1,164 related texts · Page 3 of 25
1 Maccabees 1 paints a stark picture: "Her sanctuary was laid waste like a wilderness, her feasts were turned into mourning, her sabbaths into reproach, her honour into contempt." ...
We see hints of it in the way Moses was commanded to count the Levites. : for all the other tribes, only men fit for war, twenty years old and up, were numbered. But with Levi? Eve...
Before he was battling Goliath or leading armies, David spent a lot of time alone in the desert. The midbar, the wilderness, can be a pretty intense place, but it’s also where hero...
R. Yossi b. R. Yehudah says: From half the altar northwards is regarded as north, and from half the altar southwards is regarded as south. And this tells me only that the north of ...
Seems like a prime opportunity for spiritual growth. But Sifrei Bamidbar, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Numbers, pulls no punches. It points out a rather gla...
Even Moses, our great leader, faced such dilemmas, and the stories of how he navigated them are They reveal not just his wisdom, but also a glimpse into the Divine hand at play in ...
It’s a fascinating topic, and today we're diving into a passage from Sifrei Bamidbar, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Numbers, that sheds light on just that. T...
That’s the fascinating idea we find in the book of Numbers, Bamidbar, specifically in verse 18:20. It says, "And the L-rd said to Aaron: In their land you will not inherit, and you...
Jewish tradition grapples with this very question, particularly when we look at the roles of Aaron and David, and their descendants. Which brings up an interesting comparison: who ...
Today, let's unpack a passage from Sifrei Bamidbar, specifically focusing on (Numbers 18:30-32), which deals with the Levites and their portion of the tithes. The verse states, "An...
Transporting the Tabernacle was the most dangerous job in ancient Israel. The Targum Jonathan makes clear that one wrong glance at the sacred vessels meant death by divine fire. Wh...
It's almost like a cosmic nudge, inviting us to dig a little deeper. Take, for example, the juxtaposition of the laws concerning lepers right before the section detailing the dutie...
The story of the spies sent to scout the Land of Canaan in the Book of Numbers is a powerful example of how fear and negative speech can derail even the most promising journeys. Th...
Like after all the hard work, the dedication, the striving... shouldn't there be a bonus round of celebration? Well, Jewish tradition understands that feeling perfectly. to a fasci...
It wasn't all manna from heaven and miraculous wells, you know. There was a lot of… well, let's call it "divine growing pains." The Vayikra Rabbah, a fascinating collection of rabb...
According to Legends of the Jews, by Louis Ginzberg, Moses, overwhelmed, turned to God in desperation. "O Lord of the world!" he cried, comparing himself to a careless shepherd who...
The essence of life comes from prayer. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov derives this from a single verse: "Prayer to the God of my life" (Psalms 42:9). Prayer is not merely an appeal to th...
You cannot receive complete divine providence until you shatter your desire for money. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught this as a direct spiritual mechanism, not a moral platitude. ...
On the night of the Exodus, God did not just strike the firstborn of Egypt. He also executed judgment on the gods of Egypt. And according to the Mekhilta, those judgments were not ...
The Torah commands: "the one lamb shall you offer in the morning, and the other lamb shall you offer in the afternoon" (Numbers 28:4). This is the tamid, the daily perpetual offeri...
Rabbi Nathan offered a striking interpretation of the word bakosharoth from (Psalms 68:7), "He takes out the bound bakosharoth." Rather than reading it as a single word, he split i...
To teach us that as one metes it out to others, so is it meted out to him. Miriam waited a short time for Moses, viz. (Ibid. 2:4) "And his sister stood from afar to know what would...
(Exodus 14:3) "And Pharaoh will say about the children of Israel: They are nevuchim in the land": "nevuchim" is "confounded," as in (Joel 1:18) "How the beasts groan! The herds of ...
The Mekhilta draws a parallel that cuts both ways. In the previous passage, the rabbis established that believing in Moses equals believing in God. Now they demonstrate the reverse...
The Torah says that God tested Israel at Marah with the word "nisahu." But what does this word actually mean? Two rabbis offered completely different readings. Rabbi Yehoshua argue...
When God sent quail to the Israelites in the wilderness, the Torah says "it covered the camp" (Exodus 16:13). The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael asked the obvious question: covered it t...
Quail fell from the sky in quantities that defy imagination. Rabbi Yoshiyah, quoted in the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael (a 3rd-century CE halakhic midrash (rabbinic interpretive comme...
Amalek's attack on Israel was not a matter of geography or convenience. Rabbi Yehudah teaches that Amalek actually bypassed five other nations to reach the Israelites. He had to cr...
The Mekhilta draws a direct parallel between Moses' raised hands and another puzzling episode: the bronze serpent in the wilderness. When poisonous snakes attacked the Israelites, ...
The Mekhilta continues cataloguing everything God showed Moses from Mount Pisgah. The question this time: how do we know that God showed him even the graves of the forefathers? The...
We're going to explore a particularly intriguing passage from Sifrei Bamidbar, a commentary on the Book of Numbers, which delves into the lighting of the menorah, the sacred candel...
Our guide here is Sifrei Bamidbar, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Numbers. It wrestles with a verse in Numbers (8:25): "And from the age of fifty he shall ret...
In Bamidbar (Numbers) 10:5-6, we read about the signals for the Israelites to move their camps during their desert wanderings. It says, "And when you blow a teruah, then there shal...
Hillel taught: "Be of the disciples of Aaron — loving peace and pursuing peace, loving people and drawing them near to the Torah." But what did Aaron actually do? Rabbi Meir explai...
Isaiah says God is "calling from the east a bird of prey, a man of my counsel from a distant land" (Isaiah 46:11). The rabbis identified that bird of prey as Abraham. He came from ...
After the conquest of Canaan, God deliberately left certain nations in the land — not because He couldn't remove them, but to test Israel (Judges 3:1-2). The rabbis found this prac...
"And Jacob called unto his sons" (Genesis 49:1). The Torah records the great final blessing — all twelve sons gathered around the dying patriarch, each receiving something tailored...
"I will assemble Jacob, all of you; I will bring together the remnant of Israel" (Micah 2:12). The end of Aggadat Bereshit's prophetic arc arrives here: not the death of Jacob, not...
In the book of Numbers, Bamidbar, we find a census being taken. But there's a twist. "However, the tribe of Levi you shall not count" (Numbers 1:49). Why this exclusion? Bamidbar R...
It seems like such a simple detail, but the Torah dedicates a lot of space to describing the precise arrangement of the tribes around the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. And the Rabbis, n...
It all goes back to a fascinating swap, a divine exchange, that re-shaped the spiritual landscape of ancient Israel. We find the seeds of this story in Bamidbar Rabbah, specificall...
In the book of Deuteronomy (Devarim), we find Moses at a pivotal moment. God tells him, "Ascend to the top of the peak, and lift your eyes to the west, and to the north, and to the...
The book of Exodus tells us that God spoke, but the how… that’s where the Jewish tradition gets truly wondrous. Our exploration starts with a seemingly simple verse: “The Lord said...
“They heard that I sigh; there is no comforter for me; all my enemies heard of my misfortune, were glad because You acted. May You bring the day that You proclaimed, and they will ...
“We bring our bread at the peril of our lives due to the sword of the wilderness” (Lamentations 5:9).“We bring our bread at the peril of our lives.” Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said:...
And the Lord said to Aaron: “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses” (Exod. 4:27). Scripture states elsewhere in allusion to this verse: God thundereth marvelously with His voice; gr...
Rabbi Akiva taught that there were three things Moses could not visualize on his own, no matter how great his prophetic power. God had to physically point them out to him. The firs...
Four are called "inheritance": the Temple—viz. "in the mountain of Your inheritance." Eretz Yisrael—viz. (Devarim 15:4) "in the land which the L–rd Your G–d gives You as an inherit...
