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“At night,” why at night? Because sound travels only at night, that is why it is stated: “At night.” Rabbi Aivu said: Night draws lamentation with it.80When one cries at night, it ...
“Judah was exiled due to affliction and great enslavement. She settled among the nations, did not find rest; all her pursuers have overtaken her within the straits” (Lamentations 1...
“And great enslavement,” Rabbi Aḥa said: Because they would keep the Hebrew slave in servitude, just as it says: “At the end of seven years [each of] you shall free [his Hebrew bro...
“The ways of Zion are in mourning, without Festival pilgrims; all her gates are desolate; her priests sigh; her maidens are forlorn, and she is embittered” (Lamentations 1:4).“The ...
“For these I weep, my eye, my eye sheds water; for a comforter, restorer of my soul, has grown distant from me; my children have become desolate, because the enemy has prevailed” (...
There was an incident involving Miriam bat Baitus, whom Yehoshua ben Gamla betrothed [to him], and the king appointed him to be the High Priest.173He was appointed to this position...
“The Lord is righteous, for I have defied His word. Hear now all you peoples, and see my pain: My young women and young men have gone into captivity” (Lamentations 1:18).“The Lord ...
“See, Lord, for I am in distress, my innards burn, my heart overturned within me, for I have been defiant. Outside the sword bereaves; in the house, it is like death” (Lamentations...
“How the Lord has clouded [ya’iv] the daughter of Zion in His wrath.” Rabbi Ḥama bar Rabbi Ḥanina said: How did the Lord condemn in His wrath the daughter of Zion?8Rabbi Ḥama inter...
“My eyes fail from tears; my innards burn; my liver is poured on the earth over the disaster of the daughter of my people, as the infants and the sucklings faint in the city square...
“To their mothers they say: Where is grain and wine? While fainting like corpses in the city squares, while their souls are poured into their mothers' bosoms” (Lamentations 2:12).“...
“See, Lord, and look to whom You have done this. Shall women eat their fruit, the infants of their nurturing? Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the Temple of the Lord?” ...
“You have called, as on the appointed day, my fears from all around, and there was no refugee or remnant on the day of the Lord’s wrath. Those whom I nurtured and reared, my enemy ...
“He wore away my flesh and my skin, broke my bones” (Lamentations 3:4).“He wore away my flesh” – this is the community. “And my skin” – this is the Sanhedrin (the supreme rabbinic ...
“How has gold tarnished, the fine gold changed? The sacred stones are spilled at the head of every street” (Lamentations 4:1).“How has gold tarnished [yuam]?” Rabbi Shmuel said: Ho...
There was an incident involving one of the prominent residents of Jerusalem, who said to his lad: ‘Go and bring me water.’ He was waiting for him on the rooftop. [The lad] came and...
“The tongue of the suckling sticks to its palate from thirst; infants request bread, and no one breaks it with them” (Lamentations 4:4).“The tongue of the suckling sticks.” Rabbi A...
“The hands of merciful women cooked their children; they were food for them in the disaster of the daughter of my people” (Lamentations 4:10).“The hands of merciful women cooked th...
“Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens; they pursued us on the mountains, they ambushed us in the wilderness” (Lamentations 4:19).“Our pursuers were swifter than...
“The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was captured in their traps; of whom we said: In his shade we will live among the nations” (Lamentations 4:20).“The breath of...
“To our necks we have been pursued; we are exhausted, and we have no respite” (Lamentations 5:5).“To our necks we have been pursued.” Hadrian, may his bones be crushed, commanded a...
“For Mount Zion, which is desolate; foxes walk on it” (Lamentations 5:18).“For Mount Zion, which is desolate.” It happened that Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya, Rabbi Yehos...
Another interpretation: “From people [mimtim] by Your hand” – who are these courageous men who took theirs from under the hand of God? And who was that? That was the generation of ...
Another interpretation: “From people by Your hand, O Lord” – how mighty are they who took dominion from under the hand of God. Who is that? That is Nebuchadnezzar. “From people fro...
“Happy are those who observe the law, who act with righteousness at all times” (Psalms 106:3). They were counted1They assembled to vote to decide matters of halakha. in the loft of...
“He fostered Hadassa, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor mother, and the girl was fair and beautiful; and with the death of her father and her mo...
“And in each and every province, any place where the word of the king and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews” (Esther 4:3).Is there great mourning and mino...
Another interpretation: “Haman took the garments and the horse....” (Esther 6:11). He came to Mordekhai and said: ‘Rise and get dressed.’ How unlucky is this man; last night I was ...
Mordekhai returned to the king’s gate and Haman hastened home, mourning and covering his head” (Esther 6:12) – Mourning for his daughter, and covering his head because of what had ...
God told Israel three separate times: do not go back to Egypt. According to Esther Rabbah, they violated every single warning and paid for every single one. Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai ...
But…they eat the fruit, and they don't drop dead right then and there. So, what gives? What does "Ye shall surely die" really mean? That's a question that has kept Jewish thinkers ...
Philo of Alexandria, that brilliant Jewish philosopher who lived in the first century CE, had some pretty compelling ideas about this. And they're not just philosophical musings; t...
A passage that offers a rather… pointed perspective. The Midrash of Philo, a collection of interpretations attributed to Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish philosopher from the 1st cent...
That feeling isn't exactly new. to a fascinating interpretation of a very famous moment: God calling out to Adam after he ate from the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. We a...
It’s such a simple act, naming, but in that moment, Adam isn't just labeling. He’s making a profound statement. Why that name? Why "Life"? (Genesis 3:20) tells us, "Adam called his...
The ancient sages certainly did. And they found answers in the most unexpected places. Take, for instance, the story Philo, the 1st century Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, tell...
We often think of death as the end, a full stop. But what if it's just a… transition? Philo, that brilliant Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, wrestled with this very idea. He was...
The animals are all loaded, the family’s aboard… what’s the hold-up? Well, our sages pondered this very question, and, as they often do, came up with some beautiful and thought-pro...
We often skim past the stark pronouncements in the Torah, like "And all flesh capable of motion perished" (Genesis 7:21), without truly grasping the implications. But what exactly ...
What does it really mean? We find ourselves asking, what are we to make of the devastating phrase, "And everything which was on the dry land died?" (Genesis 7:22). Philo, the 1st-c...
Philo, a Jewish philosopher living in Alexandria in the first century CE, offers a unique take on a familiar phrase: "Thou shalt go to thy fathers." What does this really mean? It'...
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...
And the Lord said: Behold, man has become one of us (Gen. 3:22). Scripture states elsewhere in allusion to this verse: Behold, this only have I found, that God made man upright (Ec...
And the Lord said: Behold, man has become like one of us (Gen. 3:22). May our master teach us the punishment inflicted upon one who speaks evil?29Speaking evil (slander) is conside...
And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground (Gen. 4:3). The process of time (lit. “end of days”) may imply either the end of a year, the end...
Behold, Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the land … and the Lord said unto him: “Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” and...
And the Lord said unto him: “Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” and the Lord set a sign for Cain (Gen. 4:15). The Holy One, blessed be H...
These are the generations of Noah. Blessed be the name of the King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, who chose Israel from among the seventy nations of the world, as it is wri...
