4,193 related texts · Page 76 of 88
It involves bikkurim (בִּכּוּרִים), the first fruits offering. Now, picture this: you're a farmer in ancient Israel. You've poured your heart and soul into your land, and finally, ...
And nowhere is it more poignant than in the story of Moses, right before his passing. Imagine this: Moses, the greatest prophet, standing at the edge of the Promised Land, knowing ...
The passage begins, "Listen, O heavens, and I shall speak." Rabbi Yehudah b. Chananiah, a wise sage, taught that when Moses spoke those words, the heavens – not just the heavens we...
The text paints a rather unflattering portrait of the Israelites, calling them "hafachpechanim" – turncoats, those who are inconsistent – and "runabouts." Ouch. But it gets even mo...
It all starts with the verse: "And this is the blessing..." Now, what does that seemingly simple phrase actually mean? The text offers a couple of intriguing interpretations. The f...
It’s a question that bubbles up from time to time, and our sages, bless their memory, certainly pondered it. What did the other nations make of that earth-shattering event? Well, S...
But let's turn to the ancient text of Sifrei Devarim 344 for a little insight. The verse we're looking at says, variantly, "He also loved the peoples." But here’s the thing: the Si...
It's easy to think of them as twelve separate entities, but the Torah often hints at deeper connections, interwoven destinies. Today, let's uncover a fascinating economic and spiri...
SHEMAIAH AND ABṬALYON RECEIVED THE TRADITION FROM THE PRECEDING. SHEMAIAH SAID: LOVE WORK AND HATE PUBLIC OFFICE, AND BECOME NOT KNOWN TO THE RULING POWER.LOVE WORK. What does this...
The Hebrew Bible says the "sons of God" saw that human women were beautiful, and took wives from among them (Genesis 6:2). That's all it says. The Targum Jonathan rewrites the scen...
Abraham made his servant Eliezer swear an oath by placing his hand on the mark of circumcision. The Torah says "under my thigh." The Targum says exactly what it means: the section ...
Genesis 38, the story of Judah and Tamar, is already one of the most dramatic chapters in the Torah. The Targum Jonathan amplifies every beat, adding prayers, prophecies, and moral...
The standard Genesis account of Joseph's rise to power in Egypt is dramatic enough. But the ancient Aramaic translation known as Targum Jonathan layers in theological details that ...
When Moses and Aaron first confronted Pharaoh and demanded he release Israel, the Hebrew Bible records Pharaoh's defiant reply: "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?" (Ex...
The Targum Jonathan on Exodus 8 contains one of the most remarkable theological additions in all of ancient Aramaic literature: the reason Moses personally refused to bring the pla...
The standard Exodus text says God promised one final plague against Egypt. The Targum Jonathan transforms this announcement into something far more personal and humiliating for Pha...
The Targum Jonathan on (Exodus 13) contains one of the most startling cross-references in all of ancient Aramaic translation. It identifies the famous dry bones from (Ezekiel 37) a...
The manna story in (Exodus 16) raises an obvious question: where did this miracle food come from? The Hebrew Bible says God "rained bread from heaven." The Targum Jonathan gives a ...
The instructions for building the Tabernacle in (Exodus 25) read like an architectural blueprint in the Hebrew Bible. The Targum Jonathan adds theological meaning to nearly every m...
The golden calf episode in (Exodus 32:1-35) is already one of the Torah's most dramatic stories. The Targum Jonathan makes it wilder, stranger, and more theologically loaded than a...
The construction of the Tabernacle in (Exodus 36:1-38) begins with a problem no ancient building project should have had. The people brought too much. Morning after morning, they a...
The grain offering described in Leviticus 2 seems straightforward—flour, oil, frankincense, baked into cakes or wafers. But the Targum Jonathan adds a theological bombshell hidden ...
God told Moses to "bring near Aaron" for the priestly consecration—and the Targum Jonathan adds three devastating words the Hebrew Bible does not contain: "who is afar off on accou...
The standard census in the Book of Numbers is a dry headcount. But the Targum Jonathan transforms it into something far more dramatic, adding a theological reason for every exempti...
The Hebrew Bible says the Israelites camped by their tribal standards (Numbers 2:2). It never describes what was on them. The Targum Jonathan fills that silence with a riot of colo...
In the standard Hebrew text, God takes the Levites instead of Israel's firstborn sons. The Targum Jonathan adds details that transform this administrative swap into a high-stakes t...
The Targum Jonathan transforms the consecration of the Levites from a brief ritual into an elaborate purification involving specific quantities of water, a razor over every inch of...
Numbers 11 tells the story of Israel complaining about food in the wilderness. The Targum Jonathan adds a graven image in the camp of Dan, a wind that nearly destroyed the world, a...
Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses. The Hebrew Bible is vague about why. The Targum Jonathan fills in the backstory with a Cushite queen, a celibate prophet, and a divine rebuke tha...
The Hebrew Bible says Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan. The Targum Jonathan says he sent "keen-sighted men"—then reveals how spectacularly their vision failed them. Moses dispat...
After the plague killed twenty-four thousand, God ordered a new census. The Targum's version of (Numbers 26) opens with a phrase absent from the Torah: "the compassions of the heav...
The five daughters of Zelophehad—Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah—heard that the Promised Land would be divided only among males and immediately went to the court. The Targ...
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 12) is obsessed with a single idea: the place where God's Shekinah (שכינה), His divine presence, will choose to dwell. The Hebrew text says "the...
The unsolved murder ritual in (Deuteronomy 21) is already strange in the Torah—elders break a heifer's neck in a barren valley. Targum Jonathan makes it stranger and more spectacul...
The Torah says write the law on plastered stones after crossing the Jordan. Targum Jonathan says write it "with writing deeply engraven and distinct, which shall be read in one lan...
The Blessing of Moses in (Deuteronomy 33) gets the full Targum treatment—every tribe's destiny expanded, every blessing loaded with specifics the Torah never mentions. It opens wit...
Teach us, oh master – may one light a lamp for personal use from the Channukah lights? Our masters taught us – R’ Acha said in the name of Rav ‘it is forbidden to light a lamp to u...
On the seventh day after the Ten Commandments Moshe went up on the mountain, as it says "The Presence of the LORD abode on Mount Sinai, and the cloud hid it for six days..." (Shemo...
"And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year..." (Numbers 1:1).1Guggen...
Trees talk to each other. That is not a modern botanical discovery — it is a teaching from the Yalkut Shimoni, a medieval anthology of midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic ...
When God appeared to Abram and commanded him to circumcise himself, the patriarch was already ninety-nine years old. According to the Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 80, God's words carrie...
And he arrived at the place – Why do we use a pseudonym and call the Holy One ‘place’ (makom)? Because He is the place of the world and the world is not His place. R’ Yosi ben Hali...
R’ Yehoshua of Sachnin said in the name of R’ Levi: “And I placed My words into your mouth…” This refers to the Torah. “…and with the shadow of My hand I covered you…” (Isaiah 51:1...
Pray let me cross over. The word nah indicates that this is a request. the good land that is on the other side of the Jordan. This is what R’ Yehudah meant when he said that the la...
The people of Judea were precise with their language. The people of Galilee were not. According to Eruvin 53a, this difference was not a minor cultural quirk—it had real consequenc...
The Hebrew Bible opens with "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). Targum Onkelos, the authoritative Aramaic translation read alongside the Torah ...
The Hebrew Bible says Moses came to "the mountain of God" at Horeb (Exodus 3:1). Targum Onkelos specifies: "the mountain on which the Glory of God was revealed." The mountain is no...
The Hebrew Bible says God told Moses, "Who gave man a mouth, or who makes a person dumb or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I—God?" (Exodus 4:11). Targum Onkelos translates this ve...
