2,006 related texts · 10 related myths · Page 6 of 42
It was there, shrouded in mystery, that the Ark of the Covenant resided. And upon that Ark? The Cherubim. These weren't your chubby Renaissance cherubs. The Talmud describes them a...
When God instructed Moses to build the altar from shittim wood (that's acacia wood) and overlay it with brass, Moses had a very practical question. "Lord of the world," he asks, "Y...
It turns out, even the number of curtains held a profound significance. eleven curtains made of goats' hair. Why eleven? Well, according to tradition, it mirrors the eleven heavens...
Legends of the Jews turns to Israel's Wild Generosity After the Golden Calf Shame. The people went wild! The verse reads, "They were not content to bring things out of their houses...
The familiar telling remembers Moses, the leader, the lawgiver. But what about the unsung heroes, the ones whose eagerness and devotion actually brought the whole thing to life? We...
Everything was actually finished in the month of Kislev, that’s around November/December on our calendar. They were ready to go, eager to erect this physical manifestation of God's...
See, before the Mishkan was built, the world was apparently crawling with demons. Ginzberg, in Legends of the Jews, recounts how these spirits had free rein, wandering wherever the...
Take, for instance, the story of Aaron, Moses, and Aaron’s surviving sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, after the tragic deaths of Nadab and Abihu. Remember Nadab and Abihu? They were cons...
Legends of the Jews turns to Shabbat Before the Altar. The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) tells us something astonishing. The gifts weren't just similar; they were iden...
The laws surrounding leprosy, or tzara'at, were incredibly strict. While other forms of ritual impurity only kept people away from the sanctuary, those afflicted with leprosy were ...
Aaron, the High Priest, brother of Moses. We find ourselves at a somber moment: Aaron has just lost his two sons. A devastating blow. But something remarkable happens. Instead of r...
His sons, in a moment of unauthorized zeal, offered "alien fire" before the Lord and were consumed. A devastating blow. How could joy ever return? Yet, according to Legends of the ...
The Talmud tells us that the menorah was made of a single piece of gold. But how did Moses, blessed be he, actually make it? The story goes that when God commanded Moses to create ...
We all remember his story. The guy who challenged Moses’ leadership, leading a revolt that ended with the earth swallowing him and his followers whole (Numbers 16). But what happen...
The story isn't quite so simple. In Legends of the Jews, Aaron, eager to begin his sacred duties, headed straight for the Tabernacle. But Moses stopped him. "," Moses said "we have...
Moses, in his final blessings, had some pretty powerful things to say about the Levites. He specifically calls out Aaron, prince of the tribe, praising his unwavering service to th...
Legends of the Jews turns to David's War Gold Was Too Tainted to Build God's House. The answer, according to some traditions, isn't as straightforward as it first appears. It goes ...
It's an age-old problem, and one that the historian Josephus tackled head-on in his work, Against Apion. Josephus is responding to claims made by Apion, an Egyptian intellectual kn...
Jewish tradition recognizes this feeling, and even offers a powerful response: the idea of spreading a tabernacle of peace. Where does this idea come from? It appears in a seemingl...
Jewish mysticism offers some fascinating, and sometimes startling, perspectives on this very struggle. The passage begins with a seemingly odd statement: offerings are always slaug...
Tikkunei Zohar turns to The Altar as a Meeting Point of Heaven and Earth. The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a later expansion on the core teachings of the Zohar, is a deep div...
The verse records a startling act (Exodus 18:12): "Yithro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt-offering and peace-offerings for sacrifice to God." The Mekhilta says that Scripture d...
If the prohibition against "gods of gold" addresses making extra cherubs beyond the commanded two, what does the additional prohibition against "gods of silver" teach? After all, t...
Rabbi Yishmael examined the Torah's commandment to build "an altar of earth" (Exodus 20:21) and derived from it a precise architectural requirement: the altar must be "fixed upon t...
"And you shall slaughter therein your burnt-offerings and your peace-offerings." This tells me only of burnt-offerings and peace-offerings. Whence do I derive (the same for) all of...
The Torah commands regarding the Passover sacrifice that "there shall not remain the fat of My festival offering until morning." The Mekhilta takes this verse and extracts from it ...
It would follow (that labors for the sanctuary would override the Sabbath, viz. ) If the sacrificial service, which comes only from the enablers, (i.e., the vessels, etc.) override...
We pray to God. But…does God pray? And if so, to whom? The mystics have wrestled with these questions for centuries, and the answer, perhaps unsurprisingly, is layered and fascinat...
One such place, according to our stories, revolves around an altar.. a very special altar. The Torah tells us that Abraham arrived at the place God had shown him and built an altar...
The story, as told in Midrash Tehillim, revolves around the moment Shlomo wanted to bring the Aron Kodesh, the Ark of the Covenant, into the Kodesh Hakodashim, the Holy of Holies. ...
Midrash Tehillim turns to Rod and Serpent of Tabernacle. A fascinating little nugget from Midrash Tehillim, a homiletical commentary on the Book of Psalms. It deals with truth, fal...
It’s not random. There's a beautiful and intricate choreography to our relationship with the Divine. Consider the dedication of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. The Book of Numbers tel...
It's all there in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, chapter 29. This ancient text uses the image of a vine to teach us about growth, potential, and the transformative power of commitment. Ra...
Prayer is often remembered as a one-way street, us reaching out to the Divine. But what if the Divine is also reaching out, also… praying? The Yalkut Shimoni, a compilation of Midr...
In the book of Bamidbar – Numbers, in English – we find a fascinating passage that deals precisely with this: the idea of sacred space, separation, and the surprising presence of t...
Religious laws is often remembered as strict commandments, but sometimes, the texts reveal a surprising amount of individual agency. Take, for instance, this passage from Sifrei Ba...
What seems like a simple act is actually steeped in tradition, detail, and a whole lot of meaning. The Book of Numbers, Bamidbar in Hebrew, gives us the source for the Priestly Ble...
It's rarely an accident. Often, these repetitions are clues, hints that there's something deeper going on, something we need to pay close attention to. Consider the inauguration of...
The book of Bamidbar (Numbers), specifically chapter 18 in Sifrei Bamidbar, to examine the intense responsibilities placed on the Kohanim and Levi'im (Levites) and the consequences...
Even the smallest instructions in the red heifer ritual decide who may handle sacred work. The passage states, "And you shall give it to Elazar the Cohein," or priest. What's inter...
It's really. Take, for instance, a seemingly straightforward verse about offerings in the Book of Numbers (Bamidbar). and see what the Sifrei Bamidbar, an ancient rabbinic commenta...
In the Torah, even a single word can hide a legal storm. Consider (Numbers 28:4), which describes the daily offering: "the one lamb, etc." Seems One lamb. But the Sifrei Bamidbar a...
It wasn't just about following rules; it was about timing, intention, and connecting with something far greater than ourselves. Our journey begins with a verse from Bamidbar (Numbe...
It might seem a bit arcane to us now, but these details were crucial to maintaining the sacred order. to a fascinating passage from Sifrei Devarim, specifically section 73 (referen...
The Sifrei Devarim (literally "Books of Deuteronomy," a collection of early rabbinic legal interpretations), in section 77, explores the specifics of responsibility for consecrated...
The Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy, dives into just that when discussing the burnt offering, the olah. So, everything goes up. Wel...
Sifrei Devarim turns to How Sacrificial Blood Was Applied at the Altar. The passage Specifically, it's trying to answer the question: what are the rules? The passage starts with a ...
Jewish law, particularly when it comes to tithes and offerings, can sometimes feel that way. The phrase Specifically, we're zooming in on the verse dealing with bringing money to "...
