2,729 related texts · 21 related myths · Page 3 of 57
"And your eyes shall see" (Malachi 1:5). The prophet promises that Israel will watch the fall of Edom, watch it with their own eyes, from their own territory, and say: "Great is th...
"Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob" (Jeremiah 2:4). Not the word of Jeremiah. Not the word of the priesthood. The word of the Lord, direct, unmediated, demanding attentio...
The reunion scene in (Genesis 46:29) should be pure joy. After twenty-two years of believing Joseph was dead, Jacob finally sees his son alive, a ruler in a chariot, riding out to ...
The Torah says plainly in (Genesis 47:7) that Jacob "blessed Pharaoh." It does not tell us what the blessing was. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan supplies the words: "May it please the ...
When Jacob asked Joseph to bury him in Canaan rather than Egypt, he did not ask for a simple promise. In (Genesis 47:29) he asked Joseph to "put thy hand under my thigh", a euphemi...
A blessing is often remembered for what it promises. This one is remembered for what it recalls. Before Jacob spoke a single word of future over his grandsons, he spoke a word of p...
It is one of the shortest verses of Jacob's farewell, and one of the most surprising. Jacob, the quiet dweller in tents, claims a city by right of conquest. "I have given to thee t...
Jacob compares Judah to a lion's cub, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan explains exactly why. Two moments made Judah roar. "From the killing of Joseph my son thou didst uplift thy soul, a...
When Jacob died, Egypt mourned for seventy days (Genesis 50:3). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan explains why the Egyptians wept so hard for a foreign patriarch. They were not mourning only ...
When the Canaanite natives saw the Egyptian-Israelite procession mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they did something startling. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records it. "They loo...
The brothers were terrified. So they did what frightened children do, they invoked the father. "Thus shall you say to Joseph: forgive now the guilt of thy brethren and their sin, f...
Bereshit Rabbah turns to God's Promise of Kings from Jacob's Line. Our tale begins with God speaking to Jacob, saying, "I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and an...
The Torah tells us in Genesis (35:20) that "Jacob established a monument upon her grave; it is the monument of Rachel's grave until today.” But what does it really mean to establis...
The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), specifically Vayikra Rabbah, that treasure trove of rabbinic interpretations, offers us some beautiful insights. Rabbi Yehoshua ben ...
The ancient rabbis grappled with these very questions, and their answers, preserved in texts like Vayikra Rabbah, are both surprising and deeply inspiring. to one fascinating passa...
And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba (Gen. 28:10). May it please our master to teach us where a man who has unintentionally taken the life of another man may take refuge. Thus do our...
Judah, fourth son of Jacob and Leah, gathered his sons and told them everything. His mother had named him Judah, saying, "I give thanks to the Lord, because He has given me a fourt...
"Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad" – "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One" (Deut. 6:4). We say it every day, often multiple times a day. But where did it ...
Reish Lakish was a bandit. He was also, according to Bava Metzia 84a, one of the most physically imposing men alive, a gladiator, a highwayman, a man who lived by violence. Then he...
When God looks down at a wicked generation, the rabbis said, He searches for one righteous person to carry the weight of atonement for all the rest. This is the reading Aggadat Ber...
Hannah vowed at Shiloh, if God gives her a son, she will give him back (1 Samuel 1:11). Rabbi Berachiah used this verse to address four theological objections that people raise aga...
"And the El Shaddai grant you mercy" (Genesis 43:14). Jacob is sending Benjamin to Egypt, his youngest, his only remaining connection to Rachel, the son he can least afford to lose...
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...
There is a line in Jacob's blessing so strange the ancient translators could not leave it alone. In the Hebrew, Jacob asks an angel to bless his grandsons. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan k...
The Hebrew calls Naphtali "a hind let loose, that giveth goodly words" (Genesis 49:21). The image is a deer sprinting across a mountainside with news. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan names ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 13:19) tells a story the Hebrew only hints at. Moses, on the night Israel leaves Egypt, is not packing or leading. He is recovering a body. Jo...
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 ...
That feeling echoes through the lives of our ancestors, too, especially in the complicated family dynamics of Jacob. The source turns to the Book of Jubilees, a fascinating, though...
Chapter 46 tells us about a significant moment: the Israelites, after a period of time, gathered up all the bones of Jacob’s children, with one notable exception: Joseph. And where...
When Naphtali grew old and felt his strength fading, he gathered his children and gave them one final command. It was not about silver or gold. "I speak to you about a very easy ma...
He continued his journey, finally, to his father Isaac. The peace wouldn't last. Jacob eventually made his way back to Shechem, that very place where his sons had, shall we say, st...
The eldest is often remembered as holding a special place, but Jewish tradition sometimes flips that script in fascinating ways. the story turns to the tale of Ephraim and Manasseh...
Legends of the Jews turns to Reuben Lost Three Crowns for One Rash Act. Jacob, on his deathbed, addresses Reuben. "Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my...
The story of Simeon and Levi, found in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 38, explores just that kind of fiery zeal. It all starts with the violation of their sister, Dinah, by Shechem. That S...
The scene: Jacob is on his deathbed. He summons his beloved son, Joseph. This isn't just a goodbye; it's a moment of profound importance. Jacob says, "O my son! Swear to me by the ...
It turns out, this isn't just good manners – it might be ancient wisdom! The Sifrei Devarim, a collection of early Jewish legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy, teaches ...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves one of the strangest accounts in all of Jewish tradition (Genesis 32:25). Jacob was left alone across the Jabbok, and an angel wrestled him in the ...
"You have made my name to go forth as evil among the inhabitants of the land, among the Kenaanites and Phezerites. And I am a people of small number, and they will gather together ...
(Deuteronomy 6:4). It's a question that takes us back to a pivotal moment, a deathbed scene filled with both anxiety and profound unity. Devarim Rabbah 2 paints a vivid picture. Ja...
Who came into Egypt with Jacob (Exod. 1:1). Did they actually enter Egypt on that very day? Had not many days passed by since their arrival? (This informs us that) as long as Josep...
Book of Jubilees turns to Jacob's Transgression of Levi. The moment. Jacob, having tricked his father into giving him the blessing meant for Esau, now stands before the aging, near...
The tribe of Levi receives a unique blessing. And with it, a sacred role. They will "speak the word of the Lord in righteousness, and they will judge all His judgments in righteous...
Book of Jubilees turns to Levi — Jacob and the Patriarchs. Our story begins on the fourteenth of the month. Jacob, fresh from his experiences, gets up early. What does he do? He gi...
The familiar telling remembers it in religious contexts, but its origins are actually quite fascinating, steeped in ancient traditions and family dynamics. to one such story, found...
It tells a fascinating detail about the passing of knowledge, specifically within the family of Jacob. Chapter 46 tells us a simple but profound thing: "And he gave all his books a...
The stories of the patriarchs, passed down through generations, are full of these hidden gems. the story turns to a couple concerning Jacob and his grandsons, Ephraim and Joseph. w...
It all starts with the verse: "And this is the blessing..." What does that seemingly simple phrase actually mean? The text offers a couple of intriguing interpretations. The first ...
When Isaac laid his hands on Jacob a second time, this time with full knowledge of whom he was blessing, he called down the name by which the patriarchs had always known the Holy O...
