9,687 related texts · Page 14 of 202
Freedom. Did everyone just instantly start singing and dancing? Well, not exactly. According to Ginzberg's retelling in Legends of the Jews, the Israelites were… well, they were ex...
The journey itself, surprisingly, wasn't fraught with peril from the locals. The text explains that God smoothed their path. As soon as the spies, sent by Moses to scout the land, ...
But the story of the Israelite soldiers after their victory over Midian, as told in Legends of the Jews, is something else entirely. These weren't your typical conquerors. They cam...
It’s a powerful moment to contemplate. Tradition tells us that as Moses knew his time was drawing to a close, he summoned Joshua, his successor. He gathered all of Israel, and impa...
We often turn to prayer in times of need, but did you know that some prayers are believed to have shaped the very destiny of a people? Let's journey back to the time of Moses, a fi...
According to Ginzberg's retelling in Legends of the Jews, Saul's end was that of a hero and a saint. Can you imagine that? Despite his flaws, despite his errors, he died a man rede...
King Hezekiah knew the feeling. He finally listened to the prophet Isaiah and took a wife – Isaiah's daughter, no less! A match made in, if not heaven, then at least in spiritually...
The prophet Jeremiah certainly knew. Even as tragedy unfolded around him, he refused to sugarcoat the truth. Imagine him, standing before the king, knowing that his words could sea...
King Ahasuerus, in the Book of Esther, was having one of those nights, and nothing seemed to calm him. That is, until… According to Legends of the Jews, Ahasuerus only found a bit ...
Isn't it amazing to consider the different ways people organize their societies, and how those structures reflect their deepest beliefs? : what could be a more sacred form of gover...
The writer Josephus, in his work Against Apion, makes a pretty bold claim. He argues that Jewish laws and customs have not only been admired but actively imitated by people across ...
King Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper chamber and was badly injured. Instead of praying to the God of Israel, he sent messengers to consult the Fly, the god of Ekron. ...
But the mystics have been wrestling with this idea for centuries. to a passage from Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar 42 and see what it has to say about God, the Shekhinah, and th...
The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah, uses this very image – a woman filling her pitcher – to describe the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence. It's a power...
When God split the Red Sea for the Israelites, the miracle did not stop at a single body of water. The Mekhilta asks a pointed question: what about the waters in pits, cavities, ca...
The Torah recounts that when the city of Shechem violated Dinah, it was specifically Shimon and Levi who took up swords and avenged her. The verse calls them "the brothers of Dinah...
The Mekhilta continues its rigorous legal analysis of who can be sold into servitude. Having established that a daughter cannot sell herself, a new question arises. Should a daught...
Beloved are the strangers, for by every epithet that Israel is called, the strangers are called. Israelites are called "servants," as it is written (Leviticus 25:55) "For unto Me t...
To teach that a dog is of higher station than a slave, a treifah being relegated to a dog, but only neveilah, to a slave, and to teach that the Holy One Blessed be He does not with...
The book of Psalms, Tehillim in Hebrew, is full of that raw, vulnerable feeling. And the Midrash Tehillim, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Psalms, digs even deeper....
Midrash Tehillim, a collection of interpretations on the Book of Psalms, offers a startling perspective on the famine that forced Jacob and his family to leave Canaan. “And there w...
The book of Numbers, Bamidbar, wrestles with these questions directly. In the passage we're looking at today from Sifrei Bamidbar (161), we find some fascinating, and at times, cha...
to a fascinating passage from Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal commentaries on the Book of Deuteronomy, that wrestles with this very issue. The text begins by discussing "a dr...
Isn’t it amazing sometimes, the things we take for granted? We rush through our days, caught up in the whirlwind, and forget the truly monumental things that have shaped us. Like, ...
Today, let’s untangle a fascinating detail from the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy) and Shemot (Exodus) concerning the Hebrew slave – the eved Ivri – who chooses to remain with his m...
We're talking about the law concerning Hebrew slaves. Specifically, what happens when a slave chooses to stay with his master even after his term of service is up. Remember, accord...
Jewish law, particularly as it deals with witnesses and testimony, is full of exactly those kinds of moments. to one, shall we? We're looking at Sifrei Devarim, a collection of leg...
The clash of swords, the blare of trumpets…terrifying. But did you know that Jewish tradition actually makes provisions for those who are overcome by fear in war? We find this in S...
It’s a question that echoes through the ages, and the Torah, specifically the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy), gives us a powerful glimpse. The verse states, "and he became there a n...
The tribes of Reuben and Gad had enormous herds, and when they saw the conquered territory east of the Jordan, they wanted to stay. The Targum's version of (Numbers 32) captures Mo...
The Talmud's dream encyclopedia in Berakhot 57b extends far beyond animals and actions. It maps the entire biblical library onto the landscape of sleep. Rabbi Yohanan taught that i...
Bar Hedya made his living interpreting dreams — and the Talmud (Berakhot 56a) reveals his shameful secret. His interpretations had nothing to do with the dreams themselves. They we...
Two brothers lived in Cou$y in the year 893(1). Moses was a scholar and poor and Haim very rich. The latter asked his brother to act as his adviser and he would provide for his fam...
When Alexander the Great conquered the known world, he did not merely defeat armies — he rearranged the claims of nations. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 91a) records that after his conques...
The sages taught that physical cleanliness was not merely a matter of hygiene — it was a spiritual discipline that could literally make a person shine. Rabbi Judah HaNasi, known si...
The Roman emperor Antoninus had a private and unusual friendship with Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi, the compiler of the Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law). They met in secret and d...
Three brothers set out on a journey — and encountered a witch who tested them with riddles, tricks, and dark magic. The tale, preserved in Jewish and comparative folklore collectio...
In Bamidbar Rabbah (Numbers Rabbah) 21, we encounter a fascinating tension. God commands the Israelites to "Assail the Midianites." Seems pretty straightforward. But then, the text...
to one such verse, found in (Numbers 31:4), which speaks of sending soldiers to battle against Midian: "One thousand from each and every tribe [elef lamateh elef lamateh], from all...
"Know with certainty that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will be enslaved to them and they will oppress them, four hundred years.” That's...
Our story begins with Abraham. "Abraham traveled from there," the verse tells us (Genesis 20:1). But where was he going, and why? Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic ...
It all boils down to a pot of stew. (Genesis 25:29) tells us, "Jacob cooked a stew, and Esau came from the field and he was weary." Simple enough. But within that weariness, and wi...
Beyond being one of the twelve tribes of Israel, it carries a unique promise, a prophecy intertwined with leadership, lineage, and ultimately, the coming of the Messiah. to a fasci...
Today, we’re diving into one particularly intense moment: Jacob's words about Simeon and Levi. It all starts with the verse: "Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of villainy are ...
The sages in Kohelet Rabbah 7 delve into this very question, offering some fascinating possibilities. Rabbi Yehuda paints a picture of something like the Nile River. the Nile doesn...
We often focus on the parting of the Red Sea, a miraculous escape. But what about the pain, the suffering, the sheer terror of those enslaved in Egypt? The Shir HaShirim Rabbah, a ...
It all starts with a verse from (Song of Songs 8:13): “The one who dwells in the gardens, companions listen to your voice; let me hear it.” Rabbi Natan, quoting Rabbi Aḥa, uses a p...
That secret to a long, happy, and fulfilling existence. Well, maybe, just maybe, the answer has been staring us in the face all along. Vayikra Rabbah, a fascinating midrash (rabbin...
