3,813 related texts · Page 52 of 80
Herod tore down the Second Temple and rebuilt it from scratch. Not because it was falling apart. Because it wasn't grand enough for him. According to Josephus in Antiquities XV, He...
Herod sent his sons to Rome for an education. They came home polished, handsome, and walking straight into the deadliest family feud in Jewish royal history. Alexander and Aristobu...
Herod strangled his own sons. Both of them. On the same day. At Sebaste, the city where he had married their mother Mariamne twenty years earlier. According to Josephus in Antiquit...
Two Torah scholars convinced their students to tear a golden eagle off the Temple gate in broad daylight. Herod burned them alive for it. According to Josephus in Antiquities XVII,...
Herod died the way he lived: in agony, surrounded by plots, and trying to control what happened after he was gone. His body was rotting while he was still inside it. According to J...
The moment Herod was dead, the nation exploded. Three separate revolts broke out across the country before his sons could even settle who inherited what. According to Josephus in A...
And what they've imagined is According to tradition, within Paradise – also known as Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden, paradise) – lie not just one, but six palaces, each a home for th...
The holiday of Sukkot, as we know, is based on the biblical verse, "You shall live in booths seven days" (Leviticus 23:42). We build these temporary dwellings, the sukkot (plural o...
But according to one of the most influential Kabbalists of the 20th century, Baal HaSulam, that's precisely the role of the Zohar. Now, you might be asking, "What exactly is the Zo...
Jewish mysticism, particularly in the Kabbalistic tradition, has a fascinating way of describing just that kind of spiritual elevation. We're going to dive into a concept that migh...
The Kabbalah, with its intricate maps of the spiritual realms, offers a fascinating parallel. Today, we're diving into a specific concept from the Sulam Commentary, exploring how s...
We're diving into the world of Klipot, Partzuf (a divine configuration)im, and Sefirot (the divine emanations), concepts found in the teachings of the Ramchal (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Lu...
We're going to be looking at a passage from Da'at (Knowledge) Tevunot, a work that explores profound questions about creation, the soul, and our purpose in the world. The text we'r...
The text emphasizes that knowing God's singularity – His absolute oneness – isn't enough. It can't just be a mental exercise. It has to sink deep, becoming a bedrock of our being, ...
Well, in Da'at (Knowledge) Tevunot, a profound exploration of Jewish thought, we delve into precisely that. And it all starts with understanding the existence of humankind itself, ...
Jewish mystical tradition grapples with this very feeling. It speaks of an "Encompassing Light" – a concept that can be both beautiful and a little intimidating. So, what exactly i...
We often talk about the Sefirot, the ten emanations through which God reveals Himself and creates the world. Think of them as divine attributes, stages in a process. But here’s the...
"And the earth was desolate and void" (Genesis 1:2). But how did it get that way? And what happened next? It's a question that goes deep into the heart of Jewish mystical thought. ...
The Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah, a Kabbalistic text whose title means "Hall of Forty-Nine Gates of Wisdom", grapples with this very question, particularly as it relates to the vessels ...
According to Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah (Wisdom), various kinds of radiations emerge from Zeir Anpin. And these radiations aren't just vague, undefined energies. They manifest in spec...
The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a later expansion of the Zohar, is a cornerstone of Kabbalistic thought, offering intricate interpretations of scripture and the mysteries of...
Moses certainly did. The Torah tells us, in (Exodus 2:12), that Moses "turned this way and that, and he saw that there was no man..." Now, the Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a ...
Yeah, you heard me right. Tears. The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah and a companion to the Zohar, tells us that the only gate that’s always open is t...
The passage begins with "Be-REiShYT" – "In the beginning." This isn't just a starting point; it's described as "an Utterance which is the first of all, comprised of all 'ten saying...
We tend to think of it as a straightforward statement about time, about creation. But what if it’s also a secret code, pointing us towards something much deeper about the nature of...
The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a companion volume to the Zohar itself, speaks of just such a situation. It paints a vivid picture of prophecy, not as some distant, unattain...
It's more than just a cool visual; it's packed with layers of meaning. The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah, delves deep into these mysteries, and Tikk...
There's a fascinating passage in Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar 87 that offers a really intriguing perspective. It suggests that this very struggle, this intellectual and spirit...
to a fascinating passage from Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar 291 and see what secrets we can unlock. The passage begins with a seemingly simple phrase: "Your neck." But in the m...
Before Aaron was chosen for the priesthood, every member of Israel was eligible to serve as a priest. The entire nation stood on equal footing when it came to approaching God throu...
Rabbi Yoshiyah raised a question that touches the very structure of the Jewish calendar: who has the authority to add an extra month to the year? The Hebrew calendar is lunar, and ...
The prophet Joel declared, "And all who call in the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Joel 3:5), a sweeping promise of deliverance for anyone who invokes God's name. But the Mekhil...
To teach us that as one metes it out to others, so is it meted out to him. Miriam waited a short time for Moses, viz. (Ibid. 2:4) "And his sister stood from afar to know what would...
And the children of Israel journeyed from Ramses to Succoth, and from Succoth to Eitam, and from Eitam to Pi Hachiroth. On the fifth day (of the week) they journeyed from Egypt, an...
Variantly: "and shalishim": Three (Egyptians) against every one (Israelite). Others say: three hundred against one. And how did Pharaoh know how many Israelites died in the three d...
R. Yossi Haglili says: When Israel entered the sea, Mount Moriah was uprooted from its place, with the altar of Israel built upon it, and its woodpile upon it, and Isaac bound upon...
Variantly: Who is like You ("ba'eilim") among those who call themselves gods? Pharaoh called himself a god, viz. (Ezekiel 29:3) "Mine is my river (the Nile), and I have made it." A...
And thus we find that they went back (the distance of) three journeys (at Moses' behest), viz. (Numbers 33:8-10) "And they journeyed from Pi Hachiroth … And they journeyed from Mar...
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,...
The Mekhilta takes a detour from the Exodus narrative to establish a principle about prayer: the prayers of the righteous are short. Not flowery. Not elaborate. Short. The proof co...
The Mekhilta immediately balances its teaching about short prayers with a counter-example. On another occasion, a disciple led the prayer service before Rabbi Elazar and was extrem...
When the Israelites ran out of food in the desert, they did not handle it well. (Exodus 16:2) records that "the entire congregation of the children of Israel caviled against Moses ...
Moses and Aaron delivered a pointed warning to the Israelites who kept complaining about their food in the wilderness. The manna had been given with a "radiant countenance" because...
"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...
Ten miraculous objects were created in the final moments before the first Shabbat (the Sabbath), squeezed into existence during the twilight of the sixth day of Creation. The Mekhi...
Rabbi Eliezer Hamodai calculated exactly how long the manna lasted after the death of Moses: seventy days. Not a rough estimate — a precise count, worked out from the calendar itse...
When Amalek attacked the Israelites at Rephidim—the first nation to wage war against the newly freed slaves—Moses turned to his student Joshua with a command (Exodus 17:9): "Choose...
The Mekhilta decodes every word of Moses' declaration before the battle with Amalek. "The top of the hill" is not just a geographic feature — it is a spiritual map. "Top" represent...
