4,138 related texts · 13 related myths · Page 5 of 87
The Egyptian princess who raised Moses had to make him swear an oath before handing him over to the king. That is how little she trusted her own father's court, the same court whos...
"and I will be honored through Pharaoh": Scripture here apprises us that when the L–rd exacts punishment of the nations, His name is aggrandized in the world, as it is written (Isa...
Rabbi Yossi ben Zimra noticed a single word in the Torah that most readers skip right past. And from it, he derived an astonishing claim about the staff of Moses. When God instruct...
R. Elazar says: after she parted from him with a ma'amar (i.e., by word of mouth). For when the L–rd said to Moses: Go and take My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt, viz...
Why was Pharaoh's daughter in the river that morning? The Hebrew says simply: "to bathe." The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (2:5) has a different answer. And it is startling. "A...
"Lift up thy hand over the land of Mizraim for the locust, that he may come up over the land of Mizraim, and destroy every herb of the earth, whatsoever the hail hath left" (Targum...
Some of the geographic details in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan are staggering. On (Exodus 12:31), the Targum pauses to describe the map. The border of Mizraim extended four hundred phars...
That feeling... well, it's not new. It echoes all the way back to ancient Egypt, to the very dawn of the Israelite nation. We find ourselves in the book of Exodus, Shemot in Hebrew...
(Besides driving us crazy, of course!) Well, Jewish tradition has a fascinating answer, one that goes all the way back to the plagues in Egypt. The Book of Exodus recounts God's co...
Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Exodus, gives us a fascinating take on the plague of frogs. We all remember the story: Egypt is overrun with ...
The verse in (Exodus 9:10) tells us, "They took soot of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses threw it heavenward; and it became boils erupting into blisters upon man an...
Him is often remembered as this monolithic, unyielding villain. But what if there were moments of genuine, albeit fleeting, remorse? The Book of Exodus tells us that after the deva...
And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down (Exod. 32:1). The word boshesh (“delayed”) indicates that it was the sixth hour of the day. Forty thousand people had assemb...
Book of Jubilees turns to Moses Grows Up in Pharaoh's Palace. It tells us that after Moses grew up, he was brought to Pharaoh's daughter, and became her son. Adopted into royalty! ...
The familiar story is this: Joseph, sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, ends up in Egypt. He rises through the ranks, but then gets thrown in jail after being falsely accuse...
The Israelites, despite all their hardships, weren't just surviving; they were thriving. They were multiplying so rapidly that the land was "full of them as with thick underbrush."...
Legends of the Jews turns to Three-Year-Old Moses Grabbed Pharaoh's Crown Off His Head. The Ginzberg says 's retelling in Legends of the Jews, something utterly unexpected happens....
It is often remembered as a commandment straight from Mount Sinai, a divine decree etched in stone. And it is. But the story, as it often does in Jewish tradition, has layers and n...
We've been talking about Moses and his early life, drawing from the treasure trove of stories found in Louis Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews. And let me tell you, the drama just kee...
Moses didn't exactly jump for joy when he got the divine call. In fact, he voiced some pretty significant doubts. Can you blame him? He argued, "O Lord of the world, I a prophet an...
As retold by Rabbi Louis Ginzberg, the great leader wasn't exactly racing toward his destiny. He was accompanied by his wife and children, yes, and riding on a truly remarkable ani...
"What! Is our sorrow not great enough, burdened as we are by those who have suffered in Egypt from the very beginning? Must you add more to the land?" Can you imagine Aaron saying ...
Except Moses knew better. He knew the hearts of his people, the Israelites. The verse reads, "The last was a most difficult task." See, this wasn't just about facing a powerful kin...
Legends of the Jews turns to The Hailstones Froze in Midair When Moses Prayed. Here's the kicker: as soon as Moses prayed, the hail that had been pelting Egypt just…stopped. Suspen...
Here's the catch: he thinks they’re just popping out for a quick three-day religious retreat in the wilderness to offer sacrifices. A short vacation, essentially. He even sends som...
The familiar story centers on the Exodus, the parting of the Red Sea, the dramatic escape from slavery. But what about the Egyptians left behind? It wasn't just a simple case of "p...
It wasn't just about getting cheap labor back, oh no. According to the ancient stories, it was something far more sinister. The Legends of the Jews tells us the Egyptians weren't a...
More than just coverings. They can signify status, profession, even our mood. Now That’s the story of the garments worn by Aaron, the first High Priest, and his sons. In Jewish tra...
The consequences can be…well, let's just say they can be It centers on Miriam, Moses' sister, and her brother Aaron, the High Priest. They found themselves in hot water after speak...
That was life for some of the Israelites in the desert, and let me tell you, their patience was wearing thin. The story comes to us from Ginzberg's classic Legends of the Jews, a c...
It happened to Moses, even after forty years of leading the Israelites through the wilderness. And the consequences, according to tradition, were profound. For four decades, Moses,...
Jewish lore paints a picture of God showing special consideration for the righteous. The tradition teaches that God often reveals the day of death to the pious, allowing them to pa...
The Torah tells us of Aaron's death atop Mount Hor (Numbers 20:22-29), but it leaves out some fascinating details that our tradition fills in. Specifically, what happened when Mose...
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...
The answer? Well, it's a bit…uncomfortable. The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a later, and in some ways wilder, expansion on the core Zohar, tackles this very question head-on...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, offers a remarkable insight into the nature of obedience. The Torah says of the Israelites: "and they did", referring to the Passover...
Midrash Tehillim, a collection of homiletic interpretations of the Psalms, offers a pretty powerful image to explain it. " The answer, it suggests, lies in the words of Isaiah (57:...
The familiar story is this: Moses, the Israelites, the desperate flight from Egypt. But the details? Oh, the Rabbis have some thoughts. The book of Psalms (Tehillim) is a constant ...
That feeling, that sense of profound loss, isn't just a modern phenomenon. Our Sages wrestled with it too. Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating and often imaginative work of Jewis...
The story, as we find it in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 41, is quite fascinating. God, ready to proclaim the Torah, tells Moses to go down to the Israelite camp. "Go down, charge the pe...
The moments leading up to his birth were fraught with danger and a whole lot of divine intervention. The book of Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating text filled with stories and ...
Sometimes, it's not as straightforward as we might think. Our tradition is full of these little nuances, and they often reveal deeper truths." But, as the text points out, we might...
The standard Exodus text says God promised one final plague against Egypt. The Targum Jonathan transforms this announcement into something far more personal and humiliating for Pha...
Midrash Rabbah, specifically Bamidbar Rabbah 2, reveals a fascinating layer of meaning beneath the surface. "The children of Israel did in accordance with everything that the Lord ...
The book of Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Numbers, illuminates this very question. We find ourselves at a pivotal moment in the Israelites' jou...
A reader can imagine grand, sweeping transformations, but sometimes, the most profound miracles are about containing the uncontainable – about fitting more into less. That’s what o...
How Egypt's Magicians Failed to Interpret Pharaoh's Dream is the question behind this passage from Bereshit Rabbah. The passage begins, "He sent and summoned…" referring to Pharaoh...
The Rabbis paint a scene where the Holy One, blessed be He, instructs Moses to appoint a High Priest. Moses, naturally, wants to know the specifics: "Master of the universe, from w...
