10,602 related texts · Page 65 of 221
When the entire community of Israel sinned by accident, who took responsibility? The Hebrew Bible says "the elders of the congregation" laid their hands on the bull (Leviticus 4:15...
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 ...
The Torah says write the law on plastered stones after crossing the Jordan. Targum Jonathan says write it "with writing deeply engraven and distinct, which shall be read in one lan...
The covenant at Moab in (Deuteronomy 29) is addressed to the Israelites standing there. Targum Jonathan expands the audience to infinity: "all the generations which have arisen fro...
The Talmud in Tractate Avodah Zarah says that every afternoon, God plays with Leviathan—the colossal sea creature described in (Job 41:1) and (Psalms 104:26). The fourth quarter of...
Rabbi Yochanan made a promise that sounds almost too good to be true: "Whoever blesses over a full cup is granted an inheritance without boundaries." The teaching, preserved in Ein...
What is meant by 'a wicked bond'? Shebna taught to twelve myriads, while Hezekiah taught to eleven myriads. When Sennacherib came and besieged Jerusalem, Shebna wrote on an arrowhe...
And Bamidbar Rabbah, specifically chapter 7, gives us a fascinating peek into their thinking. It uses a series of comparisons to illustrate God's, well, "royal" attributes, if you ...
The verse in question is from (Psalms 18:29): "For You light my lamp." Israel, in this story, turns to the Holy One, blessed be He, and essentially says: "Master of the Universe, Y...
to a story from Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Numbers, that explores just this. The story goes that God tells Moses to gather seventy men to he...
The scene is set in (Numbers 25:6): “Behold, a man from the children of Israel came and brought near to his brethren the Midyanite woman, before the eyes of Moses, and before the e...
to one such verse, found in (Numbers 31:4), which speaks of sending soldiers to battle against Midian: "One thousand from each and every tribe [elef lamateh elef lamateh], from all...
When the Torah says, “Command the children of Israel, and say to them: For you are coming to the land of Canaan; this will be the land that will fall to you as an inheritance” (Num...
It’s a question that's captivated Jewish mystics and scholars for centuries. And, like many profound questions in Jewish tradition, the answer isn't simple, but layered with meanin...
We often grapple with the existence of suffering in a world supposedly created by a benevolent God. Jewish tradition certainly doesn’t shy away from this question. In fact, there's...
The ancient rabbis grappled with this feeling too – the feeling of connection, or disconnection, from the Divine. They asked: What does it mean to say God is near? And how can we k...
Uplifting, even. The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as we know it in Hebrew, captures this feeling perfectly: "The light is sweet, and it is good for the eyes to behold the sun."...
It’s not a typo, and it’s definitely not random! There’s a beautiful lesson tucked away in that apparent inconsistency. Rabbi Yehoshua of Sikhnin, quoting Rabbi Levi, offered a pow...
That bittersweet feeling is ancient, deeply human, and, believe it or not, it echoes in the story of Moses and the Exodus. : Moses. MOSES! The guy who stood up to Pharaoh, who part...
It's not that God needs our light, the text insists. As it says, it’s not that I need the light of the candelabra." But why then does God command us to bring light? Here's the beau...
The ancient rabbis had something to say about that, and it all comes down to light. Shemot Rabbah, a classic collection of Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic interpretati...
The ancient sages grappled with this too, finding echoes of life's rhythms even in the verses of the Torah. : "To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under h...
To understand, we need to remember what came before that call. Go back to the end of Exodus, to the detailed instructions for building the Mishkan. The text repeats, almost like a ...
We're so used to it, it seems almost…mundane. But Vayikra Rabbah 14, a section of the ancient Midrash Rabbah (a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Torah), encourages us to see...
It wasn't just a quick glance. The Torah tells us in (Leviticus 13:12) that the priest examines the afflicted individual in “the entire view of the eyes of the priest.” But what ex...
We find ourselves pondering this very question in Vayikra Rabbah 22, a section of the ancient Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary). It begins with a seemingly simple verse fr...
Vayikra Rabbah 22, a fascinating collection of stories and teachings, explores just that. It suggests that everything – from frogs to plants to even inanimate objects – can be inst...
And believe it or not, there's an ancient teaching that uses a similar image to describe the Jewish people's relationship with… well, pretty much everything. It all starts with a l...
The ancient rabbis certainly did. They saw the world as a delicate balance, and they understood that even seemingly small acts of injustice could have enormous consequences. In Vay...
Vayikra Rabbah, a fascinating collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Leviticus, gives us a glimpse into that idyllic vision. Specifically, it discusses the verse “I ...
“Even now, our eyes fail toward futile help. In our waiting, we awaited a nation that cannot save” (Lamentations 4:17).“Even now, our eyes fail.” What would the Ten Tribes do? They...
“The king’s scribes were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and it was written in accordance with everything that Haman had commanded the king’s satraps, and the go...
Sometimes, that happens with our understanding of the Divine, too. There's a fascinating debate, captured in letters from Jewish scholars of generations past, about how we relate t...
You're not alone! The tradition teaches that deep understanding requires dedication, effort, and a willingness to truly delve into the text. The power to investigate and inquire wi...
One such answer comes from a text attributed to Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish philosopher who lived in Egypt during the first century. While scholars debate whether he actually pen...
A response to an inquiry from the Academy.13Probably a reference to the Academy at Pumbeditha. R. Ahai, who wrote this in his She’iltot, expected to be appointed head of the Academ...
And the Lord said: Behold, man has become one of us (Gen. 3:22). Scripture states elsewhere in allusion to this verse: Behold, this only have I found, that God made man upright (Ec...
And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth (Gen. 6:5). Our sages taught: As punishment for lewdness (in the world) androlepsia41Reprisal taken against all m...
Jewish tradition has some pretty incredible ideas about that. Let's peek inside God's house, shall we? According to some accounts, God didn't just create the universe, He built a p...
He’s not exactly a household name, even in well-versed Jewish circles, but this heavenly prince has a pretty important job. He's the Keeper of the Book of Records. Think of it as t...
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...
In fact, the Sabbath isn't just a terrestrial observance; it's a celestial one, too. Imagine this: right after creating the Sabbath, God gathers all the angels – the angels of the ...
One that echoes through generations, forcing us to confront our own anxieties and shortcomings. But it's not all doom and gloom. Ben Sira, also known as Yeshua ben Sirach, offers a...
Ben Sira, that wise sage of ancient times, knew a thing or two about the dangers lurking in our communities. Chapter 11 is a stark warning about the company we keep, the words we s...
Ben Sira, that wise sage of ancient times, had some pretty strong feelings about that. He wrote, in a fragment that's both fascinating and a little bit broken, "So whoso hath wealt...
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 ...
Let’s delve into a fascinating glimpse from the Book of Jubilees, a text that offers a unique perspective on early Jewish thought and law. It’s a perspective that sheds light on id...
The Book of Jubilees, an ancient Jewish text, offers a glimpse into just such a cosmic do-over. Chapter 5 speaks of a time of immense destruction. It paints a picture of divine jud...
