975 related texts · 16 related myths · Page 5 of 21
A single verse in Proverbs sparked one of the most unsettling debates in Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 2:5. "Tzedakah -- righteousness -- elevates a people; and chesed to the nations is a ...
Rabbi Yudan opened his teaching on Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 2:6 with a verse from Proverbs: "Choice silver is the tongue of the righteous; the heart of evildoers is worth little" (Pro...
Two men once prayed at length before Rabbi Eliezer. The first stretched his Amidah far beyond the usual length, swaying and adding private petitions until the congregation grew res...
A traditional prayer of personal return, drawn from the anthologies of Jewish rabbinical writings, places the worshiper on his knees before the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. "E...
A pagan once approached Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, the sage who had smuggled himself out of besieged Jerusalem inside a coffin and refounded Judaism at Yavneh. And said bluntly, "...
The last conversation between Moses and Joshua began as a gift and ended as a rebuke. On the day Moses was to enter Paradise, he turned to his closest student and said, "If any dou...
The Talmud in Maccoth preserves a remarkable teaching: Moses pronounced four severe judgments over Israel, and four later prophets rose up and softened them. This is not rebellion....
Once a year, only once, Aaron approached the golden incense altar with a different purpose. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the command that on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, t...
Between the altar of sacrifice and the Tent of Meeting stood a basin, not of gold, not of silver, but of bronze. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan names its purpose simply: the kiyor was for ...
When the people demanded a golden idol from Aaron, they had to find gold. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves a startling detail not in the plain Hebrew: their wives denied themselves...
The moment the calf was made, the voice on the mountain changed. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the chilling command God gave to Moses: "Descend from the greatness of thine honou...
Moses's final argument turned to the deepest court of appeal in the Jewish tradition: the merit of the avot, the patriarchs. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves it precisely: "Remembe...
As Moses descended the mountain, Joshua heard the noise of the camp and could not interpret it. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves Moses's reply in words of unsettling clarity: "It i...
When Moses confronted his brother at the foot of Sinai, Aaron did not hide behind excuses or blame the mob. He answered with a kind of anguished theology. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, t...
Aaron kept retelling the story. "They said to me, Make us gods that may go before us. For this Moses, the man who brought us up from Mizraim, is consumed in the mountain, by the fl...
The moment of decision came quickly. Moses did not walk into the center of the camp. He stood at its edge, at what Targum Pseudo-Jonathan calls the sha'ar sanhedrin, the sanhedrin ...
The most extraordinary sentence in Moses' Sinai prayer is not a petition. It is an offer. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, renders it this way. "If You ...
The Lord's answer to Moses after the calf contains a quiet threat wrapped in a promise. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, renders the divine response thi...
After the calf, God makes an announcement that is almost worse than punishment. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, preserves the full weight of the line. ...
When the people heard that the Shekhinah would not travel with them, they mourned. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, tells us what they took off to mourn...
The divine command to remove the Sinai ornaments came with a startling explanation. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, gives the measure in a single chill...
When Moses entered the tabernacle of instruction, the heavens did not stay silent. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, gives us the scene in its fullness. ...
The Torah says the Lord spoke with Moses "face to face, as a man speaks with his friend." Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, refuses to let the metaphor m...
Moses was never shy with God. After the calf, he pressed a question that most prophets would not have dared to speak. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, r...
Moses' next request is the oldest and most painful question in religious life. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, renders it with full theological weight....
Moses pressed further. How will it be known, he asked, that Israel has truly found favor before God? Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, gives his answer a...
When the glory of God was about to pass, Moses needed protection. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, describes the shielding with mystical precision. "It ...
The Torah says Moses saw God's "back" but not His face. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, explains what that backward glimpse actually revealed. "I will ...
The Thirteen Attributes continue with a ledger of divine bookkeeping that tips heavily toward mercy. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, gives the second h...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 40:7) takes the bronze laver, a basin of water set between the sanctuary and the altar. And turns it into a picture of teshuvah. Place the laver h...
That raw, visceral feeling is at the heart of a powerful story about Moses and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Moses, our leader, the one who brought us out of Egypt, l...
“Judah was exiled due to affliction and great enslavement. She settled among the nations, did not find rest; all her pursuers have overtaken her within the straits” (Lamentations 1...
“Let all their wickedness come before You, and do to them as You did to me for all my transgressions, for my sighs are many and my heart is suffering” (Lamentations 1:22).“Let all ...
“And did not remember His footstool [hadom raglav],” Rabbi Ḥanina bar Yitzḥak said: The Holy One blessed be He does not remember that blood [hadam] that was between the legs of the...
“In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Aḥashverosh, he had cast a pur, that is, the lot, before Haman for each day and for each month, to the tw...
Remember, Joseph, now a powerful figure in Egypt, has finally revealed himself to his brothers, the same brothers who sold him into slavery years ago. It's a dramatic reunion fille...
Think about the building of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, that portable sanctuary that accompanied the Israelites through the desert after the Exodus. The familiar telling remembers...
Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, offers a breathtakingly intricate account, and Specifically, It's dense, no question about it, but stick with me. We’ll unpack it together. The passage ...
Some of those forces? Well, they’re angels. The Talmud, specifically in Tractate Shabbat 119b, paints a vivid picture. Imagine this: a person finishes their prayers on the eve of S...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 40:5) refuses to let a single detail of the sanctuary pass without meaning. The golden altar of incense is to be placed before the ark of the test...
And Bezalel made the ark of acacia-wood (Exod. 37:1). Because it was known to Him-who-spoke-and-the-world-came into-being that Israel will sin at Shittim, the Holy One, blessed be ...
After Jacob's direct encounter with the Divine, something unexpected happens. The text says, "He finished speaking with him, and He went up from him, and Jacob looked till He had a...
The Book of Jubilees, an ancient Jewish text from the Second Temple period, offers a powerful glimpse into the mechanics of forgiveness, and it all starts with a transgression. Cha...
It’s a question rulers have wrestled with for millennia. The Letter of Aristeas, a fascinating historical text, gives us a peek into just such a conversation, a moment of royal pon...
Following the pestilence, God instructs Moses and Elazar, the son of Aaron the priest, to take a census. A head count of the entire Israelite community, specifically those twenty y...
Would you still offer that help? That’s the dilemma, in a sense, that God faces in the lead-up to the Exodus. As we learn in Legends of the Jews, God, in speaking to Moses, lays ba...
The most obvious miracle, of course, was its very existence. But the story gets even richer when we consider the details. In ancient texts, manna didn't fall every day. Specificall...
It’s a connection to something ancient, something profound. It’s a chance to step back and remember. But it wasn't always easy. The Israelites, fresh out of Egypt, are wandering in...
