998 related texts · 2 related myths · Page 1 of 21
This teaching dives into the verse, "And charge (tzav) Joshua." Now, this isn't just a simple instruction, but a "charging" (tzivui), which the text interprets as prompting to zeal...
The death of Moses is the most devastating scene in the Torah. And the Talmud in Sotah 13b expands it into something almost unbearable. Moses pleaded with God not to let him die. H...
The rabbis of Esther Rabbah made a stunning claim: every time the Hebrew word vayhi ("it was") appears in the Torah, it signals disaster. Rabbi Tanhuma, Rabbi Berekhya, and Rabbi H...
God told Moses: "Do not speak to Me on this matter again" (Deuteronomy 3:26). The decree was final. But Moses argued anyway. Rabbi Abbahu offered a parable. A nobleman found a magn...
Who wrote the Hebrew Bible? The Talmud in Bava Batra 14b provides a complete accounting, attributing every book to a specific author. Moses wrote his own book, the Torah. And also ...
The Sefer haYashar, or Book of Jasher, a collection of Jewish legends and lore, gives us a glimpse. Chapter 87 opens with a divine instruction. "At that time the Lord said to Moses...
The story continues, of course! And Chapter 88 of the Book of Jasher to see what happened as the Israelites finally entered the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua. The Bo...
The question of whether Moses wrote the last eight verses of the Torah, the ones describing his own death, provoked one of the most poignant debates in the Talmud. Bava Batra 15a p...
In Chapter 89, we find just such a song, bursting with praise and recounting God's powerful deliverance. "Then spoke Joshua this song," the text begins, "on the day that the Lord h...
Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught that prayer is the essential weapon of the Messiah. Not a sword. Not an army. Prayer. The teaching begins with a striking image from the Zohar: the ...
On the last day of his life, Moses did something no prophet had ever done, he dressed his successor in public, with his own hands. He commanded that a golden throne be brought, alo...
In Jewish tradition, we find a fascinating story in Devarim Rabbah that touches upon just such a concept when it comes to the death of Moses. The passage starts by asking, "What is...
It’s like a tiny seed containing an entire orchard. Take, for instance, the verse from (Song of Songs 7:5): "Your neck is like an ivory tower; your eyes are pools in Ḥeshbon, by th...
Rabbi Joshua came to the academy one afternoon and asked the students what Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah had taught that morning. The young man had been appointed head of the Sanhedrin...
Our story comes from the wisdom of Ben Sira, also known as Ecclesiasticus, a book of wisdom literature. It’s part of the Jewish writings of the Second Temple period, writings that ...
This tension, this very human struggle, lies at the heart of a beautiful passage in the Pesikta DeRav Kahana, a collection of Midrashic (rabbinic interpretive commentary) teachings...
It wasn't quite as simple as drawing lines on a map. There were… exceptions. Special cases. And those exceptions, as always, tell us a lot about the rules themselves. The verse in ...
Not just any song, but the song. The kind of song that echoes through eternity? Sifrei Devarim, in section 334, gives us a glimpse into this profound idea. It states, "Great is 'so...
Moses received the Torah at Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the prophets to the Men of the Great Assembly. They said t...
The familiar story is this: the Ten Commandments, the Golden Calf.. but what about the moments in between? The feelings, the doubts, the sheer weight of responsibility? The Ginzber...
A daunting task, wouldn't you say? The Torah tells us that Moses didn't just appoint Joshua. He made sure everyone knew it was happening, and understood why. According to the bibli...
The weight of that moment, the sheer magnitude of the loss. it's almost unbearable to contemplate. In Legends of the Jews, when Joshua heard the words of Moses, words etched in the...
That’s kind of how the Jewish tradition sees things. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the transition of leadership from Moses to Joshua. It's a powerful moment, heavy with...
The story goes that when Moses realized that Heaven and Earth, the very cosmos, wouldn’t answer his prayers, he turned to humanity. He sought solace, intercession, from those he ha...
It seems even Joshua, the great successor to Moses, felt that deeply. The story goes that the time was approaching when Joshua would usually get up. Now, imagine Moses, the leader ...
It wasn't always a simple, smooth affair, as we learn in the fascinating accounts woven into the tradition of Jewish legend. The scene: Moses, nearing the end of his life, is deter...
The Legends of the Jews, that incredible compilation of rabbinic stories and folklore assembled by Louis Ginzberg, gives us a glimpse into a truly human moment for the greatest pro...
What happens when a legend disappears? When a leader, a prophet, a figure like MOSES, is simply… gone? The grief, of course, is immense. But beyond that, there's often a desperate,...
It's a powerful image, isn't it? A promise from God, as recounted in Legends of the Jews, that "Thou that didst lead My children in this world, shalt also lead them in the future w...
Take Joshua, for example. Initially, he wasn't exactly known for his brilliance. In fact, some called him a fool! But he served Moses faithfully. And as we read in Legends of the J...
(Exodus 15:26) "And He said: If pay heed, you shall pay heed": From here it was derived: If a man paid heed to one mitzvah, he is caused to pay heed to many mitzvoth (commandments)...
Concerning this it is stated in the Tradition (Song of Songs 2:14) "My Dove in the clefts of the rock … Show me Your face; let me hear Your voice. For Your voice is sweet and Your ...
Our exploration begins with a verse from the Song of Songs (7:3): "Your navel is like a round goblet... Your belly is a heap of wheat." The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentar...
(Psalm 18:26) offers a fascinating, and perhaps unsettling, answer: "With a pious person, act piously; with an upright man, be upright; with a pure one, be pure; and with a crooked...
Midrash Tehillim turns to Asaph's Song. Here's the puzzle: Why is this anguish labeled a psalm, a song? Shouldn’t it be a lament? The Midrash, a collection of rabbinic commentaries...
Midrash Tehillim (a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Psalms) poses a seemingly simple question about the opening of Psalm 90, traditionally ascribed to Moses: ...
It’s an idea that pulses with life throughout Jewish tradition, a concept that goes far beyond just melody. to Midrash Tehillim, specifically Midrash Tehillim 149, and see what it ...
The Yalkut Shimoni, a compilation of rabbinic commentary on the Bible, offers us fascinating glimpses into these connections. the story turns to one small piece, specifically Yalku...
The Torah gives us a powerful example in the story of Moses and Joshua. We find ourselves in the book of Numbers, Bamidbar, specifically chapter 27. God has commanded Moses to appo...
The Torah dedicates significant space to the idea of cities of refuge, places where someone who has accidentally killed another person can flee and find protection. But when exactl...
The verse from Song of Songs (7:5) reads, "Your eyes are like the pools in Cheshbon by the gate of Bath-rabbim." What could this possibly mean? The text explains that "Your eyes" r...
In fact, the Sifrei Devarim, a collection of early legal midrashim (rabbinic interpretive commentary) on the book of Deuteronomy, highlights this idea beautifully. It all starts wi...
The Hebrew Bible records Moses's great farewell poem, the Song of Ha'azinu (Deuteronomy 32), a sweeping poetic indictment of Israel's future unfaithfulness. Targum Onkelos translat...
The last conversation between Moses and Joshua began as a gift and ended as a rebuke. On the day Moses was to enter Paradise, he turned to his closest student and said, "If any dou...
Some traditions whisper that it’s so much more. The Red Sea is splitting, a monumental miracle unfolding before the eyes of the Israelites. According to some, at that very moment, ...
This Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), or interpretive commentary on the Book of Numbers, opens with a verse about the nazir, someone who takes a vow to abstain from cert...
Jewish tradition has a lot to say about that moment – that before and after. And it all starts with a verse from Song of Songs: "Behold the bed of Solomon..." (Song of Songs 3:7). ...
Our jumping-off point is Bamidbar Rabbah 12, a fascinating exploration of the verse "On the day that [Moses] concluded." Now, it first appears this is just a throwaway line, but th...
