פרשת בראשית נוסח ירושלמי-בבלי

Rabbi Yehuda b. Simon praises Deborah and Esther. R Shimon b. Yohai rejects his disciples' criticism of Persian Jews and explains that sometimes even paganism is superficial.

In this segment, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses ask God to forgive the Jews as a reward for their merits. Each man lists his achievements and sacrifices but God doesn't respond. It is Rachel who wins the argument presenting a feminine and very daring perspective as she challenges God.

Here we see Abraham visiting the ruins of the Temple. He is described as practicing non-Jewish and even pagan mourning practices. We discuss the literal meaning of the prohibition to destroy the beard. Later on Abraham puts God on trial and summons witnesses.

Two beautiful paragraphs dealing with the reaction to destruction. In one Jeremiah meets the embodiment of Zion and forced himself out of his misery to comfort her. In the other, God mourns his actions and in a dialog with Metatron reveals insights of human psyche.

Here we explore the reason for the thundering silence of the rabbis regarding Hanukkah and Masada.

Two passages are discussed here. One is the corruption of the sons of Shemuel and how the rabbis drew analogy to their contemporary corrupt leaders.
The second is the sad story of Saul and his fall from grace, which ends with a surprising twist as in a last act of heroism he redeemed himself.

Why are Hanukkah and Christmas always adjacent? A Midrash found in the Talmud might shed light on the Dec 27 2016question.

The Midrash rebukes the successors of Yehoshua did failing to connect to the people. This message is very applicable today. Other sources speak disparagingly of Deborah, a premonition of the current situation in the orthodox Jewish community.

In this Talmudic passage the 10 commandments Joshua passes on to the Israelites deal with shared resources, civility, border flexibility and human dignity. Not your typical 10 commandments