2,651 related texts · 45 related myths · Page 2 of 56
Here is a verse that looks like an accounting entry until you notice what the numbers are doing. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 25:20) records that Isaac was forty years old wh...
Two brothers. Two careers. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 25:27) gives the contrast in parallel sentences. Esau grew up a "man of idleness to catch birds and beasts, a man goin...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan is careful with one phrase above all others, the Memra, the Word of God. Where the Hebrew simply says "I will be with thee and bless thee," the Aramaic r...
When the Philistines try to erase Abraham's memory, the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan tells us what Isaac does. He digs. Again. "And Izhak digged again the wells of water which the servan...
Book of Jubilees turns to Isaac Sends Jacob Away With a Blessing of Peace. Then, bam! We're hit with a classic case of parental favoritism. "And Rebecca loved Jacob, with all her h...
It’s a question as old as… well, as old as families themselves. And in the Book of Jubilees, we find a powerful little exchange between Jacob and his mother, Rebekah, that illumina...
Forget the polite smiles and carefully chosen words. Sometimes, the gloves came off. The Book of Jubilees, a text considered canonical by some but not included in the Hebrew Bible ...
Rebekah, already stressed about the tension between her sons Jacob and Esau, took matters into her own hands. She went to Isaac, her husband, and basically said, in a flood of tear...
The Biblical figures is often remembered as these grand, larger-than-life heroes and villains. But sometimes, when you really dig into the stories, you find details that are just… ...
Our journey begins with Isaac. According to Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 29, Isaac himself circumcised his twin sons, Jacob and Esau. Now, The text suggests that just as Esau despised hi...
Take the tale of Isaac, Jacob, and Esau. The familiar version gives us the basics: Jacob deceives his father, Isaac, and steals Esau's blessing. But what happens after? What was Is...
The story of Esau and Jacob is a classic example, and the Rabbis in Devarim Rabbah, a collection of homiletic interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy, unpack it with incredible ...
The story of Jacob and Esau, those eternally squabbling twins, offers us a fascinating glimpse into just that. The familiar version gives us the tale: Jacob, the trickster, steals ...
Isaac was old and completely blind when he made the request that would fracture his family. He called his elder son Esau and told him to go hunt venison, prepare a meal, and return...
The scene: Isaac, nearing the end of his days, ready to bestow his ultimate blessing. According to the Book of Jubilees, he declares that all the blessings he received from God wil...
Our ancestors grappled with it too. to a moment with Jacob, a patriarch wrestling with destiny in the Book of Jubilees. What's the Book of Jubilees, you ask? Here, Jacob is reflect...
Some say it's gravity, others dark energy. But what about love? What about a mother's love, strong enough to bind even the most volatile relationships? The Book of Jubilees, an anc...
He feels his time drawing near. According to Legends of the Jews, that monumental collection of Jewish folklore compiled by Louis Ginzberg, Isaac summons his two sons, Jacob and Es...
Rabbi Judah paints a vivid picture. He tells us that Isaac, when blessing Jacob, bestowed upon him ten distinct blessings. Now, these weren't just any blessings. They were specific...
The Hebrew Bible tells a straightforward story about Isaac digging wells in Gerar and feuding with the Philistines over water rights (Genesis 26). The Targum Jonathan transforms it...
The rabbis read the Torah with a quiet attention to who shows up at whose door. They noticed that wherever a righteous person travels, blessing travels with them, like a shadow tha...
The second twin emerged differently. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 25:26) gives the detail plainly: "Afterward came forth his brother, and his hand had hold on the heel of Esa...
Of all the Targum's expansions, this one may be the darkest. Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 25:29) describes the day Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of lentils. And tells us exact...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan offers a theological explanation for why Esau arrived late and empty-handed. "The Word of the Lord had impeded him from taking clean venison; but he had ...
Take lentils, for example. Humble, unassuming… yet, in Jewish tradition, they're deeply tied to mourning and sorrow. Why lentils? The tradition tells us that when Cain killed Abel,...
Bereshit Rabbah turns to Jacob Buys One Day of Esau's Birthright Privilege. The Torah tells us in (Genesis 25:31), "Jacob said: Sell me your birthright this day." Now, listen to ho...
The story of Jacob and Esau, and their mother Rebecca, is a powerful, sometimes troubling, example of maternal love… and perhaps, a bit of manipulation. to the Book of Jubilees, a ...
Like, you read them and think, "Wait, did that really happen that way?" Let's It's in the Book of Jubilees, chapter 26, and it's about Isaac, Jacob, and Esau. The familiar story is...
"Remember what Amalek did to you" (Deuteronomy 25:17). God remembers the righteous for good and the wicked for destruction. When He recalled Abraham, He spoke with affection: "Shal...
Take the tale of Jacob and Esau, for instance. The familiar version gives us the basic outline: Jacob, aided by his mother Rebecca, deceives his blind father Isaac to steal the ble...
Targum Jonathan takes the story of Jacob's settlement in Egypt and layers it with theological details the Torah never mentions, including an economic revolution, a hidden act of ki...
The Torah's plain verse reads almost like an afterthought. "He ate and drank, and rose up and went his way; thus Esau despised his birthright" (Genesis 25:34). Five short verbs for...
The Torah uses a small, shimmering verb for what Isaac and Rebekah are doing when the king of Gerar catches sight of them. "Izhak was disporting with Rivekah his wife" (Genesis 26:...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan adds a detail to the first quarrel in Gerar that changes the whole story. The plain text says only that the shepherds of Gerar fought Isaac's shepherds o...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan sharpens the timing of the scene to a breath. "It was when Izhak had finished blessing Jakob, and Jakob had only gone out about two handbreadths from Izh...
The Torah tells us Jacob told Rachel he was her kinsman (Genesis 29:12). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan fills in a conversation between them. Jacob explained to Rachel that he had come...
The story of Esau is a masterclass in that feeling. The familiar story centers on Jacob and Esau. The twins. Jacob, the trickster, ends up getting the birthright and the blessing i...
It expands on stories we already know from the Torah, filling in details and offering new perspectives. Here, Esau's sons are not happy campers. They confront their father: "Why ha...
The story of Isaac blessing Jacob instead of Esau is definitely one of those moments. It’s a story filled with deception, family drama, and a bit of divine intervention, and it's f...
It's a painful scene. He was in tears, his body bowed with the weight of it all. He didn’t want to do it! Rebekah, driven by her own convictions, was insistent. Her plan involved t...
The scene: Jacob is about to deceive his father Isaac in order to receive the blessing meant for his brother Esau. He's understandably nervous. "Behold," he says to Rebecca, "Esau ...
"Listen to Me, O Jacob, Israel, whom I have called: I am He, I am the first, and I am the last as well" (Isaiah 48:12). God speaks with the full weight of eternity, before everythi...
In the days when Alexander the Great marched through Asia, the Ishmaelites came before him with a lawsuit. They claimed Canaan. They were descended from Abraham, they argued; the I...
The Torah in (Genesis 25:17) gives us a short obituary for Ishmael: one hundred and thirty-seven years, and then he "expired and was gathered to his people." Targum Pseudo-Jonathan...
When blind Isaac reached out to bless his son and said, "HaKol kol Yaakov v'ha-yadayim y'dei Esav", "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau" (Genesis ...
This is the prophecy Rebekah receives in the study house of Shem, and it reframes every story that follows. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 25:23) preserves the oracle with one ...
Some births announce their children. Esau's birth, in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 25:25), announces an entire character. "The first came forth wholly red, as a garment of ha...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan catches Isaac mid-thought. "It had been in Izhak's heart to go down to Mizraim," it tells us (Genesis 26:2). The famine has struck. His father went down ...
