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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 ...
It turns out, even Abraham, our forefather, might have had a moment of… well, not exactly doubt, but perhaps profound wonder. The Torah tells us, in (Genesis 17:17), after God prom...
One such moment comes to us in (Genesis 17:18). Abraham, after hearing God's promise of a son, Isaac, through Sarah, turns to God and says, "O may my son Ishmael live before thee!"...
Like the universe is saying, "Okay, sure, but are you really ready for this?" That's the kind of vibe I get from this little nugget of a midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) ...
He’s just received the earth-shattering news that he, in his old age, is going to have a son with Sarah. A son who will carry on the covenant with God. It's huge! But then comes th...
To this because, as often happens with our tradition, there's more to it than meets the eye. The Midrash of Philo, a collection of interpretations attributed to the ancient philoso...
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...
"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...
A time long, long before time as we know it. Before the sun, the moon, the stars… before even the very Earth beneath our feet. What existed then? Well, according to some mystical t...
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...
With1The prefix bet in the first word of the Torah can be translated as “with,” “in,”, “by means of,” etc. the beginning (Gen. 1:1). This is what Scripture means when it says: The ...
In the beginning God created (Gen. 1:1). May it please our master16Many yelammedenu (“may our master teach us”) passages are included in Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) ...
In the beginning God created (Gen. 1:1). It is written elsewhere in reference to this verse: Blessings are upon the head of the head of the righteous, but the mouth of the wicked c...
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...
And the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace (Exod. 19:18). What furnace? Perhaps it is comparable to this furnace? Therefore Scripture says: And the mountain burned wi...
When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel (Exod. 30:12). May our masters teach us: How many times each year did the Israelites bring their offerings to the Temple? Thus di...
These are the accounts of the tabernacle (Exod. 38:21). Scripture states elsewhere: Lord, I love the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thy glory dwelleth (Ps. 26:8). Thi...
"To these apportion the land" (Numbers 26:53). And who are they? The ones standing on the Plains of Moav. And was the land not apportioned to those that left Egypt? As it is writte...
(Numb. 32:1:) “Now the Children of Reuben and the Children of Gad] had much livestock.” Let our master instruct us: How many good gifts were created in the world?14Numb. R. 22:7. T...
"Command the Children of Israel" (Numbers 34:2:). This is what is stated in the verse (in (Numbers 23:1)9), "God is not a man to be deceitful," [meaning] a man will not make God de...
Another interpretation: "As these nations that you are about to dispossess, etc. but you not like this to you" (Deuteronomy 18:14). It is speaking about Avraham, as he saw through ...
