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How will God judge the dead? The body will claim innocence—it is just dirt without a soul. The soul will claim innocence—it is pure spirit without a body. Neither sinned alone. Acc...
The Hebrew Bible says Moses, Aaron, Nadav, Avihu, and seventy elders "saw the God of Israel" (Exodus 24:10). This is an extraordinary claim—direct visual perception of the divine. ...
"A little that the righteous have is better than the abundance of many wicked" (Psalm 37:16). The rabbis of Aggadat Bereshit loved this verse because it turned ordinary logic on it...
After the conquest of Canaan, God deliberately left certain nations in the land — not because He couldn't remove them, but to test Israel (Judges 3:1-2). The rabbis found this prac...
"In all their affliction, He was not afflicted" (Isaiah 63:9). The midrash reads this as conditional: if Israel does the will of God in their troubles, then He is afflicted with th...
"And the El Shaddai grant you mercy" (Genesis 43:14). Jacob is sending Benjamin to Egypt — his youngest, his only remaining connection to Rachel, the son he can least afford to los...
“Those close to him” (Esther 1:14) – they brought the calamity close to themselves. “Karshena” – who was appointed over the vetch3A plant used as animal feed. [karshinin]; “Shetar”...
“Was [haya] [a Judean man in the Shushan citadel]….” Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Everyone about whom “haya” is stated, it is he at the beginning and it is he at the end.9 He was righteous ...
Rabbi Levi said: Accursed are the wicked who are engaged in evil counsel against Israel, and each one of them counsels in his way and says: ‘My counsel is better than your counsel....
Pharaoh has decreed that all Hebrew baby boys must be killed. What's a mother to do? As Legends of the Jews (Ginzberg) tells us, she takes matters into her own hands. She builds an...
Even Moses, arguably the most important prophet in Judaism, tried to avoid his divine calling. And, as the Legends of the Jews (Ginzberg) tells us, he paid a price for that relucta...
The story of Moses gives us a profound glimpse into that very question. We all know Moses as Moshe Rabbenu, "Moses our Teacher," the one who led the Israelites out of Egypt and rec...
And Jewish tradition, with its rich tapestry of stories, doesn't shy away from tackling it head-on. Take the story of Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, the High Priest. We encounter ...
There's a fascinating little story tucked away in Legends of the Jews that gives us a glimpse into the lives of two lesser-known prophets, Eldad and Medad. Now, these weren't just ...
Today, we’re going to peek behind the curtain a bit, focusing on a fascinating, and rather human, episode involving Moses, his wife Zipporah, and his siblings, Miriam and Aaron. Th...
Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses. The Hebrew Bible is vague about why. The Targum Jonathan fills in the backstory with a Cushite queen, a celibate prophet, and a divine rebuke tha...
God told Moses that the time had come for Aaron to leave this world. Moses prayed all night, agonizing: "How can I tell my brother his life is ending?" God answered with a promise—...
We all know the story: Pharaoh, threatened by the growing Israelite population in Egypt, decides to enslave them. But how did he start? It wasn't just snapping his fingers and orde...
Ginzberg, in his masterful Legends of the Jews, paints a vivid picture of this pivotal moment. Moses, witnessing an Egyptian taskmaster brutally beating a Hebrew slave, was faced w...
We often imagine this grand spectacle, a booming voice from the heavens. But the traditional texts offer a much more intimate, nuanced picture of that pivotal moment. Imagine the s...
Overwhelming. Now, imagine that sibling returns not just as family, but as a leader, a figure of immense importance. How would you react? That's the scene we find ourselves in as A...
He'd come to stay with Moses for over a year! But here's a little wrinkle in the story: for the first few months, Jethro didn't really see Moses in action as a judge. Why? Because,...
And his father-in-law, JETHRO, saw it happening right before his eyes. The story goes that Moses, after the Exodus, was single-handedly acting as judge for the entire Israelite nat...
After the Exodus, leading the Israelites wasn't just about miracles and divine guidance. It was about… people. And as any leader knows, people can be complicated. We read in Legend...
The Talmud, in Tractate Chullin 60b, quotes God as saying, "Dead things come before Me and leave Me imbued with life." Powerful. But what does it really mean? The Sages, in their i...
More than just coverings. They can signify status, profession, even our mood. Now imagine that, amplified a thousandfold, imbued with divine purpose. That’s the story of the garmen...
It wasn't just a quick anointing, you see. It was an entire week of living in the shadow of the Tabernacle, a period of seclusion from the everyday world, a real immersion into hol...
You might assume that after all that hard work, the position was practically his. But that's not quite how it worked. God, in a moment filled with divine intention, says to Moses, ...
According to Ginzberg’s retelling in Legends of the Jews, when Moses approached Aaron with the news that God wanted him to be the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest, Aaron wasn't exactly...
His sons, Nadav and Avihu, have died. The Torah tells us they offered "strange fire" before the Lord (Leviticus 10:1-2) and were consumed. Can you picture the anguish? The disbelie...
Take, for instance, the story of Aaron, Moses, and Aaron’s surviving sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, after the tragic deaths of Nadab and Abihu. Remember Nadab and Abihu? They were cons...
Today, let's talk about Aaron, the High Priest, brother of Moses. We find ourselves at a somber moment: Aaron has just lost his two sons. A devastating blow. But something remarkab...
His sons, in a moment of unauthorized zeal, offered "alien fire" before the Lord and were consumed. A devastating blow. How could joy ever return? Yet, according to Legends of the ...
That was life for some of the Israelites in the desert, and let me tell you, their patience was wearing thin. The story comes to us from Ginzberg's classic Legends of the Jews, a c...
It happened to Moses, even after forty years of leading the Israelites through the wilderness. And the consequences, according to tradition, were profound. For four decades, Moses,...
That’s the situation Moses found himself in after Miriam’s well vanished. According to Legends of the Jews, as retold by Louis Ginzberg, the miraculous well that had sustained the ...
It’s a question that echoes through the ages, especially when we consider the deaths of Moses and Aaron, figures of immense stature in Jewish tradition. Jewish lore paints a pictur...
The Legends of the Jews, that incredible collection of stories and expansions on the biblical narrative compiled by Louis Ginzberg, recounts just such a moment. We find Moses facin...
The story isn't quite so simple. According to the Legends of the Jews, as retold by Ginzberg, Aaron, eager to begin his sacred duties, headed straight for the Tabernacle. But Moses...
That’s the impossible situation Moses found himself in, according to Legends of the Jews. But how do you even begin that conversation? How do you break such devastating news to som...
The Torah tells us Aaron died on Mount Hor (Numbers 20:22-29), but the how of it, well, that's where the legends fill in the gaps, adding layers of human emotion to a divine decree...
The Torah tells us of Aaron's death atop Mount Hor (Numbers 20:22-29), but it leaves out some fascinating details that our tradition fills in. Specifically, what happened when Mose...
It's a story of justice, regret, and ultimately, a final act of redemption for Moses. Remember Balaam, the non-Jewish prophet hired to curse Israel, who instead ended up blessing t...
Specifically, think about the Midianites and the Moabites. Both were thorns in the side of Israel, but according to tradition, the command to wage war against them came at the same...
And it’s certainly on display as we approach the end of Moses' life in the book of Numbers. The story goes that God tells Moses he’s going to die soon, specifically after avenging ...
The story goes that Moses, knowing his time was drawing near, faced a weighty decision. God commanded him to wage war against the Midianites. But Moses, ever the insightful leader,...
And it all starts with a burning bush. iconic image: Moses, tending his flock, when suddenly...WHOOSH! A bush bursts into flames, yet somehow remains untouched. Intrigued, he appro...
The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, that mystical, poetic expansion of the Zohar, paints a picture of just that scene, a constant stream of souls seeking entry, seeking voice. I...
