389 related texts · 22 related myths · Page 8 of 9
The Roman-appointed Jewish king Agrippa II, who reigned over parts of Judea in the first century CE, once tried to count the male population of Israel. Because a direct census of I...
Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel, quoting Rabbi Yehoshua, said something that should stop us: since the destruction of the Temple, not a single day has passed without a curse (Sotah 48a). ...
The prophet Ezekiel writes, "I have set Jerusalem in the midst of the nations, and countries are round about her" (Ezekiel 5:5). Taken in its plain sense, the verse places the holy...
Gaster's exemplum No. 273 preserves two short Talmudic stories about how seriously the sages took small signs. In the first, Rav, the third-century Babylonian sage who founded the ...
The midrash taught that the arba minim, the four species shaken on the festival of Sukkot, are not a random bouquet. Each one maps to a part of the human body, so that when a Jew l...
The Second Temple had a section called the Ezrat Nashim, the Court of Women, a gallery where women could gather for the great ceremonies while men stood on the lower floor. During ...
When Israel went up to Jerusalem for one of the three pilgrimage festivals (Exodus 34:23-24), a season came in which the wells ran dry. There was no water for the pilgrims to drink...
On the sixth day, the earth gets its turn. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 1:24) echoes the pattern already set in the sea: every living creature comes forth "the kind that is c...
The plagues are not only punishment. They are curriculum. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 10:2) records the Holy One's own reason: "In the hearing of thy sons and of thy chil...
One of the most useful things a targum does is flag which commandments were meant to last forever and which were meant only for a single moment. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 1...
The original Passover meal was not symbolic. The bitter herbs on the first seder plate were real bitter herbs, eaten in a real hurry on a real night. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exo...
One reason the first Passover feels archaic to modern readers is that it was archaic even to the people eating it. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:9) piles up the restrictions...
Leftovers are rarely a theological problem, but in the Pesach laws they become one. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:10) addresses what to do with any remnant of the lamb that ...
Some of the most famous images of Passover, the belted tunic, the shoes on the feet, the staff in the hand, were never meant to continue. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:11) s...
Passover has two names. The night of deliverance is Pesach. The week that follows is Chag haMatzot, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:17) preserve...
The laws of Passover refuse the distinction between insider and outsider. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:19) says that whoever eats leaven during the seven days will perish f...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan dates the great revelation with precision: "It was on the third day, on the sixth of the month, in the time of the morning, that on the mountain there we...
This is one of the most haunting scenes in all of Jewish literature. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves it in its full strangeness: Moses approached the camp, saw the calf and the in...
When the Tabernacle needed building, the Torah says donations poured in from everyone whose heart moved him (Exodus 35:21). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan adds a remarkable detail: these g...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 40:6) gives the outer altar a location and a purpose that the plain Hebrew leaves unspoken. Place it before the door of the tabernacle of ordinanc...
Here is a question only R. Isaac could ask without blushing. If the Torah is primarily a book of commandments, why does it open with (Genesis 1:1), a narrative about cosmic creatio...
The Mishnah in Berakhot 9:2 prescribes a blessing for natural disasters. When someone witnesses a shooting star, an earthquake, lightning, or thunder, they recite: "Blessed be the ...
The Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Numbers, explores this very idea through a verse from Job: "Who preceded Me, that I should repay? Everything ...
What does sailing have to do with spies? Well, stick with me. The Rabbis debated this, concluding you shouldn't set out on a long voyage so close to the Sabbath. But, there's alway...
It's one of those biblical tales that's just packed with odd details, and the Rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) had a field day unpacking it all. We find a f...
In Bamidbar Rabbah (Numbers Rabbah) 21, we encounter a fascinating tension. God commands the Israelites to "Assail the Midianites." Seems But then, the text throws us a curveball. ...
The ancient rabbis certainly did. They found that very human feeling reflected in the Torah itself, specifically in the book of Numbers, Bamidbar in Hebrew. And they explore it in ...
Our sages pondered that very thing, and they found a fascinating exception. The Torah portion of Bereshit, Genesis, opens with the creation. And in (Genesis 2:1), we read, "The hea...
Bereshit Rabbah turns to Did Hagar Speak Directly to God or an Angel. He points to the story of Hagar, who, after encountering an angel, "called the name of the Lord who spoke with...
The Torah portion Vayera, and specifically (Genesis 18:19), offers a glimpse into this very idea: "For I love him, so that he will command his children and his household after him,...
Bereshit Rabbah turns to Eliezer's Camels and the Test of Idol Worship. Rabbi Huna and Rabbi Yirmeya pose a fascinating question to Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Rabba: Were Abraham's camels, pa...
Did he just follow the big commandments, the obvious ones? Or was there something more? (Genesis 26:5) tells us that Abraham "heeded My voice, and observed My commission, My comman...
Take the story of Jacob, disguised as Esau, receiving Isaac's blessing. It's a pivotal moment, full of deception and destiny. Okay, hides of goat kids. That sounds… itchy. Rabbi Yo...
In Devarim Rabbah, a compilation of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Deuteronomy, we find a fascinating connection between looking after the Levites – members of the tribe of Levi...
We all have. But in Jewish tradition, the words we speak – and the intentions behind them – carry immense weight. Kohelet Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Bo...
It all starts with the verse from (Ecclesiastes 5:6): "So it is with a multitude of dreams and vanities and many words; rather, fear God.” The verse seems to be saying that too muc...
Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, throws us a curveball right from the start: "A good name is better than fine oil, and the day of death than the day of one's birth" (Ecclesiastes 7:1). Whoa....
Jewish tradition teaches us that our actions, especially those involving money and compassion, carry immense weight. to a fascinating passage from Shemot Rabbah, a collection of ra...
The apple tree in Shir HaShirim Rabbah is not decoration. It is Sinai in bloom. Rabbi Aḥa ben Rabbi Ze'eira notices the order of the tree: blossom first, leaves after. Israel, he s...
Take the verse from the Song of Songs, Shir HaShirim, "How fair are your feet in sandals [bane’alim]," with its slightly unusual plural form, "sandals" [ne’alim]. What could that p...
Vayikra Rabbah, specifically chapter 16, dives deep into this, starting with the verse, "This shall be the law of the leper." (Leviticus 14:2). Seems strange. What does leprosy hav...
The rabbis of old grappled with this question, especially concerning the laws around building altars for sacrifice outside the designated Temple in Jerusalem. This wasn't some free...
Rabbi Huna and Rabbi Yirmeya, citing Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba, paint this incredible picture: The Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to craft shelters and canopies in the Garden of E...
It all starts with the verse, "You shall take for you on the first day.." (Leviticus 23:40) – referring to the lulav, the palm branch, used during the festival of Sukkot (the Festi...
Take, for instance, the four species we use on Sukkot – the etrog (citron), the lulav (date palm frond), the hadass (myrtle), and the aravah (willow). They aren't just random plant...
Take the four species we use on Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles: the etrog (citron), the lulav (palm branch), the hadass (myrtle), and the aravah (willow). We wave them, we rejoic...
Rabbi Ze’eira had a fascinating idea about this, especially when it comes to the Land of Israel. He said, remarkably, that even the conversation of the people living there is Torah...
The story, as recounted in Vayikra Rabbah 34, is It all started on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, a time for reflection and new beginnings. Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai, a prominent...
