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The covenant at Moab in (Deuteronomy 29) is addressed to the Israelites standing there. Targum Jonathan expands the audience to infinity: "all the generations which have arisen fro...
The Torah's promise of return from exile in (Deuteronomy 30) is hopeful. Targum Jonathan makes it messianic. Where the Hebrew says God will gather the scattered, the Targum says: "...
Targum Jonathan opens (Deuteronomy 31) with Moses entering not a tent but "the tabernacle of the house of instruction"—a study hall. Even at the threshold of death, the setting is ...
The Song of Moses in (Deuteronomy 32) is the Torah's great poem. Targum Jonathan wraps it in an elaborate theological commentary that dwarfs the original. It opens with Moses choos...
The Blessing of Moses in (Deuteronomy 33) gets the full Targum treatment—every tribe's destiny expanded, every blessing loaded with specifics the Torah never mentions. It opens wit...
The death of Moses in (Deuteronomy 34) is eight verses in the Torah. Targum Jonathan turns it into one of the most elaborate death scenes in all of ancient Jewish literature. From ...
And it will be, from new month to new month, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh will come to bow before Me," said Hashem (Isaiah 66:23). Teach us, our teacher, a person from Is...
Teach us, our master, from when does the mitzvah of the Channukah lamp begin? Our rabbis taught – from when the sun sets until the majority of people are gone from the marketplace....
[What about all] the praise of Joseph, who exceeded in the honor of his father? And yet he did not enter into him all the time, such that were it not that they came to tell him, "Y...
And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be your name (41:18:31). May our ...
… it is written there “Behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You…” (Melachim I 8:27) and here it is written “…the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.” (Sh...
Another explanation. “And all the work that king Solomon had wrought in the house of the Lord was finished.” (Melachim I 7:51) What does ‘all the work’ mean? It was built by itself...
And the one who offered his sacrifice on the first day was Nachshon ben Aminadab of the tribe of Judah (Numbers 7:12). Our Rabbi, the one who offered the sacrifice to the altar, ta...
Teach us, oh master – may one light a lamp for personal use from the Channukah lights? Our masters taught us – R’ Acha said in the name of Rav ‘it is forbidden to light a lamp to u...
To the conductor on the music for David, God has heard my voice, I will sing to you from the ends of the earth, I will call to you with my heart wrapped around me (Psalms 61:1-3). ...
When God commanded Israel to give a half-shekel for the census, Moses was confused. Not by the amount — half a shekel was nearly nothing, a laborer's loose change. What baffled him...
The rabbis asked a strange question: why did King Solomon compare Israel to a walnut? Not a cedar, not a vine, not wheat — a walnut. Rabbi Yehoshua of Sichnan, speaking in the name...
"Remember what Amalek did to you" (Deuteronomy 25:17). God remembers the righteous for good and the wicked for destruction. When He recalled Abraham, He spoke with affection: "Shal...
From Ephraim, who wrote in Amalek after you, Benjamin (Judges 5:14). May our Rabbis teach us what a person should say when he reads the Book of Esther. The Talmud teaches us that o...
Our rabbis taught: An incident once took place with a Jewish man who had one cow [which he used] for ploughing. [Then], his hand [fortune] was diminished and he sold her [the cow] ...
Every corner of the known world smelled like paradise the day King Solomon completed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. According to the Pesikta Rabbati, a collection of midrash (rabbin...
Jeremiah said: when I was coming up to Jerusalem, I lifted up my eyes and saw a woman sitting on the mountaintop, her clothes were black and her hair unkempt. She cried: I am seeki...
The angels said before the Holy One, ‘Master of the World! Isn’t this Jerusalem?!’ as it is said “This is Jerusalem; in the midst of the nations I have placed her…” (Yechezkel 5:5)...
R’ Yitzchak expounded on, “On willows in its midst we hung our harps.” (Psalms 137:2) Come and see – the dirt of the land of Israel is for repentance. While they were still in the ...
"She weeps bitterly in the night" (Lamentations 1:2). The rabbis asked: who weeps? Jerusalem weeps for her slain, and she weeps for the famine — the horror of mothers who boiled th...
Teach us oh, teacher: once the Ninth of Av has ended, is everything permitted? R’ Chiyah the Great taught like this: once the Ninth of Av has ended, one is permitted to do anything...
Another explanation: “O poor tempestuous one, who was not consoled…” (Isaiah 54:11) R’ Levi said any where that it says she does not have, she has. It is written “…that is Zion who...
Teach us o teacher: toward where should one who prays orient his heart? This is what our Rabbis taught: one should orient his heart toward the place of the Holy of Holies (Berachot...
Another explanation. “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion… And many nations shall join the Lord…” (Zechariah 2:14-15) R’ Chanina bar Papa said: this verse is only speaking of that...
Arise, my light, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you [For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and thick darkness will cover the nations, and th...
Teach us, oh teacher – if one has an argument with their friend, how shall they attain atonement on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement)? This is what our Rabbis taught: transgression...
… And He said to him ‘go away to the land of Moriah and bring him up there for a burnt offering’ (Bereshit 22:2) What is the land of Moriah? There is a whole bundle of Sages here, ...
Teach us oh, teacher: A court which sanctified the month, but not at Eintav with witnesses, is it sanctified? R’ Abahu said in the name of R’ Chiya the great: if a court sanctified...
“He does the will of those who fear Him…” (Tehillim 145:19) Meaning that Gd does not annul his prayers and gives him what he requests. This refers to David, of whom it is written “...
Chapter 1 From Adam to the Flood was 1656 years, and this is their enumeration: Adam 130, Seth 105, Enosh 90, Kenan 70, Mahalalel 65, Jared 162, Enoch 65, Methuselah 187, Lamech 18...
Chapter 2 Our forefather Jacob was 63 when he was blessed. Ishmael died at that time as is written, "Esau saw that Isaac had blessed...Jacob listened to his father...Esau saw [the ...
The judgment of the wicked in Gehinnom (the place of spiritual purification after death) lasts twelve months, as it says “And it shall be from new moon to new moon…” (Yeshayahu 66:...
The Flood was all of twelve months,1R. Eliyahu from Vilna explains that according to Seder Olam a year about which no details are given is a simple, regular year of 354 days follow...
The Seder Olam reveals a pattern hidden in the calendar of sacred history: the most important events in Israel's story all cluster around one date — the fifteenth of Nisan. It bega...
On the seventh day after the Ten Commandments Moshe went up on the mountain, as it says "The Presence of the LORD abode on Mount Sinai, and the cloud hid it for six days..." (Shemo...
"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation. And thou shalt put therein the ark of ...
"And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year..." (Numbers 1:1).1Guggen...
Chapter 9 They [the Israelites]--the entire congregation--came to the wilderness of Tzin in the first month, and the nation settled there, and Miriam died there and was buried ther...
Chapter 10 “And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that th...
Eli led Israel for forty years, and the day Eli died, he forsook his tabernacle, as it is said, “He rejected the tent of Joseph” (Psalm 78:67), and “He gave His strength into capti...
“And in the first year of Cyrus, the king of Persia, at the completion of the word of the Lord from the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord aroused… So said Cyrus, the king of Persia… Who ...
Rabbi Yossi says, "A merit ends up being on a day of merit and a punishment ends up being on a day of punishment. For you will find to say that when the First Temple was destroyed,...
Moses received the Torah at Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the prophets to the Men of the Great Assembly. They said t...
