12,014 related texts · Page 57 of 251
The ancient rabbis certainly wrestled with this, and their stories, preserved in texts like Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews, offer some fascinating perspectives. Our story today cen...
Sometimes, the tradition gives us the most beautiful, unexpected answers. Take the story of Joseph and his brothers in Egypt. After all the drama, the famine, the accusations, and ...
That feeling, that sense of insignificance, is something the Israelites must have grappled with constantly in ancient Egypt. Imagine them, a people struggling under the yoke of Pha...
After giving his final words of wisdom to his children, Simon, full of years – one hundred and twenty to be exact – breathed his last and joined his ancestors. Now, you might think...
Not for your strength, but for your character. That's the story of Moses, as he became king of Ethiopia. It's a wild tale, isn’t it? We often think of Moses leading the Israelites ...
We often picture them fleeing with just the clothes on their backs, but the story is actually…a lot richer. Imagine this: The Israelites aren't just leaving Egypt empty-handed. The...
We all know the story: Moses, Pharaoh, the parting of the waters. But what about the behind-the-scenes drama? to some lesser-known legends surrounding this pivotal moment. The Egyp...
Like the challenges in front of you are just... too big? Well, imagine being a spy sent into enemy territory, and the enemy is a trio of giants. That's the situation the Israelites...
It’s a universal feeling, that sense of being overwhelmed. But what if that feeling warped your perception of reality itself? That's precisely what happened in the story of the spi...
The Israelites certainly did. And their story, as told in the Legends of the Jews, offers a fascinating, and sometimes unsettling, glimpse into divine justice and, ultimately, rede...
Jewish tradition is filled with these poignant moments, often involving the greatest figures in our history. Take the story of Moses, and a seemingly small slip-up that had surpris...
Sometimes, the observations are...well, let's just say they offer a unique perspective. Imagine someone, unfamiliar with Jewish practice, trying to describe what they see. It might...
She did not trust the reports. The Queen of Sheba—whom Josephus calls the queen of Egypt and Ethiopia—heard endless stories about Solomon's wisdom, but she refused to believe secon...
The crisis started from within. Josephus records that after the High Priest Onias III died, a power struggle erupted between his brothers. Jason and Menelaus each bribed the Seleuc...
The Hebrew word mazal (מזל) originally meant "constellation" or "star." Only gradually did it shift to mean "luck"—and the journey of that word tells the story of Jewish astrology ...
Rabbi Yonathan taught a striking principle about eclipses. Both solar and lunar eclipses, he declared, were given as signs — but not for Israel. They were relegated entirely to the...
The Mekhilta, compiled around the 2nd century CE as a halakhic commentary on Exodus, addresses a critical question about when the Passover laws took effect. The verse states plainl...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, preserves a teaching from Rabbi Yossi HaGlili that explains why the Egyptians willingly handed over their treasures to the departing ...
(Exodus 13:5) states, "And it shall be, when the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Hivvite, and the Jebusite." That is five nations. But J...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael offers a vivid interpretation of God's attack on the Egyptian army during the crossing of the Red Sea, reading the verse "And He shall let fly His sha...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael draws a pointed contrast between two moments of song in Israelite history, and the difference reveals something fundamental about the nature of the So...
The Mekhilta teaches a principle of divine justice that echoes throughout the Hebrew Bible: the very thing a person boasts about becomes the instrument of their downfall. Sisra, th...
(The water) covered the firmament over them and darkened the stars over them, viz. (Ezekiel 32:8) "All the lights of the heavens I will darken above you, and I will bring darkness ...
The Mekhilta draws a striking comparison between the experience of the prophet Jonah in the belly of the great fish and the fate of the Egyptian army at the Red Sea — and the Egypt...
The Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael invokes a pair of verses from Psalms to reveal something startling about how God responds to the nations that rage against Israel: He laughs. The firs...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael drew a sharp distinction between two foods God gave the Israelites in the wilderness, and the difference had everything to do with how they were reque...
Three miraculous gifts sustained Israel in the wilderness, and each one was tied to a specific leader. Rabbi Yehoshua teaches that when Miriam died, the well that had followed the ...
When Moses stood before Israel at Sinai and "took the book of the covenant and read it in the ears of the people" (Exodus 24:7), a question immediately arises: what exactly did he ...
The book Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating collection of Jewish legends and interpretations, touches on this very idea. It speaks of kings whose influence stretched to the very...
It’s not quite the bodice-ripping romance novel you might (wrongly) imagine. Instead, there’s a fascinating, and frankly, surprisingly sensitive, layer of detail tucked away in the...
The Binding of Isaac is terrifying in the Torah. In the Targum, it is something else entirely. Isaac was not a passive child led to slaughter. He was thirty-six years old, and he v...
Genesis 40 tells a straightforward story: two prisoners dream, Joseph interprets, one lives, one dies. The Targum Jonathan transforms this episode into a prophetic vision of Israel...
Genesis 42 tells how Joseph's brothers came to Egypt to buy grain during the famine and failed to recognize him. Targum Jonathan turns this reunion into something far more calculat...
The standard Torah tells us that Jacob traveled to Beersheba and offered sacrifices before heading down to Egypt. But Targum Jonathan, the ancient Aramaic translation dating to the...
Korah did not just challenge Moses. According to the Targum Jonathan, he manufactured a theological argument using the very fabric of his clothing, hid treasure he had looted from ...
..."Let not the rich person glorify themselves with their wealth (Yirm 9:22)." This [refers to] Korach the Levite, who had three hundred mules just to carry the load of the keys to...
The great Moses himself had such an experience. As we read in (Exodus 4:24), on the road one night, Adonai—God—encountered Moses and sought to kill him. Talk about a plot twist! Wh...
The Torah tells us even MOSES and AARON, the very leaders who led us out of Egypt, experienced that feeling. It all stems from the story of the spies, doesn't it? We read in Bamidb...
Take the story of Joseph, sold into slavery by his own brothers. We all know the story. Jealousy, betrayal, a coat of many colors… but what about the aftermath? (Genesis 37:28) tel...
This particular passage, from section 88, tells us about the downfall of two unfortunate souls: the butler and the baker of the Egyptian Pharaoh. What did they do? Were they plotti...
“Let him sit alone and be silent, because He has laid it upon him” (Lamentations 3:28).“Let him sit alone and be silent” – Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman said: The Holy One blessed be He ...
Take, for instance, that cryptic line in (Genesis 15:16): "For the sins of the Amorites were not as yet completed." What does that even mean? It's a verse that on the surface seems...
After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram (Gen. 15:1). Scripture says elsewhere in reference to this verse: He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous; He is a shiel...
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine (Gen. 17:1). May it please our master to teach us whether a man is permitted to heal a wound on the Sabbath? Thus did our masters teach...
Walk before Me, and be thou wholehearted (Gen. 17:1). Scripture states elsewhere in allusion to this verse: As for God, His way is whole (Ps. 18:31). What is the meaning of His way...
And I will make my covenant between Me and thee (Gen. 17:2). Scripture says elsewhere in allusion to this verse: The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and His covenant...
R. Berechiah began the discussion in R. Levi’s name with the verse: Thou hast also given me Thy shield, and Thy salvation; and Thy right hand hath holden me up, and Thy condescensi...
And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood over against him; and when he saw them, he ran to meet them (Gen. 18:1). Thereupon the blood flowed once again from hi...
