1,302 related texts · 51 related myths · Page 4 of 28
The Jewish people were redeemed from Egypt because of the righteous women. According to Sotah 11b, Rav Avira taught that while the men had given up hope under Pharaoh's slavery, th...
Pharaoh's daughter did not accidentally find Moses. According to Sotah 12b, she came to the river to immerse herself, not for bathing, but to wash away the spiritual impurity of he...
The death of Moses is the most devastating scene in the Torah. And the Talmud in Sotah 13b expands it into something almost unbearable. Moses pleaded with God not to let him die. H...
The Hebrew Bible records Moses and the Israelites singing a triumphant song after the sea closes over the Egyptians (Exodus 15). Targum Onkelos transforms this victory hymn into so...
When Israel came out of Egypt and stood at the shore of the Reed Sea, Samael, the angel who serves as heavenly prosecutor, rose up to accuse them. "Lord of the Universe," Samael sa...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 14:13) breaks Israel into four factions at the edge of the sea. Not "the people" united, but four parties, each with its own plan. The first s...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 14:14) finishes the fourfold answer from the verse before. Two parties still need their reply: the fighters and the screamers. " Your voice is...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 14:15) catches a surprising reprimand. Moses is standing on the shore praying. God interrupts him: "Why standest thou praying before Me?" It i...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 14:21) loads Moses's staff with cosmic freight. This is not a shepherd's walking stick. It is the great and glorious rod which was created at ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 14:22) gives the sea-splitting a measurement. The Torah says the waters were "a wall on their right and on their left." The Targum specifies: ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 14:27) adds a disturbing line to the drowning. Moses stretches his hand, the sea returns at morning, the Mizraee flee from the oncoming waves....
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 14:31) records the moment Israel becomes a nation of faith. They have just watched the mightiest army in the world drown. Now they "feared bef...
When the people again cried for water, the Holy One's instruction to Moses, as Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders (Exodus 17:5), is quietly pointed: Pass over before the people, and ta...
When the people cried out for water at Rephidim, Moses did not simply strike any rock. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan insists on a precise geography: God said, "Behold, I will stand be...
The Sefer haYashar, or Book of Jasher, a collection of Jewish legends and lore, gives us a glimpse. Chapter 87 opens with a divine instruction. "At that time the Lord said to Moses...
Sometimes, it's the small acts of kindness, the quiet moments of compassion, that truly define us and pave the way for greatness. Take Moses, for example. Before he parted the Red ...
What performance could possibly top the greatest hits? Jewish tradition actually has an answer, and it's epic. The World to Come, Olam Ha-Ba (the World to Come) in Hebrew. It's a t...
What would your reaction be? Awestruck silence? Jubilant shouts? Well, according to the legends, the Israelites had their answer ready and waiting at the Red Sea. After the men fin...
Real, desperate thirst in the desert. Then imagine spotting water! Relief washes over you, you rush to drink… and it’s bitter. Undrinkable. That’s what happened to the Israelites i...
Some enemies hate you for what you've survived. No sooner did Amalek hear that the Israelites had finally escaped Egypt than he sprang into action. He raced after them, interceptin...
This isn't just another name in the Bible; it represents something deeper. A persistent, almost archetypal force of opposition. The story of Amalek isn't just a historical account;...
You probably know Miriam as a prophetess, a singer, a leader. But she was also human, and like all of us, she wasn't perfect. There's a story in Legends of the Jews (Ginzberg) abou...
Miriam wasn't just Moses' sister; she was a pivotal figure in her own right. She was a prophetess, a leader, and, perhaps most importantly, she was the reason the Israelites had wa...
Legends of the Jews turns to Death of Miriam of Aaron. It first appears that because they were siblings, and because they were all so central to the Exodus story, that they would h...
In Jewish tradition, the battles against Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, loom incredibly large. The sages even equated these triumphs to the monumental victory over Pharao...
As Legends of the Jews tells us, Joshua's grief was profound. He tore his clothes, a traditional sign of mourning, and cried out, "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and t...
Take Joshua, for example. Initially, he wasn't exactly known for his brilliance. In fact, some called him a fool! But he served Moses faithfully. And as we read in Legends of the J...
The Mekhilta highlights a detail about Miriam's song that establishes a fundamental principle about women's participation in Israelite worship. The verse says "And Miriam answered ...
The Mekhilta presents two sharply different readings of the verse "And the people caviled against Moses, saying: What shall we drink?" Rabbi Yehoshua takes the generous view: the p...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael offers a precise description of how the manna appeared to the Israelites in the wilderness, drawing its details from the verse "and, behold, on the fa...
When Amalek attacked the Israelites at Rephidim, the first nation to wage war against the newly freed slaves, Moses turned to his student Joshua with a command (Exodus 17:9): "Choo...
Three men climbed to the top of the hill before the battle against Amalek: Moses, Aaron, and Chur (Exodus 17:10). The Mekhilta explains that their ascent was not a military decisio...
(Exodus 17:12) records a detail that the Mekhilta found deeply instructive: "And the hands of Moses became heavy." Why did his hands grow heavy during the battle with Amalek? The r...
It’s a recurring theme in our tradition, and each instance carries a powerful lesson.This isn't a physical descent, but a drawing near, a manifestation of the Divine presence. This...
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...
The Israelites, fresh out of Egypt, certainly did. And their story, as told in the book of Bamidbar (Numbers), offers a pretty stark warning about unchecked desire. The familiar st...
The Song of the Sea in (Exodus 15) is one of the oldest poems in the Hebrew Bible. The Targum Jonathan rewrites it with additions so bold they create entirely new theology, includi...
The last conversation between Moses and Joshua began as a gift and ended as a rebuke. On the day Moses was to enter Paradise, he turned to his closest student and said, "If any dou...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan specifies the three gifts that most moved Jethro: "Jethro rejoiced over all the good which the Lord had done unto Israel, and that He had given them mann...
The Israelites, fresh from their miraculous escape from Egypt, certainly did. The book of Exodus tells us, "Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went out to the wilderness of...
Shir HaShirim Rabbah turns to The Hidden Terror of Slavery Behind the Red Sea Miracle. The Shir HaShirim Rabbah, a Midrashic (rabbinic interpretive commentary) collection of interp...
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...
Vayikra Rabbah, specifically chapter 16, dives deep into this, starting with the verse, "This shall be the law of the leper." (Leviticus 14:2). Seems strange. What does leprosy hav...
Midrash Tanchuma turns to The Parting Of The Red Sea. The story, as we find it in Exodus 14, begins with God telling Moses, "Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go for...
In the third month (Exod. 19:1). Scripture says elsewhere in allusion to this verse: Have I not written unto thee excellent things (shilshom) of counsels and knowledge (Prov. 22:20...
The story continues, of course! And Chapter 88 of the Book of Jasher to see what happened as the Israelites finally entered the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua. The Bo...
They did what any of us might do: they complained. Loudly. But Moses, ever the leader, knew what to do. Instead of joining in the despair, he turned to the one source of true hope:...
They're complaining, as people do when they’re hungry and thirsty and unsure of what tomorrow holds. They should have been praying! But instead of getting angry, God, in a moment o...
