538 related texts · 3 related myths · Page 5 of 12
(Deut. 16:18:) “You shall appoint judges and law officers] for yourselves in all your gates,” in every single city; “for your tribes,” even when the whole city consists of a single...
The Book of Jubilees, an ancient Jewish text that expands on the stories of Genesis and Exodus, gives us a peek into that moment. It’s like a family reunion, generations connecting...
Have compassion on thyself, father, and on us and on all our house, for they have come against thee to slay thee and to destroy thy house." Jacob girded his loins with strength, an...
Forget the sanitized Sunday school version for a moment. to a raw, unfiltered account from the Book of Jubilees. The Book of Jubilees, sometimes called Lesser Genesis, offers a det...
It’s a relentless chronicle of life and death, battles and betrayals. The years are marked by a somber rhythm: "In that year.. died.." First Reuben, then Dan, each passing at a rip...
The familiar telling remembers the immediate aftermath – the vengeance of Simeon and Levi. But what about Jacob and his family? Did they just pack up and leave? Well, according to ...
A reader can skim over names and births, but hidden in those details are tales of longing, rivalry, and divine intervention. Take the story of Issachar, Jacob's son. His very name,...
The ancient texts are filled with such moments, none more potent than the confrontation between Judah and Joseph in Egypt. The story unfolds as the brothers, still unaware that the...
They're often more than just labels – they're stories whispered on the wind, echoes of values and beliefs. Take the tribe of Naphtali, for example. According to Legends of the Jews...
These weren’t just pretty rocks. Oh no. Each of the twelve stones corresponded to one of the twelve tribes of Israel, and according to the legends, they possessed unique properties...
Forget polls and focus groups. In ancient Israel, sometimes the answer came from… a breastplate. Specifically, the breastplate of the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest. This wasn't just...
Consider the twelve princes of the tribes of Israel. Their names weren't just randomly chosen, oh no. They were, according to tradition, packed with meaning, little historical mark...
In Jewish tradition, even the placement of the tribes in the desert wasn’t random. It was divinely ordained, each position reflecting a unique characteristic and purpose. God, spea...
The familiar picture has them as a unified mass, but the ancient texts paint a much more vibrant, organized picture. Imagine a sea of colorful banners, each telling a story, each r...
It wasn't just a matter of drawing lines on a map. It was, according to tradition, a divinely orchestrated process, a fascinating blend of the practical and the miraculous. After s...
David made one mistake that cost seventy thousand lives. He counted his people. The Torah had been explicit: if you number Israel, every person counted must pay a half-shekel to Go...
"And these are the names of the children of Israel" (Exodus 1:1). The Torah lists the twelve tribes again, even though they were already named in Genesis. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Be...
It turns out, that feeling might be more ancient and profound than you think. Jewish tradition actually has something pretty amazing to say about it. to a fascinating little teachi...
Rabbi Eliezer, in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating work of Jewish aggadah (non-legal rabbinic narrative) and folklore, paints a breathtaking picture. It's more than just a sim...
The verse in question is Bamidbar 27:12: "And the L-rd said to Moses: Go up to this Mount Avarim." Now, Mount Avarim overlooked the promised land. But it wasn't just any land; it w...
The verse from Numbers (Bamidbar 30:9) sets the stage: "And if on the day that her husband hear, he constrain her and annul her vow." The Sifrei Bamidbar teases out the implication...
Here, we're wrestling with (Numbers 30:13), which states, "Her husband has annulled them." Sounds simple. But like so much in Jewish law, the difficulty lies in the details! The qu...
" You might be thinking, "Okay, who’s Naftali and why should I care?" Good question! The text itself poses that very question: "Why is this written?" It's a fair point. We're jumpi...
R. ‘Aḳiba said: A fence1The ‘fence’ is here taken in the sense of a safeguard or an aid to. With this paragraph, cf. Aboth 3:17. to honour is [the avoidance of] jesting,2That this ...
Jacob gathered his twelve sons around his golden bed to reveal the future. But something went wrong. According to Targum Jonathan, Jacob intended to show them "the hidden mysteries...
The completion of all the Tabernacle's furnishings and garments in (Exodus 39:1-43) should feel repetitive. The craftsmen were building exactly what God commanded. But the Targum J...
The final chapter of Numbers in the Targum's version (Numbers 36) resolves a legal crisis that the daughters of Zelophehad had inadvertently created. The heads of the clan of Gilea...
Sabbath Pre-Eminence. Sanhedrin (the supreme rabbinic court), f. 65 a, b. B. Batra, 6. Sota, V. cf. Sota, 31, s. v. Gadol. J. Berakhot, IX. Pesikta R, ch. 23, f. 119b. Tanh. Exod. ...
Meekness of Tar f on. cf. Nedarim, f. 62. J. Shebiit, IV, 2. Kallah, f. 5 b. Lonzano, Maarikh, No. 6. Maase Buch No. 72. - 206, no. Dead Women in Cemetery Foretell Future. Berakhot...
Blessing of Sabbath. Gen. R. 10 §4. Midr. Hagadol, Exod. Jithro. Krauss, Antoninus, p. 37. 121a. Money in Stick. Nedarim, f. 25 a. Shebuot, f. 29 a. Pesikta R. ed. Fried- mann, f. ...
"A little that the righteous have is better than the abundance of many wicked" (Psalm 37:16). The rabbis of Aggadat Bereshit loved this verse because it turned ordinary logic on it...
At the end of days, the prophet Malachi says, you will be able to tell the righteous from the wicked at a glance: "You shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked...
"I will assemble Jacob, all of you; I will bring together the remnant of Israel" (Micah 2:12). The end of Aggadat Bereshit's prophetic arc arrives here: not the death of Jacob, not...
Rabbi Hoshaya ben Levi discovered a numerical poem in an old Aggadah book. Gaster's Exempla (1924), No. 285, preserves it in four lines. The Torah contains one hundred seventy-five...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves one of the strangest accounts in all of Jewish tradition (Genesis 32:25). Jacob was left alone across the Jabbok, and an angel wrestled him in the ...
When Jacob finally addressed the question of Joseph's two sons in (Genesis 48:5), he did something startling. He said: "Ephraim and Menasheh, as Reuben and Shimon shall be reckoned...
Most translations of (Exodus 28:12) call the shoulder-stones a memorial, and leave the word undefined. A memorial of what? The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan fills the silence. The gems ar...
The recipe for the holy anointing oil is exact and extravagant: five hundred minas of myrrh, two hundred and fifty of sweet cinnamon, two hundred and fifty of sweet calamus, five h...
Picture the Israelite camp in the wilderness, not a dusty blur, but a blaze of color. Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Numbers, gives us a vibrant...
The Torah portion describes the offerings brought by the leaders of the tribes of Israel at the dedication of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. Each day, a different leader brought the ...
And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba (Gen. 28:10). May it please our master to teach us where a man who has unintentionally taken the life of another man may take refuge. Thus do our...
Who came into Egypt with Jacob (Exod. 1:1). Did they actually enter Egypt on that very day? Had not many days passed by since their arrival? (This informs us that) as long as Josep...
When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel (Exod. 30:12). R. Yosé the son of Hanina said: This verse indicated to him that in the future he would bring the first of the tri...
Bezalel the son of Uri (Exod. 31:2). He was one of the seven descendants of Adam called by various names. Jesse was called by four names, Bezalel by six, Joshua by eight, Elijah by...
(Numb. 32:1:) “Now the Children of Reuben and the Children of Gad] had much livestock.” Let our master instruct us: How many good gifts were created in the world?14Numb. R. 22:7. T...
It pulls no punches in its call for humility and divine justice. Ben Sira, a sage writing in Hebrew around 200 BCE, gives us these powerful words: "Make an end of the head of the p...
Ben Sira turns to Joshua Raised His Javelin Against the City. Ben Sira, in his wisdom, certainly did. He paints a picture of Joshua in chapter 46 that's nothing short of awe-inspir...
Ben Sira doesn't mince words, does he? He calls him "wide in stupidity and lacking in wisdom." Reḥov'am, was the son of King Solomon, a hard act to follow to begin with. But his po...
