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Solomon and the worthless woman — a tale from the collection of Solomon's legendary encounters with the full range of human character. The sages preserved these stories as illustra...
A man once made a vow that he would never lose his temper, no matter what his wife did to provoke him. According to a tale preserved in the Exempla of the Rabbis (compiled by Moses...
A king once raised a boy in total isolation, keeping him locked away from birth so that he would never see a woman. According to a tale preserved in the Exempla of the Rabbis (comp...
Rabbi Meir used to stop at the house of Judah the butcher whenever he made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Judah's wife was a righteous woman who looked after the traveling sage with ...
A married woman betrayed her husband with a robber — and the story that unfolds from this betrayal became a cautionary tale about the entanglement of sin and its consequences. The ...
Solomon & Daughter of King of Ammon. Gittin, f. 68b. cf. Yalk. Hadash. • m Hirz, Emek Hamel ekh, f. 15. Jellinek, B. H. II, p. 86. Eisenstein, Oser, p. 530. Maase Buch No. 104. Ten...
Abba Hilkiah — the grandson of Honi the Circle-Drawer — inherited his grandfather's extraordinary ability to bring rain through prayer. But his methods were so peculiar that the sa...
The great Moses himself had such an experience. As we read in (Exodus 4:24), on the road one night, Adonai—God—encountered Moses and sought to kill him. Talk about a plot twist! Wh...
The Bible just drops them into the story. Where did they come from? It's one of those questions that has kept Jewish tradition busy for millennia. The simple answer? Adam and Eve d...
This week, we're diving into a powerful message about gratitude, using the ancient text of Bamidbar Rabbah, specifically Bamidbar Rabbah 1. It all starts with a verse: “The Lord sp...
Today, we're diving into a fascinating passage from Bamidbar Rabbah, specifically Bamidbar Rabbah 2, which explores these very questions through the lens of ancient Israelite camp ...
They're not mistakes. They're breadcrumbs, little hints that something deeper is going on beneath the surface of the text. And they invite us to pause, to question, to delve into t...
The book of Bamidbar Rabbah, a treasure trove of rabbinic commentary on the Book of Numbers, delves into this very idea. It all starts with the command to count the firstborn males...
The ancient rabbis grappled with these questions constantly, searching for meaning in misfortune. One particularly fascinating exploration revolves around the affliction of leprosy...
It starts with the seemingly simple phrase: “Ish ish” – which, in this context, means "be like all men." But what does that even mean? The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary...
Today, we're diving into a fascinating, and frankly, pretty intense ritual described in the Book of Numbers, chapter 5, concerning a woman suspected of adultery – the sotah. It all...
It's a ritual filled with tension, faith, and a rather potent potion. The verse in question is (Numbers 5:22): "This water that causes curse will enter your innards, to cause the b...
Sometimes, it's in those tiny details that we find the biggest insights into the heart of the matter. Take the ritual of the sota, the woman suspected of adultery, described in Num...
Take the curious case of the Sotah – the suspected adulteress – described in the Book of Numbers (Bamidbar). The verse we're focusing on comes from (Numbers 5:29): "This is the law...
Take, for example, the laws of the sotah, the suspected adulteress, described in Numbers chapter 5. It’s a fascinating, and frankly, rather strange ritual. But let’s dive into one ...
We're diving into the ritual surrounding the sotah, the woman suspected of adultery. Specifically, we're looking at (Numbers 5:16-17), which details the priest's actions in this de...
It's a heavy place to be, and ancient Jewish law, specifically in the Book of Numbers, addresses this very situation with the ritual of the sotah, the suspected adulteress. But wha...
Today, we're diving into a fascinating story from Bamidbar Rabbah 10, a section of the larger Midrash Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic homilies and interpretations of the Torah. It...
That's what we're diving into today, a fascinating corner of Jewish law dealing with ritual impurity and the dedication of a nazir. Our guide is Bamidbar Rabbah, a Midrash (rabbini...
It all starts with a verse from the Song of Songs (3:11): "Go out and gaze, daughters of Zion, at King Solomon, at the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wed...
But from that small verse, the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) launches into a fascinating exploration of Judah, the tribe of lions, fiery furnaces, and ultimately, God'...
The Torah portion describes the offerings brought by the leaders of the tribes of Israel at the dedication of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. Each day, a different leader brought the ...
Specifically, we're looking at the offerings of Elyasaf son of Deuel, the prince of the tribe of Gad. "On the sixth day, prince of the children of Gad, Elyasaf son of Deuel" (Numbe...
It's like peeling back the layers of an onion – the deeper you go, the more you discover. Today, we're diving into Bamidbar Rabbah 14, a section of the Bamidbar Rabbah, which itsel...
We find in Bamidbar Rabbah 14 a fascinating exploration of the verse, "Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in...
The verse from Proverbs (26:6) sets the stage: “One who sends things by the hand of a fool cuts off his feet and drinks rancor.” Ouch. Strong words. But here's the puzzle: were the...
We're good at selective hearing. Well, Jewish tradition suggests this happened big time with the story of the spies sent to scout the land of Canaan. Our story comes from Bamidbar ...
We find it in Numbers chapter 16, when Korah and his followers challenge Moses and Aaron's leadership. The consequences? Let's just say they were…earth-shattering. "The earth opene...
We often focus on the leaders, the prophets, the ones making history. But what about the everyday folks caught in the crossfire? Today, we're diving into a fascinating passage from...
It’s a question that echoes through the story of Moses and the waters of Mei Meriva – the waters of dispute. "These are the waters of dispute, where the children of Israel quarrele...
"Aaron will be gathered to his people," God tells Moses, "for he will not come into the land that I have given to the children of Israel, because you defied My directive at the wat...
We chase it, toil for it, sail across oceans for it... but is all that effort actually the thing that makes us rich? Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book...
Day and night, light and dark... it’s so fundamental. But have you considered it as a constant song, a perpetual praise to the One who created it all? The verse in (Psalms 74:16), ...
The story goes that a noblewoman, clearly not shy about asking tough questions, once approached Rabbi Yosei. "Why," she demanded, "did God create Eve as if by theft? Why take Adam'...
Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" (Genesis 3:11). I mean, come on, God knows everything. So why the question? The rabbis of old grappled with this to...
Why does (Genesis 3:16) say, "To the woman He said: I will increase your suffering and your pregnancy; in pain you shall give birth to children, and your desire shall be for your h...
In the Torah, the word heḥel (הֵחֵל), meaning "began," is one of those words. It pops up in some pretty unsettling contexts. In Bereshit Rabbah 26, a classic collection of rabbinic...
The ancient rabbis certainly knew it. They saw it baked right into the words of the Torah itself. Take, for instance, the opening of Parashat Noah, the portion of Genesis that tell...
Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis, tackles this very question, and it turns out, it's a battle as old as time. The text starts with a...
The Torah gives us hints, but it's in the rabbinic tradition where things get really interesting, where they piece together the ages and relationships to illuminate the story. (Gen...
Abraham suddenly notices his wife is beautiful – like, really beautiful – and expresses concern that the Egyptians will kill him to get to her. He asks her to pretend to be his sis...
The book of Genesis, Bereshit, is brimming with these moments. Take Lot, Abraham's nephew. We remember him mostly for his unfortunate choice of neighbors: the wicked inhabitants of...
Today, we're diving into Bereshit Rabbah 42, a fascinating passage from the Midrash, the body of ancient rabbinic interpretations of Scripture. This passage looks at Genesis 14, sp...
