1,629 related texts · 12 related myths · Page 4 of 34
The strangest detail in the tenth plague is not what happens, but what does not. On the night when all of Mizraim wails, no dog in Israel so much as growls. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records one of the most consequential sentences ever spoken by a people: "All the people responded together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we w...
The people took off the ornaments they had received at Sinai. What happened to them? Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, answers with a detail the plain te...
Hanina spent almost everything he owned on a sealed silver casket because his dying father told him to buy the first thing offered in the marketplace. It was the day before Passove...
Bamidbar Rabbah turns to The Demographic Puzzle of Levites Versus Firstborn. So, the children of Israel are wandering in the desert, and God instructs Moses to count two groups: th...
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...
Jewish tradition sees so much more. The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), specifically Bamidbar Rabbah 19, unpacks this verse, revealing layers of meaning and offering pr...
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...
The familiar version gives us the basic story: humanity, unified and speaking a single language, decides to build a tower reaching the heavens. God, not thrilled with this display ...
The Torah is full of such moments, and the Rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) are masters at unearthing the layers of meaning. The source turns to Bereshit Ra...
The verse But the rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) weren't just interested in the visual. They wanted to understand the why behind the what. The Midrash beg...
The story picks up right after the Exodus. Imagine the scene: The Israelites have just walked out of Egypt, witnessed incredible miracles, and word is spreading like wildfire. As R...
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 ...
Our story comes from Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Exodus. It paints a breathtaking picture of divine intervention and the unwavering faith...
It wasn't just about aesthetics or availability. According to Shemot Rabbah, it was a symbolic statement about history, power, and ultimately, redemption. We read in (Exodus 25:3),...
Our tradition teaches that the Torah isn't just a book; it's a blueprint for creation, a manifestation of God's very being. And the luchot, the tablets upon which the Ten Commandme...
Shemot Rabbah notices the repeated phrases that shape Moses' life: "The Lord spoke with Moses," "The Lord said to Moses," "Moses said to the Lord," and "Moses spoke to the Lord." T...
That feeling, that intense desire, is at the heart of today's story. We find ourselves in Shir HaShirim Rabbah, an ancient commentary on the Song of Songs, that most beautiful and ...
They found ways to see even those challenging forces as a path towards the Divine. to a fascinating interpretation of a verse from Shir HaShirim, the Song of Songs, explored in Shi...
It’s a powerful human experience, and surprisingly, it's one that Jewish tradition ascribes to God. We find this idea explored in Shir HaShirim Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic int...
Our tradition certainly does. In Vayikra Rabbah, specifically chapter 7, we find a powerful thread connecting arrogance and divine retribution, often in the form of fire. It's a po...
Why does the Torah, in (Genesis 6:9), enumerate the generations of Noah with reference not to his ancestors, but to his virtues? It's a fair question. Shouldn't we be hearing about...
There's one particular story that throws this idea into sharp relief: the Giving of the Torah. At the very beginning, when the Creator shaped the cosmos, there was a clear line in ...
And he went out on the second day, and behold, two men of the Hebrews were striving together (Exod. 2:13). Who were these men? They were Dathan and Abiram, who later said: Let us m...
And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel (Exod. 4:29). He told them: The Holy One, blessed be He, has said: I have surely remembered ...
Chapter 10 “And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that th...
Bamidbar Rabbah turns to The Sotah Ritual and What It Reveals About Betrayal. It gets even more intriguing. "And from the dirt…" Why, the Torah asks, bring dirt – afar in Hebrew – ...
When the Lord cuts down (Deuteronomy 12:29): The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel, "By your lives, I will conduct your wars and write about you that you killed them." Come a...
You cannot receive complete divine providence until you shatter your desire for money. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught this as a direct spiritual mechanism, not a moral platitude. ...
How Confession Turns Harsh Judgment Into Mercy is the question behind this passage from Likutey Moharan (Rabbi Nachman). Through the Torah of lovingkindness, which the Talmud defin...
The Mekhilta observes that the nations surrounding Israel relied on one consistent tool to guide their decisions: divination. The evidence runs through multiple books of the Torah ...
Four are called "inheritance": the Temple, viz. "in the mountain of Your inheritance." Eretz Yisrael, viz. (Devarim 15:4) "in the land which the L–rd Your G–d gives You as an inher...
The Torah says about a kidnapper: "and sells him" (Exodus 21:16). The Mekhilta derives from this phrasing that the kidnapper is liable only if he sells the entire person, not half....
(Exodus 22:3) says: "If found will be found in his hand." The phrase "in his hand" seems to mean the stolen object was physically held by the thief. But the Mekhilta interprets "in...
Hillel taught: "Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving people and drawing them near to the Torah." But what did Aaron actually do? Rabbi Meir explain...
After the destruction of the Temple, Nebuzaradan, captain of the Babylonian guard under Nebuchadnezzar, found blood bubbling up from the ground in Jerusalem. According to Gittin 57...
Israel in exile speaks like a child who has finally stopped lying. "Master of the Universe, at first I said 'I have not sinned,' and You brought suffering upon me. Now I say: I hav...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 12:3) performs one of its most characteristic moves, it drops the future straight into the past. The plain verse says, I will bless those who ble...
(Genesis 19:37), in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: "And the elder brought forth a son, and she called his name Moab, because from her father she had conceived. He is the father of the Moa...
“We bring our bread at the peril of our lives due to the sword of the wilderness” (Lamentations 5:9).“We bring our bread at the peril of our lives.” Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said:...
Kingdoms rise and fall, fortunes change in the blink of an eye... It's enough to make you wonder what, if anything, lasts. In chapter 10, he gets right to the heart of it: "Dominio...
Ben Sira, in his wisdom, saw this dynamic playing out thousands of years ago. He uses sharp, almost brutal imagery to paint a picture of inequality. He starts with a stark question...
It pulls no punches in its call for humility and divine justice. Ben Sira, a sage writing in Hebrew around 200 BCE, gives us these powerful words: "Make an end of the head of the p...
It’s a perspective that illuminates ideas about purity, holiness, and the very special status of the Garden of Eden. The passage in question focuses on the period after a woman giv...
The Book of Jubilees, a text not found in the Hebrew Bible but considered sacred by some, gives us a peek behind the curtain, fleshing out stories we think we know. And one of thos...
