2,285 related texts · Page 12 of 48
A father's rash vow cost him the only thing he loved. Jephthah, the illegitimate son of Gilead, was thrown out by his own half-brothers for being born to a foreign woman. He fled t...
The Seleucid Empire was tearing itself apart, and Jonathan knew exactly how to exploit it. Josephus records that after Alexander Balas overthrew Demetrius I and claimed the Syrian ...
Herod had the throne, but the Hasmonean family still haunted him. His wife Mariamne was a Hasmonean princess. Her mother Alexandra was relentless in promoting Hasmonean claims. And...
This passage, specifically from Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar 62, plays with the concept of terumah (תרומה), the offering given to the priests. It suggests that the portion of ...
The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a later expansion and sort of "fix" to the foundational Zohar, gives us a glimpse into this celestial postal service. It paints a picture of ...
But to what? And is there a battle raging within us, a constant tug-of-war between the sacred and… well, the not-so-sacred? The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a later and more ...
When God said "And I shall see the blood" regarding the Passover in Egypt, the Mekhilta offers a stunning alternative reading. The "blood" God would see was not the blood of the Pa...
Rabbi Yoshiyah tackled a question about the scope of the commandment of first fruits, bikkurim. (Deuteronomy 26:2) commands, "Then you shall take of all the fruits of the earth." R...
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...
The Mekhilta presents a second comparison between human artisans and the divine Creator — this time focusing on the problem of models. When a mortal craftsman is asked to make a fi...
The Mekhilta notices something peculiar about how the Torah identifies Yithro. In the beginning of the story, Moses is the one who boasts about the relationship. When Moses returns...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael describes the extraordinary reception that Jethro received when he arrived at the Israelite camp in the wilderness. The verse states simply: "And Mose...
When Moses sat down with his father-in-law Yithro after the exodus from Egypt, he did not simply give a dry report of events. The Mekhilta explains that Moses "related to his fathe...
"Honor your father and your mother" (Exodus 20:12). The fifth of the Ten Commandments seems straightforward enough, but the Mekhilta immediately asks: what does "honor" actually re...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael draws an illuminating comparison between the fear of parents and the observance of Shabbat (the Sabbath). The verse in (Leviticus 19:3) places them si...
"And if one curses his father and his mother" — the Mekhilta notices that this verse uses "and," connecting father and mother together. Taken literally, this might mean the death p...
The Mekhilta asks yet another question about the verse "And if one curses his father and his mother." From (Leviticus 20:9), which says "every man who curses," we would know only t...
(Exodus, Ibid.) "If he (the thief) has blood, pay shall he pay": R. Eliezer b. Yaakov says: If there were before him (the thief) pitchers of wine and pitchers of oil and he broke t...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael records a sharp legal debate about the prohibition against cooking meat and milk together. The rabbis use a technique called kal va-chomer — reasoning...
The Mekhilta continues its analysis of how the prohibition against eating meat cooked in milk is established in Torah law. The argument proceeds by comparing meat and milk to other...
We all know the basics: Sodom is doomed, Lot and his family are warned to flee, and they're given one crucial instruction: don't look back! But Lot's wife… she just couldn't resist...
The ancient rabbis wrestled with these questions too. And (Psalm 4:6), "Offer sacrifices of righteousness, and trust in the Lord," became a launching pad for some profound insights...
It’s a question that’s occupied thinkers for millennia, and Midrash Tehillim – a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Psalms – offers some fascinating insights. To...
The passage, attributed to both Rabbi Judah and Rabbi Nehemiah, wrestles with a very specific question: who should be appointed as a priest? It begins with God telling Moses, “Appo...
The story of Simeon and Levi, found in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 38, explores just that kind of fiery zeal. It all starts with the violation of their sister, Dinah, by Shechem. The te...
Our tradition wrestles with this too, offering some pretty powerful imagery to explain it. Consider this from Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating early medieval text filled with ...
There's a fascinating passage in the Yalkut Shimoni on Torah, specifically section 41, that gives us a glimpse – a truly mind-bending glimpse – into just such a conversation. It in...
The Torah outlines a peculiar procedure when a husband suspects his wife of infidelity but lacks concrete proof (Numbers 5:11-31). This ritual involves a priest, the Cohein, and a ...
It describes the offerings brought by the leaders of Israel: "And the chiefs of Israel presented (their offerings)." Now, who were these chiefs? Were they just some random people a...
Take the mitzvah of challah, the portion of dough we separate as an offering. We find it in Bamidbar, the Book of Numbers, chapter 15. But a close look at verses 20 and 21 reveals ...
And that's where today’s little gem from Sifrei Bamidbar (a legal commentary on the Book of Numbers) comes in. The verse we're focusing on is from Bamidbar (Numbers) 28:24: "As the...
Our tradition teaches that some things run so deep, they require a complete overhaul of how we see the world. That brings us to a seemingly simple verse in Devarim (Deuteronomy 12:...
What offerings come to mind? Maybe you’d consider bringing fowl or even a meal-offering. But hold on! The text subtly guides us. "I might think, even with fowl and meal-offerings; ...
We’re diving into a fascinating little snippet from Sifrei Devarim – a collection of early rabbinic legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy. Specifically, we're looking at...
The text poses a seemingly simple question: Can we fulfill the obligation to rejoice during festivals with just any sacrifice? You know, like maybe with fowl or even a meal-offerin...
Rabbi Yishmael, a sage whose words still resonate across centuries, puts it starkly: "Come and see what hatred causes." What does it cause? It leads to lashon hara—slander. As it s...
That’s the image Sifrei Devarim 318 paints for us, riffing on the verse "and the blood of the grape will you drink as wine." It’s not about hard work, the text suggests. No more ti...
This verse in Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy, hits you right in the gut. It talks about divine vengeance, and not just a single ac...
The standard Bible tells you Rachel stole her father's household gods when Jacob fled Laban's house. The Targum Jonathan, an ancient Aramaic translation from roughly the 1st-2nd ce...
The Targum's version of (Numbers 35) contains one of the most radical theological claims in all of ancient Jewish literature. It explains why a manslayer confined to a city of refu...
In ancient Israel, a person who killed someone by accident did not go free. Neither was he executed. He ran for his life to one of six cities of refuge, and the roads that led ther...
Titus entered the Holy of Holies after conquering Jerusalem and committed an act of deliberate sacrilege. According to Gittin 57a, he unrolled a Torah scroll on the altar, brought ...
After the destruction of the Temple, Nebuzaradan, captain of the Babylonian guard under Nebuchadnezzar, found blood bubbling up from the ground in Jerusalem. According to Gittin 57...
The respect that Dama ben Netina showed his father became the standard against which all filial devotion was measured — and Dama was not even Jewish. He was a gentile merchant in t...
When the Babylonians breached the walls of Jerusalem and stormed the Temple, they found something in the courtyard that stopped them cold. A pool of blood. Bubbling. Boiling. Churn...
High Priest Simeon & Alexander. Taanit, f. 7 b, 88 b. Meg. Taanit, ch. 9, 21 st Kislev. Yoma, f. 69 a. cf. 61 a. cf. J. Berakhot, IV, 1. cf. Pesikta, Parah. Pesikta Zutta to Exod. ...
When the offering was completed (1 Chronicles 18:26), the midrash reads it through Song of Songs: the thread of crimson, the image of the veil that separated the holy from the prof...
Today, we're diving into a fascinating passage from Bamidbar Rabbah, specifically section 2, which gives us a peek into the lives of Aaron's sons, Elazar and Itamar, and their role...
