3,765 related texts · 59 related myths · Page 3 of 79
Three days after his circumcision, Abraham sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day, sore, exhausted, ninety-nine years old. And God appeared to him (Genesis 18:1). T...
"The righteous will give thanks to Your name; the upright will dwell in Your presence" (Psalm 140:14). The rabbis noticed something beautiful in this promise, God does not judge Is...
When Sarah died, Abraham aged overnight. The midrash says it plainly: old age came upon him the moment he buried her, as the verse notes, "Abraham was old, coming with days" (Genes...
“Haman saw that Mordekhai was not bowing and prostrating himself to him and Haman was filled with wrath” (Esther 3:5).“Haman saw that Mordekhai was not bowing and prostrating himse...
The fifth heaven of Sefer HaRazim marks a transition from the functional heavens below, weather, punishment, light, and the sun, to the more abstract and terrifying realms above. H...
The Hebrew of (Genesis 18:3) is famously ambiguous. Is Abraham speaking to the angels, or to God? Targum Pseudo-Jonathan answers with a confident rearrangement. Abraham addresses t...
Why did God decide to let Abraham in on the destruction of Sodom? The Targum answers with one Aramaic word: chasidutha, piety, devotion, loving-kindness. His chasidut, the Targum s...
A thousand pieces of silver. That is what the king paid. And in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 20:16), the Aramaic paraphrase lingers on what the coins mean. They are a keseiat...
Here is a line that rewards slow reading. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 21:1), the Aramaic translator takes a short Hebrew verse and opens a window onto a principle the rab...
The biblical verse is blunt. Sarah tells Abraham to cast out the handmaid and her son. But in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 21:10), the Aramaic adds a sentence that changes ev...
Listen to how carefully Abimelech phrases his request. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 21:23), the king asks Abraham to swear by the Word of the Lord that he will not act fal...
Here is the Targum's most beloved expansion of the patriarchal story. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 21:33), the Hebrew says Abraham planted a eshel, a tamarisk, in Beersheb...
One of the most painful verses in the Torah is also one of its shortest. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 22:6), Abraham lays the wood of the offering on Isaac's shoulder. Fat...
The single most heartbreaking exchange in Genesis is seven words long. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 22:7), Isaac says abba, my father. Abraham answers ha-ana, I am here. T...
The voice from heaven arrives just in time. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 22:12), the Aramaic renders the command in its sharpest possible form: Stretch not out thy hand up...
The deed is recorded with the care of a surveyor. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 23:17), the Aramaic lists what Abraham now owns: the field, and the cave that is therein, an...
There’s this fascinating ancient text, the Book of Jubilees, a work that retells the stories of Genesis and Exodus but with a very particular slant. It’s not part of the Hebrew Bib...
Hagar knew that feeling intimately. We find her story, or at least a piece of it, echoed in the Book of Jubilees, an ancient Jewish text that retells and expands upon stories from ...
Book of Jubilees turns to The Binding of Isaac Retold in Jubilees. The familiar version gives us the basic story from Genesis 22. God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, ...
While not part of the accepted biblical canon, Jasher (meaning "Upright" or "Correct Record") offers a fascinating, if sometimes embellished, account of biblical events. And Chapte...
Sarah, wife of Abraham, certainly did when they journeyed to Egypt. to a fascinating episode from Legends of the Jews that shows just how powerfully things can turn around. Sarah, ...
Legends of the Jews turns to The Angels Who Felt Less Angelic in Abraham's Presence. These weren't just any angels,. These were archangels! And after they shared a meal with Abraha...
Our tale begins with angels leaving Abraham at midday, their wings carrying them towards Sodom as evening approached. Now, usually, angels are all about speed. They deliver their m...
Even though Abraham knew in his heart that Isaac, his beloved son, was the most deserving of his paternal blessing, he held back. Why? According to Legends of the Jews (Ginzberg), ...
Abraham, our ancestor Abraham, did just that. Think back to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. A harrowing tale. We read in the Torah about Abraham pleading with God to spare the cit...
One particularly intriguing story comes from Heikhalot (the heavenly palaces) Rabbati, a text within the Heikhalot literature, a collection of mystical writings exploring heavenly ...
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev opens his commentary on Parshat Vayera (Genesis 18:1) with a puzzle: the Torah says "God appeared to him," using only the pronoun "him" instead of...
(Exodus 12:41) "and it was at the end of four hundred and thirty years": We are hereby apprised that when the time arrived, the L–rd did not delay them for one moment. On the fifte...
Our sages certainly thought so, and they had some amazing stories to illustrate just that. to one, found in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, specifically chapter 16. It tells of Eliezer, Ab...
Our story starts with Abraham. Remember when he learns that his nephew Lot has been captured? (Genesis 14:13) tells us, "And there came one who had escaped, and told Abram the Hebr...
It's far more than just a nice story about hospitality. According to Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating early medieval text that weaves together biblical narrative and rabbinic ...
Sometimes, those threads are stronger than we imagine, woven with love and a touch of the divine. Our story today comes from Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating work of Jewish li...
The Hebrew Bible says three "men" appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre (Genesis 18:2). The Targum Jonathan tells you exactly what they were and exactly why each one came. They ...
"I will not break my covenant, nor change that which has come out of my lips" (Psalm 89:35). The binding of Isaac begins with this verse in Aggadat Bereshit, not with the command i...
The Torah, in its infinite wisdom, gives us a glimpse into this very idea through the contrasting actions of Abraham and Lot. We find ourselves in Genesis chapter 19, where Lot enc...
The story of Lot and the destruction of Sodom, as explored in Bereshit Rabbah 50, is a stark reminder of how attachment to material possessions can cloud our judgment and even enda...
Our story begins with the seemingly simple phrase, “After these matters [devarim]…”. The Hebrew word devarim can mean both "matters" and "words," and as we explore Bereshit Rabbah ...
Beautiful. But what does that imagery evoke? Shir HaShirim Rabbah, a Midrashic (rabbinic interpretive commentary) collection (meaning a collection of interpretations and stories) f...
When harsh decrees threaten the Jewish people, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov prescribes an unexpected remedy: dancing and clapping hands. The logic runs through a teaching about what co...
Abraham stands at the headwaters of the Jewish story, and the Talmud gathers around him a flood of legends, score upon score of traditions that stretch far beyond what the Book of ...
When Abraham left Ur Kasdim and the idol-shops of his father Terach, he did not simply walk away. He pitched a tent, and the tent became a doorway. The rabbis imagined the scene th...
Chapter 18 of Genesis opens with one of the most intimate moments in the Torah, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan gives it a medical detail the Hebrew leaves implicit. The glory of the Lo...
By (Genesis 18:31), Abraham is calling God "the Lord of all the world", ribbon kol alma in the Targum's Aramaic. And apologizing in advance. "Imploring mercy, I have now begun to s...
Here is where the bargain ends, and here is where Targum Pseudo-Jonathan slips in the detail most English readers miss. "I implore mercy before Thee! Let not the anger of the Lord,...
The mob scene in (Genesis 19:4) is one of the most chilling lines in Torah. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders it with unflinching clarity. "They had not yet lain down, when the wicked...
The crowd at Lot's door is done bargaining. (Genesis 19:9), in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan's Aramaic, records the exact accusation they throw at him. "Did not this come alone to sojourn...
In (Genesis 19:21), the Targum renders the angelic answer with a startling economy. "And He said, Behold, I have accepted thee in this matter also, that I will not overthrow the ci...
Every family has a story it tells to the outside world. Abraham's was quieter than most. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 20:13), he finally explains to Abimelech why he left ...
