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The Torah records a transformation at the Red Sea: "And the people feared the Lord" (Exodus 14:31). The Mekhilta notes the significance of the word "feared." In the past, the Israe...
He devoted his life to the judges, and they were called by his name, viz. (Devarim 16:18) "Judges and officers shall you appoint for yourself in all of your gates." Now is justice ...
The Mekhilta interprets the phrase "For He is high on high" (Exodus 15:1) as describing a relationship of mutual exaltation between God and Israel. The doubling in the Hebrew — ga'...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael presents a teaching that parallels and extends the previous one about divine wrath, now turning to the subject of divine warfare. The principle is the...
On the sixth day of the week, something unprecedented happened with the manna. (Exodus 16:22) records that the Israelites gathered a double portion, two omers instead of the usual ...
(Exodus 16:26) "Six days shall you gather it, etc.": We are hereby apprised that the manna does not descend on Sabbath. Whence do we derive (the same for) a festival? From (the sup...
Issi b. Yehudah says: There are five ambiguous verses in the Torah: "se'eth," "arur," "machar," "meshukadim," and "vekam.": "se'eth"—(Genesis 4:7) "If you do well, you will be forg...
(Exodus 18:4) "and the name of the second, 'Eliezer,' for (Moses said: 'The G–d of (Elokei) my father was my help (ezri), and He saved me from the 'sword of Pharaoh.'" R. Yehoshua ...
(Ibid. 4) "You shall not make for yourself an idol (lit., "a carving")": I might think that he may not make one that projects but he may make one that is flat. It is, therefore, wr...
(Exodus 23:14) commands: "Three festivals shall you celebrate for Me in the year." The Mekhilta asks why this verse is needed when (Exodus 23:17) already says "Three times shall ev...
(Exodus 23:19) prohibits: "You shall not cook a kid in its mother's milk." Rabbi Shimon asked why this prohibition is stated three times in the Torah — here, in (Exodus 34:26), and...
Rabbi Yonathan asked: what is the purpose of specifying "You shall not light a fire" when the Torah already prohibits all labor on the Sabbath? If all thirty-nine categories of lab...
The Hebrew Bible says the people told Aaron: "Make us gods that will lead us, for this Moses, we do not know what happened to him" (Exodus 32:1). Targum Onkelos translates this wit...
A psalm of Asaph opens this section of Aggadat Bereshit: "God has made Himself known in Judah; His name is great in Israel" (Psalm 76:2). And immediately the rabbis add the verse f...
“Let all their wickedness come before You, and do to them as You did to me for all my transgressions, for my sighs are many and my heart is suffering” (Lamentations 1:22).“Let all ...
“And did not remember His footstool [hadom raglav],” Rabbi Ḥanina bar Yitzḥak said: The Holy One blessed be He does not remember that blood [hadam] that was between the legs of the...
“Esther summoned Hatakh, one of the king’s chamberlains whom he had set before her, and commanded him to go to Mordekhai to know what this is and why this is” (Esther 4:5).“Esther ...
The Book of Jasher, an ancient Hebrew text referenced in the Bible itself (Joshua 10:13 and (2 Samuel 1:1)8), fills in some of those gaps. It's like a behind-the-scenes look at the...
Take Moses, for example. We know him as the liberator, the lawgiver, the one who spoke to God face to face. But what about Moses the baby? What was his story? According to Legends ...
We all know the story of Moses, the plagues, and the Exodus. But what seeds of mistrust were sown long before the mitzrayim, the Egyptians, enslaved the Israelites? According to Gi...
It’s a scene ripe with drama, intrigue, and conflicting advice. The story begins, as many of the best stories do, with a betrayal. Jethro, also known as Reuel—later to become Moses...
Maybe you're facing a challenge that seems insurmountable, a situation where you feel utterly trapped. Well, let me tell you a story about a literal pit and how someone climbed out...
According to Legends of the Jews, Jethro, Zipporah's father, gave Moses considerable wealth and his daughter's hand in marriage. But there was a condition. Jethro, a Midianite prie...
Like the universe is asking you to do something impossibly huge, and all you can think is, "Who, me?" That's precisely where Moses found himself. Imagine the scene: Moses, tending ...
Pharaoh, puffed up with his own power, demanded proof. "Who will believe you," he sneered, "when you claim to be God's ambassadors, if you can't even perform wonders that convince ...
It's not just about suffering, is it? It's about a clash of wills, a battle of divine power, and ultimately, liberation. But have you ever stopped to consider the why behind how th...
The Egyptian princess who raised Moses had to make him swear an oath before handing him over to the king. That is how little she trusted her own father's court—the same court whose...
We're talking about Moses. The story begins with his birth. Rabbi Simeon tells us he was called Ṭob, "good," because, as (Exodus 2:2) says, "when she saw him, that he was good." A ...
It wasn't just about Pharaoh's decree to throw baby boys into the Nile. It was also about something seemingly mundane: bricks. to a fascinating interpretation from the Yalkut Shimo...
Take reading from the Torah, for example. The verse we're looking at is from (Deuteronomy 29:2): "Moses summoned all Israel, and he said to them: You have seen everything that the ...
Specifically, we're diving into Shemot Rabbah 1, which offers a fascinating take on (Exodus 1:21): "It was because the midwives feared God, He made houses for them.” But what exact...
"A man from the house of Levi went and he took a daughter of Levi" (Exodus 2:1). Simple enough. But the Rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), in Shemot Rabbah, ...
A seemingly insignificant phrase can carry immense weight, altering the course of destiny. to a curious observation from Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on ...
We all know the story, but Shemot Rabbah, a classic collection of midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)im – interpretations and expansions – on the Book of Exodus, offers a fa...
That feeling... well, it's not new. It echoes all the way back to ancient Egypt, to the very dawn of the Israelite nation. We find ourselves in the book of Exodus, Shemot in Hebrew...
It wasn't just random chaos, you know. There's a deeply considered, almost… merciful… method to the madness. The Book of Exodus (7:16-17) sets the stage: "You shall say to him: The...
In the Book of Exodus, we read, "The Lord said to Moses: Say to Aaron: Extend your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals, and over the pools, and cause frogs to asc...
It all revolves around Yitro, Moses' father-in-law. The verse we're looking at is “Yitro…heard” (Exodus 18:1), which is the start of the portion where Yitro comes to visit Moses in...
Chapter 76 opens with Moses reigning as king in Cush, apparently thriving and ruling with justice for forty years! According to Jasher, "all the children of Cush loved Moses… and a...
The Israelites, despite all their hardships, weren't just surviving; they were thriving. The text tells us they were multiplying so rapidly that the land was "full of them as with ...
To his right sits Queen Alfar'anit, and to his left, his daughter Bithiah. But it's not just family; Balaam, yes that Balaam, son of Beor, the one known for his… unique prophetic a...
We often think of it as a commandment straight from Mount Sinai, a divine decree etched in stone. And it is. But the story, as it often does in Jewish tradition, has layers and nua...
We've been talking about Moses and his early life, drawing from the treasure trove of stories found in Louis Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews. And let me tell you, the drama just kee...
Moses, fresh from his encounter with the burning bush, is now tasked with the monumental job of leading the Israelites out of Egypt. He’s got a bit of an edge, maybe a little too m...
Sounds daunting. Now, imagine that you are convinced you’re not eloquent enough to pull it off. That’s precisely the situation Moses found himself in. As Ginzberg recounts in Legen...
It wasn’t just a random act of divine anger. According to Jewish tradition, there was a method to the madness, a specific reason why certain plagues were assigned to certain people...
Think of that friend who finally starts exercising after a doctor's warning, or the colleague who suddenly becomes a team player when their job is on the line. Well, Pharaoh, in th...
Darkness, locusts, boils… you name it, they got it. And now, finally, Pharaoh is ready to let the Israelites go. But it wasn't exactly a gracious departure. According to Ginzberg's...
