1,629 related texts · 12 related myths · Page 1 of 34
There exists a soul in every generation through whom Torah insights are revealed to the world. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov describes this soul as one burdened with suffering: "Bread w...
What is written of Moses? (Numbers 20:14-16) "And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom … And our fathers went down to Egypt … and He hearkened to our voice." He (t...
Legends of the Jews turns to Moses Fears the Giant King Sihon of the Amorites. He was facing Sihon, king of the Amorites, and the prospect of war. Now, Sihon wasn't just any king; ...
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...
A pagan once approached Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, the sage who had smuggled himself out of besieged Jerusalem inside a coffin and refounded Judaism at Yavneh. And said bluntly, "...
These are the generations of Aaron and Moses. [Betai Midrashot (rabbinic interpretive commentary) Third Chamber] Our rabbis taught: Brothers who are partners and who increased asse...
The rabbis preserved a strange little tradition about how Og, the giant king of Bashan, survived the Flood. The Torah never explains it. Og appears later, towering over the Israeli...
Og did not fit inside the ark. That is the whole problem. The world was drowning, the animals were lining up before Noah, and the giant who would later become king of Bashan stood ...
Their grumbling had some pretty fiery consequences. We find ourselves in the book of Numbers (Bamidbar in Hebrew, meaning "in the wilderness") chapter 21. The Israelites are trekki...
Berurya, one of the sharpest minds in all of Talmudic literature, once caught a student studying Torah in a whisper. She kicked him and said: Scripture teaches that Torah must be "...
"Many peoples have afflicted me from my youth" (Psalm 129:1). The Assembly of Israel, the collective voice of the nation, says this as a Song of Ascents, sung while ascending to th...
Our tale centers on Sihon, king of the Amorites, and his clash with Moses and the Israelites. Now, this wasn't just any skirmish. This was war. And it ended, as the story goes, in ...
How far must a person go to honor a parent? Rav Ulla was asked this question, and instead of answering with a verse, he told a story. There was a man in Ashkelon named Dammah ben N...
The Talmud in Kiddushin 31a tells the story of Dama ben Netina, a gentile merchant of Ashkelon who became, in the rabbinic imagination, the standard for filial honor. The exempla c...
This is one of the most extraordinary passages in the entire Targum. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 14:13) takes a single Hebrew word, ha-palit, the fugitive who brought news t...
Before Moses was born, Pharaoh had a dream. He saw a giant set of scales. On one side lay the entire weight of Egypt: the pyramids, the armies, the treasuries, the granaries, the p...
The ancient stories wrestle with these questions, too. Take the story of Pharaoh and the plagues in Egypt. The familiar story is this: Moses demands freedom for the Israelites, Pha...
(Exodus, Ibid.) "All the inhabitants of Canaan melted ('namogu')": When the inhabitants of Canaan heard that the Holy One Blessed be He had said to Moses (Devarim 20:16-17) "But fr...
We might swat them away without a second thought, but according to the Rabbis, even these creatures have a purpose. As we find in Bereshit Rabbah, even these so-called "superfluous...
The Amorites are not remembered here as ordinary enemies. The legend makes them giants. You might know the names Sihon and Og. They were kings of the Amorites, and legend paints th...
Specifically, Tikkunei Zohar 95 offers a fascinating glimpse into a concept of purity, exile, and a mysterious red cow. It all starts with the verse describing the red heifer, the ...
In (Deuteronomy 1:4), we read about Moses recounting how God helped them defeat Sichon, king of the Amorites. But what does that seemingly simple historical detail really tell us? ...
A donkey saw an angel before the greatest prophet of the ancient Near East did. That detail alone tells you everything about the story of Balaam. Balak, the king of Moab, was terri...
(Exodus 12:43) "And the L–rd said to Moses and Aaron": There are some sections (in the Torah) which are generic in the beginning and specific after, and some which are specific in ...
The Mekhilta draws a parallel that cuts both ways. In the previous passage, the rabbis established that believing in Moses equals believing in God. Now they demonstrate the reverse...
The Mekhilta draws a direct parallel between Moses' raised hands and another puzzling episode: the bronze serpent in the wilderness. When poisonous snakes attacked the Israelites, ...
The Hebrew Bible says God opened the mouth of Balaam's donkey, and it spoke (Numbers 22:28). Targum Onkelos translates this miracle without flinching. The donkey talks. No metaphor...
Joseph was brought down to Egypt (Genesis 39:1). Lamentations gives the frame: "Good is the man who sits alone and is silent, for he will bear the yoke upon himself. He will put hi...
A Tzeduki, a Sadducee, member of the party that rejected the Oral Torah, once came to Rabbi Abhu with a question meant to sting. "Your God is a priest," he said, "for it is written...
“They heard that I sigh; there is no comforter for me; all my enemies heard of my misfortune, were glad because You acted. May You bring the day that You proclaimed, and they will ...
(Exodus 15:1) "Az yashir Mosheh": Az ("then") sometimes signals the past and sometimes signals the future. The past: (Genesis 4:26) "Az men began", (Exodus 4:26) "Az she said", (Ex...
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 parah adumah, the red heifer, is famous precisely because its purity law does not behave like ordinary logic. In Bamidbar, the Book of Numbers, we find the commandment: "They s...
The Torah isn't just a text; it’s a living conversation, a dialogue that echoes through generations and, some say, even between God and Moses himself. Rabbi Aḥa, quoting Rabbi Ḥani...
The sun beats down, and the horizon shimmers with heat. But our journey isn't just a physical one; it's a journey into the heart of Jewish tradition. This isn't just any mountain. ...
It's older than it first appears. to a story about Moses, negotiation, and a bit of divine debate. Moses is gearing up for war against Sihon, king of the Amorites. But before launc...
Ever hear a story so wild, so larger-than-life, that you just have to lean in and ask, "Wait, really?" Well, buckle up, because We're exploring a passage from Midrash Tehillim, spe...
Consider the story of sending messengers. In one place, it says Israel sent them. In another, it says Moses did. So, which is it? Did the whole nation get together and write a stro...
Shemot Rabbah turns to The Snake Analogy and Why Israel Needed Redemption Now. One fascinating passage in Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Exo...
Book of Jasher turns to The First Days of Freedom After Leaving Egypt. The Book of Jasher, a text mentioned in the Bible itself (Joshua 10:13 and (2 Samuel 1:1)8), fills in some fa...
Pharaoh, hardened of heart, remained unimpressed by the first plague, water turning to blood. Why? Because his magicians, aided by "Angels of Destruction," could replicate the effe...
A reader can think of them as just escalating horrors, but sometimes the sequence itself holds a clue. the story turns to the plague of the frogs, the second of the ten, and see wh...
Getting the coffin out of Egypt in the first place was a whole adventure in itself. See, according to Legends of the Jews, retold by Louis Ginzberg, Egyptian magicians had set up a...
A reader can imagine him as this larger-than-life figure, divinely guided, but sometimes he acted with remarkable prudence, almost bordering on… politeness. We find an example of t...
The Torah tells us of Aaron's death atop Mount Hor (Numbers 20:22-29), but it leaves out some fascinating details that our tradition fills in. Specifically, what happened when Mose...
Legends of the Jews turns to Even Dog Bites Were Healed by Looking at the Serpent. Here's a fascinating detail: The healing wasn't uniform. Those bitten by animals were cured with ...
The story of Haman, the villain of the Purim story, is full of them. And according to the Yalkut Shimoni, a compilation of rabbinic commentary on the Bible, Haman's plot to annihil...
The plague of frogs rose out of the Nile, and the sages wondered: how does a single verse describe it in the singular? And the frog came up and covered the land of Egypt (Exodus 8:...
