975 related texts · 16 related myths · Page 3 of 21
“He severed in his enflamed wrath all the horn of Israel; He retracted His right hand from before the enemy. He burned in Jacob like flaming fire, consuming all around” (Lamentatio...
R. Yochanan said: Jonah went (on that voyage) only to cast himself into the sea, as it is written (Jonah 1:12) "And he said to them: Lift me up and cast me into the sea." All this ...
This is the verse that unlocks the whole story. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan fills in what the plain Hebrew leaves as silence: "For Aaron had seen Hur slain before him, and was afraid; a...
Before Moses even had a chance to open his mouth, God commanded him to keep it closed. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the command in all its strangeness: "Cease from thy prayer, ...
Moses's prayer of intercession now turned to a second argument, one so brilliant the sages would study it for centuries. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves its form: Why should the M...
When Moses returned up Sinai to pray, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan gives us the opening words of his plea, and they are unlike any prayer that came before. "I supplicate of Thee, Thou Lo...
The people took off the ornaments they had received at Sinai. What happened to them? Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, answers with a detail the plain te...
After hearing the Thirteen Attributes, Moses pressed his petition one more time. The words he spoke contain the deepest prayer of Jewish survival. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Arama...
The destruction of the Temple happened on the eve of the ninth of Av, on the outgoing of the Sabbath, in a Sabbatical year. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century...
Oh no. Some faced a rather unpleasant form of divine justice, involving… drinking water. Yep, you heard that right. Drinking water! But not just any water. This water, according to...
The act of counting, it seems, isn't always a simple matter of logistics. Sometimes it's infused with deeper meaning, both positive and, occasionally, fraught with danger. Let’s ta...
We see hints of it in the way Moses was commanded to count the Levites. for all the other tribes, only men fit for war, twenty years old and up, were numbered. But with Levi? Every...
The Torah tells us that Moses took a census, not just once, but several times. This wasn't just idle counting! One specific count focused on the Levites, that special tribe dedicat...
The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a later, more mystical expansion on the Zohar (the foundational text of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism), explores the depths of Moses's plea afte...
Ten miraculous objects were created in the final moments before the first Shabbat (the Sabbath), squeezed into existence during the twilight of the sixth day of Creation. The Mekhi...
They weren't just any ordinary slabs of rock. According to Jewish tradition, they were something truly extraordinary, imbued with a divine spark. The Zohar, that foundational text ...
The scene is intense. The Israelites have committed the grave sin of creating and worshipping the Golden Calf. Moses, their leader, intercedes on their behalf, pleading for forgive...
The Targum Jonathan transforms the consecration of the Levites from a brief ritual into an elaborate purification involving specific quantities of water, a razor over every inch of...
There is a quiet moment in the construction of the Tabernacle that the text almost hurries past. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 40:21) captures it: Moses brought the ark into th...
One that opens up a whole world of understanding about the special role this tribe played. Our story starts in the Book of Numbers, Bamidbar in Hebrew, which literally means "in th...
It’s a story of sin, substitution, and…redemption. Originally, get this, the b’chorim, the firstborn sons, held a special spiritual role. They were designated to perform sacred ser...
The verse He says that wherever eleh appears, it acts like a reset button, essentially rejecting what came before. On the other hand, ve'eleh – "and these" – adds to what was previ...
They're not mistakes. They're breadcrumbs, little hints that something deeper is going on beneath the surface of the text. And they invite us to pause, to question, to explore the ...
Take the Book of Numbers itself, Bamidbar in Hebrew, where we get. well, a lot of numbers. But hidden within those numbers are stories, and insights into the way the ancient Israel...
Take the census of the Levites in the Book of Numbers, for example. It might seem like a simple headcount, but Bamidbar Rabbah 6 teases out layers of meaning, revealing fascinating...
Bamidbar Rabbah turns to The Overlooked Devotion of the Gershonite Levites. Our story comes from Bamidbar Rabbah, a fascinating collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book o...
Maybe it's your stamp collection, each one unique. Or the number of books you've amassed over the years. We count them separately, admiring each one, and then we count them all tog...
It's almost like a cosmic nudge, inviting us to dig a little deeper. Consider the juxtaposition of the laws concerning lepers right before the section detailing the duties of the L...
The ancient rabbis certainly did. to a fascinating passage from Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Genesis, and see what they had to say about...
We all have. But have you ever stopped to consider the consequences, not just for those around you, but for yourself? The Book of Deuteronomy, or Devarim in Hebrew, is full of wisd...
The familiar picture has him descending triumphantly, tablets in hand. But what if the timing was more delicate than we imagine? Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretat...
Our tradition teaches that the Torah isn't just a book; it's a blueprint for creation, a manifestation of God's very being. And the luchot, the tablets upon which the Ten Commandme...
Our story comes from Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Exodus. It’s a powerful midrash, a deep dive into the nuances of the text, uncovering la...
Shir HaShirim Rabbah turns to Levites — Levi in the Days of Moses. (Song of Songs 3:3). Who are these watchmen? And who is this beloved that the soul so desperately seeks? Shir HaS...
Hew these two tablets of stone (Exod. 34:1). Scripture states elsewhere in allusion to this verse: The wrath of a king is as messengers of death; but a wise man will pacify it (Pro...
At that time, the Lord said to me, "Carve out two tablets of stone like the first ones" (Deuteronomy 10:1): This is what the verse stated (Jeremiah 2:20), "For long ago you broke y...
The stakes might be higher than we imagine. You’re wandering in the desert, sustained only by miraculous bread falling from the sky – manna. God gives very specific instructions ab...
In Legends of the Jews, it all goes back to the Golden Calf. Imagine, if you will, a world where every single Israelite was a priest, a direct conduit to God. A nation of holy peop...
The story of the Golden Calf is a cornerstone of the Torah, a moment of profound betrayal after the incredible miracle of the Exodus. But according to the legends, Moses himself bo...
Moses, Moshe Rabbenu, our teacher, wasn't about to give up on them. For forty days and forty nights, that's right, another forty-day stretch in the Bible, from the 18th of Tammuz t...
The story begins with Moses, fresh from his encounter with God on Mount Sinai. He comes down with the Ten Commandments, radiating… literally. The Israelites, still reeling from the...
They stood at Sinai, heard the very voice of God thundering the Ten Commandments, including the absolute prohibition against idolatry… and then, a mere forty days later, they're pa...
A story that begins with a broken Sabbath and ends with a tangible reminder woven into the very fabric of our lives. The Legends of the Jews tells us that there was once a man who ...
Sometimes, even the greatest leaders need a little divine clarification. Let’s he wasn't always entirely sure on the precise application of God’s law. There’s this story, recounted...
Take Aaron, for instance, Moses' brother. We know Moses as the lawgiver, the one who spoke to God face-to-face. But Aaron... well, the people loved Aaron. And that’s saying somethi...
The Torah portion V'Zot HaBerachah, "This is the blessing," gives us a glimpse into that raw, fervent side of prayer as Moses, in his final act, intercedes for the tribes of Israel...
Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Psalms, offers a fascinating perspective. It points to the tribe of Levi, specifically those who resisted ...
Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Psalms, opens up a fascinating window into this very question. It uses a beautiful image – the "rose of Sh...
