1,047 related texts · 1 related myths · Page 2 of 22
God's answer to Moses contains one of the most mysterious promises in the entire Torah. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, reveals the secret hidden in th...
It wasn't just about seeing the future; it was about holding life and death in their hands. to a fascinating little story from Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretat...
(Psalm 119:89) declares, “Forever, Lord, Your word stands firm in the heavens.” But does this mean it doesn’t stand firm here, with us? Our sages grappled with this, finding an ans...
Ben Sira, also known as Ecclesiasticus, is a book of wisdom literature, a treasure trove of insights into Jewish thought and practice, though it's not included in the Hebrew Bible'...
Ben Sira, in his wisdom, reminds us of the immense task Aaron undertook. He says, "And who, in his nobility, his heart, atoned for the children of Israel." Aaron atoned. Think abou...
Book of Jubilees turns to God Foretells That Israel Will Stray and Return. Jubilees is not part of the canonical Hebrew Bible, but it was preserved in Ethiopian manuscript traditio...
Book of Jubilees turns to Ark in the Temple and the Covenant. A promise so profound: "I shall build My sanctuary in their midst, and I shall dwell with them, and I shall be their G...
It's a little different than what you might expect. In Jubilees 14, we find Abraham in a very familiar role: making sacrifices. He offers up pieces of animals, birds, fruit-offerin...
Book of Jubilees turns to Abram — Covenant of Abraham. The scene: Abram, having just received divine instructions, is at the altar. He’s not just going through the motions. This is...
Book of Jubilees turns to The Covenant Sealed With Isaac Not Ishmael. So what does Abraham do? Does he sit around and wait? Nope. He gets to work. "And Abraham did according as God...
Book of Jubilees turns to Waters of Noah and the Covenant. A celestial court, filled with angels – not just any angels, but the angels of the presence and the angels of sanctificat...
In the Book of Jubilees, we find this intense father-to-son talk that feels exactly like that, a guide to staying on that path. It’s like a spiritual GPS, handed down through gener...
It’s a beautiful, almost intimate, scene from the life of Jacob, the patriarch who would become known as Israel. Specifically, we are looking at Chapter 22. Old Jacob, his heart ov...
Flattery? Sure. But maybe… something more? Judith, a courageous and beautiful widow, has just arrived in Holofernes’ camp, pretending to be a defector from the besieged city of Bet...
This is the world Megillat Antiochus throws us into. The story begins with a chilling proposition, whispered amongst the advisors of King Antiochus. "Come now," they urged, "let us...
That feeling echoes through the ages, all the way back to the time of the Maccabees. And it’s where our story begins. These aren’t my words,. This is straight from The Second Book ...
While not part of the accepted biblical canon, Jasher (meaning "Upright" or "Correct Record") offers a fascinating, if sometimes embellished, account of biblical events. And Chapte...
Book of Jasher turns to Isaac Dies at 180 and Esau Returns From Edom. The scene opens with Isaac, Abraham's son, nearing the end of his long life – a whopping 180 years! Esau, havi...
The story continues, of course! And Chapter 88 of the Book of Jasher to see what happened as the Israelites finally entered the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua. The Bo...
God revealed Himself to Abraham shortly after, to ease his conscience about the spilling of innocent blood, a scruple that caused him great anguish. God assured him that pious men ...
It's a story about covenants, wells, and the surprising ways God's presence is revealed in the world. After living among the Philistines for 26 years, Abraham moves near Hebron. So...
The Bible is full of them, but sometimes the stories between the lines are even more fascinating. to the tale of Jacob and his father-in-law, Laban, a story ripe with tension, accu...
It wasn't just a simple "Okay, God, I'll go." According to the Legends of the Jews, as retold by Ginzberg, Moses' agreement came with conditions. He wanted assurances that his requ...
Jewish tradition sees that rainbow, the bow in the cloud, as a very specific promise. A promise from God. The Torah tells us that after the great flood, God set His bow – the rainb...
Abraham knew that feeling well. Before he was Avraham Avinu, our father Abraham, before the brit bein ha-betarim, the covenant of the pieces, he was just a man with a promise and a...
Jacob, after years of hard work, had finally begun to prosper. But instead of joy, his success bred envy in the hearts of Laban and his sons. Their annoyance, their vexation, becam...
Jacob, nearing the end of his life in Egypt, makes a request of Joseph: to be buried in the ancestral land, the land of Canaan. But Jacob wasn't content with just a promise. He wan...
Our story begins with messengers. The messengers of Agnias, to be precise, hurrying back from Kittim (often associated with Cyprus or sometimes Rome) with good news. They carry the...
There's a powerful, almost prophetic passage preserved in Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews, a collection that draws together centuries of stories and interpretations. It speaks of a ...
Moses sure did. You’re tending sheep in the desert, happily married, a father. Then, BOOM! God appears in a burning bush and tells you to go liberate an entire nation from slavery....
The ancient Israelites, fresh out of Egypt, thought they had that… but then Amalek came along. The story of Amalek is more than just a battle; it's a clash between faith and doubt,...
Legends of the Jews turns to Moses Read the Entire Torah Aloud Before the Covenant. Before that earth-shattering covenant, before the words were etched in stone, Moses, our teacher...
Impatient, fearful, they construct a golden idol, a symbol of their own making. A betrayal that cuts deep. The immediate aftermath was devastating. According to Ginzberg's retellin...
Moses, standing before God after the devastating sin of the Golden Calf. The people, scared and impatient, had turned away from the covenant, creating an idol of gold in the desert...
He led the Israelites through the desert for forty long years, endured hardship after hardship, and finally, finally, the Promised Land was within sight. But he wasn't going to be ...
That's where we find ourselves in this intriguing little story. The story unfolds with an unnamed seeker, desperate to find Moses. He believes that God may have commanded Moses to ...
Legends of the Jews turns to Kingdom of Amon. In Legends of the Jews, Ginzberg's masterful retelling of rabbinic tradition, Amon was even more wicked than his father. And what's tr...
He was, to put it mildly, not a nice guy. His deeds were so evil, so contrary to everything the Torah stood for, that he really should have forfeited his share in the olam ha-ba, t...
It all started with a vow – a solemn promise made by Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, to Nebuchadnezzar. But things went south, as they often do in these stories. Zedekiah, for re...
It's so much more than just a physical act; it’s a profound moment steeped in tradition, faith, and ancient promises. And at the heart of it all stands a powerful, unexpected figur...
The Sha’ar HaGilgulim (the reincarnation of souls), the "Gate of Reincarnations," part of the teachings of the Ari, Rabbi Isaac Luria, a 16th-century Kabbalist, offers a fascinatin...
The Kabbalists certainly did, and they developed intricate systems to explain it. One of the most fascinating? The concept of gilgul (the reincarnation of souls), or reincarnation....
In Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar 40, we're given a glimpse into the intricate relationship between the written word, the divine, and our own spiritual journey. It’s a wild ride...
The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a mystical companion to the Zohar, certainly thinks so. It's all about unlocking those secrets, revealing the deeper connections between seem...
The ancient mystics did, and they left us clues about how to tap into that power. to a fascinating, if somewhat cryptic, passage from the Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a centr...
In Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, it’s something truly profound. The Tikkunei Zohar, a crucial text of Kabbalah, illuminates the verse in (Genesis 8:11), "And the dove returned...
Jewish mysticism teaches that everything we do, every choice we make, impacts not just ourselves but the very fabric of the universe. And when it comes to our relationship with the...
Think about Noah's dove. After the flood, Noah sends her out to see if the waters have receded. The verse tells us, "...and she no longer returned to him, at all" (Gen. 8:12). A si...
