394 related texts · Page 7 of 9
Rabbi Yishmael examined the Torah's commandment to build "an altar of earth" (Exodus 20:21) and derived from it a precise architectural requirement: the altar must be "fixed upon t...
"It is a sign forever" — the Mekhilta derives from this phrase that the Sabbath will never be lost from Israel. No matter what happens — exile, persecution, assimilation pressures ...
Sacrifices are offered, prayers ascend, and the Divine Presence is palpable. Then, out of nowhere, leopards break in. Not once, but repeatedly. They rampage through the sacred spac...
Did you ever think about the exile from Eden as… a divorce? It sounds a little strange, I know. We tend to think of Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden as a punishment, a seve...
That feeling, that raw emotion, is at the heart of a powerful story preserved in Midrash Tehillim, a collection of interpretations on the Book of Psalms. It's a story about faith, ...
The ancient rabbis felt it too, especially after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. They saw the world changing, and not for the better. Midrash Tehillim, a collection ...
Our tradition grapples with this tension constantly, and it shows up in some surprising places. Take Midrash Tehillim, for instance, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the...
Midrash Tehillim, in its commentary on Psalm 36, offers a fascinating insight. It all boils down to fear – or rather, the lack of it, in the right place. The psalm begins, "To the ...
We've all been there. But what if that fleeting moment of envy could actually hold a deeper lesson? to a fascinating passage from Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic teachin...
That sense of urgency, of wrestling with our mortality, is something that's been contemplated for millennia. And it’s right there, at the heart of Psalm 90, which is explored in Mi...
According to Midrash Tehillim, a collection of insightful interpretations on the Book of Psalms, Adam, the first man, wasn't just plopped down anywhere. After being driven from the...
Midrash Tehillim, a collection of homiletic interpretations on the Book of Psalms, gives us a list of ten things that are dear to the Holy One. And you might be surprised by what m...
It all boils down to this: God chastises those He loves. Now, that might sound harsh at first. But stick with me. The idea isn't about random punishment; it's about refinement. Thi...
And Jewish tradition offers a stunning, almost unbelievable, answer. We all know the story of Jacob's dream. Fleeing his brother Esau, he rests his head on a pile of stones and dre...
The story starts, as so many do, with a commandment. God tells Saul, the first king of Israel, to utterly destroy Amalek. Wipe them out. Erase their memory from under heaven. A pre...
But is that really true? Is there no hope for renewal, for something truly new to break through? According to Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating text of Jewish legend and lore, ...
The story of Haman, the villain of the Purim story, is full of them. And according to the Yalkut Shimoni, a compilation of rabbinic commentary on the Bible, Haman's plot to annihil...
The passage begins with God speaking to Moses, commanding him to instruct the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone afflicted with tzara'at (often translated as leprosy, tho...
It wasn't just about personal cleanliness; it was about maintaining a state of holiness, a separation from anything that could defile the sacred space. And as we read in Sifrei Bam...
In the book of Bamidbar – Numbers, in English – we find a fascinating passage that deals precisely with this: the idea of sacred space, separation, and the surprising presence of t...
Sometimes, the text seems straightforward, but a closer look reveals something deeper, a subtle nuance that shifts our understanding. Take, for instance, the case of the Nazir, the...
It wasn't just a one-day event. According to Sifrei Bamidbar, the book of Numbers, the seven days leading up to the dedication were a whirlwind of activity. Imagine this: Every sin...
Something that makes you wonder, "Why is that there?" Well, let's talk about a strange little section tucked away in the Book of Numbers, Bamidbar. Specifically, Bamidbar 10:35: "A...
It’s a fascinating topic, and today we're diving into a passage from Sifrei Bamidbar, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Numbers, that sheds light on just that. T...
This ritual, detailed in Numbers 19, is all about purification, and this passage zeroes in on the specific rules surrounding the heifer itself and its ashes. The text starts with a...
The Book of Numbers, or Bamidbar in Hebrew, recounts a particularly troubling episode in the Israelites' wanderings. Specifically, our source today comes from Sifrei Bamidbar 131, ...
It all boils down to a delicate balance, a dance between the sacred and the serene. to a seemingly simple verse in Bamidbar, the Book of Numbers, to unpack this very idea. The vers...
We're looking at a verse that mentions "your gifts." According to Sifrei Devarim 72, these "gifts" refer to todah, thank-offerings, and shelamim, peace-offerings. Okay, but what's ...
But even in other years, the rules about tithing could get pretty complex. We find ourselves in the book of Sifrei Devarim, specifically section 109, diving deep into the nuances o...
The Sifrei Devarim, a legal midrash on the Book of Deuteronomy, touches on some specific examples of legal “disputes” that might arise. It mentions the ordeal of the sotah, the wom...
We often think of land, money, possessions. But what about inheriting something far more profound? Sifrei Devarim 165 offers a glimpse into a different kind of inheritance, one tha...
The Sifrei Devarim, a legal midrash on the Book of Deuteronomy, introduces us to this shoel av. The text defines him as a necromancer – someone who attempts to communicate with the...
The ancient text, Sifrei Devarim, a commentary on the Book of Deuteronomy, grapples with this very issue. It centers on a specific passage dealing with an unsolved murder. : a body...
In fact, Jewish tradition grapples with this idea of removing evil, of cleansing the community, in some pretty direct ways. We find this in the Sifrei Devarim, a collection of lega...
The ancient rabbis grappled with this very idea when interpreting the Torah’s laws about lost objects and helping others. It all boils down to this: What level of loss compels us t...
In the Sifrei Devarim, a collection of early rabbinic legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy, Rabbi Yehudah gives us a fascinating mnemonic device for remembering the ten...
We find ourselves in Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal interpretations on the book of Deuteronomy, specifically chapter 26, where the Israelites are commanded to declare before...
Specifically, we're looking at the verse saying "and there will not be with him a strange god." Now, on the surface, this seems pretty straightforward: no idolatry. And one interpr...
It seems like a simple question, but the answer, like so many things in Jewish tradition, is layered with meaning. The Sifrei Devarim, an ancient commentary on the Book of Deuteron...
The consecration ceremony of (Exodus 29:1-46) appears in the Hebrew Bible as a solemn ritual. The Targum Jonathan adds precise details that heighten both its gravity and its tender...
The incense altar, the half-shekel tax, and the anointing oil in (Exodus 30:1-38) all receive remarkable expansions in the Targum Jonathan. What the Hebrew text presents as ritual ...
The collection of materials for the Tabernacle in (Exodus 35:1-35) is, in the Hebrew Bible, a straightforward account of voluntary giving. The Targum Jonathan inserts miracles that...
The construction inventory in (Exodus 38:1-31) is mostly numbers and measurements. But the Targum Jonathan inserts one of the most beautiful and surprising details in its entire tr...
Leviticus 13 is the longest chapter in the book—a detailed medical manual for diagnosing skin diseases. The Targum Jonathan transforms it from clinical instructions into a color-co...
Every tribe in Israel received land. The Levites received cities. Aaron and his sons received something stranger: God told them their inheritance was God Himself. The Targum Jonath...
The Torah says the Levites have no land inheritance. Targum Jonathan goes further, specifying exactly what they receive instead—twenty-four gifts of the priesthood. That number doe...
(2) (Fol. 3b) R. Abahu said: "Cyrus was a worthy king, and therefore were his royal years counted in accordance with those of the kings of Israel [beginning with Nissan]." R. Josep...
An heathen said to R. Johanan b. Zakkai: “The ceremonies of the red heifer look like witchcraft/' He replied: “What are you doing against demoniac possession?’’— “Herbs and fumigat...
