13,298 related texts · Page 261 of 278
The sages taught that on the day of judgment, every soul will be asked why it did not devote itself to Torah. Three common excuses will be raised — poverty, wealth, and youth — and...
A tradition delivered at Sinai remembers the day Og, king of Bashan, nearly crushed the camp of Israel under a single stone. Og stood above the valley and measured the camp with hi...
When Israel went up to Jerusalem for one of the three pilgrimage festivals (Exodus 34:23-24), a season came in which the wells ran dry. There was no water for the pilgrims to drink...
Rabbi Yochanan was teaching his students on the verse, “I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles” (Isaiah 54:12). He said, “The Holy One, bl...
The Torah tells the story quickly — too quickly, the rabbis felt. Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, was taken and violated by Shechem, the prince of the local city. Her ...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 5:3) reopens old wounds. "Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat Sheth, who had the likeness of his image and of his similitude: for be...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 8:4 plants the ark on a very specific patch of earth. In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day, in the month the Targum calls Nisan, the great...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 8:11 takes a verse every child knows and slips a piece of mystical geography into it. The dove returns at evening. She carries a fresh-plucked oli...
Genesis 18:14 is the Torah's answer to every reader who has ever wondered whether God notices the small disbeliefs of the faithful. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan takes the Hebrew's ha-yip...
A thousand pieces of silver. That is what the king paid — and in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 20:16, the Aramaic paraphrase lingers on what the coins mean. They are a keseiat ...
When Abraham hesitates, the Holy One settles it with a line that should be underlined in every copy of the Torah. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 21:12, the Aramaic makes the ...
Once the camels had finished drinking — all ten of them, every last swallow — the servant reached into his pack and took out jewelry. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 24:22 refuse...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 24:43 gives us something the Torah rarely does. A narrator narrating himself. Eliezer is now sitting at Laban's table, and he is walking his hosts...
Some blessings are thank-you notes. This one is a map. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 24:48 preserves the servant's second act of worship at the fountain. "And I bowed and worsh...
There is a class of moment in the Torah where even the schemers have to stop scheming. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 24:50 captures one. After Eliezer finishes his story, Laban...
Rebekah sees him before he sees her. From the back of her camel she looks across the field and asks the servant, "Who is the man, so majestic and graceful, who walks in the field b...
This is the prophecy Rebekah receives in the study house of Shem, and it reframes every story that follows. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 25:23 preserves the oracle with one cr...
The second twin emerged differently. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 25:26 gives the detail plainly: "Afterward came forth his brother, and his hand had hold on the heel of Esau....
The Torah's plain verse reads almost like an afterthought. "He ate and drank, and rose up and went his way; thus Esau despised his birthright" (Genesis 25:34). Five short verbs for...
The Torah uses a small, shimmering verb for what Isaac and Rebekah are doing when the king of Gerar catches sight of them. "Izhak was disporting with Rivekah his wife" (Genesis 26:...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan keeps the voice of the Holy One personal. "I am the God of Abraham thy father; fear not, for My Word is for thy help, and I will bless thee, and multiply...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan adds a detail the plain Hebrew only implies. "And when Izhak went forth from Gerar the wells dried up, and the trees made no fruit; and they felt that it...
It is a rare thing in the Torah — a gentile king confessing, in plain terms, that he has seen God at work. But that is exactly what Abimelech does. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan recor...
The request Abimelech makes of Isaac is almost humble. "Lest thou do us evil. Forasmuch as we have not come nigh thee for evil, and as we have acted with thee only for good, and ha...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves one of the most quoted lines in all of Genesis. Isaac, blind and suspicious, draws Jacob near, touches him, and says, "This voice is the voice ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan quietly drops a cosmic detail into the meal. When Isaac asks for wine, the Hebrew text does not explain where it comes from. The Targum does. "He had no ...
When Isaac draws Jacob close and breathes him in, the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan tells us what the patriarch actually smells. It is not the field. It is not the goats. It is the incens...
The blessing Isaac pours over Jacob is compact, poetic, and nearly liturgical. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders it in solemn Aramaic. "Therefore the Word of the Lord give thee of...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan offers a theological explanation for why Esau arrived late and empty-handed. "The Word of the Lord had impeded him from taking clean venison; but he had ...
The moment Esau walks in with his meal, the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan tells us something the Hebrew only hints at. "Izhak was moved with great agitation when he heard the voice of Esa...
The cry Esau lets out when he realizes the blessing is gone is one of the most haunting sounds in the Torah. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves it in its raw Aramaic. "He cried w...
There is a pun beneath Esau's outburst, and the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan does not let us miss it. "His name is truly called Jakob; for he hath dealt treacherously with me these two t...
Isaac's answer to his weeping elder son is one of the saddest sentences in the Torah. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves its resignation with a quiet Aramaic cadence. "Behold, I ...
The blessing Isaac gives Esau, as the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records it, is a warning and a prophecy woven together. "Upon thy sword shalt thou depend, entering at every place: yet...
Rebekah's instruction to Jacob is urgent, and the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan adds a Genesis-deep lament to the end of it. "Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day: thou being s...
When Isaac laid his hands on Jacob a second time, this time with full knowledge of whom he was blessing, he called down the name by which the patriarchs had always known the Holy O...
The Torah says only that Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran (Genesis 28:10). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan refuses to let the sentence stay that quiet. It unpacks the day into...
When Jacob arrived in Haran after his kefitzat ha-derekh — the folding of the road — he came to a well in a field (Genesis 29:2). Three flocks of sheep lay beside it, and a great s...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 29:3 describes the mechanism of the Haran well with the precision of a halachic note.The flocks gathered. The stone was rolled from the mouth ...
Rachel arrives at the well with her father's sheep, and the Torah calls her ro'ah — a shepherdess (Genesis 29:9). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan stops to explain why the daughter of a ...
The Torah says Jacob rolled the stone from the well, watered the flock, and kissed Rachel (Genesis 29:10–11). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan turns the well itself into a character.Jaco...
The Torah tells us Jacob told Rachel he was her kinsman (Genesis 29:12). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan fills in a conversation between them.Jacob explained to Rachel that he had come ...
The Torah calls Leah's eyes rakkot — tender, soft, weak (Genesis 29:17). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan reframes the entire verse. Her eyes were moist from weeping and praying before t...
The morning after the wedding, Jacob discovered that the bride under the veil had been Leah, not Rachel (Genesis 29:25). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan explains how the deception had b...
The Torah says Jacob's anger burned against Rachel (Genesis 30:2). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan keeps the heat of the verb. The anger of Jakob was strong against Rahel.Why was he ang...
Leah names the second son of her handmaid Zilpah Asher, from osher, "happiness" or "praise" (Genesis 30:13). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan translates the name into a prophecy about th...
The moment Rahel gave birth to Joseph, something shifted in Jakob. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan tells us that the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, settled upon him, and he looked ahead a...
Laban tried to buy him off. What shall I give thee? he asked — the question of a man who believes everything has a price (Genesis 30:31). Jakob, in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan's telling...
