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The Torah says the Levites have no land inheritance. Targum Jonathan goes further, specifying exactly what they receive instead—twenty-four gifts of the priesthood. That number doe...
The blessings of (Deuteronomy 28) receive domestic detail. Being blessed "when you go out" becomes "blessed shall you be in your coming in to your houses of instruction, and blesse...
"So the Egyptians enslaved the children of Israel with back breaking labor [b'farech]" (Ex. 1:13). R. Elazar says, "B'pe rach—with a soft mouth." R. Shmuel says, "B'frichah—With ri...
“Take the staff…” (Bamidbar 20:8) This is what the scripture says “The staff of your might the Lord will send from Zion…” (Psalms 110:2) This is the staff which was in the hand of ...
It was said before Abraham was born. Nimrod was a heretic concerning the truth of the lord blessed be he. He was conceited and he said that he himself was a God. And the people of ...
(1) ROSH HASHANAH (Fol. 2b) "When Aaron died, Sichon was still living (Fol. 3), as it is written (Num. 21, 1) And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, heard. What did he hear? He heard...
Ten kings ruled over the whole world:—God, Nimrod, Joseph, Solomon, Ahab, Nebuchadnezzar, Koresh (Ahas- uerus ruled over half). Alexander of Macedonia not only ruled over the whole...
Nimrod declared himself a god to be worshipped. He made a round tower of stone planted in the midst of the earth, and placed a throne of cedar on the stone, and upon this one of ir...
Miriam and her seven sons died as martyrs for their holy faith. Each of her sons refused to worship idols quoting the appropriate passages from the Bible. When the last boy was cal...
After the death of Moses, an emperor — some say it was a Roman ruler centuries later — heard rumors that the greatest prophet who ever lived was buried somewhere on Mount Nebo. He ...
Two men came to pray before Rabbi Eliezer. One prayed at enormous length — pouring out his heart in elaborate, detailed petitions that stretched on and on. The other prayed briefly...
Miriam [Hannah) & Her Seven Sons Martyr*. II Bk. Maccabees, ch. VII. IV Bk. Maccabees ch. VIII, ff. Ketubot, f. 64. J. Ketubot, V, II. Gittin, f. 56 b. Pesik. R. Rabati,XLIII. Tana...
Merodach-Baladan, the king of Babylon, once experienced something that shook his understanding of the natural order. The Talmud records that he noticed the sun behaving strangely —...
Two men came before Rabbi Eliezer to pray. One prayed at great length, pouring out his heart in elaborate, detailed petitions that went on and on. The other prayed briefly — a few ...
It wasn't a random free-for-all. The Book of Numbers gives us a fascinating glimpse into a highly structured encampment around the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. And Bamidbar Rabbah, a c...
They're not mistakes. They're breadcrumbs, little hints that something deeper is going on beneath the surface of the text. And they invite us to pause, to question, to delve into t...
Take the census of the Levites in the Book of Numbers, for example. It might seem like a simple headcount, but Bamidbar Rabbah 6 teases out layers of meaning, revealing fascinating...
The verse in question, (Numbers 6:15), describes the offerings brought by a Nazirite upon completing their term: “And a basket of unleavened bread, loaves of high quality flour mix...
In Bamidbar Rabbah – that’s a collection of rabbinic teachings connected to the Book of Numbers – there's a fascinating passage about how God commanded Moses to gather seventy men....
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...
Our stories are woven into our lineage, and sometimes, those threads get tangled. to a fascinating passage from Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of N...
The story of Bilam gives us a fascinating glimpse. We find ourselves in the Book of Numbers, Bamidbar in Hebrew. The Israelites are on the move, and their growing presence is makin...
In Bamidbar Rabbah (Numbers Rabbah) 21, we encounter a fascinating tension. God commands the Israelites to "Assail the Midianites." Seems pretty straightforward. But then, the text...
The Torah tells us, "When you besiege a city…you shall not destroy its trees" (Deuteronomy 20:19). Seems pretty straightforward. Protect the environment, even in wartime. But then ...
to one such verse, found in (Numbers 31:4), which speaks of sending soldiers to battle against Midian: "One thousand from each and every tribe [elef lamateh elef lamateh], from all...
The verse in (Psalm 77:21) says, "You led [naḥita] Your people like a flock in the hands of Moses and Aaron." The rabbis, in their insightful way, saw more than just a simple state...
Turns out, even the story of the Garden of Eden, that pivotal moment of eating the forbidden fruit, offers a lesson in precedence. Rabbi Ḥiyya, a sage from long ago, taught a fasci...
to a fascinating little exploration from Bereshit Rabbah 23, where they unpack the Hebrew word huḥal (הוחל), meaning "then commenced." The discussion kicks off with Rabbi Simon, wh...
The Torah gives us glimpses, but it's in the rabbinic stories, the aggadah (non-legal rabbinic narrative), that we really get a sense of the spiritual climate. One story, found in ...
"Know with certainty that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will be enslaved to them and they will oppress them, four hundred years.” That's...
The Torah tells us, "Jacob took for himself rods of fresh poplar, and almond, and plane; he peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white that was in the rods” (Genesis 30:37). ...
Jacob, our patriarch, certainly did. In (Genesis 32:11), after years of wandering and working, facing down tricksters and building a family, Jacob cries out, "I am unworthy of all ...
It's often through layers of interpretation, connecting seemingly unrelated verses to reveal deeper truths. Let's look at a fascinating example from Bereshit Rabbah, a collection o...
We're looking at Bereshit Rabbah 87, a section of the great Midrash, which is a collection of rabbinic commentaries on the Book of Genesis. The verse that sparked this particular d...
The story begins with Moses, our great leader, ascending to the heavens. Imagine the scene: clouds parting, a divine ladder stretching upwards, and Moses, step by step, approaching...
That’s the feeling Rabbi Shmuel bar Rav Naḥman evokes in his teaching on the verse, "Rather the matter is very near to you" (Deuteronomy 30:14). It's a beautiful passage about the ...
It seems Kohelet Rabbah, the collection of rabbinic commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes, thought so too. It uses that very image – "Dead flies spoil and froth a perfumer's oil" ...
Take the story of atonement after the sin of the Golden Calf. It all starts with an offering. But what kind of offering? The verse in Exodus tells us to "Take one young bull." But ...
Rabbi Yitzchak, in Shir HaShirim Rabbah 6, offers a fascinating, if unsettling, interpretation of the events following the plague that killed twenty-four thousand Israelites. This ...
The Rabbis certainly did. one fascinating interpretation from Vayikra Rabbah, specifically Vayikra Rabbah 4, that unlocks layers of meaning in King David's timeless words. Rabbi Yo...
Our sages explore this very idea in Vayikra Rabbah 26, drawing out fascinating contrasts between human promises and divine pronouncements. The passage opens with a verse from Levit...
Vayikra Rabbah 26, a section of the Midrash Rabbah on Leviticus, invites us to do just that. It starts with the familiar verse, "The Lord said to Moses: Speak to the priests, sons ...
Specifically, Vayikra Rabbah 26. It all starts with a simple phrase: "Speak to the priests." But as is so often the case in Jewish tradition, there's a whole universe packed into t...
It’s not just filler! According to the sages, these repetitions are clues, little breadcrumbs that lead us to deeper meanings. Vayikra Rabbah, a Midrash on the book of Leviticus, d...
Yes, you read that right. A cattle prod. Believe it or not, the ancient rabbis found deep spiritual meaning even in the mundane tools of everyday life. In Vayikra Rabbah, a collect...
Vayikra Rabbah, a fascinating collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Leviticus, gives us a glimpse into that idyllic vision. Specifically, it discusses the verse “I ...
There was an incident involving Miriam bat Baitus, whom Yehoshua ben Gamla betrothed [to him], and the king appointed him to be the High Priest.173He was appointed to this position...
“They heard that I sigh; there is no comforter for me; all my enemies heard of my misfortune, were glad because You acted. May You bring the day that You proclaimed, and they will ...
