1,036 related texts · 11 related myths · Page 5 of 22
There’s a fascinating, little-known story about King David that suggests even he needed a wake-up call. David, the shepherd-turned-king, is wandering through a dense, ancient fores...
There's a story in the Torah, a rather unsettling one, about two brothers, Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, and it's been echoing through Jewish tradition for millennia. We find...
The midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), that ancient form of Jewish storytelling and interpretation, lays it out: the wicked see a world where God seems distant. They see t...
The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) opens with a simple plea: “I call to You, O Lord, to you I raise my voice.” It’s a moment of connection, a reminder that even in the ...
They turned to midrash, a method of interpreting scripture that fills in gaps, answers questions, and breathes life into the text. a fascinating passage from Midrash Tehillim (Midr...
Midrash Tehillim turns to What Clouds Teach Us About Divine Inspiration. The passage begins with a debate, a hallmark of rabbinic literature. It's a friendly disagreement between t...
It's a symbol, layered with meaning, hinting at the complex relationship between Israel and the world. fire and thorns. Not exactly a match made in heaven. Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, ...
A fascinating and somewhat enigmatic text of Jewish tradition, fire isn't just fire. It’s something… else. Rabbi Judah paints a vivid picture, one that starts with a fiery descent....
It sounds gross, I know, but stay with me. There’s a fascinating passage in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer (chapter 54) that throws light on the number seven and its significance in Jewish...
The Yalkut Shimoni, a compilation of rabbinic commentary on the Hebrew Bible, offers a breathtaking glimpse into just that moment. Rabbi Yochanan tells us that the world was create...
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...
Sometimes, it's in those very details that we uncover profound insights into Jewish law and tradition. to one such detail from Sifrei Bamidbar, a fascinating work of halakhic (lega...
Our little puzzle comes from Sifrei Bamidbar 73, focusing on a seemingly minor detail in the book of Numbers (Bamidbar). It's about the trumpets, the chatzotzrot, and who gathers w...
Our starting point is a passage from I (Chronicles 4:5): "And Ashchur, the father of Tekoa, had two wives, Chelah and Na'arah." But who is this "Ashchur"? According to Sifrei Bamid...
It’s a seeming contradiction that the ancient rabbis grappled with. How do we reconcile these verses? The Sifrei Bamidbar, a collection of legal and narrative interpretations on th...
The Torah, in the book of Bamidbar (Numbers), gives us a pretty stark example of that. The people, they weren't happy with just mann. They craved meat. They whined and complained u...
This week, The verse reads, "And they said: Is it only with Moses that the L-rd has spoken?" Ouch. That stings, doesn't it? It's like they're saying, "Hey, what about us? Have we n...
The Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal midrashim (rabbinic interpretive commentary) on the Book of Deuteronomy, illuminates this. It wasn't just some abstract evil, but somethin...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Miriam — Moses and the Dreamer. Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy, offers a fascinating insight. It tells us ...
The ancient rabbis certainly understood that feeling. They saw it reflected in a particularly difficult year for the Israelites, a year marked by a triple tragedy. The Sifrei Devar...
It's all tucked away in a short but potent verse from Sifrei Devarim 313, a midrashic (rabbinic interpretive commentary) text on the Book of Deuteronomy. The verse says, "He built ...
A powerful, and frankly, a little scary verse from Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal interpretations on the book of Deuteronomy. Specifically, The verse (Deuteronomy 32:23) Now...
The completion of all the Tabernacle's furnishings and garments in (Exodus 39:1-43) should feel repetitive. The craftsmen were building exactly what God commanded. But the Targum J...
Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses. The Hebrew Bible is vague about why. The Targum Jonathan fills in the backstory with a Cushite queen, a celibate prophet, and a divine rebuke tha...
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 ...
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...
Midrash on the death of Aaron "I lost the three shepherds in one month" (Zecharia 11:8); and thus, in one month, Aaron, Miriam, and Moses died. Miriam died on the 1st of the month ...
Story of Eldad the Danite, Narrative B In the name of the LORD God of Israel, blessed be His name, of our God the King, King of kings, Who chose Israel from among all nations and g...
The sages defended Rav Saphra for his devotion to Oral Torah over Scripture, and in doing so they staked out one of Judaism's most startling claims. Tradition, they argued, is not ...
The midrash tells of the last days of Jerusalem under Roman siege. One of the wealthiest women of the city, Miriam the daughter of Baythus, sent her servant to buy flour for the ho...
Before Moses ever steps into Pharaoh's throne room, God rehearses the scene with him in advance. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the expansive Aramaic paraphrase, preserves the staging: th...
When Moses raised his rod, heaven answered with a miracle that defied nature itself. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:23) describes it: "Mosheh lifted up his rod toward the ...
Most translations of (Exodus 12:21) render Moses's words to the elders as a simple instruction: go and take a lamb. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan sharpens it into a rebuke. "Withdraw your...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan keeps one detail from the Hebrew and clarifies another. Miriam, the sister of Aaron, is called the prophetess. She takes a tambourine, and all the women come...
After the battle ended, God gave Moses a strange commandment: not to celebrate, but to write. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan reads it this way: "Write this memorial in the book of the ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan stages Moses's greeting of Jethro with cinematic care: "Moses came forth from under the cloud of glory to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance, and ...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 24:1) opens with an unexpected speaker: Michael, the Prince of Wisdom, said to Mosheh on the seventh day of the month, Come up before the L...
The plain Hebrew of (Exodus 24:17) says that the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. The T...
The king, instead of addressing the crowd, singles you out. He speaks directly to you. That, my friends, is the opening of Bamidbar Rabbah, the ancient midrash on the Book of Numbe...
What does it all mean? , drawing on the tradition of Jewish tradition to unravel this mystery. The Torah tells us, "The priest shall write these curses in a scroll, and erase it in...
Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Numbers, explores this very question. It all starts with the seemingly simple phrase, "When you kindle" (Numbers ...
Our story begins with the instruction to Moses to craft two silver trumpets, kliyot keseph, hammered meticulously. "Craft for you two silver trumpets; hammered, you shall craft the...
Moses knew the feeling. Leading the Israelites through the desert? No small feat! And it seems even he needed a little help. We find ourselves in Bamidbar Rabbah 15, a section of t...
In this week's Torah portion, Chukat, we find a particularly fraught moment (Numbers 20:8). God tells Moses, "Take the staff…and give the congregation and their animals to drink." ...
Bamidbar Rabbah turns to God's Power Is Restrained Yet Infinitely Greater Than Ours. How do we reconcile these seemingly contradictory ideas? Bamidbar Rabbah offers a beautiful exp...
In the very first section, the rabbis confront the verse, "You have circled this mountain enough" (Deuteronomy 2:3). What does it mean to circle a mountain "enough?" They see in th...
Devarim Rabbah reads Miriam's punishment as a warning about speech, kinship, and the priestly power to diagnose tzara'at. We find ourselves drawn to (Deuteronomy 24:9): “Remember w...
Devarim Rabbah, a collection of homiletic teachings on the book of Deuteronomy, tackles this very issue head-on, using a powerful verse from Psalms: “You sit and speak against your...
