2,514 texts · Page 52 of 53
The earth beneath his feet, the rivers flowing nearby, the vast ocean, the air he breathed, the very light that illuminated his path, the heavens above… all were at his service. Ev...
Did you ever stop to wonder… did that serpent in the Garden of Eden actually talk? I mean, really talk? It's a question that’s been wrestled with for millennia. (Genesis 3:2) simpl...
Why on earth did the serpent twist God's words to Eve, claiming, "God has said, 'You shall not eat of every tree in the Garden'" (Genesis 3:1)? God actually said, "You may freely e...
We all know the story: the serpent, the forbidden fruit, the expulsion. But what about that strange line in (Genesis 3:8), "They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the gard...
It's a question that dances at the heart of a fascinating passage from the Midrash of Philo. Philo, a Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria in the first century CE, grappled w...
To blend into the pre-Creation wilderness and hope nobody noticed. But no. They hid "in the middle of the trees of the Paradise" (Genesis 3:9). In the very place they committed the...
Ancient Jewish wisdom has something profound to say about that very human struggle. Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish philosopher living in Egypt in the first century CE, offered a uni...
In (Genesis 3:22), we read, "Behold, Adam has become as one of us, to know good and evil." One of us? Who is the "us" here? It's one of those little lines that can send you spirali...
why? What was the point of this divine bouncer? That's the question the Midrash of Philo 24 wrestles with. Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), by the way, is a method of in...
Take the image of the cherubim, those powerful, enigmatic beings guarding the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve were expelled. What do they really represent? Philo, a Jewish philos...
Philo, in his writings, believed that understanding “right division” – what we might call proper order – is key to understanding… well, everything. He argued that right division an...
Much older. The Midrash of Philo, a collection of interpretations and expansions on the Hebrew Bible attributed to the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria, explores just that id...
Day and night, up and down... Does it ever feel like there's a deeper meaning to it all?Stick with me, it’s more profound than it sounds. The passage starts by pointing out the obv...
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 Midrash of Philo delves into this very question, picking apart the scripture and searching for deeper meaning. One passage in particular focuses on a specific verse from Genesi...
Philo, a Jewish philosopher living in Alexandria in the first century CE, offers a unique allegorical interpretation of the Torah. And in this particular midrash (rabbinic interpre...
The sheer scale of devastation... it's almost too much to comprehend. And that brings us to a fascinating little puzzle tucked away within the text of Genesis, a question that the ...
The ancient sages wrestled with this feeling too. And in a fascinating passage attributed to Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish philosopher who lived in the first century CE, we find a ...
Take the flood narrative in Genesis, for example. We read that "the fountains of the deep were broken open and the floodgates of the sky were opened" (Genesis 7:11). Straightforwar...
One of the biggest, of course, is the story of the Flood. We all know the basics: Noah, the Ark, the animals two-by-two. But have you ever stopped to think about the details? The w...
Philo, a Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria in the first century CE, delved into these questions. He wrote extensively on the Torah, often offering allegorical interpretati...
It's more than just a tale of survival; it's a carefully constructed narrative, brimming with numerical significance. to the depths of the flood and see what we can unearth. The te...
God, knowing humanity’s propensity for wickedness from the start, initially intended to destroy the world with a flood. Yet, afterward, God promises not to destroy all flesh again,...
It’s more than just a pretty arc of color after the rain, especially when we look at it through the lens of ancient Jewish thought. The Torah tells us that after the flood, God set...
That struggle, that internal tug-of-war, is something ancient thinkers grappled with too. And one place we find it explored is in the writings attributed to Philo of Alexandria. In...
Sometimes, it feels like there's a whole hidden world waiting to be unlocked. Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish philosopher who lived in the first century CE, was absolutely convinced ...
To a fascinating little corner of Jewish tradition, a passage from what's known as The Midrash of Philo. Now, Philo of Alexandria was a Jewish philosopher who lived a long, long ti...
The ancient sages certainly did. And they found profound meaning in that feeling. to a fascinating interpretation of a well-known biblical passage, explored in the Midrash of Philo...
Surprisingly, this feeling isn't exactly new. to a fascinating ancient text called "The Midrash of Philo." Now, when we say midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), we're talkin...
We often stumble upon verses that seem straightforward but hint at something profound, something beyond the literal. Take (Genesis 17:4), where God says to Abraham, "And I, behold,...
It might sound trivial, but Jewish tradition is full of stories about how the smallest things can have enormous significance. Today, we're diving into one such story, found in The ...
The answer, again and again, comes back to this: God is everywhere. It's right there in the scriptures. As it says, "His presence fills all the earth" (Isaiah 6:3). We're not talki...
Because the eyes of God, we're told, are everywhere. It's a powerful image, isn't it? From His throne in Heaven, God's eyes observe absolutely everything that takes place in the wo...
Jewish tradition grapples with this question in some pretty fascinating ways, using metaphors and imagery to try and wrap our finite minds around something truly beyond comprehensi...
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...
Jewish tradition grapples with this feeling too, often through stories of angels – beings of immense power, but always, always subservient to God. What does it mean to say somethin...
"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...
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...
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...
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 two angels came to Sodom (Gen. 19:1). Scripture states elsewhere in allusion to this verse: But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore, He was turned to be th...
And Abraham was old, well stricken in age (Gen. 24:1). Scripture states elsewhere in allusion to this verse: Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, Thou art very great; Thou art...
And it came to pass at the end of two full years (Gen. 41:1). May it please our master to teach us the blessing one should offer on experiencing rainfall when mankind is in dire ne...
And the Lord said unto Moses: “Stretch forth thy hand toward heaven that there may be hail” (Exod. 9:22). Scripture says (elsewhere in allusion to this verse): Whatsoever the Lord ...
And he took six hundred chosen chariots (Exod. 14:7). Whose beasts drew the chariots? If you should say they belonged to the Egyptians, has it not already been said: And all the ca...
