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Take the story of Adam and Eve after the tragic loss of Abel. We read in (Genesis 4:25), "Adam was further intimate with his wife and she gave birth to a son, and she called his na...
We're talking about way back in the beginning, just after the expulsion from Eden. We often skip ahead to the flood, but there's a fascinating, and unsettling, little passage in (G...
Like you've pulled the wool over someone's eyes, maybe even... God's? Well, Bereshit Rabbah, that incredible collection of rabbinic interpretations of Genesis, has something to say...
It all begins, of course, with Adam. But did you ever imagine him… colossal? Our sages certainly did. In Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Bo...
Bar Kappara, a sage from the Land of Israel who lived around the 3rd Century CE, once opened up a fascinating idea based on a verse from Psalms. He looked at the verse, "May they b...
In fact, it delves into the idea of divine restraint, of God actively preventing the world from being destroyed by, well, wind. We find this idea explored in Bereshit Rabbah 24, a ...
Our story begins with the verse, "This is the book of the descendants of Adam" (Genesis 5:1). But what does that really mean? Bereshit Rabbah 24 digs into this, offering some truly...
The verse says, "This is the book of the descendants of Adam" (Genesis 5:1). Seems straightforward. But the rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) – those incredi...
It’s a breathtaking thought, isn't it? Where do they get this idea? They point to the verse in (Isaiah 44:11), “And craftsmen, they are me’adam”—literally, "from Adam." The implica...
In the Torah, names often carry a powerful weight, hinting at a person's destiny or reflecting a significant moment. Take Noah, for example. (Genesis 5:29) tells us, "He called his...
In Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis, we find this idea explored through a rather unsettling lens: famine. Specifically, the ...
In the Torah, the word heḥel (הֵחֵל), meaning "began," is one of those words. It pops up in some pretty unsettling contexts. In Bereshit Rabbah 26, a classic collection of rabbinic...
The Book of Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of Genesis, grapples with just that question in section 28. It all stems from God’s statement, "I will obliter...
Turns out, even God has had those thoughts about humanity. We find a fascinating glimpse into this in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Genes...
The animals? Did they really deserve to be wiped out along with everyone else? Well, the rabbis of old had some thoughts on that. Rabbi Azarya, quoting Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon, offe...
It’s a question that's been wrestled with for centuries, and it pops up in the most unexpected places in Jewish tradition. : Do we receive blessings because of our ancestors' good ...
In the book of Bereshit, Genesis, we find two such words used to describe key figures: tamim and haya. What do they really mean? , because the Rabbis of old sure had some fascinati...
The Torah tells us he was "righteous in his generation" (Genesis 6:9). But what does that really mean? Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations of Genesis,...
We often think of the sheer scale of the wickedness, but sometimes the details are what really bring the picture into focus. Bereshit Rabbah, that incredible collection of rabbinic...
Take the story of the Flood, the mabul, a cataclysmic event meant to cleanse the world of its wickedness. We often focus on Noah, the ark, and the animals. But what about the Earth...
The verse in Genesis (6:14) states: "Craft for you an ark of cypress wood; you shall craft the ark with compartments, and you shall coat it within and without with pitch." Now, Rab...
That’s kind of what the ancient Rabbis were wrestling with when they looked at the story of Noah, specifically (Genesis 7:6): “And Noah was six hundred years old, and the flood was...
We get glimpses of the Ark in the Bible, but Jewish tradition, particularly in the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), fills in the blanks, offering us vivid images of that...
The rabbis of old, in Bereshit Rabbah, one of the most important collections of rabbinic interpretations of Genesis, saw layers of meaning in these few words. Specifically, the phr...
It's not just a random choice. The story of Noah's Ark and the dove, as told in Genesis, is layered with meaning, and the Rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) f...
It’s a question that’s haunted humanity for millennia. Is there any rhyme or reason to it all? Our sages grappled with this, too, and in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic i...
We all know the story: the flood, the animals, the ark bobbing along on a chaotic sea. But what happened after? The waters receded, the dove returned with the olive branch… and the...
We often think of it as a storybook tale, but the details, as the Torah and later rabbinic interpretations reveal, are surprisingly strict. , shall we? The verse in (Genesis 8:17) ...
It wasn't just a knee-jerk reaction of gratitude. According to Bereshit Rabbah, the ancient midrashic (rabbinic interpretive commentary) (interpretive) text on Genesis, there was s...
It turns out, our tradition has some fascinating ideas about this, rooted in the stories of Noah and the Flood. We find in (Genesis 9:1), immediately after the Flood, that “God ble...
The very beginning of that relationship, after the flood, is what we're talking about today. Specifically, the verses in Genesis 9 that deal with what we can and cannot do in this ...
The verse at the heart of this discussion is (Genesis 9:6): "One who sheds the blood of man, by man his blood shall be shed, as He made man in the image of God." Simple enough on t...
There's a curious incident involving Noah's son, Ḥam, that raises some eyebrows and leads to some pretty profound interpretations. (Genesis 9:22) tells us, "Ḥam, father of Canaan, ...
We all know the basics: humanity, united by a single language, attempts to build a tower reaching the heavens. God, seeing this as a threat, scatters them and confuses their langua...
Bereshit Rabbah, a classic compilation of Rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Genesis, offers a stunningly beautiful image to explain Abraham’s rise to greatness. It all starts...
The Torah portion Lekh Lekha begins with God's instructions to Abraham, "Go forth from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show y...
The book of Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations on the book of Genesis, makes a fascinating claim. It says that there have been ten famines throughout...
The rabbis of old, wrestling with this very question, spun a fascinating tale in Bereshit Rabbah 40, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis. The story begi...
The book of Genesis, Bereshit, is brimming with these moments. Take Lot, Abraham's nephew. We remember him mostly for his unfortunate choice of neighbors: the wicked inhabitants of...
Maybe… maybe there’s more to it than meets the eye. The verse in Genesis tells us there was a big ol' argument brewing between the shepherds of Abram (later Abraham) and the shephe...
Turns out, that impulse might be older – and more significant – than you think. We’re talking about land, about ownership, and about the very act of claiming something as your own....
We all know the story: Lot gets captured, Abraham bravely rescues him, and then… what happens to the spoils? (Genesis 14:16) tells us, "He returned all the goods, and also his brot...
That liminal space is rich with meaning, according to Jewish tradition. And it all starts with a single verse. In (Genesis 15:12), we read: "It was as the sun was setting, and a sl...
Our story centers on Sarai (later Sarah) and Abram (later Abraham), a couple facing the heartbreaking reality of childlessness. Sarai, in a desperate attempt to fulfill the divine ...
"For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven." We all know the famous line from Ecclesiastes (3:1). But have you ever stopped to consider just how m...
To a fascinating exploration of just that, as we unpack a verse from Genesis and see what the Rabbis of old found hidden within its folds. Our journey begins with the powerful word...
The ancient rabbis grappled with that all the time, and their discussions, preserved in texts like Bereshit Rabbah, offer some fascinating, and sometimes surprising, insights. We f...
The verse in question? "He said: I will return to you at this time next year and, behold, a son for Sarah your wife. And Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent, and it was...
