1,351 related texts · 28 related myths · Page 3 of 29
How far must a person go to honor a parent? Rav Ulla was asked this question, and instead of answering with a verse, he told a story. There was a man in Ashkelon named Dammah ben N...
On the Feast of Sukkot, the Torah commands Israel to offer seventy bullocks across the seven days (Numbers 29:12–36). Rabbi Eliezer asked the obvious question in Sukkah 55b: sevent...
With her third son, Leah reaches for a new hope. This time, she thinks, Jacob will at last be yilaveh, attached, to her (Genesis 29:34). So she names the child Levi, from the root ...
“For Mount Zion, which is desolate; foxes walk on it” (Lamentations 5:18).“For Mount Zion, which is desolate.” It happened that Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya, Rabbi Yehos...
Numbers 7 is the longest chapter in the Torah, listing identical offerings from twelve tribal princes across twelve days. It is famously repetitive. The Targum Jonathan rescues it ...
When Nero first entered the Holy Land, he did not arrive as a conqueror sure of his victory. He arrived as a diviner uncertain of his fate. He took up his bow and shot an arrow eas...
Once a year, only once, Aaron approached the golden incense altar with a different purpose. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the command that on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, t...
(Job 23:3) is one of the rawest lines in the Hebrew Bible. "Oh that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come to His abode." Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bereshit 13:1 reads this...
It's not a mistake, and it's definitely not filler! Sometimes, those repetitions are there to teach us something profound about the people and stories within. to one such instance ...
In the Book of Numbers, Bamidbar, we read about how the Kehatites, a family within the tribe of Levi, had the unique and profoundly important task of carrying the Ark of the Covena...
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? Every...
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...
The Torah draws a direct line between the tenth plague and a permanent commandment: "And the Lord killed every first-born.. therefore, I sacrifice to the Lord every male first-born...
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 The passage starts with a seemingly simple verse: "And I, behold, I have taken your brothers, the Levites, from the midst of the children of Israel, f...
Sifrei Bamidbar turns to Why the Levites Received No Inheritance in the Land. Why does the Torah need to spell this out? The Sifrei Bamidbar, a rabbinic commentary on the book of N...
Which brings up an interesting comparison: who had the better deal? In Sifrei Bamidbar, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Numbers, the covenant forged with Aaron...
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, "And you shall say to t...
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...
Bamidbar Rabbah turns to The Mysterious Census Number That Echoed the Tabernacle. This particular number, 603,550, might ring a bell. It echoes another census, the one taken during...
It's almost like a cosmic nudge, inviting us to dig a little deeper. Consider the juxtaposition of the laws concerning lepers right before the section detailing the duties of the L...
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 fascina...
There was a lot of… well, let's call it "divine growing pains." The Vayikra Rabbah, a fascinating collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Leviticus, gives us a glimps...
By Louis Ginzberg, Moses, overwhelmed, turned to God in desperation. "O Lord of the world!" he cried, comparing himself to a careless shepherd who has led his flock to the edge of ...
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...
How the Menorah Lamps Were Meant to Be Lit is the question behind this passage from Sifrei Bamidbar. The burning question at the heart of this passage is: How exactly were the lamp...
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 explain...
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 pract...
