813 related texts · Page 4 of 17
The stories we hear about Sodom in the Torah only scratch the surface. Jewish tradition paints a truly horrifying picture of this infamous city and its sister, Gomorrah. According ...
We often hear those names as symbols of ultimate depravity, but sometimes the stories that illustrate that depravity get lost in the mists of time. It wasn't just about abstract si...
That’s the situation Abraham found himself in, according to rabbinic tradition. The story goes that God, observing the rampant wickedness in Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding ci...
to a story about Abraham, our patriarch, and his audacious negotiation with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. It's a story filled with compassion, courage, and a little bit ...
And the story, as told in Ginzberg’s Legends of the Jews, is a real nail-biter. We all know the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. These cities were, shall we say, not exactly shining ex...
We all know the story. The wicked city, the angels disguised as travelers, the impending doom. But have you ever stopped to consider just how far gone the people of Sodom were? Acc...
Take the story of Lot, Abraham's nephew, and the destruction of Sodom. We all know the story. God, disgusted by the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah, decides to destroy them. But A...
Jewish tradition is full of instances where the "when" is just as important as the "what." Take the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. We all know the story of the wic...
Abraham, our ancestor Abraham, did just that. Think back to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. A harrowing tale. We read in the Torah about Abraham pleading with God to spare the cit...
The Legends of the Jews, that incredible compilation of rabbinic stories by Louis Ginzberg, paints a vivid picture. Jacob isn’t just walking; he’s transformed. He’s "crowned like a...
That’s kind of what happened in Egypt, according to the legends surrounding Joseph, the dreamer who rose to power. Remember Joseph? Sold into slavery by his brothers, he ended up i...
That's the situation Moses found himself in, according to some fascinating threads in Jewish legend. The story goes that even the angels themselves were taken aback. They came to G...
He is the ultimate power in Egypt, and he is absolutely convinced of his own divinity. So, when Moses and Aaron come to him with their message – "Let my people go, that they may se...
You've got the Red Sea in front of you, Pharaoh's army closing in behind, and the unforgiving desert on either side. Talk about a rock and a hard place. Desperate doesn’t even begi...
In Jewish tradition, even the placement of the tribes in the desert wasn’t random. It was divinely ordained, each position reflecting a unique characteristic and purpose. God, spea...
Sometimes, the answer might be… in the water. : the environment around us shapes us. And according to some fascinating legends, that influence can be incredibly literal. The Israel...
We pick up the story with Joab, commander of King David’s army, after he's already spent ten days resting and recuperating with his hosts. Refreshed, he sets out again to wage war ...
It wasn't just wisdom, my friends; it was a little help from some… unusual sources. We all know Solomon had dominion over spirits – but did you know he also commanded the animal ki...
He was, let's just say, very enthusiastic about idol worship. And he wasn't shy about flaunting it. As Ginzberg retells it in Legends of the Jews, Ahab taunted Elijah, basically sa...
Two Torah scholars convinced their students to tear a golden eagle off the Temple gate in broad daylight. Herod burned them alive for it. According to Josephus in Antiquities XVII,...
We all know the story from Genesis: the serpent, the forbidden fruit, the exile. But what then? Did the Garden just sit there, empty and forlorn? Not quite. According to Jewish lor...
Maybe that’s because the rainbow we see today isn’t the rainbow of the Messiah. Not yet, anyway. : the rainbow we know is a promise, a beautiful one, certainly. It's a reminder of ...
In Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition, we find intricate descriptions of the subtle architecture of consciousness. Today, we're going to delve into one fascinating corner of t...
It's not just a single Big Bang, but a layered process, a sort of cosmic development unfolding over time. One fascinating way to understand this is through the concepts of "Gestati...
It’s a metaphor for the highest levels of spiritual light. Specifically, we’re talking about neshama, haya, and yeḥida – three elevated aspects of the soul. Think of them as the “b...
But Jewish mystical tradition, particularly the Kabbalah, doesn’t shy away from exploring the complexities of creation.It comes to us from the Introduction to the Sulam Commentary,...
That’s kind of the question we’re grappling with today. Imagine someone turning to you and saying, "Why should I bother with all this talk about S'firot? Why should I be compelled ...
Da'at (Knowledge) Tevunot, a profound work of Jewish thought, grapples with this very issue. It suggests that what appears to be divine inaction or even harshness is actually a for...
Is it just random chaos? Or is there a deeper structure, a cosmic architecture at play? The Jewish mystical tradition, particularly the Kabbalah, offers a fascinating answer. It te...
We often talk about the Sefirot, the ten emanations through which God reveals Himself and creates the world. Think of them as divine attributes, stages in a process. But here’s the...
It’s a question that’s puzzled philosophers and mystics for millennia. And Jewish mystical tradition offers a fascinating answer, one that delves into the very nature of creation i...
We often read familiar verses, but sometimes, a single word can unlock an entire universe of mystical meaning. Take the bedolach stone, for example. It pops up in (Genesis 2:12), d...
Jewish mystical tradition, specifically the Kabbalah, offers a mind-bending map of sorts, attempting to describe the indescribable. And sometimes, it does this using… well, let’s j...
Jewish mystical tradition, particularly the Kabbalah, is full of these tantalizing glimpses.This passage, specifically from Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar 33, offers a fascinati...
Jewish mysticism teaches that this feeling echoes a cosmic reality – a separation, an exile, that affects everything. The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a central text of Kabba...
It all boils down to the rainbow. Yes, that beautiful arc of color we see after the rain. But not just any rainbow. The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar isn't talking about a fade...
The Kabbalah, that mystical branch of Jewish thought, certainly thinks so. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a collection of commenta...
The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah, doesn't shy away from the darker corners of existence. And it links that very human experience of bitterness to n...
It all hinges on the image of a dove and an eagle. The "dove," the Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar tells us, is prayer itself. More specifically, it represents the Lower Shekhina...
We all know the basic tale: a great flood, a boat full of animals, and a rainbow promising a new beginning. But Jewish mystical tradition often finds deeper layers, hidden codes, a...
The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a companion volume to the Zohar, that foundational text of Kabbalah, offers a fascinating, and frankly, wild, answer. It sees the human body ...
The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah, invites us to consider just that. It paints a picture of the human body as a microcosm, a reflection of the divin...
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev opens his commentary on Parshat Vayera (Genesis 18:1) with a puzzle: the Torah says "God appeared to him," using only the pronoun "him" instead of...
The practical section of Harba de-Moshe (the Sword of Moses) reads like a catalog of emergencies and the divine names that solve them. Fever, snakebite, enemy attack, court cases, ...
The most dangerous part of the heavenly ascent described in Maaseh Merkavah (the Divine Chariot) is not the destination—it is the journey. At each of the seven gates leading to the...
R. Yirmiyah says: Just as uncleanliness constrains (the offering of the Pesach (Passover) [viz. (Numbers 9:10)] and (the advent of) spring constrains, then just as the (constraint ...
The Mekhilta draws a sharp contrast between a human artisan and the divine Creator. When a mortal sculptor sets out to make a figure, he must build it piece by piece — starting fro...
When Moses stood on Mount Nebo and looked out over the Promised Land, God pointed to each region and revealed not just the terrain but the history that would unfold upon it. The Me...
