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Jeremiah wrote the Book of Lamentations as an alphabetical curse — each verse beginning with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, a devastation so systematic it marched from Ale...
Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish philosopher living in Roman Egypt, certainly thought so. He delved into the numerical symbolism of the Torah, seeking hidden meanings within the seemi...
We see potential, and we want to help it blossom. But how do you actually do it? The Midrash of Philo, a collection of interpretations and homilies attributed to the philosopher Ph...
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine (Gen. 17:1). May it please our master to teach us whether a man is permitted to heal a wound on the Sabbath? Thus did our masters teach...
And it came to pass on a certain day, when he went into the house to do his work (Gen. 39:11). Our sages disagreed over the meaning of this verse. Some held that he went into the h...
And he sent Judah before him (Gen. 46:28). Scripture says elsewhere in reference to this verse: The wolf and the lamb shall feed together (Isa. 65:25). Observe that whomever the Ho...
Our sages of blessed memory said: “Observe that the way of the Holy One, blessed be He, is not the way of man.” It is not man’s way to heal with what he wounds. If he wounds with a...
In the third month (Exod. 19:11). May it please our master to instruct us: May one cure a pain in his mouth on the Sabbath? Thus do our masters teach us: One who has a pain in his ...
(Lev. 11:1-2:) “Then the Lord spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying […], ‘Speak unto the Children of Israel, saying, “These are the creatures that you may eat….”’” It is stated (...
