jus...
The Tree of Souls tells us that these souls resided in the Garden of Eden, up above. And get this: they were all present at the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai! How do we know t...
Jewish tradition grapples with this feeling too, often through stories of angels – beings of immense power, but always, always subservient to God. What does it mean to say somethin...
"Let there be light!" And there was light. Simple, powerful, divine fiat. But there's another beautiful, equally potent idea woven through Jewish tradition: creation by the very wo...
You'd expect a pretty epic location. But did you know there was a whole competition to be that mountain? The story goes that when the mountains caught wind that God was planning a ...
There's one particular story that throws this idea into sharp relief: the Giving of the Torah. Now, picture this: At the very beginning, when the Creator shaped the cosmos, there w...
The story of Abraham and Isaac, the Akeidah (the binding), grapples with these very questions. Abraham and Sarah, living in the Land of Israel, yearned for a child. Their lives wer...
It’s a question that surfaces, quite literally, when we read the story of the Exodus. We know Pharaoh's army drowned in the Red Sea. As it says in (Exodus 15:1), "Horse and driver ...
We're told, in no uncertain terms, that the Land of Israel is the heart of it all. But it doesn't stop there. Jerusalem, we learn, is the heart of the Land of Israel. And within Je...
The very concept of the Temple in Jerusalem, that sacred place, was envisioned at the dawn of creation itself. As Howard Schwartz recounts in Tree of Souls, God, in His infinite wi...
A Question.9Sections 2 and 3 of “In the Beginning” and the fourth section of “Noah” were taken from the She’iltot of R. Ahai, a distinguished Babylonian scholar who left Palestine ...
These are the generations (Toledot) of the heaven and the earth when they were created (Gen. 2:4). R. Berechiah and R. Helbo said in the name of R. Samuel the son of Nahmani: The w...
