486 related texts · 8 related myths · Page 5 of 11
The Torah says Moses saw God's "back" but not His face. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, explains what that backward glimpse actually revealed. "I will ...
There is a moment on Sinai when God tells Moses to write. Not to remember, not to transmit orally, not to carve into stone alone. But to write. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 34...
Sometimes, tradition, holiness, and even a little bit of divine reasoning come into play. Our story begins with a seemingly simple instruction from the Book of Numbers (Bamidbar in...
Rabbi Shemaya poses a profound question: Why is the impure nazir, someone who took a vow of separation but then became ritually impure, offered leniency in the form of turtledoves ...
The story of Koraḥ's challenge to Moses' leadership is a powerful one, filled with jealousy, ambition, and a profound questioning of divine authority. We find a particularly insigh...
(Genesis 18:1) tells us, "He was sitting [yoshev] at the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day." But there's more to it than meets the eye. Rabbi Berekhya, quoting Rabbi Levi...
It all starts with Moses, and his famous plea, "I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying..." (Deuteronomy 3:23). The Rabbis of old, in their wisdom, saw this verse as a springb...
Deuteronomy, or Devarim in Hebrew, is full of Moses' final words, his reflections on a lifetime of leadership. And within the rabbinic compilation called Devarim Rabbah, a midrash ...
Our story revolves around a verse from Deuteronomy (3:24): "Lord God, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand, for what god is in the heavens or on ...
Rabbi Levi offers a compelling insight: "One who ate the dish knows its taste." In other words, Moses' own experiences, his own brushes with danger and the law, gave him a unique u...
It might seem like a niche legal issue, but within it lies a profound understanding of justice, forgiveness, and even the nature of hope itself. In Deuteronomy, we read, "Then, Mos...
Even Moses, the great lawgiver, felt it. In Devarim Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Deuteronomy, we find a poignant moment where Moses pleads with God. He...
Our story comes from Shemot Rabbah, a compilation of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Exodus. Specifically, it focuses on the instruction to take a bunch of hyssop and dip i...
Our story begins after the devastating sin of the Golden Calf. Can you imagine the scene? Moses is up on Mount Sinai, receiving the very word of God, while down below, the Israelit...
R. Yonathan says (Devarim 6:8-9) "and you shall tie them … and you shall write them": Just as the writing (of the mezuzah (a parchment scroll affixed to doorposts)) is with the rig...
Baruch stood on Mount Zion. The ruins smoked beneath him. And then a voice fell from the height of heaven like a stone. "Stand on your feet, Baruch, and hear the word of the mighty...
This is the letter that Baruch son of Neriah sent across the river Euphrates to the nine and a half tribes in exile. It may be the most hopeful document ever written from the rubbl...
Uriel took Ezra back to the beginning. Before the portals of the world were in place. Before the winds blew or thunder sounded. Before the innumerable hosts of angels were gathered...
The entire architecture of creation, every world, every angel, every concealment of divine light, exists for one purpose: so that a human being in a physical body can choose to tur...
Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught that the Torah is not just a text to study. It is a key that unlocks every prayer and opens every closed door. When a person engages deeply with Tor...
A sigh from a Jewish person can repair what is broken in the world. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught this not as poetry but as metaphysics. The sigh, the deep exhalation of grief or...
The true tzaddik (a righteous person), Rabbi Nachman of Breslov teaches, is the one who looks at every detail of creation and asks: why did God make it this way? Why does a lion ha...
Everything has a purpose. And that purpose has a purpose of its own, each one higher than the last. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov uses this insight to explain why you must judge every p...
Why travel to see a tzaddik (a righteous person) in person when you can read their teachings in a book? Rabbi Nachman of Breslov answered this question directly: there is an immeas...
The Baal Shem Tov treats heartache as a symptom, not a verdict. In Keter Shem Tov 1:16:1, suffering of the heart reveals an illness of the soul. The illness is diminished awareness...
Talmud Bavli, Hagigah turns to The Living Creatures. The upper world and the lower world, created in the same instant. But there's a key difference: the creatures "upstairs" are no...
Where do dreams come from? The Talmud in Berakhot 55a offers a surprisingly psychological answer: from the dreamer's own mind. Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahmani taught in the name of Rabbi ...
There are seven heavens stacked above the earth, each with a distinct name and function. Reish Lakish listed them: Vilon, Rakia, Shehakim, Zevul, Ma'on, Makhon, and Aravot. Vilon i...
When will the Messiah come? According to Sanhedrin 97a, the Talmud presents a seven-year countdown. And then immediately undermines it. The Sages taught: in the Sabbatical cycle du...
The Romans wrapped Rabbi Chanina ben Teradion in a Torah scroll, piled bundles of vine branches around him, and set him on fire. To prolong his agony, they placed wet wool over his...
[From the Sefer Raziel] Rabbi Ishmael said, "I saw the King of Kings sitting on a high and exalted throne, with His legions standing before Him, upon His right and upon His left. (...
Rabbi Yochanan made a promise that sounds almost too good to be true: "Whoever blesses over a full cup is granted an inheritance without boundaries." The teaching, preserved in Ein...
Two words haunted ancient Israel: shedim (demons) and se'irim. The Israelites were forbidden from sacrificing to either. They sacrificed anyway. The se'irim were the hairy ones, sa...
Israel in Egypt, fruitful and multiplying, a thousand thousand and myriad myriads. And still, in God's eyes, like a single beloved child. That's the paradox this section of Aggadat...
"A little that the righteous have is better than the abundance of many wicked" (Psalm 37:16). The rabbis of Aggadat Bereshit loved this verse because it turned ordinary logic on it...
Before the sun existed, there was light. This is one of the oldest puzzles in Genesis, God creates light on the first day, but the sun and moon don't appear until the fourth. The r...
When the final redemption comes, God will redeem Israel from one place only: Zion. Not from the desert, not from the waters, not from any place of exile, from the Temple Mount. "Fr...
Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt (Genesis 42:1). He saw it. But the midrash immediately pivots to a verse from Proverbs: "The ear that hears and the eye that sees, the Lord ...
"In all their affliction, He was not afflicted" (Isaiah 63:9). The midrash reads this as conditional: if Israel does the will of God in their troubles, then He is afflicted with th...
God is known in this world by bringing judgment upon those who need it. This is Aggadat Bereshit's uncomfortable claim: "The Lord is known for executing judgment; the wicked are en...
When the offering was completed (1 Chronicles 18:26), the midrash reads it through Song of Songs: the thread of crimson, the image of the veil that separated the holy from the prof...
Rabbi Meir was traveling and stopped for Shabbat at an inn. The innkeeper's name was Kidor. Meir did not like the name. It reminded him of a verse in (Deuteronomy 32:20), where God...
When Moses blessed the tribe of Asher at the end of his life, he said, "Let him dip his foot in oil" (Deuteronomy 33:24). The rabbis of the Talmud took the blessing literally. Ashe...
In the house of Rabbi Elazar a strange filly was born. Every attendant who came near it was killed. Rabbi Elazar, unable to tame or destroy the beast, presented it to the king. At ...
A Roman emperor once challenged Rabban Gamliel with a question that sounds modern. If there is a God in the world, why does He not reveal Himself directly? Why not speak face to fa...
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...
This is one of the most extraordinary passages in the entire Targum. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 14:13) takes a single Hebrew word, ha-palit, the fugitive who brought news t...
Leah names the second son of her handmaid Zilpah Asher, from osher, "happiness" or "praise" (Genesis 30:13). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan translates the name into a prophecy about th...
