2,086 related texts · Page 36 of 44
The Shekhinah, the divine feminine presence, is woven into the very structure of creation. It all starts with a powerful image: a Tree, vast beyond our comprehension, spanning a di...
Specifically, let's talk about the letter Hei (ה). It's not just any letter; it's a sign, a symbol deeply connected to the relationship between God and the Children of Israel. As i...
The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a central work of Kabbalah, is absolutely brimming with that feeling. a particularly intriguing passage. It begins with a seemingly simple st...
The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a crucial text of Kabbalah, invites us to see something far deeper. It sees the candle as a representation of the divine, a microcosm of the ...
Jewish mysticism, particularly in the Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, uses the image of a giant fish to explore just that feeling. The Tikkunei Zohar, a companion volume to the ...
The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a later, more mystical expansion on the Zohar (the foundational text of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism), delves into the depths of Moses's plea a...
The Jewish mystical tradition, particularly the Zohar, speaks of just such a figure, and it's someone you already know: Moses. But not just the Moses who led the Israelites out of ...
It seems straightforward enough, counting seven weeks from Passover until we receive the Torah. But as always with Jewish tradition, there's so much more shimmering beneath the sur...
Jewish mystical tradition recognizes this struggle, particularly when it comes to connecting with the Divine Feminine. The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a core text of Kabbala...
The mystical tradition of Kabbalah is all about finding those secrets, and the Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a companion to the Zohar, is packed with them.Yes, a sword! The te...
It’s a question that the mystical tradition of Judaism, particularly the Zohar, has pondered for centuries. And in Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar 291, we find a fascinating, alm...
"And these are the names of the children of Israel" (Exodus 1:1). The Torah lists the twelve tribes again, even though they were already named in Genesis. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Be...
When the sea split, the angels fell behind. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev reads the verse, "The angel of God who had been traveling in front of the Israelite camp moved to thei...
"You will prostrate yourselves from a distance" (Exodus 24:1). Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev reads this verse not as a physical instruction about how far to stand from Mount Si...
"They shall take for Me a contribution" (Exodus 25:2). The first commandment God gave after the revelation at Sinai was to build Him a home. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev finds...
"When you take a census of the Children of Israel, each shall pay the Lord a ransom for his soul" (Exodus 30:12). Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev reads this as God offering the J...
"And these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt" (Exodus 1:1). Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk opens his commentary on Parashat Shemot with a strange claim: a pers...
The transmission narrative in Harba de-Moshe (the Sword of Moses) is one of the most elaborate chains of divine authority in all of Jewish literature. It traces a path from God to ...
R. Yochanan said: Jonah went (on that voyage) only to cast himself into the sea, as it is written (Jonah 1:12) "And he said to them: Lift me up and cast me into the sea." All this ...
Rebbi — Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi — offered an alternative reading of (Deuteronomy 16:2): "And you shall slaughter the Passover to your God — sheep and cattle." Rather than identifying ...
The Israelites spent twelve months in Egypt after Moses first appeared before Pharaoh. Twelve months of escalating plagues, mounting chaos, and growing anticipation of departure. D...
The Mekhilta identifies one of the hidden miracles of the Egyptian exile: the Israelites never abandoned the Hebrew language. Despite living for centuries among Egyptian speakers, ...
Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, one of the most brilliant and mystically inclined sages in all of rabbinic literature, offers a reading of the Passover timeline that is as precise as a wa...
Rabbi Yonathan builds a towering logical structure to prove that Passover leftovers cannot be burned on the festival — and like Rabbi Yishmael, he argues the Torah did not need an ...
When God said "And I shall see the blood" regarding the Passover in Egypt, the Mekhilta offers a stunning alternative reading. The "blood" God would see was not the blood of the Pa...
Rabbi Yossi HaGlili tackles a puzzle buried in the Torah's festival calendar. The verse in (Deuteronomy 16:15) commands, "Seven days shall you celebrate to the Lord your God." On i...
Rabbi Yonathan arrives at the same conclusion as Rabbi Yoshiyah — that a non-Jew may perform labor for a Jew on the festival — but takes a completely different route to get there. ...
The Torah describes the Exodus with the phrase "I took out your hosts." The Mekhilta asks a question that might seem obvious but carries deep theological weight: whose hosts are be...
R. Yoshiyah said to him: Why is this different from all of the "sayings" in the Torah, which were from Moses to say to Israel? Here, too, from Moses to say to Israel. Why, then, is...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, explores a striking rhetorical pattern found throughout the Hebrew Bible: moments where a prophet says God "has spoken," and the rabb...
The Mekhilta, the halakhic midrash on Exodus from the tannaitic period, continues its investigation of a recurring biblical formula: when Scripture says God "has spoken," where exa...
The Mekhilta reveals a breathtaking symmetry in the covenant between God and Israel. The verse in Deuteronomy says, "And the Lord has affirmed this day to make you His chosen peopl...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic commentary on Exodus, arrives at one of the most dramatic prophetic verses in all of Scripture: "The glory of the Lord shall appear, and all flesh will ...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, examines a soaring promise from the prophet Isaiah: "Then you will rejoice in the Lord, and I will 'ride' you on the heights of the e...
And we are hereby apprised that the captives rejoiced in all the decrees inflicted by Pharaoh upon Israel, (for which they were punished) in keeping with (Mishlei 17:5) "He who rej...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, takes up a question about the Israelites' first stop after leaving Egypt: a place called Succoth. "And they traveled from Rameses to ...
"Sanctify unto Me every first-born"—generic (implying both males and females). (Devarim 15:19) "the male"—specific, (excluding females). If I have the generic, why do I need the sp...
Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai offered his own parable to explain the same prophecy from Jeremiah — that a future redemption would overshadow the memory of the Exodus. His version is shar...
The sages say: "the days of your life"—in this world; "all the days of your life"—to include the days of the Messiah. Ben Zoma said to them: Israel is destined not to mention the e...
Rabbi Chiyya ben Nachmani delivered a teaching in the name of Rabbi Yishmael that cuts against every natural human instinct. The verse in (Deuteronomy 8:10) already commands, "You ...
Rabbi Nathan offered a striking interpretation of the word bakosharoth from (Psalms 68:7), "He takes out the bound bakosharoth." Rather than reading it as a single word, he split i...
"by way of the land of the Philistines, for it was near": Near (i.e., "close") is the thing of which the Holy One Blessed be He spoke to Moses (Exodus 2:12): "When you take the peo...
(Ibid. 21) "And the L–rd went before them by day with a pillar of cloud": We find there to have been seven clouds: here, (Numbers 14:14) twice, (Ibid. 9:19), (Exodus 40:36), (Ibid....
"And the heart of Pharaoh was reversed" (Exodus 14:5). The Mekhilta reads this reversal not as a change of mind about letting Israel go, but as the collapse of an empire. When Isra...
What is written of the fourth kingdom (Aram)? (Ibid. 23) "This is what he said: The fourth beast: There will be a fourth kingdom upon the earth which will be different from all the...
Rabbi Yossi HaGlili told a parable to explain one of the most staggering miscalculations in the history of Egypt. A man inherited a beth kor of land — a sizable property — and sold...
Four "harnessed" with joy: Abraham—(Genesis 22:3) "And Abraham rose early in the morning (for the binding of Isaac), and he saddled his ass." Now did he not have many servants?—(He...
(Exodus, Ibid.) "Stand ready (hithyatzvu) to see the salvation of the L–rd": Moses said to them: Today the Shechinah will repose the Holy Spirit upon you; for "yetzivah" in all pla...
