3,636 related texts · Page 64 of 76
In the space of twenty years, the throne of Israel changed hands five times, and almost every transfer was soaked in blood. Zachariah, son of Jeroboam, lasted six months before his...
It’s a question that’s haunted mystics and theologians for millennia. And the answer, as we find in Jewish tradition, is both breathtakingly beautiful and terrifyingly destructive....
That’s the idea behind a powerful myth found in the Zohar (l:4b-5a), the central text of Kabbalah. It speaks of God constantly creating new heavens and a new earth. But where does ...
The Zohar, a foundational text of Kabbalah, isn't always the easiest to understand. That's where commentators like Baal HaSulam (Rabbi Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag) come in. His intro...
The Zohar, meaning "splendor" or "radiance," is the foundational text of Jewish mysticism, of Kabbalah. It's a sprawling, enigmatic work filled with secrets, allegories, and dazzli...
The Heikhalot (the heavenly palaces) Rabbati, a key text in the Heikhalot literature – a collection of mystical Jewish writings describing ascents to the divine throne – gives us a...
It’s not your average velvet-rope situation. This one involves angels, mystical ascents, and some serious spiritual prerequisites. We're diving into the world of the Merkabah, the ...
And it’s been guarded fiercely. The text recounts a divine voice, almost exasperated, saying, "Nay, My servitors, nay, My servants, trouble Me not in this matter!" It's like God is...
The text throws us right into the deep end. It speaks of a "cursed abomination" and a "rejected faction," their tables overflowing with... well, let's just say very unpleasant thin...
Holding admiration and critique in the same breath. Well, it's a dance that Jewish scholars have been doing for centuries. Take the author of the Mitpachat Sefarim, for instance. H...
That tension between honoring their wisdom and standing your ground. I've been thinking about this a lot lately, especially in the context of Jewish scholarship and legal interpret...
It's not just random notes! There's a whole mystical drama unfolding with each tekiyah, shevarim, and teruah. This teaching comes from the Sefer HaKanah, a Kabbalistic text. Imagin...
In Da'at (Knowledge) Tevunot, a profound work of Jewish thought, we find a powerful assertion: that God built the world on justice. Not just any kind of justice, but a "straight an...
We pour our energy into the fleeting, the temporary. But what about the big questions? What if, just for a little while, we shifted our focus? What if we dared to ask ourselves: Wh...
That’s kind of what we're up against when we talk about the Sefirot (the ten attributes or emanations through which God reveals Himself). We've been exploring how these Sefirot app...
Jewish tradition offers a fascinating way to understand this feeling, especially when it comes to encountering the Divine. It all comes down to light. Not just any light, but the o...
Jewish mysticism teaches that this feeling echoes a cosmic reality – a separation, an exile, that affects everything. The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a central text of Kabba...
The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a companion volume to the Zohar—one of the central works of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism—certainly thinks so. In one of its sections, the 48th ...
Yeah, you heard me right. Tears. The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah and a companion to the Zohar, tells us that the only gate that’s always open is t...
The passage begins with "Be-REiShYT" – "In the beginning." This isn't just a starting point; it's described as "an Utterance which is the first of all, comprised of all 'ten saying...
Jewish mysticism wrestles with this very idea – the nature of perception, of revelation, and how we encounter the Divine. to a fascinating passage from Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei ...
The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah, grapples with that very feeling. It explores what happens when a truly great soul departs this world, specificall...
For millennia, people have looked to the stars, seeking meaning, guidance, even a glimpse of the divine. And in the Jewish mystical tradition, the cosmos is far more than just a ba...
But according to the Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, it holds the key to understanding exile, blessing, and ultimately, redemption. When the prophet saw Israel in exile, what ga...
Sometimes, unlocking the deeper meanings requires a little… detective work. to a fascinating passage from Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar 92 and see what mysteries we can unravel...
It’s like unlocking a hidden code to understanding… well, everything. Today, let's crack open Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar 109. Don't worry, you don't need to be a Kabbalist t...
The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah, offers a fascinating perspective. It tells us that the offerings, the qorbanot – literally, the means of drawing ...
The mystical tradition of Kabbalah is all about finding those secrets, and the Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a companion to the Zohar, is packed with them.Yes, a sword! The te...
The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a later part of the Zohar, one of the central works of Kabbalah, hints at something truly profound about the Torah's essence. It speaks of a ...
When the sea split, the angels fell behind. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev reads the verse, "The angel of God who had been traveling in front of the Israelite camp moved to thei...
"And it came to pass when Pharaoh sent out the people" (Exodus 13:17). Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk reads the entire Exodus story as a map of the soul's struggle against the evil in...
R. Yochanan said: Jonah went (on that voyage) only to cast himself into the sea, as it is written (Jonah 1:12) "And he said to them: Lift me up and cast me into the sea." All this ...
R. Shimon b. Azzai said: I do not come to detract from my master's words, but to add to them, viz.: Not to Moses alone did He speak in the merit of Israel, but to all of the prophe...
And thus do you find with Baruch the soon of Neriah, who complained before the L–rd, (Ibid. 45:3) "You (Baruch) say: Woe unto me, the L–rd has added grief to my pain!" (You say:) W...
The Torah introduces a practical problem in the laws of the Passover sacrifice. What happens when a household is too small to consume an entire lamb? (Exodus 12:4) addresses this d...
The Mekhilta asks a practical question about Passover night in Egypt that reveals something extraordinary about how communal sacrifice works. The Torah commands, "The entire assemb...
On the night that would change everything, God told the Israelites to paint blood on their doorframes. But where exactly? On the inside of the doorposts and lintel, or on the outsi...
"And they shall place it on the two side posts and on the lintel": I might think that if he placed (the blood on) one before the other, he has not fulfilled his obligation. It is, ...
The Mekhilta notices a detail in the Passover laws that most readers skip right past. The Torah says the blood should go on the doorframes "of the houses in which they eat it" (Exo...
The Torah's instructions for eating the Passover lamb include a phrase that seems straightforward but contains a legal depth charge: "with matzoth and maror shall they eat it" (Exo...
The Mekhilta catches a redundancy in the Torah's Passover instructions that most readers would never notice — and from that redundancy, it extracts a legal ruling about where God's...
The Torah specifies in (Exodus 12:19) that the laws of Passover apply to both "the proselyte and the citizen of the land." The Mekhilta explains why this explicit mention of the co...
The Torah instructs in (Exodus 12:22), "And you shall take a bunch of hyssop," referring to the bundle of hyssop used to apply the blood of the Paschal lamb to the doorposts in Egy...
The Torah describes the blood ritual of the first Passover in Egypt: the Israelites were to apply the blood of the Paschal lamb to the lintel and the two doorposts of their homes. ...
And thus do you find with the forefathers, that they deported themselves with circumspection (in this regard), viz.: (Genesis 22:3) "And Abraham arose early in the morning," (Ibid....
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus dating to the 2nd century CE, zeroes in on a single phrase from the Passover laws to clarify exactly who was obligated to perform the ...
The Mekhilta, compiled around the 2nd century CE as a halakhic commentary on Exodus, addresses a critical question about when the Passover laws took effect. The verse states plainl...
The Mekhilta, the halakhic midrash on Exodus from the tannaitic period, continues its investigation of a recurring biblical formula: when Scripture says God "has spoken," where exa...
