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We all know the story of Rebecca at the well, her kindness, and the divinely ordained meeting. But what about her family? Were they as thrilled about this match as we might think? ...
And guess what? It offers some pretty profound, and surprisingly practical, advice. Our jumping-off point is the book of Ecclesiastes (Kohelet) and its rather cryptic verse: "In th...
The Torah, and later rabbinic texts, offer some fascinating, and comforting, glimpses. Let’s start with Abraham. Genesis 25:7 tells us, "These are the days of the years of Abraham’...
We begin with a simple verse from Genesis 25:19: "This is the legacy of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begot Isaac." Seemingly straightforward. But the Rabbis of the Midrash, those ...
It’s a beautiful, cyclical relationship, one that Jewish tradition explores in fascinating ways. Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Ge...
It's not just filling space! Often, these repetitions are little clues, hints that there's something deeper going on, something we need to pay close attention to. Take the story of...
In Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of Genesis, specifically in section 63, we find a discussion around the verse, "The Lord said to her" (Genesis 25:23), ...
We find a fascinating, and perhaps unsettling, answer in Bereshit Rabbah 63, a section of the ancient Midrash that delves into the lives of Abraham and Isaac, and the troublesome f...
Take the story of Jacob and Esau and that fateful bowl of lentil stew. We often think of it as a simple transaction, a hungry Esau trading away his birthright for a quick meal. But...
