465 related texts · 4 related myths · Page 2 of 10
The Book of Maccabees I turns to Mattathias and Noah of Modin. The Book of Maccabees I tells us, "Though all the nations that are under the king’s dominion obey him, and fall away ...
The Book of Maccabees I turns to Mattathias and Noah of Phinees. The scene: Mattathias, a priest from the Hasmonean family, witnesses a fellow Jew about to offer a sacrifice to a p...
The Hebrew Bible names Adam's famous sons. But the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, names the ones you have never heard ...
Sounds… intense. That’s what Noah faced. But what happened after the floodwaters receded? it first appears it was all sunshine and rainbows, but the story, as the Legends of the Je...
It wasn't exactly smooth sailing. The Ginzberg's says retelling in Legends of the Jews, things got a bit…complicated. Ham, you see, was not thrilled about his father's curse. So he...
The familiar story is this: the animals, the flood, the rainbow. But what about the after the flood? What was Noah thinking, feeling? Did he get everything. Well, according to some...
The familiar telling remembers Shem, Ham, and Japheth, but what were their lives really like after they stepped off the ark? The blessing Noah bestowed upon them speaks volumes. It...
The familiar story centers on Noah, the ark, and the animals. But what happened after the waters receded? Did life just magically reset? Well, according to the Legends of the Jews,...
It's a city that resonates through millennia, a place where, according to legend, the very ground remembers the most important moments in our shared past. Think about Abraham, read...
The tribal offerings at the Tabernacle look repetitive until Ginzberg lets them carry the whole history of the world. These weren't just offerings. According to the Legends of the ...
Legends of the Jews turns to Phinehas and the Patriarchs. Ouch. This "spiteful remark," as Ginzberg describes it, refers to Phinehas's maternal lineage. his mother was descended no...
The Torah is full of blessings, but it's not always straightforward. Some blessings are more potent than others, some are given grudgingly, and some come with unexpected consequenc...
The story of Jephthah and Phinehas is a stark reminder. We find this tale tucked away in Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews, and it centers around a difficult legal question. Someone's...
It wasn’t just bricks and mortar. It was a turning point, a cosmic shift that reverberated through the world. Ginzberg, in his Legends of the Jews, paints a vivid picture. Remember...
Four are called "inheritance": the Temple, viz. "in the mountain of Your inheritance." Eretz Yisrael, viz. (Devarim 15:4) "in the land which the L–rd Your G–d gives You as an inher...
The Mekhilta makes a striking observation about the phrase "in the mountain of Your inheritance." The Temple is beloved by God in a way that surpasses even creation itself. How? Th...
It must have been overwhelming, the weight of a destroyed world, the responsibility of rebuilding it all. Well, according to Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating collection of sto...
Sifrei Bamidbar turns to Why the Levites Received No Inheritance in the Land. Why does the Torah need to spell this out? The Sifrei Bamidbar, a rabbinic commentary on the book of N...
The Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy, offers a fascinating glimpse into this idea. It grapples with the verse speaking of "rest and ...
The core of this passage revolves around the first tithe, the ma'aser rishon. This was a portion of the harvest given to the Levites, the tribe dedicated to serving in the Temple. ...
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...
“For you have not yet come…” (Devarim 12:9) this was said in order to permit private altars between the ‘resting place’ and the ‘inheritance’, because the resting place refers to S...
This is one of those verses where Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 8:20) opens a hidden corridor through the whole Torah. The Hebrew simply says Noah built an altar. The Aramaic ...
This is perhaps the single most important identification Targum Pseudo-Jonathan makes in the Abram cycle. On (Genesis 14:18) the Aramaic declares: Malka Zadika, who was Shem bar No...
Stand where the Temple will stand and look down. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 22:9), the mountain beneath Abraham's feet is not virgin ground. It is the oldest altar in th...
It wasn't just a matter of tossing everything into a wagon. There was a precise order, a sacred choreography, and it all begs the question: Why this order? Bamidbar Rabbah, specifi...
The Torah tells us in (Numbers 4:29), “The sons of Merari, by their families, by their patrilineal house, you shall count them.” Now, it first appears all Levites were treated equa...
Maybe it's your stamp collection, each one unique. Or the number of books you've amassed over the years. We count them separately, admiring each one, and then we count them all tog...
This section of Bamidbar Rabbah, a classical midrashic (rabbinic interpretive commentary) text, explores the nuances of this ancient blessing, revealing layers of meaning and pract...
The verse This is right before the Israelites are about to wage war against the Midianites. Now, God tells Moses, "Take the vengeance" (Numbers 31:2). So why doesn't Moses lead the...
Take Noah, for instance. The familiar story is this: the ark, the flood, the animals two-by-two. But what about Noah before the flood? What kind of person was he? Well, the book of...
It wasn't just a knee-jerk reaction of gratitude. According to Bereshit Rabbah, the ancient midrashic (rabbinic interpretive commentary) (interpretive) text on Genesis, there was s...
Bereshit Rabbah turns to Noah's Transgression of Canaan. First, the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) clarifies that "Noah awoke from his wine" means simply that the wine'...
Bereshit Rabbah turns to Noah's Transgression of Shem. “Blessed be the Lord, God of Shem, and Canaan shall be their servant… May God expand Yefet, and he shall dwell in the tents o...
Kohelet Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Ecclesiastes, tackles this very question, and it does it in such a wonderfully human way. It all starts with...
Shir HaShirim Rabbah turns to Israel Won Against Midian Through Moses and Pinchas. The text even seems to play with the wording of (Numbers 31:6) – "Moses sent them, a thousand of ...
Shir HaShirim Rabbah turns to Did Noah Offer Burnt Offerings or Peace Offerings. This verse sparks a debate, recorded in Shir HaShirim Rabbah, about the nature of sacrifices offere...
“Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners” (Lamentations 5:2).“Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers.” What type of turning? It is “l...
Philo of Alexandria was a Jewish philosopher who lived way back in the first century. He tried to bridge the gap between Greek philosophy and Jewish tradition, and his writings off...
It must have been overwhelming. And the very first thing he does? He builds an altar. But here's the kicker – God didn't tell him to! So, why did Noah build an altar without being ...
That feeling, that impulse – it gets to the heart of what it means to be truly grateful, and what it means to connect with the Divine. The Midrash of Philo touches on this very poi...
He sacrifices some animals. End of story. But what if there was a deeper meaning hidden within those verses? That's what the Midrash of Philo explores when it asks about (Genesis 8...
"The entire world was created only for my sake" (Sanhedrin 37a). Rabbi Nachman of Breslov takes this teaching at face value: if the world exists for you, then you are responsible f...
A sigh from a Jewish person can repair what is broken in the world. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught this not as poetry but as metaphysics. The sigh, the deep exhalation of grief or...
When harsh decrees threaten the Jewish people, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov prescribes an unexpected remedy: dancing and clapping hands. The logic runs through a teaching about what co...
Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught that anyone who wants to taste the Or HaGanuz (אור הגנוז), the Hidden Light that God stored away from the first day of creation, must elevate the qu...
Before Aaron was chosen for the priesthood, every member of Israel was eligible to serve as a priest. The entire nation stood on equal footing when it came to approaching God throu...
R. Nathan says "Observe the month of Aviv". Observe the month which is closest to Aviv. And which is that? Adar. But we have not heard how many (days) are to be intercalated. From ...
