1,374 related texts · 18 related myths · Page 5 of 29
Midrash Tehillim, a collection of homiletic interpretations on the Book of Psalms, dives right into that question when it grapples with the plagues visited upon Egypt. Specifically...
The ancient sages certainly did. And they saw this power reflected even in the way we remember the righteous and the wicked. It all starts with the verse, "Praise the Lord, for He ...
Midrash Tehillim turns to What Holds the Universe Together According to the Sages. Midrash Tehillim, an ancient collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Psalms, grapples wit...
The patriarch Abraham certainly did. The story begins with Sarah, Abraham's wife, making a demand. She tells Abraham to write a get, a bill of divorce, and send away his handmaid H...
The Israelites certainly did, wandering in the wilderness after the incredible Exodus from Egypt. And their doubts, as we'll see, had serious consequences. Rabbi Jochanan, son of N...
Yeah, the Israelites knew that feeling all too well. We find ourselves in the Book of Exodus, chapter 17. The Israelites have escaped Egypt, they’ve crossed the Red Sea, and they’r...
The Israelites are wandering in the desert, fresh from their miraculous escape from Egypt. They’re under divine protection. A pillar of cloud surrounds their camp, shielding them. ...
That feeling, that connection, it's at the heart of this story from Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, Chapter 44. The Israelites are facing a fearsome foe: Amalek. Moses, wise and divinely c...
The ancient Israelites certainly did. They came to Moses with a real head-scratcher. "Moses!" they asked, according to Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating early medieval midrash ...
The story starts, as so many do, with a commandment. God tells Saul, the first king of Israel, to utterly destroy Amalek. Wipe them out. Erase their memory from under heaven. A pre...
It revolves around a seemingly simple phrase: "And you shall write them." Write them where? That's the crux of it. This teaching presents a debate, a classic example of rabbinic re...
Take the mezuzah (a parchment scroll affixed to doorposts), that little scroll we affix to our doorposts. We see them every day, maybe even take them for granted. But have you ever...
The rabbis in Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal midrashim (rabbinic interpretive commentary) on the Book of Deuteronomy, ask a crucial question: Is that verse… subtly dissing E...
Our tradition grapples with these questions all the time, especially when it comes to seemingly disparate commandments. to one such conundrum, found in Sifrei Devarim, concerning t...
The Torah, our guide through life's complexities, anticipates these moments. You see someone struggling. Maybe their animal is overloaded and collapsing under the weight. Instinct ...
Even in other years, the rules about tithing could get pretty complex. We find ourselves in the book of Sifrei Devarim, specifically section 109, diving deep into the nuances of th...
Who gets to stay home from war, and why? The question is as old as Israel itself, and Sifrei Devarim 196, a tannaitic midrash on Deuteronomy compiled around the 3rd century CE, tak...
Not every war in the Torah is the same kind of war, and the Sifrei pulls that distinction out of a single opening clause. The rabbis of old weren't just reading the words on the pa...
The verse says, "then you shall send her on her own." Seems straightforward. But the Rabbis, in their infinite wisdom, see more. The text specifies that she must be sent "on her ow...
Sifrei Devarim turns the law of the rebellious son and the suspected wife into a debate over how far a Torah verse can reach. What exactly constitutes this "rebellious and defiant"...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Who Must Participate in Stoning the Rebellious Son. Our little puzzle comes from Seifrei Devarim, a collection of early rabbinic legal interpretations on th...
Sifrei Devarim turns a punishment verse into a narrow legal question: which executed person is also hanged? The verse in question, (Deuteronomy 21:22), states, "and you shall hang ...
Our first stop: plowing. Deuteronomy 22 tells us, "You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together" (Deuteronomy 22:10). Seems straightforward. But the rabbis of old, never one...
It happens more than you think! two fascinating examples of seemingly contradictory commands, straight from Sifrei Devarim. Ready? The first involves shatnez, that tricky prohibiti...
Our exploration begins in Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy. Here, the rabbis confront a fundamental question: How is a woman acquire...
The Torah, in the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy), actually touches on this very human experience. It speaks about divorce, about what happens when love fades, or maybe wasn't even t...
What does it take to truly end a marriage? The rabbis of the early tannaitic period debated what constitutes a real "cutting off," a complete severance, what they called krithuth. ...
When Is a Woman Considered Defiled After Divorce is the question behind this passage from Sifrei Devarim. The passage starts by stating the obvious: "after she had been defiled" re...
Forgotten harvests, generosity, and oddly specific measurements. Specifically, section 284. It deals with the concept of shikchah (שִׁכְחָה), which translates to "forgotten sheaves...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Teachings of Amalek. It goes further. "When you went out of Egypt" says Sifrei Devarim, means "at the time of your redemption." A time of joy and hope! Just...
The ritual of bringing bikkurim, the first fruits, required every Israelite farmer to recite a specific formula, a declaration of gratitude and remembrance. The Sifrei Devarim, a c...
It turns out, this isn't just a nice sentiment, but a deep spiritual truth, at least according to some fascinating Jewish texts. The Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal and ethic...
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 Torah tells us that Moses was born, hidden, found by Pharaoh's daughter, and eventually fled to Midian. Targum Jonathan fills in the gaps with miracles, secret identities, and ...
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...
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 spectacu...
The Torah's divorce law in (Deuteronomy 24) states that a second husband may dislike the wife. Targum Jonathan adds something astonishing: "should they proclaim from the heavens ab...
From Ephraim, who wrote in Amalek after you, Benjamin (Judges 5:14). May our Rabbis teach us what a person should say when he reads the Book of Esther. The Talmud teaches us that o...
A certain man in Jerusalem wanted to divorce his rich wife. The problem was that her marriage contract, her ketubah, stipulated a considerable sum to be paid to her in the event of...
During the war with Amalek, the Israelites were losing whenever Moses's hands grew heavy and fell. Aaron and Hur took a stone and placed it under him so he could sit and raise his ...
The prophet Isaiah puts a complaint into the mouth of Zion. The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me (Isaiah 49:14). The community of Israel, in the Talmud's reading, spe...
A young boy was traveling by ship when a terrible storm overtook them. The other passengers were wealthy merchants. Each one reached into his bag and took out a small idol, some ca...
The blessings are done. Jacob has said something hard or something heroic about each of his sons, one has lost the birthright, two have been scattered for their rage, one has been ...
When Moses raised his rod, heaven answered with a miracle that defied nature itself. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:23) describes it: "Mosheh lifted up his rod toward the ...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 13:3) records the speech Moses gave on the morning after the Exodus. The Aramaic phrase from the house of the bondage of slaves stacks up two word...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan tells the story of Amalek's assault at Rephidim with details the plain Hebrew text does not preserve. "And Amalek came from the land of the south and lea...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan closes the Amalek story with one of the most extraordinary vows in the Torah. "Because the Word of the Lord hath sworn by the throne of His glory, that H...
The book of Bamidbar Rabbah, a treasure trove of rabbinic commentary on the Book of Numbers, explores this very idea. It all starts with the command to count the firstborn males, "...
