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The scene: Rabbi Akiva, a towering figure of Jewish wisdom, is being interrogated by the wicked governor, Tinneus Rufus. Rufus, dripping with imperial arrogance, poses a deceptivel...
Even Shabbat, the day of rest, felt that way once. Isn't that incredible? Our sages grappled with a question: why did God specifically bless Shabbat? Bereshit Rabbah, a collection ...
There's a fascinating discussion in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Genesis, that tackles this very question. It all starts with the verse ...
Specifically, we're looking at Bereshit Rabbah 12. Rabbi Nehemya of Kefar Sihon starts us off by referencing Exodus 20:11: "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth,...
The verse we're focusing on is from Genesis 2:7: "Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground [adama], and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a ...
An apple? Maybe… but our tradition offers a whole orchard of possibilities! The rabbis of the Midrash, in Bereshit Rabbah 15, really sink their teeth into this question. Rabbi Meir...
We all know the story: paradise, temptation, the apple, the fall. But before all that went down, there's this single verse in Genesis 2:15: "The Lord God took the man and placed hi...
It seems simple enough on the surface: "From every tree of the garden you may eat." But, like with so much in Torah, the rabbis saw layers upon layers of meaning hidden beneath the...
Take, for example, the verse in Genesis 2:21, "He took one of his sides [mitzalotav]..." Now, mitzalotav can mean either "one of his ribs" or "one of his sides." So, which was it? ...
