389 related texts · 22 related myths · Page 1 of 9
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:16) names two festivals without naming them by their later names: the feast of the harvest first-fruits of the work thou didst sow in th...
Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) Sheni Ketuvim In the beginning God created etc. - To declare the might of the acts of creation to creatures, and to make it known to them...
Can you feel their anticipation, their weariness, their unwavering faith? They arrive at Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, twin peaks that would become the stage for a powerful ritual....
“All its people are sighing, seeking bread; they have given their delights for food to restore life. See, Lord, and look, for I have become abject” (Lamentations 1:11).“All its peo...
Rabbi Abahu offers a powerful insight into this very question, drawing from the book of Exodus. "Three pilgrimage festivals you shall hold a festival to Me during the year" (Exodus...
There's a verse in Devarim – Deuteronomy – that always stops me in my tracks. It's in chapter 11, verse 29, and it looks simple at first, but it's packed with meaning. "And it shal...
The Jewish year moves with the grain. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 34:22) marks two hinges of that turning wheel: the feast of weeks at the first of the wheat harvest, and the...
Three times a year, the Torah commanded, every Jewish man should make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the festivals (Deuteronomy 16:16). Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot drew tens of th...
Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught that the pursuit of honor is a spiritual trap, and the only escape is through silence in the face of humiliation. When a person chases honor, they n...
The Roman governor Turnus Rufus thought he had caught Rabbi Akiva in a contradiction. "If your God loves the poor," he pressed, "why doesn't He feed them Himself?" Akiva did not he...
(Exodus 23:16) refers to Shavuoth (the Festival of Weeks) as "the festival of the harvest, the first-fruits of your labor." The Mekhilta notes that this description appears within ...
The verse Seems straightforward. But as with so much in Jewish tradition, the simplicity The first reading hides layers of meaning. The rabbis of old loved to unpack these layers, ...
Someone once came to Rabbi Ishmael, the son of Joshua, with a question that must have been asked in every generation: how did the wealthy of the land of Israel come by their wealth...
It's not as simple as "everyone," that's for sure. to what the ancient texts tell us about who’s in, who’s out, and why. The verse we’re unpacking is from Sifrei Devarim, a collect...
The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a profound commentary on the Zohar, dives deep into this very idea. It explores what constitutes a gift so pure, so powerful, that it ascends...
Jewish tradition, specifically Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating collection of stories and interpretations, tells us that the power of tzedakah, or charity, is so profound that...
It might seem arbitrary, but there's actually a beautiful reason woven into the very fabric of our tradition, one that speaks to God's care for us. Rabbi Shimon, in Sifrei Devarim,...
The Torah says write the law on plastered stones after crossing the Jordan. Targum Jonathan says write it "with writing deeply engraven and distinct, which shall be read in one lan...
The law of chametz turns on timing. Sifrei Devarim asks exactly when eating leaven must stop before Pesach. Our source for this particular detail is Sifrei Devarim, a collection of...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Rabbi Shimon and Adam of Pesach. The key verse that shapes our discussion is (Deuteronomy 16:5): "You may not sacrifice the Pesach offering in any of your s...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan opens one of the most astonishing passages in the entire exodus tradition. "Ye have seen what I did to the Mizraee; and how I bare you upon the clouds as...
It's not about being stingy, but about creating a sense of progression, a journey. Why, it asks, did God command a diminishing number of bulls to be sacrificed each day? What did H...
The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a mystical expansion on the Zohar itself, gives us a glimpse into just that – a cosmic tapestry woven with the threads of our festivals. In T...
It wasn't just about grand ceremonies; even the distribution of offerings had its own set of rules and regulations. to one little-known, but fascinating, detail from Sifrei Devarim...
The Roman governor Turnus Rufus and Rabbi Akiva argued often. Once they argued about tzedakah. “Akiva,” said Turnus Rufus, “if your God decreed that a certain man...
How Confession Turns Harsh Judgment Into Mercy is the question behind this passage from Likutey Moharan (Rabbi Nachman). Through the Torah of lovingkindness, which the Talmud defin...
. Another reading: “Comfort, oh comfort My people” (Isaiah 40:1) Said the Holy Blessed One: Who needs to be comforted? For one whose wife died, not the husband? Thus was Zion analo...
Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) Yitbarach (May He Be Blessed) Blessed be the name of the King of kings, the Holy One blessed be He, who lives and endures forever and eve...
Hannah was barren for years. Her husband loved her and her rival taunted her and the priest Eli misread her prayer as drunkenness. The whole story is about a woman whose deepest lo...
Devarim Rabbah (chapter 4) preserves a comment of Rabbi Yitzchak on the verse, "When the Lord your God shall enlarge your border, as He has promised you" (Deuteronomy 12:20). It is...
The sages defended Rav Saphra for his devotion to Oral Torah over Scripture, and in doing so they staked out one of Judaism's most startling claims. Tradition, they argued, is not ...
The rabbis taught that Jerusalem was not like other cities. Ten laws applied to her alone, each one a small clue to her strange status. A mortgaged house there was never permanentl...
This single verse holds two of the most important laws in Jewish life. And the Targum layers them tightly together. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:19) says: The first ...
There was an incident involving Doeg ben Yosef who died and left a young son to his mother. She would measure him in handbreadths and donate his weight in gold to the Temple182Lite...
“On his royal throne” – Rabbi Kohen (a priest) in the name of Rabbi Azarya: “On his royal throne [kisse malkhuto (Sovereignty)],” malkhuto is written [without the vav]. He sought t...
“He sent scrolls to all the king’s provinces, to each province in its script, and to each people in its language; for every man to be the ruler in his house, and speak the language...
“If it pleases the king, let it be written to eliminate them and I will weigh out ten thousand talents of silver by the hands of the king's craftsmen, to bring to the king's treasu...
The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a companion volume to the Zohar – the foundational text of Kabbalah – opens up some breathtaking vistas of connection. In Tikkunei Zohar 115,...
Rabbi Elazar Hamodai expanded the promise of Sabbath observance far beyond three festivals. Where Rabbi Yehoshua linked Shabbat (the Sabbath) to Pesach (Passover), Shavuot, and Suc...
The Talmud in tractate Baba Batra (8a) records a teaching about almsgiving that medieval Jewish communities took very seriously. So seriously that it became the foundation for how ...
Rabbi Akiva (c. 50 to 135 CE), the shepherd-turned-sage who became one of the towering figures of the Mishnaic age, told a short parable about a man he saw swept out to sea. The st...
A philosopher once stood before Rabbi Akiba with a question designed to unsettle him. "If your God loves the poor," the philosopher asked, "why does He not support them Himself? Wh...
Rabbi Tarfon was a wealthy sage who believed in personal tzedakah but preferred to hold his money close. Rabbi Akiva came to him one day and asked for a considerable sum, promising...
Mar Ukba was a wealthy Babylonian Jew known for his discreet tzedakah. He used to leave coins under a neighbor's doorsill each night, never waiting to be seen. One day he learned t...
The old rabbis were poets of the short sentence. Here is a small anthology of proverbs preserved in the Midrash — each one a stone you can carry in your pocket. On speech: Op...
It turns out, according to ancient wisdom, there just might be. to Vayikra Rabbah 34 and see what treasures we can unearth. Our journey begins with a verse from Isaiah (58:8): "The...
Vayikra Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Leviticus, tackles this very question. And it does so with a story – a really compelling one. It starts with...
The usual account traces them back to the Torah, to Moses at Sinai. But what if some of those traditions, the feel of them, actually predate the Torah itself? to the Book of Jubile...
