4,193 related texts · Page 31 of 88
It all starts with understanding the power of fulfilling God's will. In Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal and ethical teachings supplementing the Book of Deuteronomy, we find a...
Our starting point? A little phrase from Sifrei Devarim 355: "He shall be desired of his brothers." Sounds intriguing. The text presents us with two distinct interpretations of thi...
A scribe’s nightmare? Perhaps. A treasure trove of textual insights? Absolutely! According to Sifrei Devarim 356, that's exactly what happened. And the differences weren't major pl...
And while definitive answers might elude us, Jewish tradition offers tantalizing hints and comforting assurances. Our exploration begins in Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal an...
Jewish tradition has a powerful message for those moments: you are never truly alone. The Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)im on the ...
It’s a timeless human experience, and it’s something the ancient rabbis wrestled with too. In the book of Sifrei Devarim, a collection of early rabbinic legal interpretations on th...
We know he gazed out at the Promised Land, the land he would never enter. But the Torah tells us he saw more than just hills and valleys. He saw everything. But what everything, ex...
You can almost feel his anticipation, his heart swelling with hope. But then… the hammer drops. "This is the land that I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," God tells Moses, as we...
It’s a question that's haunted humanity for, well, pretty much ever. And when we look to our sacred texts, sometimes we find the answers are…surprising. Take Moses, for example. We...
Our journey starts with the Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal commentaries on the Book of Deuteronomy. It asks a simple question about a seemingly simple phrase: "thirty days."...
We tend to focus on the big ones – the plagues, the splitting of the Red Sea – but Jewish tradition suggests the miraculous was woven into the very fabric of their experience. It w...
R. Ḥananiah, the deputy High Priest,1In Aboth 3:2 (Sonc. ed., p. 27) there is a different saying attributed to ‘R. Ḥanina, the deputy High Priest’, and in III, 5 (Sonc. ed., III, 5...
The destruction of Sodom in Genesis 19 is swift and merciless. Fire and brimstone rain down, and the city is gone. But the Targum Jonathan inserts a detail that changes everything:...
The standard book of Exodus says an angel appeared to Moses in the burning bush. The Targum Jonathan, an ancient Aramaic translation composed in the land of Israel, names that ange...
The Song of the Sea in (Exodus 15) is one of the oldest poems in the Hebrew Bible. The Targum Jonathan rewrites it with additions so bold they create entirely new theology, includi...
The laws of (Exodus 23) cover justice, festivals, and the conquest of Canaan. The Targum Jonathan on this chapter adds moral psychology, legal specifics, and one of the most striki...
Korah did not just challenge Moses. According to the Targum Jonathan, he manufactured a theological argument using the very fabric of his clothing, hid treasure he had looted from ...
The Targum's version of (Numbers 34) maps the Promised Land's borders with a level of geographic specificity that goes far beyond the Torah's terse boundary markers. The southern b...
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 4) transforms the Sinai revelation into something far more vivid than the Hebrew original. Where the Bible says God spoke from the fire, the Tar...
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 8) transforms a description of the Promised Land's natural resources into a prophecy about its intellectual future. The Hebrew says the land has...
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 11) turns the promise of rain into a precisely timed agricultural calendar. The Hebrew says God will give "the early rain and the late rain." Th...
Targum Jonathan transforms the dry legal code of (Deuteronomy 19) into something visceral. Where the Torah simply warns that the blood avenger might overtake a fleeing killer, the ...
The blessings of (Deuteronomy 28) receive domestic detail. Being blessed "when you go out" becomes "blessed shall you be in your coming in to your houses of instruction, and blesse...
The Torah's promise of return from exile in (Deuteronomy 30) is hopeful. Targum Jonathan makes it messianic. Where the Hebrew says God will gather the scattered, the Targum says: "...
Akabyah ben Mahalalel said: mark well three things and you will not come into the power of sin: know from where you come, and where you are going, and before whom you are destined ...
The impossible creatures of Rabbah bar bar Hana's voyages continue in Bava Batra 73b, each one more staggering than the last—a catalog of wonders that pushed the boundaries of the ...
The Hebrew Bible says Jacob dreamed of a ladder "set up on the earth, and the top of it reached toward heaven" (Genesis 28:12). Targum Onkelos says the ladder was "planted in the e...
The Hebrew Bible commands: "Hear, O Israel! God is our Lord, God is one" (Deuteronomy 6:4). Targum Onkelos translates the Shema—Judaism's central declaration of faith—with perfect ...
The author of Rav Pealim [Vilna Gaon] wrote about the Socher Tov of Midrash Tehillim and said: I found in the book, Ohel Yosef by Rabbi Yosef the Sefaradi on Parashat Vayikra, on t...
(Ib. b) We are taught: The sages made a fence to their words [to protect their ordinances], lest a man coming from the field in the evening, would say: "I will go home, eat a littl...
Beruria and the wife of a Min disputed about the words "Rejoice O barren one”, and the woman asked why she should rejoice because she had not had any children and the answer was, l...
Mesha, the king of Moab, heard the story of the Binding of Isaac and drew exactly the wrong conclusion. He learned that Abraham, the father of the Israelites, had been willing to s...
The story continues as follows:— 184— The frog, which is none other than a child of the demon Lilith teaches Johanan the knowledge of all the languages and before leaving, calls al...
When God gave the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, the sages taught that He did not speak them into a void. Each commandment was connected to the covenant God had already made with...
The Talmud (Shabbat 156b) tells the story of a woman who consulted astrologers about her newborn son. They told her with certainty: "Your son will be a thief." She was devastated. ...
The birth of Moses was no ordinary event. According to the ancient chronicles preserved in Jerahmeel and the writings of Josephus, the arrival of Israel's greatest prophet was prec...
Frog Princess. Eisenstein, Oser, p. 344. Maase Buch No. 143. Helvicus, Historien I, ch. 14, p. 64. Eisenmenger, I, p. 399. Tendlau, Fellmeier, No. 1. Griinbaum, Jiid. Dtsch. Chrest...
Solomon & Daughter of King of Ammon. Gittin, f. 68b. cf. Yalk. Hadash. • m Hirz, Emek Hamel ekh, f. 15. Jellinek, B. H. II, p. 86. Eisenstein, Oser, p. 530. Maase Buch No. 104. Ten...
Angelology constitutes the theological branch examining "superhuman beings dwelling in heaven, who, on occasion, reveal to man God's will and execute His commands." This doctrine d...
This comprehensive article examines demons across biblical, rabbinical, and comparative religious contexts, written by Emil G. Hirsch, Richard Gottheil, Kaufmann Kohler, and Isaac ...
This comprehensive article examines cosmogony (theories of universe origin) across biblical, post-biblical, and rabbinical Jewish traditions, comparing them with Babylonian and oth...
This extensive article by Kaufmann Kohler from the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia explores the Jewish doctrine of "last things"—the final destiny of the Jewish nation and humanity. Escha...
A psalm of David, written after Doeg the Edomite betrayed him — that's where Aggadat Bereshit anchors the story of Jacob's ladder. Strange placement. But the rabbis had a method. D...
Leah was hated — or unloved, depending on the translation, but the Hebrew is harsh — and God saw it (Genesis 29:31). This is where Aggadat Bereshit begins: with the divine attentio...
It’s more than just a geographical landmark; it’s a place brimming with meaning, judgment, and even desire. to the heart of what the Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teach...
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...
We stumble upon one such instance in Bamidbar Rabbah, specifically in chapter 6. It concerns the census of the Kehatites, a clan within the Leviim (Levites). The text points out so...
In Jewish tradition, we find striking examples of this idea, particularly in the story of Korah and his rebellion against Moses and Aaron. Our story comes from Bamidbar Rabbah, a M...
