712 related texts · 8 related myths · Page 1 of 15
When Moses sent twelve spies into the land of Canaan to scout the territory before the Israelite invasion, ten of them came back terrified. "We saw giants there," they reported. "T...
A Jewish man named Nathan traveled to an island and was on the brink of committing a serious sin with a famous courtesan. The room was prepared. The door was closed. He was about t...
You remember the story. Moses sends twelve spies, one from each tribe, to check out the land God promised them. When they return, ten of them are terrified. Giants! Fortified citie...
The story of Joshua preparing to conquer Jericho, as told in Legends of the Jews (Ginzberg), throws us headfirst into that shadowy world. Before a single soldier marched, Joshua ne...
When Moses sent twelve spies into the land of Canaan, the legend of the Rabbis remembers that the land was inhabited by giants, not merely tall men but beings of such scale that a ...
Our story comes from the wisdom of Ben Sira, also known as Ecclesiasticus, a book of wisdom literature. It’s part of the Jewish writings of the Second Temple period, writings that ...
The ancient Israelites felt that way too, and their story, preserved in the Sifrei Devarim, offers a powerful lesson. Let's rewind. The Israelites are poised to enter the Promised ...
It’s a universal feeling, that sense of being overwhelmed. But what if that feeling warped your perception of reality itself? That's precisely what happened in the story of the spi...
It wasn't quite as simple as drawing lines on a map. There were… exceptions. Special cases. And those exceptions, as always, tell us a lot about the rules themselves. The verse in ...
Rabbi Zadok offers us a glimpse into the origins of the Anakim. These weren't just big people; they were giants born of arrogance, their hearts filled with pride. And what did this...
Like the challenges in front of you are just. too big? Well, That's the situation the Israelites found themselves in, according to Legends of the Jews, as retold by Ginzberg. It al...
The story goes that, except for Joshua and Caleb, the spies sent to scout out the land of Canaan – the land we now know as Israel – were determined to dissuade the Israelites from ...
Sometimes, a seemingly simple verse can open up a whole world of interpretation and insight. Let’s take a look at a moment in the Book of Numbers, Bamidbar, specifically chapter 13...
It’s a story found within Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Numbers. The scene is set: Moses has sent out spies to scout the Land of Israel. ...
(Ibid.) "for the L–rd said: Lest the people bethink themselves when they see war": This is the war of Amalek, viz. (Numbers 14:45). "Variantly: "for the L–rd said, etc.": This is t...
The Talmud, specifically Bava Batra 73b, offers a startling, almost unbelievable answer through a story featuring the sage Rabbah bar Bar Hannah. Rabbah, a well-known figure in rab...
The generation of the Flood earned their destruction through arrogance. According to Sanhedrin 108a, God gave them 120 years of warning. They spent those years mocking Noah. The Sa...
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...
The Hebrew Bible says Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan. The Targum Jonathan says he sent "keen-sighted men", then reveals how spectacularly their vision failed them. Moses dispa...
Bamidbar Rabbah turns to Joshua in Joseph's Time. Remember that? Moses sends out twelve spies to scout the Promised Land. Ten of them come back terrified, painting a picture of ins...
The story goes that when the spies returned from scouting the land of Canaan – what we know today as Palestine/Israel – they cooked up a scheme to discourage the Israelites from ev...
Forty years wandering the desert. Forty years! And according to tradition, it was all their own fault. Moses, their leader, didn’t hold back as they stood on the cusp of finally en...
Scope out the land, see what's what. But it goes so terribly wrong. According to Legends of the Jews, it's not just about the spies' report itself, but about the very desire to sen...
The familiar story centers on the twelve spies sent by Moses to scout out the promised land. But did you know there was a real battle of wills between them, a clash that went beyon...
The story of the spies sent to scout the Promised Land offers a chilling answer. Being chosen for a vital mission. To be among the select few to preview a land flowing with milk an...
Twelve men walked into the land of Canaan. Twelve came back. And with a few terrified words, they nearly destroyed an entire nation's future. Moses had brought the Israelites to th...
Before Moses died, God showed him the future of every tribe of Israel, a panoramic vision of the land and its leaders stretching across generations. The Mekhilta asks: how do we kn...
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...
The opening verse of Deuteronomy lists a string of place names, "in the wilderness, in the Arabah, over against Suph, between Paran and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Di-zaha...
The rabbis counted the wounds and found that five had opened on the seventeenth of Tammuz and five more on the ninth of Av, the two fast days that frame the Three Weeks of summer m...
There is a strange debate preserved in tractate Berachot (folio 47, column 2) that asks a question most of us are afraid to ask out loud. Who, exactly, counts as an am ha'aretz, a ...
Names is often remembered as just labels, but in Jewish tradition, they're so much more. They’re reflections of character, hints of potential, even prayers for the future. And some...
That brings us to a fascinating little detail in Sifrei Devarim, a collection of early rabbinic legal interpretations on the book of Deuteronomy. It's all about names and origins, ...
Forty days! Now, think about that journey, from the south all the way to the north. That's a long walk. Could they really have covered all that ground, the entire breadth of the la...
In the world of Jewish mysticism, particularly within the Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, things aren’t always as they seem. Get ready, because The Tikkunei Zohar, a collection ...
The Torah, in the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy), gives us a little geographical detail that hints at a much bigger story about journeys, delays, and maybe even missed opportunities...
Sifrei Devarim turns to How Long Must the Fringes of Tzitzit Actually Be. Specifically, how long do those fringes need to be? The verse reads, "The halachah is in accordance with B...
One such answer comes from a text attributed to Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish philosopher who lived in Egypt during the first century. While scholars debate whether he actually pen...
The Israelites certainly did. And their story, as told in the Legends of the Jews, offers a fascinating, and sometimes unsettling, glimpse into divine justice and, ultimately, rede...
It uses some pretty strong imagery to describe the leaders and righteous individuals within a community. The passage starts with a rather unsettling phrase: "Bitter clusters are th...
The punishment of the ten faithless spies in the Hebrew Bible is a single verse. The Targum Jonathan turns it into body horror: worms emerging from their navels and consuming their...
Here is a verse that looks like an accounting entry until you notice what the numbers are doing. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 25:20) records that Isaac was forty years old wh...
The Torah tells us even MOSES and AARON, the very leaders who led us out of Egypt, experienced that feeling. It all stems from the story of the spies, doesn't it? We read in Bamidb...
The Torah tells us, "Moses called Hoshea son of Nun, Joshua [Yehoshua]" (Numbers 13:16). But here's the question: why did Moses change Hoshea's name to Joshua? What prompted this a...
It wasn't just divine intervention; sometimes, it took a little bit of clever strategy and a whole lot of faith. We pick up the story after the fall of Heshbon. Israel now possesse...
They return with tales of giants and fortified cities, sowing fear among the Israelites. But before all that drama, there's this seemingly simple statement: "That place he called t...
Legends of the Jews turns to The Spies Terrified Israel and Faith Crumbled. Remember the spies? Twelve men sent by Moses to scout out Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey t...
Even Moses, the great lawgiver, felt that sting. Moses is often remembered as this towering figure, unflinching in his faith, boldly confronting Pharaoh and leading the Israelites ...
