What Is Bereshit Rabbah? The Midrash on Genesis

Why does Avram set out without knowing where he is going? Why is Sarah locked in a chest at the border of Egypt? For fifteen centuries, Bereshit Rabbah, the great Midrash on Genesis, has been asking such questions verse by verse. Here is what this book is, where it comes from, how it works, and how Rav Raphaël Benizri brings it to life today.

Bereshit Rabbah is the great collection of midrashim, that is, rabbinic interpretations, on the book of Bereshit, Genesis. It took shape in the Land of Israel in the era of the Amoraim, the masters of the Talmud. Tradition links it to the name of Rabbi Hoshaya, a third-century master. It follows the biblical text step by step, from “In the beginning” to Yaakov’s blessing of his sons, and divides it into about a hundred chapters called parashiyot. It is the first of the ten books of Midrash Rabbah and, according to historians, the oldest of them. It contains parables, wordplay on letters, debates between Sages and stories that have become famous, such as that of Avram smashing his father’s idols.

On penseesjuives.com, Rav Raphaël Benizri devotes an entire series to this text: twelve lectures on chapters 39 to 41, which comment on Avram’s departure, the descent into Egypt and the parting from Lot. They are all gathered on the Bereshit Rabbah page. This article presents the book, then shows how the Rav reads it.

What does “Bereshit Rabbah” mean?

Bereshit is the first word of the Torah, “in the beginning.” It is also the Hebrew name of the book of Genesis, since each book is named after one of its opening words. Rabbah means “great” in Aramaic. The name is therefore understood as “the great [Midrash] of Bereshit.”

Where does this epithet come from? Two explanations are current. According to the first, the book opens with the words “Rabbi Hoshaya Rabbah opened…”: the master’s nickname, Rabbah, “the Great,” would have given its name to the whole work. According to the second, held by most historians, “Rabbah” simply distinguished this great commentary from other, shorter collections on Genesis. The name was later extended to the commentaries on the other books, hence Shemot Rabbah, Vayikra Rabbah, and so on.

The word midrash comes from the verb darash, “to seek, to inquire.” The midrash is not content with what the verse says at face value, the peshat. It questions it: why this word rather than another? Why this extra letter? Why this silence? Bereshit Rabbah belongs to midrash aggadah. It deals with narrative, ideas, faith and ethics. Midrash halakhah, by contrast, derives the rules of law from the verses: such are the Mekhilta, the Sifra and the Sifrei.

Midrash Rabbah: a library of ten books

Bereshit Rabbah opens a collection known as Midrash Rabbah. It includes a midrash on each of the five books of the Torah (Bereshit, Shemot, Vayikra, Bamidbar and Devarim Rabbah) and on each of the five Megillot, the “scrolls” read over the course of the year: the Song of Songs, Ruth, Eichah, Kohelet and Esther. These ten books were not written together. They date from very different periods and were only gathered under a single title with the advent of printing, in the sixteenth century.

Rav Benizri reminds his students of this. In a lecture on chapter 39, he places these texts between the sixth and twelfth centuries, after the Talmud. He draws a consequence from this: on a single verse, one finds very different approaches of the Sages (Bereshit Rabbah 39, Part 3). Answering a later question about the date of Midrash Rabbah, he speaks of a “mosaic of midrashim.” In his view, it is the first great exegesis of the Torah: some of these texts were already circulating in the Talmud, and they were gathered together afterwards (Bereshit Rabbah 40, Part Two). This range applies to the ten books as a whole. Bereshit Rabbah is the oldest of them: scholars generally date its redaction to the Land of Israel around the fifth century, roughly the time of the Jerusalem Talmud. Later additions appear in some manuscripts, especially in the final chapters.

A work of the Land of Israel

Bereshit Rabbah was born in the study houses of the Galilee, of Tiberias, Sepphoris or Caesarea. This shows on every page. The masters it cites are almost all Sages of the Land of Israel: Rabbi Yochanan, Reish Lakish, Rabbi Levi, Rabbi Yitzchak, Rabbi Berekhiah, Rabbi Azariah, Rabbi Acha… The language blends the Hebrew of the Sages with Galilean Aramaic. It also borrows Greek and Latin words, because these Jews lived in the Greco-Roman world and spoke its language every day.

The Rav dwells on a related phenomenon in his lecture on chapter 40. Regarding Barak and the prophetess Devorah, in the verse “however, the glory shall not be yours” (Shoftim 4:9), he points to a word, efes, which he presents as Greek in origin, slipping into the Hebrew text. For him, this intrusion is a signal: the narrative must be read on a second, a third, a fourth level. To stop at the first reading of these battles, he says, would be to infantilize them, to turn them into a comic strip (Bereshit Rabbah 40, Part Two).

Rabbi Hoshaya, the author according to tradition

The first chapter opens thus: “Rabbi Hoshaya Rabbah opened [his teaching with this verse].” Rabbi Hoshaya, also called Rabbi Oshaya, lived in the Land of Israel in the third century. He belongs to the first generation of Amoraim, the masters who succeeded the Sages of the Mishnah. He was so respected that he was nicknamed Rabbah, “the Great.”

It was the Rambam who established this attribution. In the introduction to his Mishneh Torah, he traces the chain of the Oral Torah and lists the works composed after the Mishnah. Rav wrote the Sifra and the Sifrei, Rabbi Chiya the Tosefta, and he adds: “Rabbi Hoshaya, a disciple of our holy teacher [Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi], composed an explanation of the book of Bereshit.” For the Rambam, then, Bereshit Rabbah takes its place among the great commentaries that emerged from the school of the Mishnah.

Historians qualify this attribution. Many of the masters cited in the book lived after Rabbi Hoshaya, sometimes a century or two later. Rabbi Hoshaya therefore cannot have written the entire work as we read it. The usual understanding is rather that he laid down its original core, which his successors enriched generation after generation before it was given its final form. The two readings converge: Bereshit Rabbah is the fruit of a school more than of a single man, and the name of its founder has remained engraved in its first sentence.

The structure: about a hundred parashiyot

Bereshit Rabbah follows the book of Genesis in order, verse by verse. It is divided into about a hundred chapters, the parashiyot. The standard printed editions count one hundred. Depending on the manuscripts, the total varies slightly. Each parashah is itself divided into small numbered paragraphs, and the book is cited accordingly: “Bereshit Rabbah 39:1” refers to chapter 39, paragraph 1.

The distribution is very uneven. The first chapters of Genesis are commented on with extraordinary breadth: the parashah of Bereshit alone, from Creation to the Flood, takes up the first twenty-nine parashiyot. The commentary on Noach begins in chapter 30, that on Lech Lecha in chapter 39. Towards the end of the book, the commentary moves faster, and some passages are no longer commented on verse by verse.

The chapters studied by Rav Benizri cover the beginning of Lech Lecha:

Chapter 39: the call “Go forth, from your land” (Bereshit 12:1-9), the promise of a great nation, the blessing, the “souls they had made in Haran,” the altars of Beit-El and Ai. The Rav devotes eight lectures to it.
Chapter 40: the famine and the descent into Egypt (Bereshit 12:10-20), Avram’s words to Sarah at the border, “say that you are my sister.” Two lectures.
Chapter 41: the return from Egypt, the quarrel of the herdsmen, the parting from Lot and the promise of offspring “like the dust of the earth” (Bereshit 13). Two lectures.

The method of the midrash: how to read this book

Anyone opening Bereshit Rabbah for the first time is often disoriented. The text seems to go off in every direction, quoting Psalms to explain Genesis, lining up contradictory opinions without deciding between them. Yet these techniques follow precise rules.

The petichta, or “opening”

Most chapters begin with a petichta, an “opening.” The master starts from a distant verse, most often taken from Psalms, Proverbs, Kohelet or the Song of Songs. He unfolds it, then returns, by an unexpected path, to the verse of Genesis he wishes to comment on. Chapter 39 is a striking example: to introduce the single verse “Go forth,” the Midrash summons at least six texts. Among them are “Listen, daughter, and see, forget your people and your father’s house” (Tehillim 45:11), “Wisdom makes the wise man stronger than ten rulers” (Kohelet 7:19), “We wished to heal Babylon, but she was not healed” (Yirmiyahu 51:9), “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness” (Tehillim 45:8), “Your oils have a good fragrance” (Shir HaShirim 1:3) and “We have a little sister” (Shir HaShirim 8:8). Each opening casts light on Avram’s call from a different angle.

The mashal, the parable

The Midrash readily explains through a parable, a mashal, often one about a king. At the beginning of chapter 39, Rabbi Yitzchak compares Avram to a man traveling from place to place who sees a palace in flames. He asks: “Could it be that this palace has no master?” The master of the palace then appears and answers: “I am the master of the palace.” Further on (39:10), G-d is compared to a king who loses a pearl from his crown. He halts his procession and has the sand sifted until he finds it.

The play of letters and words

The Midrash reads the Hebrew very closely. An extra letter, an unusual grammatical form, two words with similar letters: everything becomes a sign. Thus the word behibaram, “when they were created” (Bereshit 2:4), is written with the same letters as beAvraham, “through Avraham.” The Midrash concludes that the world was created for Avraham, and the Rav takes up this reading in one of his lectures. Another example: in the verse “he pitched his tent” (Bereshit 12:8), the word “his tent” is written with a feminine ending. The Midrash reads in it that Avram first pitched Sarah’s tent, then his own.

Debate without a conclusion

Bereshit Rabbah often lines up two, three or four opinions without deciding: “Rabbi Yehudah says… Rabbi Nechemiah says…”. This is not hesitation. In aggadah, the realm of thought and narrative, there is no need to fix a conclusion as in halakhah, practical law. Each reading remains true on its own level. The Rav explains it in these terms: only halakhah holds the reins of conduct; on the level of ideas, the understanding of the text evolves with the generations, provided one does not cut oneself off from the root (Bereshit Rabbah 39, Part 5).

The deeds of the fathers, a sign for the children

One principle runs through the whole book: what happened to the Patriarchs foreshadows what will happen to their descendants. In chapter 40, the Midrash draws a parallel between Avram’s descent into Egypt and that of his children. For Avram as for Yaakov, a famine drives them towards Egypt. Pharaoh threatens Sarah as he will later threaten the children of Israel. Avram goes back up laden with silver and gold, and the people will leave Egypt with the silver and gold the Egyptians give them. The Rav sums up this midrash as a command addressed to Avram: go, pave the way for your children (Bereshit Rabbah 40, Part Two).

Some famous texts from Bereshit Rabbah

To get a taste of the book, here are four of its best-known passages.

The Torah, blueprint of the world (1:1). Rabbi Hoshaya opens the book with a verse from Proverbs in which the Torah says: “I was beside Him as an amon” (Mishlei 8:30). He reads the word amon as oman, the craftsman or architect. A king of flesh and blood who builds a palace does not build it from his own head: he follows an architect’s plans. Likewise, G-d looked into the Torah and created the world. The Torah precedes the world and gives it its meaning.
Avram and Terah’s idols (38:13). Terah, Avram’s father, makes and sells idols. One day, while he is away, Avram smashes all the statues except the largest, and places the stick in its hand. To his furious father, he explains that the big idol struck the others. Terah replies that these statues cannot do anything, and Avram turns the question back on him: let your ears hear what your mouth is saying! The story continues before Nimrod and leads to the furnace.
The palace in flames (39:1). This is Rabbi Yitzchak’s parable cited above. Avram sees the world burning and cannot accept that no one is responsible for it. His quest calls for an answer, and G-d reveals Himself to him.
The four medallions (39:11). Four men had a “coin struck” in their name in the world: Avraham, Yehoshua, David and Mordechai. Each coin bears an emblem: an old man and an old woman on one side, a young man and a young woman on the other for Avraham; a staff and a satchel on one side, a tower on the other for David; sackcloth and ashes on one side, a golden crown on the other for Mordechai.

What Rav Raphaël Benizri teaches about Bereshit Rabbah

Rav Benizri does not read the Midrash as a collection of pious anecdotes. He reads in it a body of thought: questions about faith, exile, the land, the other, the couple, which touch each of us today. He says so himself: the deeds of the fathers chart the path of the children, and this narrative must not be read as something past. Here are the main lines of his twelve lectures.

A journey without a destination

Why does G-d say to Avram “to the land that I will show you,” without naming it? In Bereshit Rabbah 39, Part 2, the Rav sees an intellectual demand, a journey that never stops. The command comes with no law, no revelation of Torah: first discover yourself, but in relation to a place on earth. He also notes that the Torah offers no praise of Avram before introducing him, whereas it does so for Noach. His virtues come to light as his journey unfolds.

The Midrash (39:9) compares this first “Go forth” with the second, that of the binding of Yitzchak: “on one of the mountains that I will tell you” (Bereshit 22:2). Rabbi Yochanan explains this delay: it is to make the thing dearer in his eyes, and to give him a reward for every step. The Rav develops this point in Bereshit Rabbah 39, Part 5. True change does not happen in a single leap: someone who changes everything overnight can capsize just as abruptly. Hence the blessing recited every morning to the One who directs a person’s steps.

Idolatry, a thought that has frozen

What idolatry must Avram break away from? For the Rav, it is not a crude cult. It is a current of thought that was halted and turned into a cult. In Avram’s world, philosophy had its place. Terah “sold idols,” that is, according to the Rav’s reading, currents of thought: he advised each person what to take (Bereshit Rabbah 39, Part One). The idol is thought that no longer moves. The Rav adds that lech lecha is not a repudiation of what one has received. It is a matter neither of denying nor of disparaging, but of looking at the heritage from a new angle and dusting it off.

The petichta of the flask of perfume (Shir HaShirim 1:3) shows this in its own way. A sealed flask of balm, set in a corner, does not spread its scent. As soon as it is moved, the fragrance is released. For the Rav, displacement is not a loss: it is the condition for radiance. And the city of Haran, prosperous and tolerant, represents the comfortable exile that is precisely what Avram must leave.

Wisdom, a sister

In Bereshit Rabbah 39, Part 3, the Rav comments on the petichta from Kohelet: for ten generations, from Noach to Avram, G-d spoke to no one. Then He speaks to Avram, because such devotion to wisdom cannot remain unanswered. This wisdom is a “sister,” as in the verse from Proverbs: “Say to wisdom: you are my sister” (Mishlei 7:4). It is an inspiration that accompanies a person, a love free of all desire. The Rav also reads Rabbi Acha’s petichta on Sodom in this light. Avraham dares to tell G-d that He cannot want both the world and absolute justice. If G-d wants the world to exist, there must be mercy within judgment.

“Be a blessing”: a responsibility

Is the verse “be a blessing” (Bereshit 12:2) a reward? For the Rav, it is a responsibility (Bereshit Rabbah 39, Part 7). He connects the verb barekh, to bless, to an agricultural term, havrakah, layering: a branch of the tree is bent down into the soil, and it reproduces the same tree a few meters away. To bless is to be able to extend oneself elsewhere without ceasing to be oneself. The Midrash has G-d say: until now it was I who blessed My world; from now on it is up to you. The Rav sees in it a responsibility towards the nations as much as towards one’s own. He conceives of it without proselytism: what is transmitted is conduct, just as children learn from their parents. As for “the souls they had made in Haran” (Bereshit 12:5), the verb “made” teaches that drawing a person close amounts to recreating him.

The land, the people, the Torah

In Bereshit Rabbah 39, Part 6, the Rav starts from the promise “I will make you a great nation.” The verb is “make,” not “give.” Israel is never an acquired state: it is made day after day. The Rav also stresses that, in the narrative, the land comes before the people and before the Torah. The first promises made to Avraham concern the land and mention no form of worship. Finally, the lecture comments on the four medallions, all of which are connected with the conquest of the land or the return from exile.

In Bereshit Rabbah 39, Part 8, the Rav completes the picture with a theory of exile. He distinguishes between one who dwells outside the land adopting the ways of others and one who sojourns there while keeping his identity, in order to gather the holiness that other cultures carry. Avram goes down to Egypt “to sojourn there” (Bereshit 12:10), not to settle. And Sarah’s tent, pitched before his own, says that the covenant with the land resembles the covenant with one’s wife.

Sarah, inner beauty

In chapter 40, Avram says to Sarah at the border: “I know that you are a woman of beautiful appearance” (Bereshit 12:11). In Bereshit Rabbah 40, Part One, the Rav distinguishes two kinds of beauty: that of appearance and that of attributes. Beauty, for him, is the harmony of all a being’s qualities, and it is this beauty that the verse speaks of. Sarah is no longer a young woman, and the Rav stresses that despite all her trials her face has remained serene: it is the beauty of fulfillment, not that of youth. The Rav also recalls that the book of Bereshit contains almost no commandments. It is the book of how to be, the vessel without which the Torah cannot be received.

The continuation, in Bereshit Rabbah 40, Part Two, comments on the midrash of the chest. The text says that Avram arrived in Egypt, without mentioning Sarah. The Midrash explains that he had hidden her in a chest. The customs officers demand ever higher duties from him, and he agrees to everything; finally he is forced to open it, and a light fills Egypt. For the Rav, what Pharaoh covets is the muse of a people, its spiritual life, which tradition entrusts to the feminine. He connects it with the four names the Song of Songs gives to the beloved (Shir HaShirim 5:2): sister, companion, dove, perfect one.

Lot, Avram’s shadow

The last two lectures deal with Lot. In Bereshit Rabbah 41, Part 1, the Rav describes him as Avram’s “veil” or mask, his shadow. He resembles him, teaches more or less the same things, but has internalized none of it deeply. The Midrash lists what Lot received thanks to Avram, and the Rav follows his descendants down to Ruth the Moabite, great-grandmother of David, and Naamah the Ammonite, wife of Shlomo and mother of his successor Rechavam (Melachim I 14:21): through them, something of Lot joins the dynasty of David. From this family rift he draws a lesson: separations are sometimes unavoidable, but one must know how to handle them, and the Rav notes that the separation itself will be held against Avraham: with everyone he finds compromises, except with his nephew.

In Bereshit Rabbah 41, Part 2, the Rav comments on the promise of offspring “like the dust of the earth” (Bereshit 13:16), which the Midrash explains in several ways. Dust reaches from one end of the world to the other, as Avraham’s children will be scattered. The earth yields fruit only through water, as Israel bears fruit only through the Torah. It wears out every metal tool and endures. The Rav highlights Lot’s error: reducing the teaching to recipes for living tailored to one’s own measure, wearing Judaism like a protective coat instead of making it part of oneself.

How to study Bereshit Rabbah today

The Hebrew and Aramaic text is found in all editions of Midrash Rabbah. It is often accompanied by classic commentaries that help in understanding the allusions and difficult words, such as Matnot Kehunah or Perush Maharzu. Scholars use the critical edition of Theodor and Albeck, which compares the manuscripts. French translations also exist.

A few tips for getting started:

Start from the verse. Before reading a paragraph, reread the verse of Genesis it comments on, and identify the difficulty it raises: a repetition, an unusual word, a silence.
Follow the petichta to the end. The distant verse is not a digression. Look for how it leads back to the verse of Genesis.
Do not look for a single conclusion. When two Sages disagree, ask what each of them sees in the text.
Read beyond the letter. The Rav insists: one cannot remain stuck to the literal meaning; the text must be given back its present-day substance (Bereshit Rabbah 40, Part One).
Study with a teacher. The Midrash is dense and allusive, and is best read with a guide. That is the whole point of following a series of lectures in order.

For those discovering these notions, the site’s glossary explains the Hebrew words used, and the Where to Start? page offers a path through the Rav’s lectures.

Frequently asked questions about Bereshit Rabbah

Is Bereshit Rabbah part of the Talmud?

No. It is a separate book, even though it belongs to the same era and the same world as the Jerusalem Talmud. Many of its masters are also cited in the Talmud, and some passages appear in both works. The Talmud is organized according to the Mishnah and deals mainly with law. Bereshit Rabbah follows the text of Genesis and deals mainly with aggadah.

Who wrote Bereshit Rabbah?

Tradition, formulated notably by the Rambam in the introduction to the Mishneh Torah, attributes it to Rabbi Hoshaya, a disciple of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, in the third century. Yet the book contains the teachings of later masters. It is therefore held that Rabbi Hoshaya laid its foundation and that the work was completed and given its form by his successors, in the Land of Israel.

What is the difference between Bereshit Rabbah and Midrash Rabbah?

Midrash Rabbah is the collection of ten books: five on the Torah and five on the Megillot. Bereshit Rabbah is the first of them, the one that comments on Genesis, and also the oldest. The others were composed in different periods, some several centuries later.

Should midrashim be taken literally?

The commentators have discussed this at length, and the Rambam, in his introduction to chapter Chelek of his commentary on the Mishnah, warned against two errors: taking everything literally, or rejecting everything as fables. Many midrashim speak in images, such as Sarah’s chest or the palace in flames. Rav Benizri often reminds us of this: one must read on several levels, otherwise these narratives are reduced to children’s stories.

Where should one begin studying Bereshit Rabbah?

The simplest approach is to choose a parashah one knows well and read the corresponding chapters. The beginning of Lech Lecha, chapters 39 to 41, lends itself particularly well to this. That is precisely what Rav Benizri’s twelve lectures comment on, and they can be followed in order starting from the lecture that opens chapter 39 (numbered “Part 2” on the site).

Does Bereshit Rabbah have legal authority?

No: it is a midrash of aggadah. It nourishes thought, faith and ethics, but halakhah is not decided on its basis. For practical questions, consult a competent rabbi.

Conclusion: a book that sets you in motion

Bereshit Rabbah is far more than an ancient commentary on Genesis. It is a study house put into writing. Generations of Sages of the Land of Israel questioned every word of the story of origins in it, confronted their readings and handed them down without seeking to unify them. Rabbi Hoshaya opened its door, with the image of a Torah that serves as the blueprint of the world.

In his lectures, Rav Raphaël Benizri shows that this book has not aged. The call “Go forth” remains an invitation never to let one’s thinking freeze. The descent into Egypt remains a key to understanding exile. And the parting from Lot still says something about our families and our communities. The best way to discover it is to listen to these twelve lectures, in order, one chapter after another.

What Is Bereshit Rabbah? The Great Midrash on Genesis