712 related texts · 8 related myths · Page 2 of 15
It wasn't exactly smooth sailing, let me tell you. According to Legends of the Jews, the moment was ripe with miracles, all designed to solidify Joshua's authority in the eyes of t...
The familiar story is this: – the Exodus, the wandering in the desert, and finally, the moment to claim their inheritance. But it wasn’t just a simple walk in the park. There were ...
Joshua inherited an impossible job, replace the greatest prophet in history and lead a nation of former slaves into enemy territory. According to Josephus, he did not hesitate for ...
The moment Joshua and Eleazar the high priest died, Israel began to unravel. Josephus does not soften this. The generation that had conquered Canaan gave way to one that could not ...
That yearning, that sense of awe.. it's ancient. And it's woven right into the fabric of Jewish tradition, even in the fringes we wear. I want to tell you a little bit about a myst...
The Mekhilta deepens the significance of Yithro's confession by pointing out that he was uniquely qualified to make it. "There was no idolatry in the world that Yithro did not come...
Sifrei Bamidbar treats tzitzit as more than decorative threads. The question is who is obligated to wear them, and why Rabbi Shimon exempts women from this time-bound commandment. ...
Why all this talk of "going up"? It's not just poetic license. The Sifrei Devarim, a collection of early rabbinic legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy, points to a fasc...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 14:5) turns a military roll call into a tour of the archaic world's titans. Kedarlaomer's coalition sweeps through the land and smites three peop...
The verse sets the scene: “They ascended and scouted the land from the wilderness of Tzin to Rehov, at the approach to Hamat” (Numbers 13:21). But, Bamidbar Rabbah asks, how exactl...
The Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Numbers, illuminates this very question. It tells us that the well, a miraculous source of water that accompa...
Ever read something in the Bible that just makes you stop and say, "Wait, what?" I get that feeling every time I stumble upon (Genesis 6:4): "The Nefilim were on the earth in those...
It all starts with a story, a tale of spies, tears, and a day destined for sorrow. Moses and Aaron, leaders of the Israelites, send spies to scout out the land of Canaan, the promi...
All sorts of momentous events piled up on a single day. This was the very day the Israelites crossed the Jordan River. Can you picture it? After forty years of wandering, they fina...
The Mekhilta continues cataloguing everything God showed Moses from Mount Pisgah. The question this time: how do we know that God showed him even the graves of the forefathers? The...
In Jewish tradition, Tisha B'Av, the Ninth of Av, is one of those days. It's a day of fasting and mourning, remembering immense loss and tragedy throughout our history. But where d...
How long will the Messianic era last? The Talmud in Sanhedrin 99a records a staggering range of opinions, from forty years to eternity. Rabbi Eliezer said forty years, based on (Ps...
The question of whether Moses wrote the last eight verses of the Torah, the ones describing his own death, provoked one of the most poignant debates in the Talmud. Bava Batra 15a p...
Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught that the root cause of exile is a lack of faith. And the cure for exile is the Land of Israel. The connection is not sentimental. It is structural. ...
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...
The Mekhilta raises a question that cuts to the heart of the Passover story: why did God command the Israelites to select the Passover lamb four full days before slaughtering it? W...
(Exodus 14:3) "And Pharaoh will say about the children of Israel: They are nevuchim in the land": "nevuchim" is "confounded," as in (Joel 1:18) "How the beasts groan! The herds of ...
R. Eliezer says: They journeyed by the word, for thus do we find in two or three places. What, then, is the intent of "And Moses made Israel journey?" He did so against their will,...
"and, behold, the glory of the L–rd appeared in the cloud": R. Yossi Haglili says: So long as Israel railed against Moses and Aaron, at once, "the glory of the L–rd appeared in the...
Amalek's attack on Israel was not a matter of geography or convenience. Rabbi Yehudah teaches that Amalek actually bypassed five other nations to reach the Israelites. He had to cr...
The rabbis of the Talmud were connoisseurs of soil. They compared regions by fertility the way others compare wines. The best land in the world, they said, is Egypt, for it is writ...
Chapter 7 of Jubilees dives right into the chaos following the emergence of the Nâphîlîm, those figures often translated as "giants" or "fallen ones." Think of them as the offsprin...
The Book of Giants is one of the most remarkable texts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. And it tells a story the Bible only hints at. In (Genesis 6:4), a single verse mentions the...
While the dream sequence in the Book of Giants gets most of the attention, the scroll also describes something the Watchers tradition in 1 Enoch only mentions in passing: the Nephi...
It was a full-blown reconnaissance mission with some fascinating, almost cloak-and-dagger instructions. sending spies into a new territory is serious business. According to Legends...
The journey itself, surprisingly, wasn't fraught with peril from the locals. The text explains that God smoothed their path. As soon as the spies, sent by Moses to scout the land, ...
There you are, wandering in the desert, sustained by food that literally falls from the sky. And yet…you grumble. You whine. You say, "Ugh, not manna again!" It sounds almost unbel...
The story goes that when God desired to create the world, He turned to Rahab, who was the angel or prince of the sea. God commanded Rahab to "Open your mouth and swallow all the wa...
Where did they get clothes? How did they stay clean? It's the kind of thing that keeps rabbis up at night, apparently. And it leads us to some pretty amazing stories in the Midrash...
R. Nathan, a sage of old, makes a powerful statement: "There is no mitzvah (commandment) in the Torah whose reward is not 'at its side.'" In other words, the benefit of doing good ...
R. JOSHUA SAID: THE EVIL EYE, THE EVIL INCLINATION, AND THE HATRED OF MANKIND DRIVE A MAN OUT OF THE WORLD.THE EVIL EYE. What does this mean? It teaches that as a man regards his o...
Korah did not just challenge Moses. According to the Targum Jonathan, he manufactured a theological argument using the very fabric of his clothing, hid treasure he had looted from ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 14:3) drops two shocking names into the Egyptian court. Pharaoh needs intelligence on the escaping Hebrews. Who gives it to him? Dathan and Ab...
The familiar story centers on the spies. The Israelites, poised to enter the Promised Land, get cold feet. "Let's send some scouts ahead," they suggest to Moses. But what was reall...
Sometimes, it really was – especially when it came to dividing the land of Israel among the tribes. But this wasn't just some random drawing. Oh no, this involved divine interventi...
(Genesis 6:4) mentions the Nefilim. That word, Nefilim, generally understood to mean “giants.” But who were they, really? And where did they come from? The Torah just kind of drops...
Ben Sira turns to Joshua Raised His Javelin Against the City. Ben Sira, in his wisdom, certainly did. He paints a picture of Joshua in chapter 46 that's nothing short of awe-inspir...
It's considered by many to be part of the Apocrypha, a collection of writings of uncertain origin, that elaborates on stories from the Bible and fills in gaps. And Chapter 73 is wh...
The Sefer haYashar, or Book of Jasher, a collection of Jewish legends and lore, gives us a glimpse. Chapter 87 opens with a divine instruction. "At that time the Lord said to Moses...
The story continues, of course! And Chapter 88 of the Book of Jasher to see what happened as the Israelites finally entered the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua. The Bo...
In Chapter 89, we find just such a song, bursting with praise and recounting God's powerful deliverance. "Then spoke Joshua this song," the text begins, "on the day that the Lord h...
Jacob, nearing the end of his life, blessed his grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh. But within those blessings, the ancient texts whisper, lay prophecies veiled in symbolism. " It’s f...
Can I really do this?" It's a universal struggle, and even Joshua, the future leader of Israel, felt it. Our story unfolds just after the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea, with t...
