1,822 related texts · Page 11 of 38
Have compassion on thyself, father, and on us and on all our house, for they have come against thee to slay thee and to destroy thy house." And Jacob girded his loins with strength...
Today, let’s pull one of those stories out into the light. It’s a dramatic, violent, and frankly, surprising tale found not in the Torah itself, but in a fascinating apocryphal boo...
In chapter 38, we read about what happened after Jacob’s sons came into conflict with the sons of Esau in the mountains of Seir. The sons of Jacob, fierce and determined, pressed h...
The famine in the land was brutal. The people were starving. Desperate, Jacob turned to his sons: "Go again," he pleaded, "and procure food for us, that we die not." But his sons w...
That’s where Jacob found himself when he heard the news – unbelievable news – that his beloved son, Joseph, was not only alive but thriving in Egypt. Can you imagine the scene? His...
The story we’re diving into today comes from the Book of Jubilees, a fascinating text that expands on the stories we find in Genesis. It's considered apocryphal by some, meaning it...
That feeling, that tension, is right at the heart of the story we find in the Book of Jubilees as Jacob, now also known as Israel, prepares to leave the familiar for the unknown. T...
Genealogies stretching back to… well, seemingly forever! It's easy to skim over them, but sometimes, buried within those lists, are little gems of insight. Today, let’s peek into t...
Then imagine the reunion. The overwhelming rush of emotion... That's the scene we're about to step into. We find Joseph, who after years of hardship, has risen to power in Egypt. A...
The Book of Jubilees, an ancient Jewish text that expands on the biblical narrative, gives us a beautiful glimpse into those moments. It tells us that Joseph and his brothers gathe...
The Torah is full of these moments, these transitions, these reminders of our own mortality. And the Book of Jubilees, that fascinating text that expands upon Genesis, Exodus, and ...
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...
That feeling echoes through the ages, all the way back to the time of the Maccabees. And it’s where our story begins. These aren’t my words, mind you. This is straight from The Sec...
They were definitely outnumbered, and not exactly popular with the neighbors. But then, something amazing happened. Chapter 35 of the Book of Jasher opens with all the kings of the...
Today, we're diving into one of those: a chapter from the Book of Jasher. This isn't the Biblical Book of Jasher referenced in Joshua and Samuel, mind you (that one's lost to time,...
That’s where texts like the Book of Jasher come in, offering us a glimpse into those "untold" stories. Chapter 40 of Jasher picks up right after the sons of Jacob have plundered Ga...
Remember, this is an ancient Hebrew text, not considered canon, but full of fascinating stories filling in gaps in the biblical narrative. Our story picks up with Jacob and his son...
To recap, the brothers have already journeyed to Egypt to buy food during a brutal famine, encountering the powerful and mysterious Egyptian viceroy– who is secretly their long-los...
The Book of Jasher, an ancient Hebrew text of uncertain origin, gives us a glimpse into that emotional reunion and the events that followed. It's a powerful story of family, faith,...
Book of Jasher, a fascinating, albeit non-canonical, work that expands upon biblical narratives. According to Jasher, Jacob lived in Egypt for seventeen years, reaching the ripe ol...
The chapter opens with Pharaoh, secure in his reign, commanding the construction of a magnificent palace. And who does he enlist to help? None other than the sons of Jacob, adding ...
It’s a relentless chronicle of life and death, battles and betrayals. We're in Egypt, some seventy-nine years after Jacob and his family arrived. The years are marked by a somber r...
According to the Alphabet of Ben Sira, a medieval text composed between 700 and 1000 CE, the child prodigy Ben Sira mastered the entirety of human and divine knowledge in just seve...
The Genesis Apocryphon transforms Abraham from a terse biblical figure into a vivid first-person narrator. In the Aramaic retelling of Genesis 13, Abraham climbs to a high place af...
The Book of Giants is one of the most remarkable texts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls—and it tells a story the Bible only hints at. In (Genesis 6:4), a single verse mentions the ...
The Garden of Eden is not a meadow. It is a city of palaces. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, there are...
Esau was seething after Jacob received their father Isaac's blessing. He was so consumed by hatred, according to Ginzberg's retelling in Legends of the Jews, that Jacob had to esca...
His journey to Haran was no ordinary trip – it was, according to tradition, a day absolutely packed with divine intervention, a veritable whirlwind of the wondrous! Ginzberg, in hi...
His story of wrestling with an angel is one of the most powerful and enigmatic in the entire Torah. As Jacob journeyed back to Canaan, anticipating a tense reunion with his brother...
The story in Genesis leaves us with Esau heading off to Mount Seir, and it feels like maybe, just maybe, the brothers have finally found a way to coexist. But as we often find in t...
According to Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews, there was a very real chance that Jacob wouldn't have made it. It all boils down to a moment of vulnerability, a brush with death, and ...
It’s a theme that runs deep in Jewish tradition, especially when it comes to our most righteous figures. According to Legends of the Jews, even Jacob, after years of hardship, thou...
Let’s talk about Joseph, and that infamous pit. The story begins with Jacob's sons, out tending their father's flocks near Shechem. They were gone a long time, and Jacob, naturally...
Today, we're diving into the fascinating story of Pharaoh's dreams, a pivotal moment in the biblical narrative of Joseph. Now, Joseph, as you might remember, was languishing in an ...
That’s kind of the place Jacob was in. Years had passed since he last saw his beloved son, Joseph. He believed Joseph was dead, and the grief was a heavy cloak he wore every day. B...
Not just buzzing, practically vibrating with anticipation! The viceroy, Joseph, is about to be reunited with his father, Jacob, after years of separation. And the entire country is...
The mourning period ended, but the story certainly didn't. In fact, it was then that the simmering conflict between the descendants of Jacob and Esau erupted again with full force....
Family dynamics are always in play. to a lesser-known tale, a sort of epilogue to the Joseph story, found in Ginzberg's fascinating Legends of the Jews. The story picks up on the t...
It’s a powerful emotion, one that can lead us down paths we never thought we’d tread. The Torah, our sacred text, is full of stories that explore these complex human emotions, and ...
Today, we're diving into the final testament of Benjamin, the youngest son of Jacob, as recounted in Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews. Benjamin, at the ripe old age of one hundred an...
To his right sits his queen, Alfar’anit. And to his left? His daughter, Bithiah, with a three-year-old Moses on her lap. Now, this isn’t just any toddler. In a moment of pure, unfi...
The story of Abraham, and his fiery trial, certainly makes you wonder. It all begins with his father, Terah, a man who, according to Legends of the Jews, could read the heavens. Te...
It's human, unfortunately, and as we delve into the story of Abraham, we find his father, Terah, doing just that. Terah, was in a bit of a pickle. He had, shall we say, misled the ...
It happens to the best of us, and as we’ll see, it certainly happened to Laban in the story of Rebekah and Eliezer. Let's set the stage. Rebekah, you'll recall, had just met Elieze...
Jewish tradition certainly seems to think so. Take the story of Jacob and Esau, those eternally feuding twins from the Book of Genesis. Their very names, given at birth, are loaded...
Take the tale of Jacob and Esau. As babies, they were basically indistinguishable. Like a myrtle and a thorn bush just sprouting – you can't tell them apart yet. But give them time...
And the reason why might surprise you. According to some traditions, it was actually thanks to the merits of his grandson, Jacob, that Abraham himself was rescued from the fiery fu...
And it all boils down to a simple bowl of lentils. Yep, lentils. According to Ginzberg's retelling in Legends of the Jews, this encounter happens soon after the death of their gran...
