Midrashic Monologues

In Parashat Chayei Sarah (the life of Sarah), we learn that our biblical matriarch Sarah lived 127 years, she died, and Abraham purchased he

During and after the devastating events of Abraham’s almost-sacrifice of his son, Isaac, the Torah fails to provide insight into the character’s inner struggles. We believe that this event, known as the Akedah (the “binding of Isaac), must have had profound and long lasting impacts on all of the biblical characters. In this Midrashic Monologue, we take time to sit with Abraham and hear his version of this story. Even as I held up the knife, I knew that I had failed. In my pas

In this Midrashic Monologue, we reimagine the moments after Leah gave birth to her first child, Reuven. In both the Torah and most of the subsequent textual tradition, the relationship between Leah and Rachel, who are both sisters and sister-wives, is depicted as contentious and filled with animosity. In fact, in Genesis, the majority of their story centers around their competition for the love of their husband, Jacob. Unfortunately, this narrative framing often reduces these

In the book of Genesis, Joseph and the pharaoh he served are depicted as a team so effective that they were able to safeguard Egypt during a lengthy and intense famine. Importantly though, their relationship seems equally strong on a personal level, and there are multiple times in the story when Pharaoh seems to provide emotional support for Joseph as well as economic support for the Israelites. In this #MidrashicMonologue, we revisit the relationship between these two men an