838 related texts · 4 related myths · Page 1 of 18
Rabbi Berekhya said: The Holy one blessed be He recorded the redemption of Israel in the Torah, as it is written: “If a stranger who is a resident among you shall prosper…” (Leviti...
"and he shall serve him forever": until the Jubilee year (Yovel). For it would follow otherwise, viz. If money, whose "power" is formidable, and which acquires everything, acquires...
The Torah gives one of its most peculiar laws. If a Hebrew slave, after six years of service, chooses to stay with his master rather than go free, his ear is brought to the doorpos...
It's considered apocryphal – meaning it's not part of the biblical canon for most Jewish denominations. But it’s still a treasure trove of information about ancient Jewish thought ...
There is nothing more beloved than the Mincha prayer. The afternoon offering, the one between the morning and the evening, is the prayer that comes at the moment when the day is st...
“Let all their wickedness come before You, and do to them as You did to me for all my transgressions, for my sighs are many and my heart is suffering” (Lamentations 1:22).“Let all ...
R. Yishmael says: What is written at the beginning, viz. (Leviticus 25:1-3) "And the L–rd spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying … then the land shall rest a Sabbath to the L–rd. Si...
Whence do we derive (the same for) the food of his children? From (Leviticus 25:41) "And he shall go out from you (in the Jubilee year), he and his children with him." From "going ...
The Torah's prohibition against charging interest is one of the most distinctive features of biblical economic law. The Mekhilta examines the verse "Do not impose interest upon him...
It's a fascinating read, full of details you won't find anywhere else in the Torah. The Book of Jubilees, sometimes called Lesser Genesis, presents itself as a revelation given to ...
Rebbi, the great Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, offered a precise definition of a word that usually sounds limitless. When the Torah says a Hebrew servant "shall serve him forever" (Exodus ...
Our case in point comes from Sifrei Devarim 118, a commentary on the Book of Deuteronomy. It specifically asks why the Torah bothers mentioning both "the Hebrew man" and "the Hebre...
Specifically, The Torah outlines that a Hebrew slave is to be freed in the seventh year of their servitude. But what happens if the slave, presented with freedom, refuses it? What ...
Six years you plow. Six years you harvest. Six years you measure the field by what it produces for you. Then the seventh year arrives. And the ledger flips. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan ...
What does it truly mean for the Messiah to come? What would be required? The familiar telling remembers the miraculous, the earth-shattering changes that the arrival of Mashiach – ...
The familiar story is this: Moses goes up the mountain, gets the Ten Commandments, and comes back down. But what if there was more to the story? What if the Bible we know is just a...
Book of Jubilees turns to Mount Sinai Studies Torah. It states, quite directly, that "one day in the year in this month they shall celebrate the festival. For it is the feast of we...
Book of Jubilees turns to Rebecca Blesses Jacob Before He Departs in Jubilees. The Book of Jubilees, sometimes called Lesser Genesis, is a fascinating ancient Jewish text. It retel...
In ancient text, Sefer HaKanah, these sounds are a complex language, a mystical dialogue between us, the divine, and the very forces that shape our reality. Yourself in the wildern...
The familiar picture has Moses on Mount Sinai, receiving the divine word directly from God. Forty days and forty nights of dictation. But what if I told you there's another story, ...
For it is written (Ibid. 7) "And if a man sells his daughter as a maidservant, she shall not go out as the (Canaanite) bondsmen go out", by (loss of) organ prominences, as the Cana...
Rabbi Eliezer tackles a textual ambiguity in the Torah's laws of servitude that has real legal consequences. The verse under discussion deals with the acquisition of servants, and ...
Rabbi Yishmael taught a sobering principle about Canaanite bondservants: a Canaanite bondservant can never be redeemed by an outside party. The only path to freedom is the master's...
"And the poor of your people shall eat it", during the shemitah year, the produce that grows on its own is available to the poor. But (Leviticus 25:6) says something different: "fo...
"And what they leave shall be eaten by the animals of the field", the Torah establishes that shemitah produce left uneaten by humans may be consumed by wild animals. But the Mekhil...
Leviticus 25 introduces the sabbatical year and the Jubilee. The Targum Jonathan addresses the most obvious objection: if the land rests every seventh year, what will people eat? G...
“On a floor of alabaster, marble, mother-of-pearl, and onyx.” Rav Naḥman said: Come and see what the comfort of that wicked one was like. His house was paved with precious stones a...
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...
In what lies in the other ark it is written (Exodus 20) "I am the L–rd your G–d," and of Joseph it is written (Genesis 50:19) "Am I in the place of G–d?" In what lies in this ark i...
"Six years shall he serve": I might think (that he performs) both demeaning and non-demeaning service. It is, therefore, written (Leviticus 25:39) "Do not have him work the service...
Beloved are the strangers, for by every epithet that Israel is called, the strangers are called. Israelites are called "servants," as it is written (Leviticus 25:55) "For unto Me t...
“Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and her wretchedness, all her delights that she had from the days of old; with the fall of her people into the hand of the adver...
“The Lord accomplished what He devised: He implemented His statement that He commanded from the days of old; He destroyed and had no compassion. He caused the enemy to rejoice over...
“Why do You forget us forever, forsake us for so long?” (Lamentations 5:20).“Why do You forget us forever?” Rabbi Yehoshua bar Avin said: Jeremiah employed four expressions: Spurni...
Book of Jubilees turns to The Sun as a Great Sign Upon the Earth. Specifically, the text emphasizes their role “to rule over the day and the night, and divide the light from the da...
It might surprise you to learn that some of it isn't directly from the Torah we read in synagogues. Let's The Book of Jubilees, also sometimes called Lesser Genesis, is an ancient ...
This ancient Jewish text, considered canonical by some but not others, pulls no punches when it comes to predicting the future – or, perhaps more accurately, warning us about the c...
Book of Jubilees turns to Ancient Agricultural Tithes Ordained in Jubilees. The Book of Jubilees isn’t part of the canonical Hebrew Bible that most people know. It’s an ancient Jew...
Sometimes, they're right there in the Torah. Other times, we find echoes of them in texts that didn't quite make it into the official canon. Take the Book of Jubilees, for example....
The Book of Jubilees, for those who aren't familiar, is an ancient Jewish text, considered part of the biblical apocrypha or pseudepigrapha – writings that hover around the edges o...
The Book of Jubilees claims that Moses received far more on Mount Sinai than the Ten Commandments, he received a cosmic download about the very fabric of time itself. The text pres...
The Torah specifies that a Hebrew maidservant does not go free through the loss of "organ prominences", external body parts like teeth or eyes that, if knocked out by the master, w...
The Mekhilta catalogs the multiple transgressions committed by someone who lends money at interest. From the Torah's various prohibitions against usury, the rabbis identified five ...
Sifrei Bamidbar turns to Mount Sinai's Transgression. It’s an intriguing comparison, isn’t it? This verse seems to be drawing a parallel between the regular, daily tamid offering a...
Sifrei Devarim turns to The Sabbatical Release of Debts Inside and Outside Israel. Our passage starts with a verse from Deuteronomy (15:2), stating "because it has been declared sh...
They might sound distant, but their underlying principles still resonate. A system designed to periodically reset economic imbalances. That's the essence of Shemitah and Yovel. The...
The Torah, it turns out, is overflowing with them. Take the laws surrounding freeing Hebrew slaves, for example. We find some fascinating details in Sifrei Devarim, a collection of...
A gentile came to Rabbi Judah ben Ilai with a rude accusation. "Rabbi," he said, "your face is too well-fed. You must be living off usury, taking interest from the poor." Rabbi Jud...
