2,086 related texts · Page 42 of 44
The Hebrew Bible records Moses making the most audacious request in Scripture: "Show me Your glory" (Exodus 33:18). Targum Onkelos renders the response with his most careful theolo...
... Another reading: “Comfort, oh comfort My people” (Isaiah 40:1) Said the Holy Blessed One: Who needs to be comforted? For one whose wife died, not the husband? Thus was Zion ana...
When Israel went out of Egypt, Moses said: ‘and God delivered Israel that day’ (Exodus 14:30); and when Israel went out of Jerusalem Jeremiah said: ‘God has put me into the hands o...
And these are the generations of Aaron and Moses. [Betai Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ot Third Chamber] Our rabbis taught: Brothers who are partners and who increased ...
Midrash on the death of Aaron "I lost the three shepherds in one month" (Zecharia 11:8); and thus, in one month, Aaron, Miriam, and Moses died. Miriam died on the 1st of the month ...
"Aggadah (non-legal rabbinic narrative): A Midrash on the Five Books of the Torah, found in a unique ancient manuscript in the world brought from Aleppo (Aram Tzova). It was publis...
And [R. Avraham Saba] also explains the reason for the counting of the omer in Parashat Emor, and these are [his] words: And in the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) HaGal...
"Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) Chazit": It is also called "Aggadat Chazit", and it is a comprehensive midrash on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes. These midrashim be...
The Book of the Wellspring of Wisdom When Moses ascended on high, a cloud came up against him, and Moses our teacher did not know if one rides it or holds it. Immediately, the clou...
[It is written] (Ps. 66:1) A prayer of David, preserve my soul, for I am pious. R. Levi and R. Isaac both explain this passage. One said : "Thus said David before the Holy One, pra...
The Egyptians brought their case before Alexander of Macedon, and they were confident they would win. Their claim was simple: when the Israelites left Egypt during the Exodus, they...
When Alexander the Great conquered the known world, he did not merely defeat armies — he rearranged the claims of nations. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 91a) records that after his conques...
When Moses descended from Mount Sinai carrying the two tablets of the covenant, he found the Israelites dancing around a golden calf. His fury was absolute. He shattered the tablet...
After Alexander the Great conquered the known world, the Egyptians saw an opportunity to settle old scores with the Jews. They came before Alexander's tribunal with a legal claim: ...
When Moses and Aaron walked into Pharaoh's palace to demand the release of the Israelite slaves, they were not entering a building. They were entering a fortress designed to intimi...
Moses stood apart from every other prophet who ever lived. The rabbis taught that while other prophets saw God through clouded glass, Moses alone saw through a clear lens — an unob...
Isaiah says God is "calling from the east a bird of prey, a man of my counsel from a distant land" (Isaiah 46:11). The rabbis identified that bird of prey as Abraham. He came from ...
After the conquest of Canaan, God deliberately left certain nations in the land — not because He couldn't remove them, but to test Israel (Judges 3:1-2). The rabbis found this prac...
Jacob blessed Esau's son but knew the blessing came from somewhere deeper than himself. "And God shall give you the dew of heaven" (Genesis 27:28) — this is the dew of Mount Hermon...
After two full years in prison, Pharaoh dreamed (Genesis 41:1). The midrash reads this through Psalm 73: "As an endless dream, the Lord despised their form." God does not reveal Hi...
"But Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me'" (Isaiah 49:14). And God answers — not with proof of presence but with a reminder of what "remembering" actual...
Moses stood before Israel and said: "You have been shown to know that the Lord, He is God; there is none beside Him" (Deuteronomy 4:35). Not told — shown. The plagues, the sea, the...
"And Jacob called unto his sons" (Genesis 49:1). The Torah records the great final blessing — all twelve sons gathered around the dying patriarch, each receiving something tailored...
That’s what we’re talking about when we talk about God. famous verse from Exodus (3:14), where God tells Moses, "I shall be what I shall be." It’s so much more than just a name. It...
We tend to picture Him as all-powerful, which He is, but the ancient texts sometimes paint a more… visceral picture. A picture of YAHWEH, the Warrior God. Think about the Exodus st...
The Torah gives us a glimpse into such an experience with the story of the Ohel Mo'ed, the Tent of Meeting. The Book of Exodus describes how Moses would set up this tent "outside t...
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." It's a statement of immense power, a foundation upon which an entire worldview is built. But what does it really mean? to t...
We usually think of the sun, a lightbulb, maybe even a particularly inspiring idea. But Jewish tradition takes it a step further, suggesting light itself has a deeper, more ancient...
The great Moses himself had such an experience. As we read in (Exodus 4:24), on the road one night, Adonai—God—encountered Moses and sought to kill him. Talk about a plot twist! Wh...
Serah, daughter of Asher, one of Jacob's sons. We find her name nestled in the list of those who went down to Egypt with Jacob to escape the famine. You can find it in (Genesis 46:...
We usually think of it as a given, part of the grand, sweeping narrative of the Exodus. But what if the waters had their own say? According to some fascinating midrash (rabbinic in...
Jewish tradition has a way of blowing your mind with concepts like that – especially when we delve into stories like the Exodus and the Binding of Isaac. Imagine this: the Israelit...
What happens to the abandoned? What happens to the children left to the elements, victims of cruelty and fear? Sometimes, stories offer us the most profound answers. Think about th...
What would you ask for? According to tradition, as his time drew near, Moses made one final, powerful request of God. It wasn't for more life, or for comfort, or even for himself a...
That feeling of imbalance, of unspoken credit, is something the ancient rabbis grappled with too. And we find a fascinating example of it right at the beginning of the Book of Numb...
The verse we're focusing on is from the Book of Numbers (3:17): "These [eleh] were the sons of Levi by their names…" Now, Rabbi Abbahu makes a crucial observation about the word el...
The text opens with a seemingly straightforward instruction: "The Lord said to Moses: Count every firstborn male of the children of Israel from one month old and above, and take th...
Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of Rabbinic teachings on the Book of Numbers, delves into this very question, specifically in the context of redeeming firstborn sons. The passage hin...
It's all about the Merari family, one of the three Levitical clans tasked with the Tabernacle’s transportation and setup. The Torah tells us in (Numbers 4:29), “The sons of Merari,...
Today, we’re diving into a fascinating, and frankly, a little unsettling, passage from Bamidbar Rabbah 9 that tackles this very idea, exploring the consequences of hidden sins, spe...
We flip a switch and flood a room with light without a second thought. But millennia ago, kindling a flame was a precious act. So why did God command it in the Mishkan, the Taberna...
The sages of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), those brilliant interpreters of Jewish texts, grappled with this very question. In Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rab...
And while there aren't easy answers, Jewish tradition grapples with this in profound ways. Today, we're diving into a fascinating Midrash – a rabbinic interpretation – from Bereshi...
I was reading in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Genesis, and I stumbled across just such a moment. It revolves around a rather pointed exc...
It might seem like a niche legal issue, but within it lies a profound understanding of justice, forgiveness, and even the nature of hope itself. In Deuteronomy, we read, "Then, Mos...
That feeling of existential dread isn't new. In fact, it’s wrestled with in some of our most ancient texts. to a passage from Kohelet Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretatio...
It's like, bam, out of nowhere, you're bearing a load you didn't even see coming. Well, the ancient Israelites knew that feeling all too well when they found themselves in Egypt. W...
But where is God, exactly? Is He up in the heavens, completely removed from our earthly struggles? Or is He still somehow… here? The book of Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic...
