Backstage at Creation - Midrash Bereshit Rabbah


In these shiurim, Rav Yehoshua Kahan explores the unmined treasures of one of the great classics of the midrashic literature, Bereshit Rabbah. The midrash winds its way through the pathways of creation. We examine the midrash text from a number of perspectives - its structure, its use of biblical sources, and its underlying spiritual message.

  • Class 1: Opening the Opening - The Role of Torah in Creation
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  • Class 2: "You are Thieves!": The Claim of a People to its Land
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  • Class 3: "No Angels Yet": When and Why were the Angels Created?
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  • Class 4: Precreation: What Came Before the Beginning, and Why?
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  • Class 5: Primordial Doesn't Matter: The Eternity of Matter and the Persistance of Foolishness
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  • Class 6: The Shape of Things to Come: Letters Compete for the Priviledge of Batting Lead-Off
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  • Class 7: The Beginning of the Ends: Children Reveal the Secrets of the Final Forms of Letters
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  • Class 8: The Best Laid Plans: The world Created as it was Meant to Be
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  • Class 9: Groundfloors and Easy Chairs: Beit Shammai versus Beit Hillel on the Order of Creation
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  • Class 10: Bohuhu: The Earth Pours Out its Complaint
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  • Class 11: Solving and Dissolving the Text: Chachamim Uncover Allusions to the Future from the Outset
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  • Class 12: The Divine Perspective: When Hashem Surveys His World, What Stands Out?
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  • Class 13: Effortless, Joyous, Whispered Light: Where does the Light Come From and How do we Know?
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  • Class 14: Wells of Light: Torah Shines from Above, Moistens from Below
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  • Class 15: Or Haganuz: Why Hashem Hid the Primordial Light and How to Find it Today
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  • Class 16: This One I Like!: Worlds Created and Destroyed before Ours
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  • Class 17:
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  • Rav Yehoshua Kahan

    Rav Yehoshua Kahan

    Rav Yehoshua Kahan is a teacher at Yeshivat Bat Ayin. He has held pulpits in Knoxville, Tennessee and Los Angeles, and served as educational director of Livnot U'Lehibanot. He blogs on Parashat Hashavua here

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