12,014 related texts · Page 190 of 251
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 10) buries an entire civil war inside what the Hebrew Bible treats as a simple travel itinerary. The Hebrew says Israel "journeyed from Beeroth ...
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 17) puts hard numbers on royal power. The Hebrew says the king shall not "multiply horses" or "multiply wives." But how many is too many? The Ta...
The Torah's promise of return from exile in (Deuteronomy 30) is hopeful. Targum Jonathan makes it messianic. Where the Hebrew says God will gather the scattered, the Targum says: "...
The Blessing of Moses in (Deuteronomy 33) gets the full Targum treatment—every tribe's destiny expanded, every blessing loaded with specifics the Torah never mentions. It opens wit...
The rabbis asked a strange question: why did King Solomon compare Israel to a walnut? Not a cedar, not a vine, not wheat — a walnut. Rabbi Yehoshua of Sichnan, speaking in the name...
Every corner of the known world smelled like paradise the day King Solomon completed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. According to the Pesikta Rabbati, a collection of midrash (rabbin...
Teach us, oh teacher – if one has an argument with their friend, how shall they attain atonement on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement)? This is what our Rabbis taught: transgression...
… And He said to him ‘go away to the land of Moriah and bring him up there for a burnt offering’ (Bereshit 22:2) What is the land of Moriah? There is a whole bundle of Sages here, ...
The judgment of the wicked in Gehinnom (the place of spiritual purification after death) lasts twelve months, as it says “And it shall be from new moon to new moon…” (Yeshayahu 66:...
Chapter 9 They [the Israelites]--the entire congregation--came to the wilderness of Tzin in the first month, and the nation settled there, and Miriam died there and was buried ther...
Rabbi Yossi says, "A merit ends up being on a day of merit and a punishment ends up being on a day of punishment. For you will find to say that when the First Temple was destroyed,...
Ben Zoma said: Who is wise? He who learns from every man, as it is said: “From all who taught me have I gained understanding” (Psalms 119:99). Who is mighty? He who subdues his [ev...
The sages taught in the language of the Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law). Blessed be He who chose them and their teaching. Rabbi Meir said: Whoever occupies himself with...
The field that Abraham bought from the children of Chet etc --- R Tanchuma said: from the burial of Sarah to the burial of Abraham was 38 years...... it comes to teach you that all...
“…that he did not obey her…” (Bereshit 39:10) Rebbe said: he listened to her but the Holy One brought the likeness of his father and he was embarrassed and fled. The second time he...
"So the Egyptians enslaved the children of Israel with back breaking labor [b'farech]" (Ex. 1:13). R. Elazar says, "B'pe rach—with a soft mouth." R. Shmuel says, "B'frichah—With ri...
Another Explanation "And first born of your children you shall redeem" (Exodus 13:13) Where [is this law sourced:] If his father did not redeem him, he should redeem himself. [We a...
Said R' Levi: The Holy One Blessed Be He appeared to them like a picture which is visible form all angles. A thousand people may gaze on it and it gazes on all of them. So is the H...
The Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 392 makes a breathtaking claim about the two stone tablets that Moses received on Mount Sinai: they were not made from any earthly material. "The tablet...
[Ed.: "Menorah" down below should probably be Menuda. "Chazar l'Suro", is the only time in Chazal that that form appears. It appears frequently, also in regard to converts, as Chaz...
Pray let me cross over. The word nah indicates that this is a request. the good land that is on the other side of the Jordan. This is what R’ Yehudah meant when he said that the la...
The Talmud records some of the most intimate prayers ever spoken—personal confessions the great Sages whispered after their formal prayers were complete. According to Berakhot 17a,...
The principle that a dream follows its interpretation is not an abstraction. The Talmud in Berakhot 55b demonstrates it through the life of Joseph—and through a hard rule about tim...
When God gave the Torah at Sinai, the Israelites did not simply accept it freely. According to Shabbat 88a, Rabbi Avdimi bar Hama bar Hasa taught that God uprooted Mount Sinai and ...
After Bar Kamtza's betrayal, the emperor sent Nero to conquer Jerusalem. According to Gittin 56a, Nero arrived and performed a series of divination tests. He shot arrows in every d...
The verse calls them "the precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold" (Lamentations 4:2). According to Gittin 58a, the Jewish children taken captive to Rome after the Temple's ...
When will the Messiah come? According to Sanhedrin 97a, the Talmud presents a seven-year countdown—and then immediately undermines it. The Sages taught: in the Sabbatical cycle dur...
Where is the Messiah right now? According to Sanhedrin 98a, he is sitting at the gates of Rome among the lepers. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi asked Elijah the prophet: when will the Mes...
Life inside the ark was not paradise. According to Sanhedrin 108b, Noah and his family worked around the clock to keep every animal alive—and one feeding mistake nearly cost Noah h...
Who wrote the Hebrew Bible? The Talmud in Bava Batra 14b provides a complete accounting, attributing every book to a specific author. Moses wrote his own book—the Torah—and also th...
Rabbah bar bar Hana was the Talmud's greatest traveler of the impossible. His sea voyages, recorded in Bava Batra 73a–b, describe creatures so vast they reshape the geography aroun...
The righteous in the World to Come will not all share the same reward. According to Bava Batra 75b, there are tiers—and every righteous person who sees a canopy grander than their ...
When Moses was born, the entire house filled with light. According to Sotah 12a, his mother Yocheved saw immediately that he was special—the Torah's phrase "she saw that he was goo...
Rabbi Yosei from Yokrat was the kind of man who terrified his own family. The Talmud in Tractate Taanit calls him a person "who has no mercy on his own son and no mercy on his daug...
Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair owned a donkey with a conscience. The Talmud in Tractate Taanit tells the story: some thieves stole the donkey and hid it in their cave for three days. They ...
Four rabbis were walking away from the ruins of Jerusalem. When they reached Mount Scopus and saw the destroyed Temple, they tore their garments. When they arrived at the Temple Mo...
The Hebrew Bible says "the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were fair" (Genesis 6:2). Targum Onkelos changes "sons of God" to "sons of rulers." This single substitution el...
The Hebrew Bible says God "descended to see the city and the tower" of Babel (Genesis 11:5). Targum Onkelos will not allow that reading. God does not descend. Instead, "God became ...
The Hebrew Bible says God will "pass through" Egypt on the night of the Passover (Exodus 12:12). Targum Onkelos changes this to God will "become revealed in" Egypt. God does not tr...
The Hebrew Bible says God "hardened Pharaoh's heart" and he pursued the Israelites (Exodus 14:8). Targum Onkelos translates this without softening or explaining. The hardening stan...
The Hebrew Bible records Moses and the Israelites singing a triumphant song after the sea closes over the Egyptians (Exodus 15). Targum Onkelos transforms this victory hymn into so...
"I am God, your Lord, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 20:2). Targum Onkelos translates the Ten Commandments with almost no deviation from the Hebrew—a remarkable ...
The Hebrew Bible says the people told Aaron: "Make us gods that will lead us, for this Moses, we do not know what happened to him" (Exodus 32:1). Targum Onkelos translates this wit...
The Hebrew Bible says Moses died "by the mouth of God" (Deuteronomy 34:5). Ancient tradition interprets this as death by a divine kiss—the gentlest possible departure from life. Ta...
The Hebrew Bible makes one of its most radical claims in (Deuteronomy 30:12-14): "It is not in heaven... nor is it overseas... for the matter is extremely close to you, in your mou...
"A husband inherits from his wife." From where do we learn this? Learn it from “And he shall inherit it,” (Numbers 27:11) with the word “it” written in the feminine “otah,” which c...
And David arose, and fled that day from before Saul: This is [the meaning of] the verse, He has made everything beautiful in its time (Ecclesiastes 3:11), everything that the Holy ...
"From the kingship of the hypocritical man from the snares of the people" (Job 34:30) Abba Gurion, from Sidon, said five things in the name of Rabban Gamliel: (1) When lying judges...
