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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, acquire...
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 ...
“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...
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 ...
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...
Jewish tradition grapples with that very human conundrum in the laws surrounding the Hebrew slave, or eved Ivri. Specifically, we're looking at a fascinating little corner of the b...
We all know the story: 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 glim...
The Book of Jubilees, a fascinating text from around the 2nd century BCE, sheds some unique light on it. Jubilees focuses on calendar and law, presenting itself as a revelation giv...
We're going to be talking about Jacob, and a very specific moment in his life as found in the Book of Jubilees. Now, the Book of Jubilees—sometimes called Lesser Genesis—is a fasci...
It’s more than just a wake-up call. According to the ancient text, Sefer HaKanah, these sounds are a complex language, a mystical dialogue between us, the divine, and the very forc...
It all revolves around the verse in (Song of Songs 8:2): "I would lead you, would bring you to my mother's house, that you would teach me; I would give you to drink from the spiced...
We often picture 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, a fascin...
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 Canaa...
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 ...
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: "f...
"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 Mekhi...
What does it truly mean for the Messiah to come? What would be required? We often hear about the miraculous, the earth-shattering changes that the arrival of Mashiach – the Messiah...
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...
It might surprise you to learn that some of it isn't directly from the Torah we read in synagogues. Let's talk about a text called the Book of Jubilees. The Book of Jubilees, also ...
We get a fascinating, if slightly scandalous, glimpse in the Book of Jubilees. Jubilees, for those unfamiliar, is an ancient Jewish text that retells the stories of Genesis and Exo...
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...
We’re diving into a snippet from the Book of Jubilees. Now, the Book of Jubilees isn’t part of the canonical Hebrew Bible that most people know. Think of it as a fascinating, sligh...
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, an ancient Jewish text from the Second Temple period, offers a powerful glimpse into the mechanics of forgiveness, and it all starts with a transgression. Cha...
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 prese...
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 ...
We read about it every year, the giving of the Torah, a moment etched in Jewish consciousness. But what did the people see? Was it a sudden flash, a blinding light? Or something el...
We’re turning to Sifrei Bamidbar, a legal midrash on the Book of Numbers. Specifically, we're looking at Bamidbar 28:6, which discusses the daily burnt offering, the tamid. The ver...
Sometimes, diving into Jewish law feels like stepping into a time machine set to "complicated." But stick with me, because buried within those intricate arguments, there's often a ...
The passage we're looking at today comes from Sifrei Devarim, specifically dealing with the laws of shemitat kesafim – the release of debts. This isn't just some dusty legal code, ...
They might sound distant, but their underlying principles still resonate. Imagine a system designed to periodically reset economic imbalances. That's the essence of Shemitah and Yo...
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...
It's all about rejoicing – simchah – and how it manifests on various holidays. The passage highlights three types of offerings or celebrations: re'iah, chagigah, and simchah. A re'...
