936 related texts · Page 3 of 20
He went straight to the top, appealing to God Himself. Why? What went wrong? But God wouldn't answer. Why the divine silence? It wasn't just some cosmic mood swing. According to th...
The Gibeonites were a Canaanite group who cleverly tricked Joshua into making a covenant with them. They knew the Israelites were conquering the land, and so they pretended to be t...
The story of Joshua and the Gibeonites is a powerful lesson in just that. Joshua, successor to Moses, found himself in a bit of a quandary. He'd made an alliance with the Gibeonite...
She wasn't done. This time, she wanted her story, the story of her courage and her people’s deliverance, enshrined within the Holy Scriptures. But the sages hesitated. Big time. Ad...
A person trapped on a low spiritual level might assume that deep Torah understanding is beyond their reach. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov says the opposite is true: the pathway from the...
Pappus expounded (Song of Songs 1:9) "to a mare in the chariots of Pharaoh, etc.": Pharaoh rode on a stallion—the Holy One Blessed be He revealed Himself, as it were, on a stallion...
The ninth (song): (II Chronicles 20:21) "And he (Yehoshafat) took counsel with the people, and he set up singes to the L–rd and lauders of (His) majestic holiness. When they went o...
The Song of the Sea declares: "The Lord is my strength and my song" (Exodus 15:2). The Mekhilta explores what "my strength" actually means, and discovers that this single phrase ca...
viz. (Song of Songs 3: "I had almost passed them (Moses and Aaron) by, when I found Him whom my soul loved. I held onto Him and did not let go of Him until I had brought Him to the...
Israel was not the only nation that broke into song at the Red Sea. According to the Mekhilta, all the peoples of the world joined in. The destruction of Pharaoh and his army sent ...
Rabbi Eliezer Hamodai offered a different interpretation of why Moses told Joshua to "go out" and fight Amalek—and his version cuts deeper. According to Rabbi Eliezer, Moses challe...
Now, we all know Joshua as a great leader, a warrior, a successor to Moses. But what if his origins were shrouded in a myth mirroring some of the most famous stories in history? Ac...
Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Psalms, opens up a fascinating window into this very question. It uses a beautiful image – the "rose of Sh...
Specifically, it grapples with the verse, "Ask of me and I will give you the nations." Seems pretty straightforward. Except… isn't the whole world already promised to God? As (Psal...
But that's exactly the kind of potent imagery we find swirling through the ancient Jewish texts. Today, we’re diving into Midrash Tehillim 9, a section of commentary on the Book of...
And sometimes, the answers lie hidden in the stories we tell. to a passage from Midrash Tehillim, a collection of interpretations on the Book of Psalms. This particular midrash (ra...
That’s the feeling at the heart of Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” But there’s so much more to this familiar verse than meets the eye. Midrash Tehillim, a co...
Midrash Tehillim, a fascinating collection of interpretations on the Book of Psalms, asks a compelling question: "Another man, who is he?" And the answer it provides points us dire...
Midrash Tehillim, a collection of Rabbinic commentaries on the Book of Psalms, dives deep into this idea, exploring how the voices of the righteous resonate with the Divine. "The r...
Today's story from Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Psalms, is all about how seemingly small acts of courage and confession can have enormo...
The story of Joseph in Egypt resonates so deeply because it touches on this universal human experience. And Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book o...
We often imagine nature as this passive backdrop to the human drama, but Jewish tradition sometimes paints a very different picture. A picture where creation itself has a voice, a ...
That feeling of a long, hard journey – that's exactly what's captured in the Psalm of Ascents. But it's not just about the struggle; it's about the song that rises with each step. ...
According to the prophet Isaiah, we are all called by God's name, created for His glory (Isaiah 43:7). It’s a powerful thought. The Midrash Tehillim, in its exploration of Psalm 14...
That’s precisely the situation Joshua faced after the Israelites' initial defeat at Ai. The story, as we find it in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, chapter 38, begins with Joshua in anguis...
Our tradition teaches us it's something far more profound, something deeply connected to the well-being of the people. We find a fascinating insight in Sifrei Bamidbar, a collectio...
The Torah, our guide to life, gives us a glimpse in the book of Bamidbar (Numbers) when Moses is tasked with selecting his successor. It’s more than just picking someone competent;...
We find a passage that starts with the seemingly straightforward command to drive out "all the nations." But wait! The text immediately anticipates a potential misunderstanding. "A...
You might be surprised. Forget the crown jewels and the royal chef. According to one fascinating interpretation in Sifrei Devarim 161, it's a scroll. Specifically, a megillah, a sc...
We’re looking at Deuteronomy 317 in Sifrei Devarim. Here, the text describes other nations, not in terms of people, but in terms of livestock. Specifically, it paints a picture usi...
We're going to dive into a powerful, and frankly, a little scary verse from Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal interpretations on the book of Deuteronomy. Specifically, we're lo...
When a human king celebrates a special occasion, like a wedding, he shares his wealth and joy. But Sifrei Devarim, in its commentary on (Deuteronomy 33:2), challenges this very hum...
A scribe’s nightmare? Perhaps. A treasure trove of textual insights? Absolutely! According to Sifrei Devarim 356, that's exactly what happened. And the differences weren't major pl...
They tell us of Moses' death. But… wait a minute. How could Moses himself have written about his own demise? It's a question that's puzzled Jewish scholars for centuries. The Sifre...
It's not just about giving orders. There's a fascinating idea tucked away in Sifrei Devarim that illuminates this. It says, regarding the Israelites following Moses's command, "and...
The Hebrew Bible records Moses and the Israelites singing a triumphant song after the sea closes over the Egyptians (Exodus 15). Targum Onkelos transforms this victory hymn into so...
When they went out of Egypt, they broke out in song, as it is written: ‘then Moses and the children of Israel sang the song’ (Exodus 15:1); and when Israel went out of Jerusalem th...
Story of Eldad the Danite, Narrative B In the name of the LORD God of Israel, blessed be His name, of our God the King, King of kings, Who chose Israel from among all nations and g...
The daughter of the Emperor said to Rabbi Joshua: “Your God is a builder, so let Him build a tent here." She became leprous and had to be placed in a tent as they do in Rome. She a...
The Emperor asked Rabbi Joshua whether the dead came to life and being dust, how could dust live ? The daughter of the Emperor replied: “There are two makers of things in our place...
A Matrona asked Rabbi Joshua what God has been doing since Creation. The reply was: “He pairs people.” The Ma- trona then ordered a number of male slaves to marry female slaves, th...
In the dark years of Roman persecution, when teaching Torah was a crime punishable by death, two students of Rabbi Joshua went into hiding. They disguised themselves and moved care...
After two full years in prison, Pharaoh dreamed (Genesis 41:1). The midrash reads this through Psalm 73: "As an endless dream, the Lord despised their form." God does not reveal Hi...
Bamidbar Rabbah, the rabbinic commentary on the Book of Numbers, dives right into this question with a surprisingly poetic starting point. The verse we're looking at is "The Lord s...
In the desert, the Israelites found that strength, not just in their faith, but also in their organization, in their very banners. "Each at his banner, with the insignias," says th...
The text hinges on the seemingly simple phrase, "Craft for you." (Numbers 10:2) It's all about the personal nature of leadership and the instruments that come with it. "Craft for y...
The Torah tells us, "Moses called Hoshea son of Nun, Joshua [Yehoshua]" (Numbers 13:16). But here's the question: why did Moses change Hoshea's name to Joshua? What prompted this a...
Believe it or not, there's a story about that – a powerful one, drawn from Bamidbar Rabbah, specifically section 16. It's a tale of complaining, consequences, and a little bit of d...
