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Numbers 11 tells the story of Israel complaining about food in the wilderness. The Targum Jonathan adds a graven image in the camp of Dan, a wind that nearly destroyed the world, a...
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 17) puts hard numbers on royal power. The Hebrew says the king shall not "multiply horses" or "multiply wives." But how many is too many? The Ta...
Targum Jonathan transforms the dry legal code of (Deuteronomy 19) into something visceral. Where the Torah simply warns that the blood avenger might overtake a fleeing killer, the ...
Where do dreams come from? The Talmud in Berakhot 55a offers a surprisingly psychological answer: from the dreamer's own mind. Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahmani taught in the name of Rabbi ...
The Talmud's dream encyclopedia in Berakhot 57b extends far beyond animals and actions. It maps the entire biblical library onto the landscape of sleep. Rabbi Yohanan taught that i...
The Talmud in Sanhedrin 97b presents a grand timeline for human history—and then admits no one truly knows when it ends. The Sages taught: the world is destined to exist for six th...
Where is the Messiah right now? According to Sanhedrin 98a, he is sitting at the gates of Rome among the lepers. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi asked Elijah the prophet: when will the Mes...
How long will the Messianic era last? The Talmud in Sanhedrin 99a records a staggering range of opinions—from forty years to eternity. Rabbi Eliezer said forty years, based on (Psa...
Four rabbis were walking away from the ruins of Jerusalem. When they reached Mount Scopus and saw the destroyed Temple, they tore their garments. When they arrived at the Temple Mo...
The Hebrew Bible records Balaam's first two oracles over Israel (Numbers 23), and both times, the pagan prophet finds himself unable to curse what God has blessed. Targum Onkelos t...
The Hebrew Bible says Balaam saw "a star shall come from Jacob, and a scepter shall arise from Israel" (Numbers 24:17). Targum Onkelos renders this as: "A king has gone forth from ...
The Hebrew Bible calls Moses "the man of God" (Deuteronomy 33:1). Targum Onkelos adds one word: "the prophet of God." Moses is not merely a man who belongs to God. He is a prophet—...
Our Rabbis taught: At the time that the anointed king comes, he [will] stand on the roof of the temple and announce to Israel and say "Humble ones! The time of your redemption has ...
But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back" (Ruth 1:8): Why did she send them back? In order not to be embarrassed by them. For so did we find that in Jerusalem there wer...
"It happened with King Jehoiachin, of whom it is written: 'Thus says the Lord, Write this man childless.' When he fell into the hands of the wicked Nebuchadnezzar, he was imprisone...
Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) Read-but-not-Written I) But [the children of] Benjamin would not yield (Judges 20:13). The word the children of is missing, for they did ...
(2) (Fol. 3b) R. Abahu said: "Cyrus was a worthy king, and therefore were his royal years counted in accordance with those of the kings of Israel [beginning with Nissan]." R. Josep...
(24) (Fol. 21b) It is written (Ps. 12, 7) The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver refined in the crucible of earth, purified seven times. Rab and Samuel both explain it. On...
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...
The wicked kingdom once decreed that the Jews should not keep the Sabbath, nor circumcise their children, nor keep the law of purification according to the Bible. Reuben the son of...
Story of the man who tried Hillel ’s patience by asking him irrelevant questions, in the hope of angering him and thereby vanning a wager of 400 zuzim. The first question was: “Why...
King Solomon wished to build a temple with unhewn stone, as he was not allowed to use iron, that being forbidden by law. So he tried to obtain Shamir which he was told was in the p...
The death and leave-taking of R. Eliezar the Great. He foretold to every one the manner of his death as well as the martyrdom of R. Akiba. He used the parable of the seas being ink...
A pious man was walking along the sea-shore near Haifa when doubt crept into his mind. He had heard the sages' teaching that the gates of the future Jerusalem would be made from si...
King Shapur of Persia once asked the sage Shmuel: "Tell me what I will see in my dream tonight." It was a test — could a Jewish sage truly predict what a foreign king would dream? ...
The Exempla of the Rabbis preserves a sprawling collection of tales about Solomon and the power of the divine Name. In these stories, Solomon commands demons, builds the Temple wit...
King David once asked God what good there was in gnats, spiders and fools. One day, fleeing from Saul, he hid in a cave and a spider quickly covered the opening with its web. Saul,...
King Solomon was asked what was the meaning of his saying, “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.” (Prov. 15, 17.) He said when he was ...
A king once entered a school where the master was sitting at the desk with a rod in his hand. The children prostrated themselve before the king but the master took no notice. The k...
At the court of a king there lived a Jew who was very handsome. The wife of the minister fell in love with him, but he refused her advances. After a time she gave birth to a boy an...
A king once determined to build a town and selected a site. The astrologers approved of the place on condition that a child be walled in alive, brought voluntarily by its mother. A...
The sages taught that ten kings have ruled — or will rule — over the entire world. The list reads like a history of power itself, stretching from the beginning of time to its end. ...
How should a person pray? The Talmud (Berakhot 30b) records a teaching that reshaped how Jews understood their daily standing before God. When you pray, the sages said, you are not...
When the Roman legions surrounded Jerusalem and cut off every supply route, the famine inside the walls became unspeakable. People chewed leather. They ate grass from between the s...
The most dramatic dispute in the history of Jewish law ended with a voice from heaven — and the sages overruled it. The Talmud (Bava Metzia 59b) records the famous argument between...
King Shapur of Persia once asked the sage Shmuel: "Tell me what I will see in my dream tonight." It was a test — could a Jewish sage truly predict what a foreign king would dream? ...
Rabbi Akiba shocked his companions by laughing at moments when any sane person would weep. The Talmud (Makkot 24a-b) records two instances of this extraordinary laughter, and both ...
King Solomon, the wisest of all kings, once taught a lesson about wealth and poverty using the simplest of demonstrations: two meals. The first meal was served in the house of a ri...
A king fell gravely ill, and none of his physicians could cure him. They tried every medicine, every herb, every treatment known to the medical science of the age. Nothing worked. ...
Joshua v. Levi & Prophet Elijah. Pesikta, f. 36 a. Nissim, f. 4 b. Maase Hashem, f. 41a to 43 a. Eliah Cohen, Meil Se- daka §439. Heilperin, Seder Hado- rot, s. v. Joshua b. Levi. ...
Solomon & Daughter of King of Ammon. Gittin, f. 68b. cf. Yalk. Hadash. • m Hirz, Emek Hamel ekh, f. 15. Jellinek, B. H. II, p. 86. Eisenstein, Oser, p. 530. Maase Buch No. 104. Ten...
Isaiah says God is "calling from the east a bird of prey, a man of my counsel from a distant land" (Isaiah 46:11). The rabbis identified that bird of prey as Abraham. He came from ...
"Until the day breathes and the shadows flee" (Song of Songs 2:17). Israel in exile asks: how long? The kingdoms that rule over them are the shadows — empire after empire, each cas...
But what if the Messianic role is actually a team effort? What if, as this radical idea from Deuteronomy Rabbah (3:17) suggests, the Messiah is actually two figures, coming togethe...
It's not just random geography. It's a lesson in humility and the power of inner space. The Book of Numbers, Bamidbar in Hebrew, opens with the famous line: "The Lord spoke to Mose...
Bamidbar Rabbah, the rabbinic commentary on the Book of Numbers, dives right into this question with a surprisingly poetic starting point. The verse we're looking at is "The Lord s...
And the king, instead of addressing the crowd, singles you out. He speaks directly to you. That, my friends, is the opening of Bamidbar Rabbah, the ancient midrash on the Book of N...
In Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Numbers, we find a fascinating discussion sparked by the verse "it will be that instead…" from (Hosea 2:1). Th...
