759 related texts · Page 3 of 16
(Lev. 23:40:) “And you shall take for yourselves.” This text is related (to Ps. 35:10), “All my bones shall say, ‘Lord, who is like you?’” David has stated this verse beautifully.9...
(Lev. 23:40:) “And you shall take for yourselves on the first day.” After all the wisdom which is ascribed to Solomon (since according to I (Kings 5:1)1), “He was the wisest of all...
(Lev. 23:40:) “And you shall take for yourselves on the first day,” and even on the Sabbath.95See Lev. 30:8; PRK 27:8. [Indeed] during the time that the Temple was standing, [the p...
Ben Sira, in his wisdom, shines a spotlight on this remarkable individual. The text sings of him as "Great one of his brethren, and glory of his people." Not a bad title. But what ...
Forget the sterile descriptions in history books. Let's try to feel it, to breathe it in, to almost see it shimmering before us. Ben Sira, in chapter 50 of his wisdom book, gives u...
We often trace them back to the Torah, to Moses at Sinai. But what if some of those traditions, the feel of them, actually predate the Torah itself? to the Book of Jubilees, a fasc...
Not just any Passover, but the Passover as envisioned in the Book of Jubilees. The Book of Jubilees, for those unfamiliar, is an ancient Jewish text that retells the stories of Gen...
It's considered apocryphal by some, pseudepigraphal by others (meaning, falsely attributed to a biblical figure), but no matter what you call it, it's a fascinating window into a w...
The Book of Jubilees, for those of you who aren’t familiar, is an ancient Jewish text. Think of it as a retelling – and slight expansion – of the Book of Genesis and the first part...
to a fascinating, and sometimes surprising, peek into the origins of Passover and Shabbat, as seen through the lens of a text called the Book of Jubilees. The Book of Jubilees, som...
Specifically, the Letter of Aristeas. This isn't a letter in the Bible, but a letter about the Bible – or rather, about its translation into Greek, which became known as the Septua...
We all know the story of the Maccabees, the brave Jewish warriors who fought against the oppressive decrees of the Seleucid king Antiochus. But what happened after they won? Well, ...
That's the situation Simon Maccabeus faced. The story unfolds in the First Book of Maccabees, chapter 14. We're stepping back into a turbulent time for the Jewish people, a time of...
Zerubbabel won the riddle contest, but when King Darius offered him any reward up to half the kingdom, he asked for something no treasure could buy. According to the Chronicles of ...
The story of Israel's return from exile reads like a cascade of empires, each rising and falling at breathtaking speed. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Heb...
According to Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg, as the time approached for the Israelites' redemption from Egyptian slavery, a dilemma arose. They hadn't accumulated enough goo...
Sometimes, the stories behind them are even more incredible than the rituals themselves. Let's talk about brit milah, circumcision, and a story that links it to the holiest day of ...
God, in all His glory, gave Moses meticulous instructions on how to build it. Seems straightforward. Wrong. According to Ginzberg's retelling in Legends of the Jews, poor Moses des...
According to Ginzberg’s retelling in Legends of the Jews, when Moses approached Aaron with the news that God wanted him to be the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest, Aaron wasn't exactly...
The Talmud tells us that the menorah was made of a single piece of gold. But how did Moses, blessed be he, actually make it? The story goes that when God commanded Moses to create ...
This comes to us from Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews, drawing from various Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic sources. Remember the story? Elijah, challenging the priests...
It was a showdown of epic proportions, a challenge to prove who the real God was. We're talking about a time of immense spiritual crisis, and everyone was desperate for answers. As...
Josephus, the first-century Romano-Jewish scholar, takes on Apion's wild accusations in his work Against Apion, and it’s a doozy. Apion, in his eagerness to smear the Jewish people...
Heikhalot (the heavenly palaces) Rabbati, a mystical text describing heavenly ascents and visions, gives us a glimpse into that pivotal moment. It wasn't just about laying stones a...
The passage begins with a verse from Genesis (33:18): “And Jacob arrived complete…” Now, on the surface, this seems like a straightforward statement. Jacob, after his long journey ...
That’s kind of the world of the Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a mystical text that delves into the deepest secrets of creation and redemption. And sometimes, it all hinges on…...
Moses' name does not appear in Parshat Tetzaveh. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev uses this conspicuous absence to explore a question about wisdom, unity, and the priestly garment...
The Torah states a blunt exclusion about the Paschal lamb: "No stranger may eat of it." The Mekhilta explains who "stranger" includes, and the answer is broader than it first appea...
The Mekhilta raises an objection to the theory that the four-and-five payment applies only to animals that are sacrificed on the altar. If that were the rule, then a blemished anim...
The ancient rabbis certainly did. In fact, they put those feelings right into the mouth of the people of Israel, in a powerful passage from Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbin...
We all know it's a time of intense reflection, fasting, and prayer. But according to Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating early medieval text, there's a cosmic drama unfolding alo...
The Yalkut Shimoni, a fascinating compilation of Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic literature, explores this very idea. Specifically, it delves into the delicate balance...
The Book of Bamidbar, or Numbers, dives right into that. Specifically, Bamidbar 5:9 lays out the rules for terumah, the portion of the harvest given to the Cohein, the priest. Let'...
Sometimes it’s easy to skim over what seems like repetition, but hidden within those details are often profound teachings. Take the laws of the Nazir, the one who takes a special v...
We often hear blessings, maybe even offer them ourselves, but what's actually going on? In Jewish tradition, blessings are a big deal, and the Torah gives us some pretty specific i...
We're going to explore a particularly intriguing passage from Sifrei Bamidbar, a commentary on the Book of Numbers, which delves into the lighting of the menorah, the sacred candel...
It's all about Pesach (Passover) Sheni, the "Second Passover," and it raises some fascinating questions about intention, distance, and second chances. In the Book of Numbers (Bamid...
Jewish tradition understands that feeling, and, in a way, provides a "second chance" in the form of Pesach (Passover) Sheni. But what exactly is Pesach Sheni, the "Second Passover"...
It all starts with the verse, "All that opens the womb of all flesh" (Numbers 18:15). Right away, the text asks a crucial question: does this include animals? The answer, as often ...
It's not always as straightforward as it seems. Take Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks, for example. The Torah tells us in Bamidbar (Numbers) 28:26, "And on the day of the first-fruit...
It turns out, that idea is deeply rooted in Jewish tradition, as we find in Sifrei Bamidbar, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Numbers. Specifically, we're looki...
Sometimes, it's in those tiny details that we find the biggest revelations. Let's take a little dive into a passage from Sifrei Devarim (that's a collection of early rabbinic legal...
Jewish tradition is full of these details, and each one is packed with meaning. to a seemingly simple phrase from Sifrei Devarim 129: "sheep and cattle." It seems straightforward e...
Jewish law sometimes deals with similar dilemmas, where doing one good thing might unintentionally lead to a less-than-ideal outcome. Today, let's talk about the Pesach (Passover) ...
And the rabbis of old, they wrestled with this question too! The verse in Deuteronomy (16:6) tells us we should sacrifice the Passover offering "to the place that the L-rd your G-d...
Jewish law certainly thinks so! We’re diving into a fascinating little corner of the Sifrei Devarim, specifically section 147, which deals with the rules surrounding sacrifices. No...
And sometimes, just sometimes, you catch a glimpse of the beautiful mind at work behind it all. Let’s look at one such puzzle. We're diving into Sifrei Devarim, a collection of ear...
Leviticus 13 is the longest chapter in the book—a detailed medical manual for diagnosing skin diseases. The Targum Jonathan transforms it from clinical instructions into a color-co...
