3,636 related texts · Page 6 of 76
That feeling, that tension, is woven right into the fabric of the cosmos, according to some of the deepest mystical teachings in Judaism. Let's turn to the Tikkun (spiritual repair...
"And these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt" (Exodus 1:1). Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk opens his commentary on Parashat Shemot with a strange claim: a pers...
(Exodus 12:43) "And the L–rd said to Moses and Aaron": There are some sections (in the Torah) which are generic in the beginning and specific after, and some which are specific in ...
In (Exodus 16:9), Moses instructed Aaron to tell the entire congregation of Israel to "draw near before the Lord." Two rabbis in the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael disagreed about what ...
Three men climbed to the top of the hill before the battle against Amalek: Moses, Aaron, and Chur (Exodus 17:10). The Mekhilta explains that their ascent was not a military decisio...
That’s a question that echoes through the ages, a yearning found right at the beginning of Midrash Tehillim, a collection of interpretations on the Book of Psalms. It begins with t...
We know Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, received the Torah, and guided them through the wilderness. But did you know some traditions suggest he also served as High Priest? I...
Psalm 133 captures that perfectly, and the Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic commentaries on the Book of Psalms, beautifully unpacks its meaning. The psalm itself begins, ...
The answer, my friends, might be more profound than you think. The text we're looking at comes from Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating collection of stories and interpretations ...
Talk about pressure! So, what do you do when you're stuck between a relentless enemy and a seemingly impassable sea? That's exactly the question Moses puts to the Holy One, blessed...
It wasn't exactly a quiet retreat for the Israelites down below, that's for sure! According to Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating collection of stories and interpretations, thin...
We all know the story from Exodus 32 – Moses is up on Mount Sinai, receiving the Ten Commandments, and the Israelites, feeling abandoned, demand that Aaron make them a god. But how...
This week, we're diving into a tiny, but potent, moment in the book of Bamidbar (Numbers), specifically chapter 12, verse 2, where we get a glimpse into the simmering frustrations ...
The passage opens with a rather startling image: "And the L-rd said suddenly." R. Shimon b. Menassia points out that Moses himself was frightened by the word "suddenly" earlier in ...
We often think of death as something to be feared, something to be avoided at all costs. But what if I told you that Moses, the man who spoke to God face-to-face, actually desired ...
Our tradition understands this deeply. It recognizes that certain events, especially those marked by sorrow or loss, leave an indelible mark, not just on individuals, but on the ve...
The great Moses himself had such an experience. As we read in (Exodus 4:24), on the road one night, Adonai—God—encountered Moses and sought to kill him. Talk about a plot twist! Wh...
Today, let’s dive into one tiny, but fascinating corner of that history, exploring the origins of prayer times and blessings. Our story begins in the Book of Numbers, in Hebrew, Ba...
We find it in (Numbers 3:4): "Nadav and Avihu died before the Lord when they offered alien fire before the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children. Elazar and Ita...
Let’s talk about shekels. Not just any shekels, but sacred shekels. Specifically, we’re looking at (Numbers 3:50), which tells us about the silver taken from the firstborn of Israe...
Like good people suffer, and… well, you know the rest. That feeling isn't new. It’s a feeling that echoes through the ages, a question that’s been wrestled with in our texts for mi...
That's kind of what's going on in this fascinating passage from Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Numbers. The verse in question is from (Num...
"Aaron will be gathered to his people," God tells Moses, "for he will not come into the land that I have given to the children of Israel, because you defied My directive at the wat...
Our story centers around the verses in (Numbers 20:25-28): "Take Aaron and Elazar his son, and take them up Hor Mountain… Strip Aaron of his vestments, and dress Elazar his son in ...
The story hinges on a seemingly simple phrase from Deuteronomy: "Ascend to this Mount HaAvarim, Mount Nevo" (Deuteronomy 32:48–49). But the context, as Bamidbar Rabbah unfolds it, ...
It seemed hopeless. So, what turned the tide? What was the secret ingredient that finally led to their redemption? The Book of Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretatio...
It's all about second chances, about grace, and about how sometimes, the people who stumble are the very ones chosen for greatness. The verse we're focusing on is "and you, draw…ne...
The verse we're focusing on is (Song of Songs 2:10): "my beloved spoke up [ana], and he said [ve’amar] to me." Now, Rabbi Azarya raises a pretty good question: Isn't "speaking" the...
But not just Torah as in, "read the text." More like, experience the Torah. The passage begins with a verse from Psalms (19:9): "The precepts of the Lord are upright, gladdening th...
That feeling, that ache of separation, is what this week’s portion of Vayikra Rabbah (Leviticus Rabbah) touches upon. It centers around a seemingly simple phrase in (Leviticus 16:2...
The ancient rabbis certainly did. to a fascinating passage from Vayikra Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Leviticus, and see what secrets we can uncov...
We find ourselves pondering this very question in Vayikra Rabbah 22, a section of the ancient Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary). It begins with a seemingly simple verse fr...
It’s a question that’s nagged at theologians and storytellers for centuries. Why does Moses, in the book of Genesis, specifically call out the serpent as being the craftiest of the...
See, I have set thee in God’s stead to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet (Exod. 7:1). Just as the lecturer sits and lectures, and the interpreter explains his wor...
The Book of Jubilees, a fascinating Jewish text from around the 2nd century BCE, gives us a peek behind that curtain. It’s like a director's cut of the Torah, filling in details an...
That’s exactly what happens to Pharaoh in Chapter 48 of the Book of Jasher. The story opens with a looming crisis: a famine. "In those days, after the death of Isaac, the Lord comm...
Pharaoh's daughter, a pivotal figure in the Moses narrative, wasn't just a passive observer. She took matters into her own hands. The text tells us that she reached out for the ark...
According to Ginzberg's retelling in Legends of the Jews, that's exactly what happened. Moses arrives, ready to lead, and Dathan and Abiram, prominent Israelites, meet him with hos...
Pharaoh, true to Moses's prediction, immediately reneged on his promise to let the Israelites go. And what did Moses do? He didn't waste a second. He promptly announced the eighth ...
Pharaoh, after enduring plague after plague, is finally starting to buckle. He's ready to let the people go – men, women, children, the whole shebang! But, of course, there’s a cat...
Here he was, fresh from witnessing the most incredible miracles, leading his people out of slavery, and what did he get in return? Gripes, complaints, and a profound lack of faith....
He pleaded with God, a conversation recorded in Legends of the Jews and drawn from various Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic sources, begging for just a little longer to...
The mystical text Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a companion to the Zohar, delves into just that feeling, exploring how even Moses, the great lawgiver, experienced a disconnect...
We tend to focus on the big ones – the plagues, the splitting of the Red Sea – but Jewish tradition suggests the miraculous was woven into the very fabric of their experience. It w...
When Moses was born, the entire house filled with light. According to Sotah 12a, his mother Yocheved saw immediately that he was special—the Torah's phrase "she saw that he was goo...
On the night of the Exodus, while the entire nation of Israel was loading Egyptian gold and silver, Moses was doing something else. According to Sotah 13a, he was searching for the...
The Torah, in its unflinching honesty, shows us just that. Today, we're diving into a passage from Bamidbar Rabbah (Numbers Rabbah) 19, which explores the immediate aftermath of Aa...
That's the situation Moses found himself in. In (Exodus 3:11), Moses cries out to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should take the children of Israel out of ...
