540 texts · Page 7 of 12
Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) Read-but-not-Written I) But [the children of] Benjamin would not yield (Judges 20:13). The word the children of is missing, for they did ...
Written but not Read "For rather Amnon" (II Samuel 13:33) is written, because at first Jonadab son of Shim'ah said "for Amnon alone has died," for the truth of the matter that Amno...
God gives wisdom to the wise — not to the foolish. This principle, drawn from the Book of Daniel (Daniel 2:21), puzzled many, including the Roman Emperor himself. Why should the wi...
It all starts with a simple verse: "These are those who were counted of the children of Israel…" And from there, it launches into a deep dive about blessings, promises, and the end...
These aren't mistakes. They're invitations to delve deeper, to wrestle with the text and uncover hidden layers of meaning. Consider this: In (Hosea 2:1), we read about the children...
Bamidbar Rabbah 2 dives into this very idea, opening with a quote from Hosea (2:1): "The number of the children of Israel will be..." It then launches into a fascinating exploratio...
It wasn't just about slapping some tent poles together, you know. It was a meticulously orchestrated operation, each family of Levites having a specific, divinely appointed task. t...
What about the power of words, the weight of oaths, and the ripple effect of our actions, intended or not? The ancient rabbis wrestled with these questions, and their insights, pre...
Believe it or not, our ancient texts have something profound to say about it. The Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of Midrashic (rabbinic interpretive commentary) teachings on the Boo...
There’s a fascinating teaching attributed to Rabbi Meir in Bamidbar Rabbah 9 that gets right to the heart of it. He asks, how do we know that the way we treat others is the very sa...
The verse sets the scene: "The man shall bring his wife to the priest, and he shall bring her offering on her behalf, one-tenth of an ephah of barley flour; he shall not pour oil u...
The passage starts with the seemingly straightforward case of a suspected adulteress in (Numbers 5:12): "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: If the wife of any man wi...
Today, we're diving into a fascinating story from Bamidbar Rabbah 10, a section of the larger Midrash Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic homilies and interpretations of the Torah. It...
It’s a question that’s plagued humanity for millennia. And believe it or not, our ancient texts wrestle with it too. We find a fascinating perspective in Bamidbar Rabbah, specifica...
Today, we're diving into Bamidbar Rabbah 11, a section of a Midrash, a collection of rabbinic commentaries on the Book of Numbers, and we'll find some surprising and hopeful insigh...
You know, the one that starts "Yevarechecha Adonai v'yishmerecha – May the Lord bless you and keep you..." It’s a beautiful, powerful blessing, and it's packed with layers of meani...
Jewish tradition grapples with this apparent contradiction all the time. Take the famous Priestly Blessing from (Numbers 6:26): "May the Lord show favor to you, and grant you peace...
What if the answer wasn’t a cold, scientific explanation, but a beautiful, poetic description hidden within our sacred texts? The Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teaching...
It all starts with a verse from the Song of Songs (3:11): "Go out and gaze, daughters of Zion, at King Solomon, at the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wed...
From that small verse, the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) launches into a fascinating exploration of Judah, the tribe of lions, fiery furnaces, and ultimately, God's pr...
These little anomalies, these extra strokes of ink, are rarely accidents. They're often seen as whispers, hints of deeper meaning hidden beneath the surface of the text. Take the w...
A collection of rabbinic teachings on the book of Numbers, there’s a profound reason behind it. It wasn't just about the what they offered, but the why. The text opens with a quest...
It's like peeling back the layers of an onion – the deeper you go, the more you discover. Today, we're diving into Bamidbar Rabbah 14, a section of the Bamidbar Rabbah, which itsel...
We find in Bamidbar Rabbah 14 a fascinating exploration of the verse, "Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in...
It's all about how we access, understand, and apply the teachings of Torah. The passage opens with a verse from Ecclesiastes (12:11): “The words of the wise are like goads, and lik...
To a fascinating passage from Bamidbar Rabbah 14, a Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), or interpretation, on the Book of Numbers, that explores this very tension. The pass...
In Jewish tradition, even the sequence of seemingly minor details can hold profound meaning. Take, for instance, the offerings of the princes in the Book of Numbers. Why does the p...
We flip a switch and flood a room with light without a second thought. But millennia ago, kindling a flame was a precious act. So why did God command it in the Mishkan, the Taberna...
The verse in question is from (Psalms 18:29): "For You light my lamp." Israel, in this story, turns to the Holy One, blessed be He, and essentially says: "Master of the Universe, Y...
The ancient rabbis wrestled with this feeling too, especially when thinking about how we, as humans, could possibly offer anything to God. Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic...
Even the ancient Israelites felt that way, yearning for guidance, for illumination. As they cried out, “Send Your light and Your truth; they will guide me” (Psalms 43:3), they were...
Our story begins with the instruction to Moses to craft two silver trumpets, kliyot keseph, hammered meticulously. "Craft for you two silver trumpets; hammered, you shall craft the...
The Book of Bamidbar Rabbah (Numbers Rabbah), in its 15th section, delves into just that, using the seemingly simple instruction of crafting silver trumpets as a springboard. "Craf...
We all know the story of the spies. The Israelites, poised to enter the Promised Land, get cold feet. "Let's send some scouts ahead," they suggest to Moses. But what was really goi...
It’s a question that echoes through the ages, and our sages have pondered it in countless ways. The verse from (Ecclesiastes 8:1), "Who is like the wise man, and who knows the mean...
A quote from (Numbers 22:2): "Balak son of Tzipor saw all that Israel had done to the Emorites." This sets the stage for a larger discussion about divine justice and fairness. "Bal...
Like after all the hard work, the dedication, the striving... shouldn't there be a bonus round of celebration? Well, Jewish tradition understands that feeling perfectly. to a fasci...
In the ancient world, and even described in the Torah, there was a system in place to offer refuge. We're talking about the cities of refuge, places of sanctuary for those who unin...
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...
The Rabbis certainly did. In Bereshit Rabbah, an expansive collection of Rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis, we find a fascinating take on the very first verses, conne...
Genesis tells us, "God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light" (Genesis 1:3). Simple enough. But the rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), in Bereshit ...
Rabbi Yoḥanan, a towering figure in the Talmudic era, offers a startling idea. He suggests that when God created the sea, He made a deal. A condition (tna’o in Hebrew) that it woul...
The story goes that when the Holy One, Barukh Hu (blessed be He), decided to create Adam, the first human, it wasn't exactly a unanimous decision up in the heavenly realms. Rabbi S...
It sounds shocking, I know. The story starts with a curious discovery. In Rabbi Meir's personal Torah scroll, a peculiar reading was found in the verse “And, behold, it was very [m...
Even the great rabbis of old disagreed about the answer! In fact, Rabbi Yoḥanan and Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish – two towering figures of Jewish tradition – had a fascinating debate ab...
"And the name of the second river is Giḥon; it is that which encircles the entire land of Kush" (Genesis 2:13). Okay, cool, rivers... but wait a minute. The problem is, Kush, as in...
One powerful image used to describe this cycle is the idea of a "cup of terror." The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), specifically Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbi...
It's a feeling that, according to the ancient rabbis, even God experienced with Adam. We find this idea explored in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the...
