712 related texts · 8 related myths · Page 13 of 15
This text, a shorter and later version of the more famous Seder Olam Rabbah, attempts to create a chronological framework for biblical history. It's a bit like connecting the dots ...
They burst into song! Remember the verse? "Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord..." (Exodus 15:1). Pure, unadulterated joy, expressed in music. Then, fa...
The Yalkut Shimoni, a compilation of Midrashic (rabbinic interpretive commentary) teachings on the entire Hebrew Bible, offers us a glimpse into that world. In section 786, comment...
Yalkut Shimoni on Torah turns to Moses Studies Torah of Jordan. Well, it all stems from an earlier verse: "Then Moses set apart three cities." We know Moses established these citie...
Seems like a prime opportunity for spiritual growth. But Sifrei Bamidbar, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Numbers, pulls no punches. It points out a rather gla...
Our starting point is a passage from I (Chronicles 4:5): "And Ashchur, the father of Tekoa, had two wives, Chelah and Na'arah." But who is this "Ashchur"? According to Sifrei Bamid...
The Torah tells us, "The people would stroll out and gather it" (Numbers 11:8). But did they grumble about the effort? Sifrei Bamidbar cleverly uses another verse, "And the people ...
The scene: the Israelites are in the desert, and something unusual is happening. Two men, Eldad and Medad, are prophesying within the camp (Bamidbar/(Numbers 11:2)7). A "youth" run...
The Israelites, fresh out of Egypt, certainly did. And their story, as told in the book of Bamidbar (Numbers), offers a pretty stark warning about unchecked desire. The familiar st...
Take the curious case of the mekoshesh, the wood gatherer, found violating the Sabbath in the wilderness. The story, found in Bamidbar 15:32-36 (Numbers), isn’t just about punishme...
The Book of Numbers, or Bamidbar in Hebrew, recounts a particularly troubling episode in the Israelites' wanderings. Specifically, our source today comes from Sifrei Bamidbar 131, ...
Sifrei Bamidbar turns to Covenant of Moses of Israelites. Why wasn't Moses allowed to enter? The verse reads, "because of you." Because of the Israelites' actions at the waters of ...
The Israelites, after a period of wandering, find themselves at war with Midian. Bamidbar 31:7 tells us, "And they warred against Midian." The text goes on to say they surrounded i...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Why Moses Rebuked All of Israel at the Same Time. The Sifrei Devarim, a legal midrash on the Book of Deuteronomy, gives us a fascinating glimpse into Moses’...
Sifrei Devarim imagines the road Israel could have taken: eleven days from Horeb to the edge of the land, if the people had been ready. If the Israelites had been meritorious – if ...
Take the story of Og, King of Bashan. We find him mentioned in the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy). Now, Og wasn't just any king; he was a giant, a remnant of the Rephaim, a race of ...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Knowing Which City to Conquer First in the Land. It’s the next verse, (Deuteronomy 1:23), that really gets interesting. It says, "And the thing was good in ...
Take the Israelites wandering in the desert, for example. They’d been through so much – slavery in Egypt, the Exodus, the giving of the Torah at Sinai. Yet, here they were, facing ...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Jordan — Covenant of Moses. The verse in Devarim, Deuteronomy, says, "for you shall not cross this Jordan." It seems harsh, doesn’t it? After leading the Is...
He's addressing the Israelites, reminding them of their journey, their struggles, and most importantly, their relationship with God. And he makes a rather pointed comparison: "And ...
Sometimes, those stories can be Let's You might not recognize the name, but stick with me. This little town in the land of Israel, Eretz Yisrael, had a real identity crisis. Or may...
The ancient rabbis pondered this question, especially when thinking about Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. They looked at the intense historical desire for this particular piece ...
There's a fascinating little passage in Sifrei Devarim that wrestles with this very tension. " It sounds chaotic, doesn't it? But it's not just a random occurrence. It speaks to a ...
It’s a timeless struggle, this battle for our attention, our devotion. And according to ancient Jewish wisdom, the stakes are incredibly high. The Sifrei Devarim, a collection of l...
The verse Now, the Sifrei asks a seemingly simple question: Why both "terror" and "fear"? If someone is terrified, aren't they already afraid? What’s the need for the extra word? T...
Here he was, the leader who brought the Israelites out of Egypt, the one who stood face-to-face with God on Mount Sinai... and none of his sons were deemed fit to succeed him. In S...
The familiar story is this: the great leader, having guided his people for forty years through the wilderness, gazes upon the Promised Land from Mount Nebo, and then…the Torah simp...
That’s how Joshua, Moses’ successor, felt when Moses died. Imagine the weight of that grief, the sheer absence of a leader, a teacher, a friend. But according to Sifrei Devarim, Go...
When Moses Spoke the Heavens and Earth Stood Still is the question behind this passage from Sifrei Devarim. It’s an incredible image, isn’t it? A moment of perfect attentiveness. Y...
Jacob? He wrestled with angels, dreamed of ladders, and somehow became the linchpin of the entire Israelite story. What’s the deal? Well, Sifrei Devarim 312 – a passage from Sifrei...
The ancient text of Sifrei Devarim offers a powerful image of finding something precious in just such a place. It starts with the verse, "He found them in a desert land" (Deuterono...
Our tradition sees it as something.. elevated. Literally. Deuteronomy, or Devarim, 32:13 tells us that God "made him ride on the high places of the earth." And the Sifrei Devarim, ...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Yeshurun Grew Fat and Kicked Against God's Blessings. Is that abundance always a blessing? The text doesn't seem so sure. It goes on to quote (Deuteronomy 3...
It talks about being "mezei with hunger and embattled by reshef." What does that even mean? The text interprets "mezei with hunger" as being so desperately hungry that you’re pract...
It's about planting the seeds of wisdom deep within their hearts. In Sifrei Devarim, when it says Moses "spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people," it’s not just ...
It’s a bit like detective work, piecing together clues across the vast landscape of the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. the story turns to one intriguing example from Sifrei Devarim, a c...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Miriam's Well and the True Meaning of Tzedakah. The Sifrei Devarim, a legal midrash on the Book of Deuteronomy, offers a fascinating perspective. It asks, "...
They tell us of Moses' death. But… wait a minute. How could Moses himself have written about his own demise? It's a question that's puzzled Jewish scholars for centuries. The Sifre...
It’s something the Sages of the Talmud were keenly aware of, and it pops up in the most unexpected places. Take the very end of Moses’ life. "And Moses was one hundred and twenty y...
When Israel went out of Egypt, Moses said ‘God your God has been with you these past forty years: you have lacked nothing’ (Deuteronomy 2:7); and when Israel went out of Jerusalem,...
[It is written] (Ps. 66:1) A prayer of David, preserve my soul, for I am pious. R. Levi and R. Isaac both explain this passage. One said : "Thus said David before the Holy One, pra...
Hananya, the nephew of Rabbi Joshua, was a respected scholar living in Babylon. And one day he made a decision that nearly split the Jewish world in two. He decided to set the cale...
The Prophet Elijah, who never died but was taken up to Heaven in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11), was known to appear to the righteous in moments of great need. One such visit was...
When Alexander of Macedon marched east, the Samaritans, called in the Talmud the Kutim, saw a political opening. They sent word to Alexander asking him to destroy the Temple in Jer...
There is a moment in Chullin 90b where Rava calls out his fellow rabbi for exaggeration. The Mishnah had just described the heap of ashes that accumulated on the Temple altar, some...
The Midrash preserves a legend that the Tanakh only whispers at. When Isaac died, his two sons came to bury him. "His sons Esau and Jacob buried him" (Genesis 35:29), the written T...
Rabbi Yochanan was teaching his students on the verse, “I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles” (Isaiah 54:12). He said, “The Holy One, bl...
The Torah's "a mist went up from the earth" becomes, in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 2:6), something far grander. "A cloud of glory descended from the throne of glory, and wa...
