3,287 related texts · Page 21 of 69
The answer, they suggest, might lie in the seemingly simple phrase, "I will harden his heart." But what does it mean to harden someone's heart? According to Shemot Rabbah, a collec...
The Shemot Rabbah, a classic collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Exodus, offers a breathtakingly intimate perspective on that pivotal moment. Specifically, Shemot...
The Divine, it seems, knows the feeling. According to Shemot Rabbah, the great collection of Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic interpretations on the Book of Exodus, God...
We read in (Exodus 12:37): "The children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Sukkot, approximately six hundred thousand men on foot, beside children." It's a verse that launches us...
We often think of Moses, armed with divine authority, as the driving force behind the Israelites' liberation. But what about Pharaoh? Did he simply cave to the plagues, or was ther...
The Israelites certainly did at the Red Sea. Pharaoh’s army was bearing down on them, and the sea was, well, a sea. So what were they supposed to do? Pray? Act? Just give up? The B...
We often think of it as just a structure, but according to Jewish tradition, every single element, every color, every placement, held profound meaning. Take the Hoshen, the breastp...
Shemot Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Exodus, offers a fascinating perspective on this, likening the people of Israel to a vine. Rabbi Tanhuma bar ...
We're looking at verse 4:12-13: “A locked garden is my sister, my bride; a locked fountainhead, a sealed spring. Your branches are an orchard of pomegranates, with delicious fruit,...
The Torah tackles this very question, and the answer is surprisingly nuanced. We find a fascinating passage in Vayikra Rabbah 23, which delves into (Leviticus 18:3): “You shall not...
Take, for instance, the four species we use on Sukkot – the etrog (citron), the lulav (date palm frond), the hadass (myrtle), and the aravah (willow). They aren't just random plant...
We find a clue in Vayikra Rabbah, specifically in a passage connected to the story of the "son of an Israelite woman" (Leviticus 24:10). The text begins by quoting the Song of Song...
Remember Joseph? The Hebrew slave who correctly interpreted Pharaoh's dream about the famine? Well, Pharaoh hasn't forgotten. According to the Book of Jasher, after seeing that Jos...
We know about Mount Sinai, the thunder, the lightning, the booming voice... but what about the days that followed?Book of Jasher and see what unfolded. The story picks up right aft...
Gad, ninth son of Jacob, born of Zilpah, spoke to his sons in the hundred and twenty-fifth year of his life. He had been valiant in keeping the flocks, guarding them at night. When...
The Bible is full of them, but sometimes the stories between the lines are even more fascinating. to the tale of Jacob and his father-in-law, Laban, a story ripe with tension, accu...
What would you say? Would you offer blessings, warnings, or maybe even a bit of both? That's what happened with Jacob, also known as Israel, as he lay dying in Egypt, surrounded by...
The Jewish tradition has some fascinating stories about that, and one of the most intriguing is the tale of Asenath and Joseph. It's a story about beauty, prejudice, divine interve...
Her story takes a dramatic turn in Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg, and it involves treachery, divine intervention, and a whole lot of pebbles! Imagine this: Asenath, surroun...
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...
We all know the story: God sends these devastating plagues upon Egypt until Pharaoh finally relents and lets the Israelites go. But there's so much more to it than just a simple "p...
They're prophecies, warnings, glimpses into the future, and sometimes, even clues about the fate of nations! Remember the story of Joseph in Egypt? He's not just interpreting dream...
The scene: Joseph, now a powerful figure in Egypt, has just made a demand. He wants one of his brothers to stay behind as a hostage, a guarantee of their good faith. It's a tense m...
Now, Potiphar – yes, that Potiphar, the Egyptian priest – had promised his daughter he wouldn't mention a certain… plan… again. The moment Joseph's arrival was announced, Asenath r...
Sometimes, the most fascinating tales are the ones that didn't quite make it into the main narrative. Take, for example, a story spun around Joseph and his wife, Asenath. Picture t...
Even tales that seem straightforward often have shadowy corners, and the story of Asenath, Joseph's wife, is no exception. We all remember the story of Joseph. Sold into slavery in...
The story of Moses gives us a profound glimpse into that very question. We all know Moses as Moshe Rabbenu, "Moses our Teacher," the one who led the Israelites out of Egypt and rec...
Imagine, you're finally free. Free from centuries of enslavement, free from back-breaking labor, free from the sting of the whip. But where do you go? The Israelites, fresh from th...
Jewish tradition has some fascinating answers, and they often involve celestial dramas playing out behind the scenes. Take the story of the Exodus, the moment when the Israelites w...
We often think of tyranny and oppression, but sometimes, the stories go deeper, into outright defiance of the sacred. Let's talk about Jehoiakim, a king of Judah who, according to ...
to one such instance, where the Egyptian historian Manetho gives us a glimpse into how the ancient world viewed the Israelites' exodus from Egypt. Josephus, in his work Against Api...
We often think of the classic texts – the Torah, the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) – but there's a whole other world of accounts out there, often written by those not ...
One of the most remarkable claims in rabbinic tradition is that the Israelites preserved their identity throughout centuries of Egyptian bondage by refusing to change their names. ...
(Exodus 13:19) "For hashbea hishbia the children of Israel": He (Joseph) had made them (his brothers) swear ("hashbea") that they would beswear ("hishbia") their children. R. Natha...
The Mekhilta reinforces Rabbi Tarfon's teaching about the tribe of Judah with a verse from Psalms. "When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from the people of a foreign t...
An analogy: A king's son goes abroad—he goes after him and attends upon him. He goes to a different city—he goes after him and attends upon him. Thus with Israel. When they went do...
The Mekhilta presents a remarkable statement from the congregation of Israel, addressed directly to God, that explains exactly why they are singing at the Red Sea. "Lord of the wor...
We hear their names, perhaps a small story or two, and then...silence. But sometimes, just sometimes, the silence breaks and a legend blossoms. Take Serah bat Asher, for example. W...
The Torah tells us about the 10th plague, the death of the firstborn in Egypt, and the Exodus that followed. But the details… they’re fascinating. Rabbi Shimon Ben Yochai, a toweri...
It all starts with understanding the power of fulfilling God's will. In Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal and ethical teachings supplementing the Book of Deuteronomy, we find a...
When Moses was born, the entire house filled with light. According to Sotah 12a, his mother Yocheved saw immediately that he was special—the Torah's phrase "she saw that he was goo...
..[With regard to] this did [Jeremiah] say to have it written, 'Surely the shepherd boys will drag away [the evil ones, Edom or Babylonia in defeat].' (Jeremiah 49:20, 50:45) Rabbi...
Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) Read-but-not-Written I) But [the children of] Benjamin would not yield (Judges 20:13). The word the children of is missing, for they did ...
(3) (Fol. 10b) We have been taught that R. Eliezer says: "In the month of Tishri the world was created; in the month of Tishri the Patriarchs [Abraham and Jacob], were born, and in...
The birth of Moses was no ordinary event. According to the ancient chronicles preserved in Jerahmeel and the writings of Josephus, the arrival of Israel's greatest prophet was prec...
Joseph was brought down to Egypt (Genesis 39:1). Lamentations gives the frame: "Good is the man who sits alone and is silent, for he will bear the yoke upon himself. He will put hi...
The story goes that after his less-than-amicable departure from his father-in-law Laban, Jacob found himself at the River Yabbok (Yabbok, a river in the Transjordan, now part of Jo...
We all have. But did you know that, according to some interpretations, leaving a mitzvah – a good deed or commandment – unfinished can have serious consequences? Rabbi Yehuda bar S...
