3,813 related texts · Page 8 of 80
The story of Pharaoh in the Bible isn't just about slavery; it's about a desperate attempt to control the very future, one newborn baby at a time. Imagine this: Pharaoh, gripped by...
We all know the big picture: slavery, plagues, the parting of the Red Sea. But what about the individual choices, the moral dilemmas, the moments of despair and resilience that sha...
We often hear about the heroic deeds of men in the Bible, but sometimes, the women – the mothers, sisters, and daughters – are the unsung heroes whose wisdom and courage shape the ...
Sometimes, leadership isn't about grand pronouncements, but about personal example. And that's exactly what we see in this story about Amram, the father of Moses. Things weren't ea...
to the story of Jochebed and Miriam, and the desperate measures they took to save the infant who would become Moses. Imagine the scene. Pharaoh’s decree hangs heavy in the air: all...
We know him as Moshe Rabbenu, "Moses our Teacher," the one who brought us the Torah. But did you know the story behind his name, the one given to him by Pharaoh's daughter? Accordi...
The ancient texts offer some fascinating glimpses. Imagine this: the young Moses, raised in Pharaoh's court, becomes a student. But not just any student. According to Legends of th...
to a fascinating moment in the life of Moses, a moment tinged with both humility and a hint of the miraculous. You remember Moses. The future leader, still on the run after that… i...
It's more than just a walking stick; it's a relic brimming with divine power and a lineage that stretches back to the very dawn of creation. According to legend, this extraordinary...
We pick up the tale after Moses has helped Zipporah and her sisters at the well, driving away the rowdy shepherds. After sharing the story of her father’s miraculous rod – yes, tha...
Here's Moses, destined to lead the Israelites out of slavery, to receive the Torah – the first five books of the Hebrew Bible – at Mount Sinai. Yet, according to tradition, he wasn...
According to Ginzberg's retelling in Legends of the Jews, that's exactly what happened. Moses arrives, ready to lead, and Dathan and Abiram, prominent Israelites, meet him with hos...
He wasn't born a leader, that's for sure. For forty long years, he was a shepherd for his father-in-law, Jethro. And let me tell you, he was a good one! Jethro had no complaints. A...
Moses certainly did. Imagine being chosen to lead an entire nation out of slavery! No wonder he had a few… questions. Moses, as we know from the Book of Exodus, wasn't exactly thri...
Your name is tied to your identity, your reputation. But what about God’s name? What does that tell us? The story goes that Moses, finally convinced he had to be the one to lead th...
A monumental task. You'd think Moses would be ecstatic, ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work. But no, Moses hesitates. He's not exactly thrilled about the prospect. He rais...
That's the image we get when we delve into the tales surrounding MOSES and his encounters with the heavenly host. According to Legends of the Jews, when MOSES was released by the a...
It's easy to think of them as just escalating horrors, but sometimes the sequence itself holds a clue. Let's look at the plague of the frogs, the second of the ten, and see what we...
Moses is pleading with Pharaoh to release the Israelites from slavery, and things are… not going well. Three plagues have already hit Egypt, each one worse than the last. You'd thi...
Pharaoh, after enduring plague after plague, is finally starting to buckle. He's ready to let the people go – men, women, children, the whole shebang! But, of course, there’s a cat...
You've got the Red Sea in front of you, Pharaoh's army closing in behind, and the unforgiving desert on either side. Talk about a rock and a hard place. Desperate doesn’t even begi...
Panic sets in. What do you do? This is the situation the Israelites found themselves in, fleeing slavery, with the seemingly endless Red Sea before them and Pharaoh's forces hot on...
The story begins with God convening His celestial court, His "family" of angels. He's about to make a case, and He wants their input. As we learn in Legends of the Jews, God addres...
Sometimes, it's not those who’ve lived with the miraculous all their lives, but rather a newcomer, a convert, who can see it most clearly. Our story begins with Jethro, the father-...
Sometimes, it’s about setting aside your own prestige, your own sense of self-importance, to serve. To truly see the other person’s needs. We find a beautiful example of this in th...
You’ve traveled with your son-in-law and the Israelites through the desert, witnessed miracles, and then… Moses sends you packing. Back home. Just before the biggest moment in Jewi...
Jewish tradition certainly does, and it pulls no punches when it comes to the consequences of careless or malicious speech – especially lashon hara (לשון הרע), evil speech. One of ...
We're diving into a moment of profound disillusionment and rebellion in the Israelite camp, right after the spies return from scouting the land of Canaan. The people, as Ginzberg r...
to a story from Legends of the Jews by Ginzberg that really brings this home. The Israelites, thirsty and weary, gathered around Moses, desperate for water. Moses, understandably, ...
That’s the kind of experience the Israelites faced after the death of Aaron, the High Priest, according to Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews. Imagine this: Moses and Eleazar return fr...
Even Moses, the great lawgiver, felt that sting. We often think of Moses as this towering figure, unflinching in his faith, boldly confronting Pharaoh and leading the Israelites th...
The mystical text Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a companion to the Zohar, delves into just that feeling, exploring how even Moses, the great lawgiver, experienced a disconnect...
The transmission narrative in Harba de-Moshe (the Sword of Moses) is one of the most elaborate chains of divine authority in all of Jewish literature. It traces a path from God to ...
(Exodus 14:26) "And the L–rd said to Moses: Stretch forth your hand over the sea": It will not stand against you and it will not deviate from your command. "and the waters will tur...
Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the Torah says "the sea returned towards morning to its eithano" (Exodus 14:27). That final word — eithano — becomes the subject of...
The Mekhilta notices something unusual about the verse "And Moses made Israel journey from the Red Sea" (Exodus 15:22). Rabbi Yehoshua points out that this particular journey was i...
(Exodus 16:28) "And the L–rd said to Moses: How long will you refuse to keep, etc.": R. Yehoshua says: The Holy One Blessed be He said to Moses: Moses, say to Israel: I took you ou...
Israel looked at the staff of Moses and saw only devastation. It had brought ten plagues upon the Egyptians in Egypt — blood, frogs, lice, and all the rest. Then it brought ten mor...
After Israel's victory over Amalek at Rephidim, Moses built an altar and gave it a striking name. The verse records: "And Moses built an altar and he called its name 'the L-rd is m...
(Exodus 18:13) "And it was on the morrow that Moses sat to judge the people.": on the morrow of Yom Kippur (after Moses had descended with the second tablets.) "from morning to eve...
(Exodus 19:10) "And the L–rd said to Moses: Go to the people and make them ready today"—the fourth day—"and tomorrow"—the fifth day. (Ibid. 11) "And have them be ready for the thir...
(Exodus 19:14) "And Moses went down from the mountain": We are hereby apprised that Moses did not turn to his affairs or go down to his house, but (directly) from the mountain to t...
"And Moses took out the people to meet God" (Exodus 19:17) — and Rabbi Yossi recalls how Rabbi Yehudah used to interpret the verse from (Deuteronomy 33:2): "And he said: The Lord c...
"Moses spoke and God answered him with a voice" (Exodus 19:19). Rabbi Eliezer asks: what does this verse actually tell us? The answer reveals something remarkable about how the Ten...
The Israelites stood at the edge of the sea, the Egyptian army bearing down behind them, and terror gripped the camp. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children, freshly lib...
(Exodus 21:20) specifies that the master strikes his bondservant "with a rod." The Mekhilta asks: does this mean the master is liable regardless of what kind of rod he used? Even a...
(Exodus 35:1) "And Moses assembled, etc." What is the intent of this section? From (Ibid. 25:8) "and they shall make for Me a sanctuary," I might think both on a weekday and on the...
God is calling to Moses from the burning bush. A pretty dramatic way to get someone's attention. And what's the message? "Go to Pharaoh and bring my people out of Egypt!" (Exodus 3...
