12,014 related texts · Page 86 of 251
Remember that feeling when someone tells you something so outrageous, so demonstrably false, that you almost don't want to dignify it with a response? But then you realize, silence...
Apion was an Egyptian, and he spun a wild yarn about the Jews' exodus from Egypt. Josephus calls it a "novel account," which is a polite way of saying it was complete fiction. But ...
The historian Josephus, in his work Against Apion, tackles these accusations head-on. Apion, a Graeco-Egyptian intellectual, throws a real zinger: "If the Jews are citizens of Alex...
It's an age-old problem, and one that the historian Josephus tackled head-on in his work, Against Apion. We're going to delve into one specific accusation hurled against the Jews i...
Apion, see, had a laundry list of complaints against the Jews. Josephus, in his work Against Apion, takes each one head-on. And in this particular section, Apion throws a few zinge...
It's more than just a historical account; it's a defense of the Jewish people and their traditions. Josephus wants to set the record straight about Moses. He argues that when our a...
Josephus, a fascinating figure from the first century – a Jewish historian who lived through the Roman conquest of Judea – grappled with this very question in his writings. In his ...
Flavius Josephus, in his work Against Apion, gives us a glimpse into the ancient Jewish legal and moral framework, and it’s He's writing to defend Judaism against its detractors, a...
The serpent could talk. That detail, buried in Josephus's retelling of creation in the Antiquities of the Jews (c. 93 CE), changes everything about how the story lands. Before the ...
The Egyptian princess who raised Moses had to make him swear an oath before handing him over to the king. That is how little she trusted her own father's court—the same court whose...
The Egyptians who chased the Hebrews into the sea did not drown quietly. According to Josephus, the water came crashing back accompanied by storms, rain, thunder, lightning, and th...
Moses struck a rock and a river came pouring out. Not a trickle, not a seep—a full river, bursting from dry stone in the middle of the desert, clear and sweet enough to make an ent...
The mountain was on fire, the sky had turned black, and every person in the camp was convinced they were about to die. That was the scene at Mount Sinai when God spoke the Ten Comm...
Moses spent his final days doing what he had done since Sinai: giving laws. But these were different. These were the laws of a man who knew he would never cross the Jordan. The mil...
The pattern that defined Israel for centuries started here: sin, oppression, repentance, deliverance. Then sin again. Josephus traces this brutal cycle through the first judges wit...
Three hundred men with clay jars and torches routed an army of over a hundred thousand. That is the story of Gideon, and according to Josephus, God designed it specifically so that...
A famine drove one family out of Bethlehem and into the land of Moab. Elimelech took his wife Naomi and their two sons, Mahlon and Chillon, across the border to survive. The sons m...
Samuel had judged Israel faithfully for decades, traveling a circuit twice a year to settle disputes. But age caught up with him, and he handed authority to his sons—Joel in Bethel...
Not a single hammer blow was heard during the entire construction. According to Josephus, Solomon's Temple rose from the earth in total silence—the massive stones fitted together s...
Nine hundred and forty-seven years after the Exodus from Egypt, the northern kingdom of Israel ceased to exist. Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, discovered that Hoshea, the last king ...
One hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers died in a single night. That is how God answered Sennacherib, king of Assyria, when he broke his word to Hezekiah and sent an army to ...
After routing the Seleucid armies, Judas Maccabeus did not rest. Josephus records that the surrounding nations, alarmed by the sudden revival of Jewish power, attacked Jewish commu...
Herod sent his sons to Rome for an education. They came home polished, handsome, and walking straight into the deadliest family feud in Jewish royal history. Alexander and Aristobu...
Herod strangled his own sons. Both of them. On the same day. At Sebaste, the city where he had married their mother Mariamne twenty years earlier. According to Josephus in Antiquit...
Caligula declared himself a god and ordered a colossal statue of himself installed inside the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem. The Jews told the Roman general they would rather die, ev...
We often think of heaven as a visual paradise, shimmering light and breathtaking vistas. But what about the auditory experience? Jewish tradition paints a picture of a heaven const...
Sha’ar HaGilgul (the reincarnation of souls)im, the "Gate of Reincarnations," explores that very idea. It suggests that sometimes, a righteous soul, a Ruach (spirit), can connect w...
In the Jewish mystical tradition, particularly within the teachings of the Kabbalah, the concept of reincarnation, or gilgul, offers a fascinating perspective. But it's not always ...
The great kabbalist Baal HaSulam offers a powerful answer, deeply rooted in the wisdom of the Zohar. And it all starts with desire. according to Baal HaSulam’s “Introduction to Zoh...
It’s a question that's been asked for centuries, and Jewish mystical thought offers a pretty radical answer. According to Baal HaSulam, in his introduction to the Zohar (that found...
The great Kabbalist Baal HaSulam, in his introduction to the Zohar, that mystical and foundational text, delves into this very idea. He uses the concept of "enclothing" to illustra...
In the Kabbalah, particularly as understood through the teachings of Rabbi Isaac Luria (the Ari), Abba (Father) and Imma (Mother) are elevated Sephirot – divine attributes or emana...
Kabbalah teaches us about the sefirot, the ten emanations of God's light, and how they manifest in the world. These sefirot are often arranged in a structure, a kind of spiritual f...
At the heart of this answer lie the sefirot (the divine emanations). These are the ten divine attributes, the ten ways that God manifests in the world. Think of them as facets of a...
The Heikhalot (the heavenly palaces) Rabbati, a key text in the Heikhalot literature—think of it as ancient mystical guidebooks to heavenly palaces—hints at just such a figure. It ...
And it's filled with beings so dazzling, so utterly beyond our comprehension, that even whispering their names can ignite the very air around us. We're diving today into a passage ...
Even the most powerful beings in the heavenly realms experience a similar ebb and flow, at least according to the ancient text, Heikhalot (the heavenly palaces) Rabbati. This text,...
The Heikhalot (the heavenly palaces) Rabbati, a foundational text in Jewish mystical literature describing ascents into the heavenly realms, gives us a glimpse. It asks a staggerin...
The time for Minchah, the afternoon prayer. And God, the King majestic, is sitting on His throne. But He's not just sitting there. He's praising the beasts. Not just any beasts, mi...
These texts, which date back to late antiquity, describe mystical journeys through the heavenly realms. Today, let's take a peek inside, focusing on the guardians that stand betwee...
Let me tell you, some of the old Jewish mystical texts go there – and then some. Today, we're diving into a particularly vivid passage from Heikhalot (the heavenly palaces) Rabbati...
It's not just about reciting the right incantations or knowing the secret names. According to Heikhalot (the heavenly palaces) Rabbati, a key text in the Heikhalot literature, it’s...
Jewish mystical tradition, especially in texts like Heikhalot (the heavenly palaces) Rabbati, paints a vivid picture of the soul's ascent through the heavens. Imagine a celestial b...
That's the scene described in Heikhalot (the heavenly palaces) Rabbati, a text from the Heikhalot literature, a collection of mystical writings detailing ascents through heavenly p...
The Heikhalot (the heavenly palaces) Rabbati, a text within the Heikhalot literature – those mystical explorations of heavenly palaces and divine encounters – gives us a glimpse in...
It’s a question that's been wrestled with for millennia. And, surprisingly, one answer comes to us from a rather… unexpected source. We find it tucked away in Heikhalot (the heaven...
The Heikhalot (the heavenly palaces) Rabbati, one of the key texts of the Heikhalot literature – that's the mystical tradition focused on ascensions to the divine realms – gives us...
I do. And ancient Jewish mystical texts, like the Heikhalot (the heavenly palaces) Rabbati, really drive that feeling home. They attempt to describe the indescribable: the majesty ...
