1,012 related texts · Page 2 of 22
And when we look at texts like the Book of Jubilees, we see just how far that went. The Book of Jubilees, considered scripture in some traditions, particularly Ethiopian, offers a ...
In it, we find a stark warning, a line drawn in the sand regarding actions so egregious that they warrant the ultimate penalty. The passage states, “And for this law there is no co...
The Torah is full of these moments, these transitions, these reminders of our own mortality. And the Book of Jubilees, that fascinating text that expands upon Genesis, Exodus, and ...
The Book of Jubilees, also sometimes called Lesser Genesis, is considered apocryphal by many Jews and Protestants, but canonical in Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Christianity. Ap...
We’re not just talking about a nice nap after a good meal. We're diving deep into a vision of Sabbath so profound, so all-encompassing, that it could be, well... deadly serious. Le...
We're diving into 1 Maccabees chapter 6 today, and it's a nail-biter. After a victory, King Antiochus, not one to admit defeat, refocuses his energy. He's got his sights set on the...
We know about Mount Sinai, the thunder, the lightning, the booming voice... but what about the days that followed?Book of Jasher and see what unfolded. The story picks up right aft...
But did you know it has six names? for a second. Six different names, each hinting at a different facet of that earth-shattering moment. It’s like trying to describe a diamond – yo...
It wasn't just a chaotic mass of people wandering aimlessly, that's for sure. According to the traditions, there was a real method to the madness, a divinely inspired order. The st...
to a fascinating corner of Jewish legend, a story about the tribe of Asher, one of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the blessings they received. According to tradition, Moses himse...
The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah, delves into the deepest mysteries of the Torah. And in section 104, it gives us a interpretation of the shofar bl...
The phrase "and I brought you to Me" refers to the moment God gathered Israel before Mount Sinai to receive the Torah. But Rabbi Akiva added a detail to this scene that transforms ...
The Torah says, "Six days shall you do your work" (Exodus 23:12), a commandment to labor for six days and rest on the seventh, the Shabbat (the Sabbath). But the Mekhilta noticed s...
They’ve journeyed far, and now, they're about to experience something beyond comprehension. Exodus 19 tells us that on the third day, as morning broke, the atmosphere crackled with...
We often think of it as a moment of pure revelation, of divine gift-giving. But some ancient stories paint a picture far more…intense. A picture of near annihilation and miraculous...
You're not alone. But have you ever wondered why that wall, of all the Temple, still stands? There are many explanations, of course, both historical and theological. But Jewish tra...
The story, as told in Midrash Tehillim, is truly terrifying. Imagine Moses, up on Mount Sinai, receiving the Torah. A moment of ultimate revelation. And down below? The Israelites,...
No clocks, no sunrise, no sunset as we know it. So, how did he know when it was day and when it was night? The Midrash Tehillim, a collection of interpretations on the Book of Psal...
The Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating and somewhat enigmatic work of aggadic literature, offers a glimpse into that pivotal moment. It paints a picture of the Torah's power, li...
The prophets of Israel knew that feeling all too well. They saw their people straying, falling, losing their way. And they weren't afraid to call it out. But more importantly, they...
But what about everyone else? Well, Sifrei Devarim 311 sheds some light. It interprets the verse about consulting "your elders, and they shall say it to you" (Deuteronomy 32:7) as ...
The ancient text of Sifrei Devarim offers a powerful image of finding something precious in just such a place. It starts with the verse, "He found them in a desert land" (Deuterono...
Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)im (interpretations) on the Book of Deuteronomy, gives us a fascinating breakdown. It suggests there...
The revelation at Sinai is awe-inspiring in the Hebrew Bible. The Targum Jonathan on (Exodus 19) makes it terrifying. It adds details about God physically uprooting the mountain, I...
Not just any mountain, but Mount Sinai itself, the very place where God met Moses. It’s a mind-bending image, isn't it? That's how some of our tradition describes the moment of rev...
It wasn't just a random selection, you know. According to Bereshit Rabbah, the classic collection of Rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Genesis, there was some serious competi...
It's not just about accumulating knowledge, but about understanding, about the ability to delve into the heart of things. And according to Kohelet Rabbah, one of the most beautiful...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet, is part of the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible. Kohelet Rabbah, a Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic commentary on ...
What did he eat? Did he even sleep? to what Shemot Rabbah, a classical collection of Rabbinic homilies on the Book of Exodus, tells us. The verse from (Exodus 34:27), "The Lord sai...
The Book of Jubilees, a fascinating text considered scripture in some traditions but not included in the Tanakh, gives us a glimpse into that cosmic schedule. It tells us that God ...
We all know the story: Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Epic. But what about the moments before all th...
It's not always pretty, but it's definitely revealing. Imagine someone observing a community with customs they just… don't get. That's kind of what we're looking at here. The text ...
When a Hebrew slave chooses to remain in servitude rather than go free at the end of his six-year term, the Torah prescribes a specific ritual: his master takes an awl and bores th...
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 ...
Take this one from Sifrei Devarim (Deuteronomy 15:13-14). It deals with releasing a Hebrew servant after six years of service, and the obligation to "bestow upon him"—to give him g...
Everything has a purpose. And that purpose has a purpose of its own, each one higher than the last. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov uses this insight to explain why you must judge every p...
There exists a soul in every generation through whom Torah insights are revealed to the world. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov describes this soul as one burdened with suffering: "Bread w...
The Torah lists the patriarchs in a specific order: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In (Exodus 3:6), God introduces Himself to Moses at the burning bush as "the God of your father, the ...
The Mekhilta, the halakhic midrash on Exodus from the 2nd century CE, examines one of the starkest either-or passages in the Prophets. Isaiah delivers God's ultimatum: "If you acqu...
The prophet Micah painted one of the most beloved images in all of Jewish prophecy: "And each man will sit under his grapevine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afra...
How often must a person inspect their tefillin (leather phylacteries worn during prayer) to make sure the scrolls inside are still intact? The Mekhilta derives the answer through a...
R. Yossi says: It is written (Isaiah 45:19) "Not in secrecy did I speak, in a place of darkness, etc." In the very beginning, when I gave it, I did not give it in secret or in a da...
(Ibid. 4) "You shall not make for yourself an idol (lit., "a carving")": I might think that he may not make one that projects but he may make one that is flat. It is, therefore, wr...
(Exodus 21:2) "If you buy a Hebrew man-servant": Scripture here speaks of one sold by beth-din (to pay for what he has stolen), in which instance he serves both the father and the ...
(Ibid.) "If you buy (lit.,) a servant Hebrew": Is Scripture speaking of a servant who is a Hebrew, or the servant of a Hebrew? And how am I to understand (Leviticus 25:46) "And you...
"and he shall go out alone": We are hereby apprised that a (Canaanite) bondswoman does not require a get (a divorce) from a Jew. Whence do we derive the same (i.e., that she does n...
R. Eliezer says: Scripture speaks of a Canaanite (as opposed to a Hebrew) man-servant. You say this, but perhaps it speaks of a Hebrew? (This is not so, for) it is written here "hi...
"Vengeance shall be taken" — the Torah declares this regarding a master who kills his bondservant. But what does "vengeance" mean in legal terms? The Mekhilta identifies it as deat...
