166 related texts · 8 related myths · Page 3 of 4
(Exodus, Ibid.) "Stand ready (hithyatzvu) to see the salvation of the L–rd": Moses said to them: Today the Shechinah will repose the Holy Spirit upon you; for "yetzivah" in all pla...
That feeling, that raw emotion, is at the heart of a powerful story preserved in Midrash Tehillim, a collection of interpretations on the Book of Psalms. It's a story about faith, ...
" It's a way of connecting with something bigger than ourselves. Midrash Tehillim, a beautiful collection of interpretations on the Book of Psalms, dives deep into this very idea, ...
Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer turns to Joshua — The Ark of the Covenant. The story, as we find it in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, chapter 38, begins with Joshua in anguish. He tears his clothe...
It wasn't all smooth sailing, even with divine guidance! a fascinating passage from Sifrei Bamidbar, specifically concerning the dedication of the altar. "(Bamidbar 7:10) "And the ...
, guided by the ancient text of Sifrei Bamidbar. Why was such a covenant even necessary? Because, as the text explains, Korach challenged Aaron's priesthood. Imagine a king giving ...
“Unblemished shall they be for you, and their libations.” This isn’t just about offering something; it's about offering the best. The text draws a parallel: just as an animal sacri...
The word atzeret (עצרת) appears in Bamidbar, or the Book of Numbers (29:35), in the context of Shmini Atzeret, the "eighth day" that follows the seven days of Sukkot, the Festival ...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Where You Ate the Offering Actually Matters. The text asks a fascinating question: What exactly is Scripture trying to tell us here? Is it simply reiteratin...
The verse in Deuteronomy (16:4) is pretty clear: "And there shall not be seen unto you leaven in all of your border for seven days." Seems straightforward. No chametz for you! But ...
Sometimes, just sometimes, you catch a glimpse of the beautiful mind at work behind it all. the story turns to one such puzzle. Specifically, we’re confronting the rules around pri...
We all have. But what happens when that promise is to the Almighty? What kind of weight does that hold? A commitment. It’s a mitzvah, a commanded act, to fulfill the promises we ma...
It's woven into so much of Jewish tradition, the source turns to one small but significant thread: the bikkurim. What are bikkurim? The word itself means "first fruits" in Hebrew. ...
They saw layers of connection, echoes of stories past, and whispers of divine intent in every word. Take, for instance, a passage from Sifrei Devarim, a legal midrash on the Book o...
The consecration ceremony of (Exodus 29:1-46) appears in the Hebrew Bible as a solemn ritual. The Targum Jonathan adds precise details that heighten both its gravity and its tender...
The incense altar, the half-shekel tax, and the anointing oil in (Exodus 30:1-38) all receive remarkable expansions in the Targum Jonathan. What the Hebrew text presents as ritual ...
The completion of all the Tabernacle's furnishings and garments in (Exodus 39:1-43) should feel repetitive. The craftsmen were building exactly what God commanded. But the Targum J...
On the eighth day of consecration, the first of Nisan, Aaron was about to offer his first sacrifice as high priest. Then he froze. The Targum Jonathan says he "saw at the corner of...
Leviticus 13 is the longest chapter in the book, a detailed medical manual for diagnosing skin diseases. The Targum Jonathan transforms it from clinical instructions into a color-c...
Leviticus 21 restricts which priests may serve at the altar. The Targum Jonathan expands the list of disqualifying blemishes with clinical precision that goes well beyond the Hebre...
One small Hebrew word, kalot, "completed", carries an entire wedding, an entire exorcism, and the steadying of the whole world. In Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 1:5, the sages pry open (Nu...
When the chieftains of Israel rolled up to the Tabernacle with six covered wagons, the Torah uses a strange word for those wagons, tzav. Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 1:8 turns the word un...
When Alexander of Macedon marched east, the Samaritans, called in the Talmud the Kutim, saw a political opening. They sent word to Alexander asking him to destroy the Temple in Jer...
How far must a person go to honor a parent? Rav Ulla was asked this question, and instead of answering with a verse, he told a story. There was a man in Ashkelon named Dammah ben N...
Her name was Tzafnat, daughter of Peniel, and her father had been high priest of Israel. She had grown up in the holiest household in the land, with the aroma of incense in her clo...
The Talmud in Kiddushin 31a tells the story of Dama ben Netina, a gentile merchant of Ashkelon who became, in the rabbinic imagination, the standard for filial honor. The exempla c...
When Solomon set out to build the Temple, he faced a strange obstacle hidden in plain sight in the Torah. Scripture says that "the house, when it was in building, was built of ston...
On the Feast of Sukkot, the Torah commands Israel to offer seventy bullocks across the seven days (Numbers 29:12–36). Rabbi Eliezer asked the obvious question in Sukkah 55b: sevent...
Joseph survived the slander, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan explains why. "He returned to abide in his early strength, and would not yield himself unto sin, and subdued his inclination...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:15) sets the pilgrimage: The feast of unleavened cakes thou shalt keep. Seven days thou art to eat unleavened bread, as I have instructe...
When God commissioned the priestly wardrobe, He did not sketch a uniform. He named eight specific garments, each with a job. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:4) lists them ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:17) reads the gemstones as geography. The breastplate held four rows of precious gems, answering to the four regions of the world. When Aar...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:18) names the second row of the high priest's breastplate: smaragd, and sapphire and chalcedony. On them were engraved Judah, Dan, and Naph...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:19) lists the third row of the breastplate: ligure, and agate, and amethyst, engraved with Gad, Asher, and Issachar. The tribes of this row...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:20) closes the breastplate's geography with the fourth row: chrysolite, onyx, and jasper, engraved with Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. The ...
The shoulder stones were a memorial. The breastplate was something more intimate. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:29) insists that Aaron bore the names of the sons of Isra...
Of all the ordination rites, this one is the strangest. Moses slaughtered the second ram, and the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 29:20) tells us exactly what he did with the blo...
Before the altar of the Mishkan could receive Israel's offerings, it had to be made holy itself. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (an Aramaic paraphrase whose expansions preserve tannaitic a...
Seven days of atonement, and then the altar was something else entirely, not a piece of furniture, not a table of stone, but kodesh kodashim, the altar of the Holy of Holies. Targu...
The climax of the consecration chapter is not a ritual instruction. It is a declaration, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan gives it a weight the plain Hebrew only hints at: the sons of Is...
The recipe for the holy anointing oil is exact and extravagant: five hundred minas of myrrh, two hundred and fifty of sweet cinnamon, two hundred and fifty of sweet calamus, five h...
Once the anointing oil had been compounded and the vessels of the sanctuary had been touched with it, they were no longer ordinary. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan describes what happened t...
If the anointing oil was for people and vessels, the incense was for the air itself. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the command to Moses: take spices, balsam, onycha, galbanum. A...
Where did the onyx stones for the high priest's ephod come from? The Torah does not say. But Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 35:27) tells one of the strangest mineral-supply stor...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 35:28) continues the miraculous supply chain it began in the previous verse. The clouds of heaven returned, and went to the garden of Eden, and to...
The fourth and final row of the breastplate, according to Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 39:13), held chrysolite, onyx, and jasper. Engraved upon them were the names of Zebulun,...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 39:14) tells us something small and enormous at once. The twelve stones of the breastplate were engraved as the engraving of a ring, each tribe's ...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 40:10) takes the consecration of the altar of burnt offering and turns it into a prophecy. Anoint the altar, the meturgeman says, on account of th...
