13,298 related texts · Page 263 of 278
When Jacob finally looks into the face of Joseph alive, his words in (Genesis 46:30) could have been pure relief. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan hears something subtler. Jacob says, "I...
Pharaoh asked Jacob his age, and Jacob's answer in (Genesis 47:9) is one of the rawest sentences in Torah. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders it with all its weight: "The days of t...
When Jacob asked Joseph who the two boys standing beside him were (Genesis 48:9), the question was not about identity. Jacob was old and nearly blind, but he recognized his grandso...
A dying man does not waste his last gestures. When Jacob gathered the strength to bless his grandsons, he did something strange with his hands. Menasheh, the firstborn, stood on hi...
When Joseph tried to move his father's hand, the old man answered with a phrase that has echoed for centuries. "I know, my son, I know" (Genesis 48:19). The doubling is not a stamm...
The name Judah (Yehudah) comes from the Hebrew root y-d-h — to acknowledge, to confess, to praise. Jacob knows this, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan will not let the wordplay pass unuse...
Jacob's blessing of Dan is spare in Hebrew. "Dan shall judge his people." The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan hears a specific future in it. "From the house of Dan there is to arise a man w...
"And He said, Approach not hither, take the shoe from thy feet, for the place on which thou standest is a holy place; and upon it thou art to receive the Law, to teach it to t...
"And I have revealed Myself to thee this day, that by My Memra they may be delivered from the hand of the Mizraee, to bring them up out of the unclean land, unto a good land, ...
Moses has asked for a sign. God gives him a sign stranger than any wonder."But He said, Therefore My Memra shall be for thy help; and this shall be the sign to thee that I hav...
The plain verse says only that Amram married Jokeved, fathered Aharon and Moses, and lived a hundred and thirty-seven years (Exodus 6:20). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 6:20 add...
The Song of the Sea reaches its highest note with a question: Who is like Thee among the exalted gods, O Lord, who is like Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing won...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 15:27 reads the stopover at Elim as a map of Israel's constitution: And they came to Elim; and in Elim were twelve fountains of water, a fountain f...
When the people cried out for water at Rephidim, Moses did not simply strike any rock. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan insists on a precise geography: God said, "Behold, I will stand be...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan tells the story of Amalek's assault at Rephidim with details the plain Hebrew text does not preserve. "And Amalek came from the land of the south and lea...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan locates Jethro's arrival at Israel's camp with unusual precision: "Jethro the father-in-law of Moses, and the sons of Moses, and his wife came to Moses a...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan marks the arrival at Sinai with three extraordinary words: "They had journeyed from Rephidim, and had come to the desert of Sinai, and Israel encamped th...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records the terrifying perimeter drawn around the mountain: "Thou shalt set limits for the people that they may stand round about the mountain, and shalt...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan intensifies the penalty for trespass at Sinai: "Touch it not with the hand; for he will be stoned with hailstone, or be pierced with arrows of fire; whet...
The mountain trembled because God Himself had come down upon it. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders the moment with startling directness: the Lord revealed Himself on Mount Sinai, ...
Before the Ten Words were spoken, Moses did something remarkable — he spoke back to God. "The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai," he said, "because You Yourself instructed us, s...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan gives the simple altar law a mystical interior. "An altar of earth ye shall make to My Name, and sacrifice upon it thy burnt offerings and thy sanctified...
This single verse holds two of the most important laws in Jewish life — and the Targum layers them tightly together. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:19) says: The first...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:25) gives a promise that ties worship to health: you shall do service before the Lord our God and He will bless the provision of thy foo...
Before a single Israelite sword is drawn in the Land, God goes ahead. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:27) says: My terror will I send before thee, and will perturb all ...
When Moses saw the camp dancing around the calf, the Torah says he saw that "the people were naked." What kind of nakedness? Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the T...
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...
Having promised to drive out the six nations, God gave Moses a warning about the mistake that would undo everything. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, re...
The second row of the breastplate carried three more tribes, and the meturgeman names the stones: smarag, sapphire, and chalcedony. On them were inscribed Judah, Dan, and Naphtali ...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 39:14 tells us something small and enormous at once. The twelve stones of the breastplate were engraved as the engraving of a ring — each tribe's n...
The opening word of the Torah — Bereshit, "in the beginning" — has hidden agendas the sages loved to excavate. Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bereshit 3:1 records one of the boldest. R. J...
When did God become "magnified"? Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bereshit 10:2 answers: at the moment the heavens and earth came into being. And for whose sake did God create them? For Isr...
We usually think of the sun, a lightbulb, maybe even a particularly inspiring idea. But Jewish tradition takes it a step further, suggesting light itself has a deeper, more ancient...
Like everyone else has a partner, a purpose, a connection that you're just... outside of? Well, according to some beautiful old stories, even the Sabbath felt that way. The Sabbath...
It's called Shabbat, the Sabbath. And it’s powerful. The mystics teach us that keeping Shabbat is more than just refraining from work. It's about entering a different dimension of ...
To have a little piece of the Garden of Eden right in your own backyard... or, in this case, your own tent flap? Jewish tradition paints a beautiful picture of Sarah's tent, offeri...
That feeling, that raw, unfair sting, is at the heart of the story of Jacob and Esau, and the stolen blessing. The scene is set: Isaac, now old and with failing eyesight, calls for...
You know the one – stretching all the way from earth to heaven, angels going up and down, up and down. He jolted awake and said, "In truth, the Glory of the Shekhinah (the Divine P...
What would you ask for? According to tradition, as his time drew near, Moses made one final, powerful request of God. It wasn't for more life, or for comfort, or even for himself a...
The Bible, especially the Book of Genesis, grapples with this tension in some truly epic ways. And one of the most intriguing—and troubling—is the story of the "sons of God" and th...
Turns out, the rabbinic tradition has quite a bit to say about its motivations and character. The Torah tells us, "Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent out t...
Because that's precisely the dilemma Jewish tradition grapples with when envisioning the Messianic Era – the time when all the righteous are resurrected. Where, oh where, will ever...
That feeling, that inherent worth… it's something the ancient rabbis grappled with too. And they found a powerful message about it in the very first verses of the Book of Numbers, ...
Today, let’s dive into one tiny, but fascinating corner of that history, exploring the origins of prayer times and blessings. Our story begins in the Book of Numbers, in Hebrew, Ba...
Sounds simple enough. But there’s so much more packed into that little phrase than meets the eye. It’s all about beauty, acceptance, and, ultimately, our relationship with the Divi...
Jewish tradition grapples with this very idea when it comes to the people of Israel. Are we a numbered nation, or something… more? Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of Midrashic (rabbi...
The Torah, specifically the book of Numbers (Bamidbar in Hebrew), gives us a glimpse into just how much the Holy One, Blessed be He, values the people of Israel. And it's all about...
The verse we're focusing on is from the Book of Numbers (3:17): "These [eleh] were the sons of Levi by their names…" Now, Rabbi Abbahu makes a crucial observation about the word el...
