2,435 related texts · 25 related myths · Page 1 of 51
The Mekhilta uncovers a contradiction in the Torah's timeline that forces a radical rethinking of when the Passover sacrifice actually happened. Deuteronomy commands, "There shall ...
One of the most striking interpretive moves in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan happens quietly on (Exodus 12:13). The verse states that the blood on the doorposts will be a sign for Israel,...
(Exodus 12:2) "the beginning of months": I might think, for the minimum of months, two (i.e., the most distinctive of months, Sivan and Tishrei). It is, therefore, written (Ibid.) ...
The Torah states: "And if there live with you a stranger, and he would offer a Pesach (Passover) to the Lord" (Exodus 12:48). The Mekhilta immediately identifies a potential misund...
Rabbi Yehoshua disagrees. In his reading, the "haste" of the Passover meal belongs to the Israelites themselves, not to the Egyptians. And he flips the proof texts to make his case...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, examines a verse that seems to state the obvious: "And the children of Israel did as Moses had bid them" (Exodus 12:35). The rabbis a...
"shall you take": What is the intent of this? (i.e., it seems redundant.) It is written (Devarim 16:2) "And you shall slaughter the Pesach (Passover) for the L–rd your G–d, sheep a...
R. Yonathan says: sheep for the Pesach (Passover) and cattle for the chagigah. You say this, but perhaps (the meaning is) both for the Pesach? And how would I understand (Exodus 12...
(Exodus 12:14) "And this day shall be for you as a remembrance": The day which is a remembrance for you, you celebrate. But we have not yet heard which day it is (that is a remembr...
(Exodus 13:10) "And you shall keep this statute in its time": What is the intent of this? From "And it shall be to you as a sign upon your hand," I might think that (the mitzvah of...
The Hebrew Bible says God will "pass through" Egypt on the night of the Passover (Exodus 12:12). Targum Onkelos changes this to God will "become revealed in" Egypt. God does not tr...
What Happened at Midnight When the Firstborn Died is the question behind this passage from Shemot Rabbah. Here's the picture Shemot Rabbah paints: Moses, acting as God's messenger,...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 13:9) hears a strange instruction and decodes it into practice. The verse says the deliverance from Egypt shall be "a sign upon your hand, and...
Ben Betheira tackled one of the most practical and debated questions in all of Passover law: when exactly should the Paschal lamb be slaughtered? The Torah gives a poetic instructi...
(Exodus 13:9) speaks of the account of the Exodus serving "as a sign upon your hand." The Mekhilta derives from this verse a specific ruling about the construction of tefillin, the...
"Lift up thy hand over the land of Mizraim for the locust, that he may come up over the land of Mizraim, and destroy every herb of the earth, whatsoever the hail hath left" (Targum...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 10:13) describes the delivery mechanism with quiet care. "Mosheh lifted up his rod over the land of Mizraim, and the Lord brought an east wind...
(Exodus 12:26) "And it shall be, when your sons say to you, etc.": At that time, Israel was receiving bad tidings, that the Torah was destined to be forgotten. Others say they were...
Each prophet saw God differently. Amos saw Him standing, "I saw the Lord standing beside the altar" (Amos 9:1). Isaiah saw Him sitting, "I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high an...
Sanhedrin 91a preserves a courtroom drama from the age of Alexander of Macedon. The people of Egypt appeared before the conqueror to lodge a complaint against Israel. Their argumen...
R. Yirmiyah says: Just as uncleanliness constrains (the offering of the Pesach (Passover) [viz. (Numbers 9:10)] and (the advent of) spring constrains, then just as the (constraint ...
When God instructed Israel about the Passover observance, He included a forward-looking phrase: "And it shall be, when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as He has s...
The verse (Exodus 13:3) states, "and chametz shall not be eaten." The passive phrasing, "shall not be eaten" rather than "you shall not eat", caught the attention of Rabbi Yoshiyah...
There are four sons: a wise son, a wicked son, a simple son, and one who does not know how to ask. What does the wise son say? "What are the testimonies and the statutes and the ju...
"He covered the face of all the land, until the land was darkened, and every herb of the ground was consumed, and all the fruit of the tree that the hail had left; and nothing gree...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan opens one of the most astonishing passages in the entire exodus tradition. "Ye have seen what I did to the Mizraee; and how I bare you upon the clouds as...
The Passover sacrifice in the Temple had an exact choreography, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 34:25) preserves its two ironclad rules. First: you may not slaughter the korb...
Shemot Rabbah turns to The Slaying of the Firstborn at the Stroke of Midnight. "It was at midnight," the verse says, echoing the words of Elihu in (Job 34:20): "In a moment they di...
"And thus shall you eat it" (Exodus 12:11), the Torah prescribes not just what to eat on Passover night, but how to eat it. Loins girded. Sandals on your feet. Staff in hand. Eat i...
The Mekhilta, compiled around the 2nd century CE as a halakhic commentary on Exodus, addresses a critical question about when the Passover laws took effect. The verse states plainl...
The warning for the eighth plague is as graphic as anything the Torah has yet described. "They shall cover the face of the ground," the Lord tells Moses through the Targum Pseudo-J...
"They shall fill thy house, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of the Mizraee," the Lord declares through Moses, "(the like of) which neither thy fathers nor thy fo...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 10:19) records one of the most curious details in the entire plague narrative. "The Lord turned a wind from the west of exceeding strength, an...
The Lord instructs Moses to bring the ninth plague at an unusual hour. "Lift up thy hand towards the height of the heavens," the Lord says (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 10:2)1...
Some commandments are famous for their grandeur. This one is famous for its neighborliness. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:4) addresses a perfectly mundane problem: what if y...
One reason the first Passover feels archaic to modern readers is that it was archaic even to the people eating it. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:9) piles up the restrictions...
The law of unleavened bread contains one of the sharpest penalties in the Torah. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:15) says that anyone who eats leavened bread during the seven ...
Passover has two names. The night of deliverance is Pesach. The week that follows is Chag haMatzot, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:17) preserve...
The name of the Pesach offering is usually translated "the sacrifice of the passing over." Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:27) renames it in a way that catches the heart. In t...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 13:15) gives the father's answer when the son keeps asking. Why the firstborn? Because of one night. "When the Word of the Lord had hardened t...
(Exodus 13:6) declares, "And on the seventh day, a festival to the Lord." The Hebrew word for festival, chag, is related to chagigah, the special festival offering brought at the T...
One of the most useful things a targum does is flag which commandments were meant to last forever and which were meant only for a single moment. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 1...
Leftovers are rarely a theological problem, but in the Pesach laws they become one. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:10) addresses what to do with any remnant of the lamb that ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 13:14) imagines the future. A son, born long after Egypt, looks at his father performing the strange ritual of redeeming a firstborn donkey wi...
It goes all the way back to the Exodus, to the very night God spared the Israelite firstborn while striking down the Egyptians. But there’s more to it than just remembering a histo...
In Jewish mysticism, that feeling has cosmic significance. It's connected to the very fabric of reality, and The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah, expl...
The Torah commands in (Exodus 12:15), "Seven days shall you eat matzot." But which grains actually qualify for making matzah? The Mekhilta digs into this question with characterist...
"And it was in the middle of the night" (Exodus 12:29). The tenth plague, the slaying of the firstborn, struck at midnight. But the Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, raise...
