2,541 texts · Page 169 of 283
It all starts with a seemingly straightforward verse from Exodus 21:37: “If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he shall pay five cattle for the ox and fou...
It might seem obvious – they're in need of help! But the Rabbis, those masters of interpretation, saw something deeper at play. Consider the verse in Exodus (22:21): "You shall not...
It's a pretty radical concept, really. Shemot Rabbah, a classic collection of Midrash on the Book of Exodus, dives right into this. It starts with the verse "These are the ordinanc...
It all centers around the Hebrew word ve’eleh, meaning "these are." The Midrash opens with a question: What's so special about ve’eleh? The Rabbis of old saw in it a profound testa...
The passage starts with the phrase, "These are [ve’eleh] the ordinances." That little word "ve’eleh" – "these are" – isn't just a throwaway. The Midrash sees it as a connector, lin...
In Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Exodus, we find a fascinating exploration of this idea, starting with the verse "These are the ordinances....
It might seem like a leap, but let's dive into Shemot Rabbah, a treasure trove of rabbinic commentary on the Book of Exodus, to find out. The text opens with a quote from Psalms: "...
And, well, the answer might surprise you. Rabbi Natan, in Shemot Rabbah, makes a pretty strong statement: justice is fitting for God precisely because He upholds it without showing...
Rabbi Shimon, in Shemot Rabbah, really zeroes in on this. He points out the verse in Exodus (21:18), "If men quarrel and one strikes the other." Rabbi Shimon emphasizes that "nothi...
