1,400 related texts · Page 3 of 30
Sometimes, it's the little-known stories, the tucked-away details, that truly bring the past to life. to a snippet from the Book of Jasher, a text mentioned in the Bible itself (Jo...
Today, we're diving into a fascinating chapter from the Book of Jasher, a non-canonical Jewish text that elaborates on stories from the Hebrew Bible. Specifically, we're looking at...
And in Chapter 89, we find just such a song, bursting with praise and recounting God's powerful deliverance. "Then spoke Joshua this song," the text begins, "on the day that the Lo...
The Book of Jasher, an ancient text referenced in the Bible itself (Joshua 10:13, (2 Samuel 1:1)8), offers some fascinating glimpses.. The chapter opens by setting the stage: It's ...
And it led to one of the most dramatic moments in the Joseph story. Pharaoh, plagued by these intense dreams, had already consulted the wise men of Egypt. But their interpretations...
That's the kind of tension we find ourselves in with the story of Joseph and his brothers in the Book of Genesis, a story amplified and deepened by Jewish legend. Joseph, now a pow...
The Torah tells us that Moses gathered the elders and performed miracles to prove his divine appointment. But according to the Legends of the Jews, as retold by Rabbi Louis Ginzber...
We all know the broad strokes: Pharaoh, Moses, plagues, freedom. But the details… oh, the details are where things get truly wild. The Torah recounts the ten plagues, each a devast...
It wasn't just random chaos. According to Jewish tradition, there was a profound, almost poetic, justice at play. The Torah, our sacred text, often draws parallels between differen...
Ginzberg, in Legends of the Jews, presents a fascinating, almost unsettling, answer. when the time for redemption drew near, fulfilling the promise to Abraham, there was a problem....
But for the Israelites fleeing Egypt, this wasn't fiction – it was reality, or at least, that's how the legends tell it. The moment God saw His people struggling, caught between th...
That's the story we're about to explore. After all those years wandering in the desert, the Israelites, led by Moses, were finally approaching the land promised to them by God. The...
The ancient Israelites did something similar with manna, that miraculous food from heaven. As the story goes, they sang a song not to the manna, but to the well that accompanied th...
The Israelites, fresh out of Egypt, needed to cross Sihon's land. Moses, ever the diplomat, sent a message. He promised they'd stick to the main road, the "king's highway," so no o...
We all know Moses. The guy who led the Israelites out of Egypt, received the Torah on Mount Sinai… a pretty big deal. But even Moses, seasoned leader and prophet, felt a tremor of ...
We're not just talking spiritually big, but physically… colossal. Let's talk about Og, King of Bashan. Og. The name alone conjures images of a giant striding across the ancient lan...
The old stories certainly think so. Take this little snippet from Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews, a treasure trove of rabbinic tales and folklore. It paints a picture of animal loy...
The Zohar, a foundational text of Kabbalah, isn't always the easiest to understand. That's where commentators like Baal HaSulam (Rabbi Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag) come in. His intro...
In Mitpachat Sefarim, a collection of Jewish writings whose name literally means "wrapping of books," we find a raw, unflinching look at a generation seemingly gone astray. The aut...
Let’s talk about one such word. We’re diving into the Zohar, that cornerstone of Jewish mysticism. Specifically, we're looking at how it interprets Ezekiel's famous vision of the d...
An analogy: A man sent to his servant: Go and bring me a fish from the marketplace. He goes and buys him a rotten fish, at which the master says to him: Either eat the fish, or rec...
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...
Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai offered his own version of the parable about Egypt's catastrophic miscalculation, and his telling amplified the scale of the blunder dramatically. A man inh...
Rabbi Avshalom the Elder told a parable to explain why God responded to Moses' extended prayer at the Red Sea with what seemed like impatience. The parable captures the tenderness ...
An analogy: A dove, fleeing a hawk, enters a king's palace, whereupon the king opens the eastern window for her, whence she escapes. The hawk, following, the king closes all the wi...
An analogy: A king's son goes abroad—he goes after him and attends upon him. He goes to a different city—he goes after him and attends upon him. Thus with Israel. When they went do...
Before Moses died, God took him to the summit of Mount Nebo and showed him the entirety of the Promised Land — every region, every valley, every corner of the territory his people ...
When God offered the Torah to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, the entire nation responded with one of the most remarkable declarations in all of Scripture. As the Mekhilta explains,...
According to Tree of Souls, when Noah was loading up the ark, Og made a deal. He swore to Noah and his sons that if they’d let him come along, he’d be their servant forever. Now, s...
Why we don't have all the answers, especially when it comes to the big questions like, "What's the ultimate reward for doing good?" Midrash Tehillim 9, a beautiful exploration with...
It’s not random. There's a beautiful and intricate choreography to our relationship with the Divine. Take, for example, the dedication of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. The Book of N...
That’s precisely what’s happening at the very beginning of Sefer Devarim, the Book of Deuteronomy. The text wastes no time diving right in. It says, "across the Jordan," and "in th...
It's not just about the win itself, but about the obstacles overcome. Take the story of Og, King of Bashan. We find him mentioned in the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy). Now, Og wasn...
Sometimes, it's not as straightforward as you might think. Take the classic example of basar b'chalav, meat and milk – a cornerstone of kashrut (dietary laws). You might assume it'...
The Book of Devarim, Deuteronomy, dives right into this question. It's in chapter 13, verse 2, where it says, "If there arise in your midst a prophet..." But it doesn’t just stop t...
Exodus chapter 6 is mostly genealogy—the kind of passage readers skim. The Targum Jonathan turns it into a minefield of hidden revelations. The chapter opens with God revealing the...
The Hebrew Bible records Moses's great farewell poem, the Song of Ha'azinu (Deuteronomy 32), a sweeping poetic indictment of Israel's future unfaithfulness. Targum Onkelos translat...
We find ourselves in just such a situation in the Book of Numbers, Bamidbar in Hebrew. Specifically, in Bamidbar Rabbah, a Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic compilation ...
Jewish tradition teaches that there's a profound spiritual power in gathering together, a power that even resonates in the heavens. But is any gathering automatically holy? The Mid...
Our stories are woven into our lineage, and sometimes, those threads get tangled. to a fascinating passage from Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of N...
A classic example surfaces in Bamidbar Rabbah 19 as it grapples with a seemingly simple verse: "Israel sent messengers to Siḥon, king of the Emorites, saying…" (Numbers 21:21). The...
But Jewish tradition sees so much more. The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), specifically Bamidbar Rabbah 19, unpacks this verse, revealing layers of meaning and offerin...
Rabbi Yoḥanan, a towering figure in the Talmudic era, offers a startling idea. He suggests that when God created the sea, He made a deal. A condition (tna’o in Hebrew) that it woul...
We all know the basic story: humanity, unified and speaking a single language, decides to build a tower reaching the heavens. God, not thrilled with this display of hubris, scatter...
The Torah is full of such moments, and the Rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) are masters at unearthing the layers of meaning. Let's take a peek into Bereshit...
to a story from Devarim Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Deuteronomy, that really brings this to life. The story picks up right after the Exodus. Imagine t...
In (Deuteronomy 3:2), God tells Moses, "Do not fear him, as I have delivered him and his entire people and his land into your hand; you shall do to him as you did to Siḥon, king of...
Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Exodus, gives us a fascinating take on the plague of frogs. We all remember the story: Egypt is overrun with ...
