714 related texts · 5 related myths · Page 2 of 15
“And great enslavement,” Rabbi Aḥa said: Because they would keep the Hebrew slave in servitude, just as it says: “At the end of seven years [each of] you shall free [his Hebrew bro...
“For these I weep, my eye, my eye sheds water; for a comforter, restorer of my soul, has grown distant from me; my children have become desolate, because the enemy has prevailed” (...
“I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His fury” (Lamentations 3:1).“I am the man” – Rabbi Ḥama bar Ḥanina began: “Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Barukh s...
“May You pursue them in wrath and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord” (Lamentations 3:66).“May You pursue them in wrath and destroy them” – Jeremiah said: “May you pur...
“Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens; they pursued us on the mountains, they ambushed us in the wilderness” (Lamentations 4:19).“Our pursuers were swifter than...
What did Mordekhai say to someone who would say to him: “Why are you violating the king’s command?” (Esther 3:3) Rabbi Levi said: Mordekhai would say: ‘Moses our master cautioned u...
(Deuteronomy 26:3) says, "I have professed this day..." But what exactly are you professing? And how often? Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal midrashim (rabbinic interpretive c...
Moses, the guy who led them out of Egypt, parted the Red Sea, and received the Torah on Mount Sinai. You'd imagine he was constantly laying down the law. But according to the Sifre...
The Targum's version of (Numbers 23) reveals Bileam's inner strategy. When he looked at Israel, "he knew that strange worship was among them, and rejoiced in his heart." He spotted...
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...
A man cleared stones from his own field and threw them onto the public road. A pious man passing by saw this and rebuked him: "Fool, why do you throw stones from a field that is no...
A man cleared stones from his own field and threw them onto the public road. A pious man passing by saw this and rebuked him: "Fool, why do you throw stones from a field that is no...
A short, bitter parable preserved as Gaster's exemplum No. 210 teaches the kind of lesson a Jew is meant to carry with him into the street. A man was clearing his field of stones. ...
After Joshua died, Israel had no leader. The people asked God who should fight the Canaanites, and God told them to cast lots. The lot fell on Kenaz, from the tribe of Caleb, who b...
What made him so special, so blessed? to a fascinating look at his journey from Haran to Canaan, and the promises that accompanied him. The story goes that Abraham left his father'...
Even the great Abraham, our father Abraham, wrestled with that. According to the sages, God wasn't entirely happy with him. Why? Because Abraham, for all his legendary hospitality ...
Moses, fresh from his encounter with the burning bush, is now tasked with the monumental job of leading the Israelites out of Egypt. He’s got a bit of an edge, maybe a little too m...
Legends of the Jews turns to The Hailstones Froze in Midair When Moses Prayed. Here's the kicker: as soon as Moses prayed, the hail that had been pelting Egypt just…stopped. Suspen...
A huge mountain. And then, suddenly, it lifts up. and hovers over your head. That, my friends, is how the Israelites accepted the Torah. It wasn't exactly a spur-of-the-moment deci...
For Elisheba, the joy is amplified fivefold! As Ginzberg recounts in Legends of the Jews, luck seems to be showering blessings specifically on her. Her husband, Aaron, is the High ...
Think about Moses, right before the Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land. He has some serious things to say to them. Some… tough love, let's call it. But why does he wai...
The story of Deborah unfolds not long after the time of Ruth, another woman held up as an ideal. The Book of Judges tells us that after the death of Ehud, a judge who delivered Isr...
It started from a rooftop. Late one evening, David, king of Israel, conqueror of nations, the man after God's own heart, looked down from his palace and saw a woman bathing. Her na...
It's a portal, a moment when the entire cosmos shifts. According to ancient wisdom, Shabbat (the Sabbath) isn't just about our rest, it's about the universe taking a collective bre...
Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, offers a fascinating, and frankly mind-bending, explanation. It involves shattering, divine light, and a cosmic repair project We're continuing our expl...
In Jewish tradition, that feeling has a name, a purpose, a cosmic blueprint. to a passage from the Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, ...
The familiar story is this: David, armed with only a sling and some stones, takes down the Philistine warrior. But what if there was more to it than just a lucky shot? What if this...
"He blessed them on that day, saying: may God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh" (Genesis 48:20). Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev uses Jacob's blessing to explain a peculiar tea...
The Mekhilta, the halakhic midrash on Exodus from the 2nd century CE, examines one of the starkest either-or passages in the Prophets. Isaiah delivers God's ultimatum: "If you acqu...
The Mekhilta concludes its extended discussion of Tyre and its ruler Malchah by citing the prophetic verdicts that sealed their fate. And then draws a sweeping theological conclusi...
Our tradition is filled with such moments, and one of the most powerful surrounds Jacob's famous dream. We find it in the book of Genesis, where Jacob, fleeing from his brother Esa...
The sages teach that sometimes, that very position – being between two good choices – is a blessing in disguise. Think about Samuel the Prophet. According to Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer...
Those little acts of kindness, those traditions that bind us together… sometimes, the answer is more surprising than you think. Let's Think about a wedding. What do we do? We celeb...
Rabbi Judah paints a vivid picture. He tells us that Isaac, when blessing Jacob, bestowed upon him ten distinct blessings. Now, these weren't just any blessings. They were specific...
It's absolutely fundamental. In fact, Rabbi Yehoshua of Sikhnin, quoting Rabbi Levi, makes a powerful statement: "Great is peace, for all blessings are sealed with peace." This isn...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Why Moses Rebuked All of Israel at the Same Time. The Sifrei Devarim, a legal midrash on the Book of Deuteronomy, gives us a fascinating glimpse into Moses’...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Moses Rebukes Israel with Geographic Code Words. "Across the Jordan": this teaches us, the text says, that Moses is rebuking the people for their actions on...
He knows they need a good talking-to, a serious reminder of their responsibilities. But he can't just launch into a lecture, can he? Timing, as they say, is everything. Sifrei Deva...
Sifrei Devarim reads a set of map coordinates with legal precision: where are Mount Gerizim and Mount Eival? The passage starts with a seemingly simple phrase: "after the way of th...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Yeshurun Grew Fat and Kicked Against God's Blessings. Is that abundance always a blessing? The text doesn't seem so sure. It goes on to quote (Deuteronomy 3...
Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal midrashim (rabbinic interpretive commentary) (interpretations) on the Book of Deuteronomy, gives us a fascinating insight into this idea, focu...
While definitive answers might elude us, Jewish tradition offers tantalizing hints and comforting assurances. Our exploration begins in Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal and et...
Jacob's deathbed blessings (Genesis 49) are among the most obscure passages in the Torah. Targum Onkelos does not merely translate them, he decodes them, turning cryptic poetry int...
When Boaz sent Ruth home in the early morning, he poured into her shawl "six measures of barley" (Ruth 3:15). The sages, reading closely, asked: can this really mean six grains, so...
The rabbis read the Torah with a quiet attention to who shows up at whose door. They noticed that wherever a righteous person travels, blessing travels with them, like a shadow tha...
When Joseph told his father the dream of the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars, Jacob rebuked him. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 37:10) reports the rebuke: What dream is thi...
The Targum gives the baker's dream two readings, the way it gave the butler's dream two readings. This is its interpretation. The three baskets are the three enslavements with whic...
We begin with the verse: "God said: Let the water under the heavens be gathered to one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so" (Genesis 1:9). But the Rabbis, masters of ...
