975 related texts · 16 related myths · Page 2 of 21
The appointment of Bezalel and the commandment of Sabbath in (Exodus 31:1-18) culminate in one of the most extraordinary images in all of Targum Jonathan: the physical description ...
The luchot, that's Hebrew for "tablets", were divine creations themselves, crafted by God's own hand during that mystical twilight time at the end of the first Sabbath. Ginzberg, i...
The familiar story is this: Moses is up on Mount Sinai, receiving the Torah, and the Israelites, impatient and doubting, melt down their gold and fashion a false idol. Moses descen...
The story of Bezalel, the architect of the Mishkan (Tabernacle), offers a glimpse into that sacred space. Bezalel wasn't just any craftsman. He came from impressive stock. Accordin...
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 Lord said to Moses: “Hew these two tablets of stone” (Exod. 34:1). May it please our masters to teach us: How many verses of the Torah must the reader recite? Thus did our mast...
It goes deeper than just a census. The tribe of Levi carried a weighty burden: atoning for the sin of the firstborn sons of Israel. Before the infamous Golden Calf incident, the fi...
(Ibid. 20:8) "Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it": "Remember" and "Keep" (the Sabbath day to sanctify it [Devarim 5:12]) were both stated in one pronouncement. (Exodus 31:14) ...
(Exodus 35:3) commands: "You shall not light a fire in all of your dwellings" on the Sabbath. The Mekhilta connects this verse to a completely different discussion about the shemit...
When Moses descended from Mount Sinai carrying the two tablets of the covenant, he found the Israelites dancing around a golden calf. His fury was absolute. He shattered the tablet...
The golden incense altar stood just outside the veil, not inside the Holy of Holies, but as close to it as any vessel of daily service could come. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan places the...
The Mishkan was about to be built. Artisans had received the Spirit of wisdom. Materials were being gathered. And then, in the middle of the construction commands, God paused and s...
The Sabbath command carries a severity that shocks modern readers. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves it in its original sharpness: "Ye shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy to ...
The Hebrew Torah commands Israel to keep the Sabbath. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan adds three words that change the flavor entirely: Israel shall keep the Sabbath "to perform the delight...
The Sabbath is called menucha, rest. But Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 35:2) makes clear it was never optional. The verse commands six days of work, then on the seventh day the...
At the foot of Mount Sinai, when Israel answered the Torah with five Hebrew words, na'aseh v'nishma, "we will do and we will hear" (Exodus 24:7), they did something strange. They c...
After the calf, Moses pitched his personal tent far from the people. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, gives us the exact distance and what happened ther...
The morning after receiving the command, Moses did not delay. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, gives us the pre-dawn discipline of the prophet. "He hewe...
On the second ascent of Sinai, God proclaimed His own Name to Moses in a formula that Jews have recited in every generation since. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of...
Moses, standing before God after the devastating sin of the Golden Calf. The people, scared and impatient, had turned away from the covenant, creating an idol of gold in the desert...
The familiar story is this: The Israelites, fresh out of Egypt, get impatient waiting for Moses on Mount Sinai. They demand a god they can see, and Aaron, in a moment of weakness, ...
It's a story of atonement, of divine presence, and of a relationship between God and the Jewish people that’s been unfolding for millennia. Think back to the Day of Atonement. Imag...
Legends of the Jews turns to Israel's Wild Generosity After the Golden Calf Shame. The people went wild! The verse reads, "They were not content to bring things out of their houses...
Most retellings of the golden calf stop at the moment Moses hurled the tablets to the ground and shattered them at the base of Sinai. But a remarkable tradition preserved in Targum...
Sometimes the pieces don’t quite fit At first. Take, for instance, the tribe of Levi. In the Book of Numbers – Bamidbar in Hebrew – we find two seemingly opposing instructions rega...
Bamidbar Rabbah turns to Tabernacle — The Golden Calf. They connect this moment of completion and consecration to (Psalm 85:9): "I will hear what the Almighty Lord has to say, for ...
The familiar story centers on the first set, shattered in anger at the sight of the Golden Calf. But why two in the first place? Devarim Rabbah, a collection of homilies on the Boo...
Take the story of the Golden Calf. According to Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Exodus, that single act changed everything. "Behold, I am sen...
Shemot Rabbah turns to How Aaron Reacted When Moses Smashed the Tablets. The scene: Moses is descending from Mount Sinai, clutching the tablets of the law. He sees the Israelites r...
The Book of Exodus (34:1) tells us that after the Golden Calf incident, God instructs Moses: "Carve for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablet...
The familiar story centers on the first set, shattered in anger at the sight of the Golden Calf. But what about the second? Was it just a simple do-over? Shemot Rabbah, the compila...
The Jewish calendar marks three pilgrimage festivals and twelve new moons. The Kitzur ShLaH explains that the three festivals correspond to the three patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, an...
The Mekhilta identifies a remarkable pattern in the relationship between God and Moses: sometimes God "lowers" Himself while Moses "raises" himself, and other times the dynamic rev...
The opening of Mekhilta Tractate Shabbata draws attention to the singular way God communicated with Moses. The verse states (Exodus 30:11): "And the Lord spoke to Moses." The Mekhi...
Rabbi Yonathan asked: what is the purpose of specifying "You shall not light a fire" when the Torah already prohibits all labor on the Sabbath? If all thirty-nine categories of lab...
The opening verse of Deuteronomy lists a string of place names, "in the wilderness, in the Arabah, over against Suph, between Paran and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Di-zaha...
The Hebrew Bible says God "passed before" Moses and proclaimed the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy (Exodus 34:6). Targum Onkelos renders this as God "made His Shechinah pass" before M...
The Rabbis teach that three things come into the world directly from the hand of the Holy One, never secondhand. Famine. Plenty. And a wise ruler. For famine, Scripture says, The L...
When God told Moses to take a census of Israel, the command came wrapped in a warning that Targum Pseudo-Jonathan makes explicit: every man must give a ransom for his soul when he ...
When God told Moses that every counted Israelite must give a half-shekel, Moses did not know what a half-shekel looked like. The coin did not yet exist in any earthly mint. So, Tar...
The great intercessor did not rise to his prayer from confidence. He rose from terror. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the detail the Hebrew leaves out: Moses was shaken with fear...
When Moses turned to the tribe of Levi, his command was not simple slaughter. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, preserves the full instruction, and it is...
Not everyone watched Moses walk to the tabernacle with reverence. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, catches a detail the plain text leaves hidden. "When ...
When the cloud descended on the tabernacle outside the camp, the response of Israel was spontaneous and unanimous. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, capt...
After Moses' long intercession, God answered with a short sentence that closed the negotiation. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, renders it with the for...
When Moses asked to see God's glory, the answer reshaped the possibility of what a human being can experience of the Divine. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the T...
When Moses reached the summit with the new tablets, the meeting was unlike the first Sinai revelation. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, describes what h...
After every encounter in the Tent of Meeting, Moses came out with his face alight. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 34:35) says plainly: the sons of Israel saw the countenance of ...
