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You're not alone. Turns out, this is a tale as old as time, or at least as old as the Israelites wandering in the desert. We find ourselves in the Book of Devarim, Deuteronomy (1:2...
The ancient Israelites felt that way too, and their story, preserved in the Sifrei Devarim, offers a powerful lesson. Let's rewind. The Israelites are poised to enter the Promised ...
There's a beautiful little piece in Sifrei Devarim (a collection of legal Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)im, meaning interpretations of the Torah), that gives us a glimp...
Our tradition has something to say about that, specifically through the lens of Moses, no less. The passage from Sifrei Devarim 29 opens with a rather poignant admission. Moses say...
It’s not just a history lesson; it’s about contrast. About understanding what makes the Promised Land so, well, promising. But what exactly is the comparison trying to tell us? The...
Moses, the guy who led them out of Egypt, parted the Red Sea, and received the Torah on Mount Sinai. You'd imagine he was constantly laying down the law. But according to the Sifre...
For the Jewish people, the Exodus from Egypt is that moment. And it echoes even in the details of how we celebrate Passover, Pesach, the festival commemorating that liberation. Our...
Our ancestors grappled with these questions too, trying to decipher the hidden language of the world around them. And that's what leads us into the fascinating, and sometimes murky...
It’s a question that’s plagued humanity for millennia, and Jewish tradition grapples with it in some pretty fascinating ways. to a passage from Sifrei Devarim 173, a section of com...
Jewish tradition certainly does. This comes through vividly in the Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy. Here, we find a fascinating lit...
This particular section, 211, deals with the laws of war, and specifically, what happens when an Israelite soldier encounters a captivating woman amongst the captives. It all start...
We usually focus on Moses. Maybe Aaron gets a nod. But have you ever considered Miriam’s role? Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy, off...
What happens to those grapes? Who do they belong to? It seems like a simple question, but like so many things in Jewish tradition, it opens up a fascinating window into our values....
This particular passage, Sifrei Devarim 292, takes a rather dim view of disagreements. The text starts with the verse from Deuteronomy (25:11), "If men strive together..." But the ...
It's not just a historical account; it's a profound lesson about faith, resilience, and the vulnerabilities we face on our own paths. The passage in Sifrei Devarim 296, focusing on...
(Deuteronomy 26:3) says, "I have professed this day..." But what exactly are you professing? And how often? Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal midrash (rabbinic interpretive com...
It's easy to think of them as twelve separate entities, but the Torah often hints at deeper connections, interwoven destinies. Today, let's uncover a fascinating economic and spiri...
We often think of death as an ending, a final curtain. But what if it's not? What if the impact of a life, especially a life dedicated to wisdom and teaching, continues to resonate...
R. JOSE SAID: HE WHO HONOURS THE TORAH IS HIMSELF HONOURED BY MANKIND, as it is stated, For them that honour Me I will honour, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.11...
The opening verse of Deuteronomy lists a string of place names — "in the wilderness, in the Arabah, over against Suph, between Paran and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Di-zah...
SEVEN KINDS OF PUNISHMENT COME UPON THE WORLD FOR SEVEN CARDINAL TRANSGRESSIONS. IF SOME GIVE THEIR TITHES AND OTHERS DO NOT, THERE COMES A FAMINE THROUGH DROUGHT.1Aboth 5:11 (Sonc...
When the Hebrew Bible says Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and it became a serpent (Exodus 7:10), the Targum Jonathan makes a far more terrifying claim. The rod did not b...
The priestly garments in (Exodus 28:1-43) are already elaborate in the Hebrew Bible. The Targum Jonathan turns them into theological weapons. Every piece of clothing becomes an ins...
The final chapter of Exodus (Exodus 40:1-38) is, in the Hebrew Bible, the moment God's Presence fills the completed Tabernacle. The Targum Jonathan turns this moment into a prophet...
The place was called Shittim, and the Targum explains the name: it derives from shetutha, meaning foolishness and depravity. The Targum's version of (Numbers 25) describes Moabite ...
The tribes of Reuben and Gad had enormous herds, and when they saw the conquered territory east of the Jordan, they wanted to stay. The Targum's version of (Numbers 32) captures Mo...
The Targum transforms the Torah's bare itinerary of Israel's wilderness journeys in (Numbers 33) into an annotated guide of miracles and disasters. Every campsite gets a story, a n...
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 9) contains one of the most dramatic expansions in all of Aramaic literature. When Moses recalls the golden calf, the Hebrew says God was angry ...
"She weeps bitterly in the night" (Lamentations 1:2). The rabbis asked: who weeps? Jerusalem weeps for her slain, and she weeps for the famine — the horror of mothers who boiled th...
Chapter 1 From Adam to the Flood was 1656 years, and this is their enumeration: Adam 130, Seth 105, Enosh 90, Kenan 70, Mahalalel 65, Jared 162, Enoch 65, Methuselah 187, Lamech 18...
The Seder Olam reveals a pattern hidden in the calendar of sacred history: the most important events in Israel's story all cluster around one date — the fifteenth of Nisan. It bega...
With ten utterances the world was created. And what does this teach, for surely it could have been created with one utterance? But this was so in order to punish the wicked who des...
Bar Haddaya, the dream interpreter who gave favorable readings to paying clients and devastating ones to non-payers, eventually paid for his corruption with his life. Berakhot 56b ...
When Moses ascended to heaven to receive the Torah, the angels were furious. According to Shabbat 88b, they confronted God directly: "What is a human being doing among us?" God tol...
After Vespasian became emperor, his son Titus completed the destruction of Jerusalem. According to Gittin 56b, Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai's famous encounter with Vespasian included ...
After the destruction of the Temple, Nebuzaradan, captain of the Babylonian guard under Nebuchadnezzar, found blood bubbling up from the ground in Jerusalem. According to Gittin 57...
Berurya, one of the sharpest minds in all of Talmudic literature, once caught a student studying Torah in a whisper. She kicked him and said: Scripture teaches that Torah must be "...
Rabbi Elazar ben Dordia was a man consumed by desire. The Talmud in Tractate Avodah Zarah says there was not a single prostitute in the world he had not visited. When he heard abou...
The Hebrew Bible records Moses making the most audacious request in Scripture: "Show me Your glory" (Exodus 33:18). Targum Onkelos renders the response with his most careful theolo...
Rabbi Yehuda said, "Three books are opened on Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) before the Holy One, Blessed be He: One of wholly righteous people; and they are immediately writt...
Rabbi Yishmael asked: why did Job risk everything by demanding an answer from God (Job 31:35)? Because Job understood something terrible. Without death, life has no name. Without d...
Proklos b. Filoslos asks R. Gamliel why does not God destroy the idols. The Rabbi replies "If a man calls a dog by the name of his father, will the father be angry with the son or ...
The beautiful son and daughter of R. Ishmael were sold as slaves, and were shut up by their masters in one room in order to obtain similarly beautiful children, not recognising one...
The Romans led Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel and Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha to their execution together. Both were among the greatest sages of their generation, and both had been condemne...
During a terrible famine, King Monobaz opened the royal treasury and distributed everything inside it to the poor. Every coin, every jewel, every stored reserve of wealth that his ...
Rabbi Meir was traveling through Samaria when he encountered a Samaritan who was proud of his lineage. "I am a descendant of Joseph," the man declared — claiming descent from the m...
A heretic — the Talmud calls him a "Min" — came to Rabbi Ishmael with a series of strange dreams, seeking interpretation. The dreams were vivid, unsettling, full of bizarre imagery...
R. Ishmael and R. Elazar b. Azaryah did not act uni- alike while reciting prayers, in order that the pupils should not follow the way of one alone, as they would have done if they ...
