2,285 related texts · Page 17 of 48
(Lev. 14:2:) “In the day of his cleansing.” [With what?]20Lev. R. 16:7. With (according to vs. 4) “two live clean birds.” How is his offering different from all [other] offerings? ...
(Lev. 17:3-4:) “If any single person from the House of Israel slaughters […]. And does not bring it unto the entrance of the tent of meeting.” Isaiah has said (in Is. 66:3), “One w...
Our masters have said in the name of R. [Hanina] (Huna) the father of R. Aha, “The adulterer and adulteress transgress the Ten Commandments.”13Numb. R. 9:12. [They] said to [him], ...
"And it was on the day that Moses had finished to erect the tabernacle" (Numbers 7:1). This is [the meaning of] that which was stated by the verse (Song of Songs 4:16), "Awake, O n...
(Numb. 21:25:) “Israel took all these towns….” This text is related (to Is. 61:8), “Because I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery with a burnt offering.”152Numb. R. 19:30. The Ho...
(Numb. 23:11-14:) “And Balak said to Balaam, ‘What have you done to me; to curse….’ And Balaam answered and said, ‘Is it not that that which God places into my mouth….’ And Balak s...
(Numb. 28:1–2:) “Then the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, ‘Command the Children of Israel, [and say unto them], “My offering, My bread for My fire offering….”’” Let our master instr...
What became of Cain? The Bible tells us he wandered, marked and cursed, after the murder of his brother Abel. But the Torah is silent on the details of his death. So, naturally, th...
Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught that prayer is the essential weapon of the Messiah. Not a sword. Not an army. Prayer. The teaching begins with a striking image from the Zohar: the ...
"The entire world was created only for my sake" (Sanhedrin 37a). Rabbi Nachman of Breslov takes this teaching at face value: if the world exists for you, then you are responsible f...
The essence of life comes from prayer. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov derives this from a single verse: "Prayer to the God of my life" (Psalms 42:9). Prayer is not merely an appeal to th...
Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught that anyone who wants to taste the Or HaGanuz (אור הגנוז), the Hidden Light that God stored away from the first day of creation, must elevate the qu...
Everything has a purpose. And that purpose has a purpose of its own, each one higher than the last. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov uses this insight to explain why you must judge every p...
In Parashat Noach, Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk redefines what it means to be a righteous person. The Torah says Noah was "a righteous person, complete in his generations" (Genesis ...
"And the habitation of the children of Israel in Egypt and in other lands was four hundred and thirty years." This is one of the verses that they (the seventy-two elders changed) i...
Jewish tradition has some fascinating ideas about the lifespan of the world, and what happens when it's time to, well, hit the cosmic reset button. One compelling idea, explored in...
The rabbis asked a strange question: why did King Solomon compare Israel to a walnut? Not a cedar, not a vine, not wheat — a walnut. Rabbi Yehoshua of Sichnan, speaking in the name...
The Talmud in Berakhot 57a catalogues an entire symbolic vocabulary of dreams—a dictionary of the unconscious, organized by category, where every image carries a fixed meaning. Ani...
Four rabbis entered the Pardes (פרדס)—the orchard, a code word for the deepest levels of mystical knowledge. According to Chagigah 14b, only one came out whole. The four were Ben A...
When the Egyptians were drowning in the Red Sea, the ministering angels wanted to sing. God stopped them cold. According to Megillah 10b, He said: "My handiwork is drowning in the ...
When will the Messiah come? According to Sanhedrin 97a, the Talmud presents a seven-year countdown—and then immediately undermines it. The Sages taught: in the Sabbatical cycle dur...
The future Jerusalem will be built from precious stones so massive they defy imagination. According to Bava Batra 75a, God will take gems thirty cubits by thirty cubits, carve gate...
Before you were born, you knew everything. According to Niddah 30b, an angel teaches each soul the entire Torah while the baby is still in the womb. A light burns above the child's...
What does God do all day? The Talmud in Tractate Avodah Zarah takes this question seriously. The rabbis laid out a detailed twelve-hour schedule. During the first three hours, God ...
Rabbi Elazar ben Dordia was a man consumed by desire. The Talmud in Tractate Avodah Zarah says there was not a single prostitute in the world he had not visited. When he heard abou...
King Solomon stood before God and prayed at the dedication of the Temple. "Master of the Universe," he said, "let everything else be set aside and focus on my prayer and supplicati...
After the conquest of Canaan, God deliberately left certain nations in the land — not because He couldn't remove them, but to test Israel (Judges 3:1-2). The rabbis found this prac...
Before the sun existed, there was light. This is one of the oldest puzzles in Genesis — God creates light on the first day, but the sun and moon don't appear until the fourth. The ...
When the final redemption comes, God will redeem Israel from one place only: Zion. Not from the desert, not from the waters, not from any place of exile — from the Temple Mount. "F...
Jacob saw the leaders of Esau listed in the Torah — king after king after king (Genesis 36:31-43) — and was afraid. "How can I stand against all of them? I am one man." The Holy On...
"I will assemble Jacob, all of you; I will bring together the remnant of Israel" (Micah 2:12). The end of Aggadat Bereshit's prophetic arc arrives here: not the death of Jacob, not...
Turns out, the rabbinic tradition has quite a bit to say about its motivations and character. The Torah tells us, "Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent out t...
“Judah was exiled due to affliction and great enslavement. She settled among the nations, did not find rest; all her pursuers have overtaken her within the straits” (Lamentations 1...
“Gone from the daughter of Zion is all her splendor. Her princes are like deer that have not found pasture; they went powerless before the pursuer” (Lamentations 1:6)“Gone from the...
“Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and her wretchedness, all her delights that she had from the days of old; with the fall of her people into the hand of the adver...
“From on high He sent fire into my bones, and He crushed them; He spread a net for my feet, He turned me back. He rendered me desolate, suffering all day” (Lamentations 1:13).“From...
There was an incident involving Miriam daughter of the baker, who was taken captive with her seven sons. The emperor took them and placed them behind seven partitions. He brought t...
“The Lord is righteous, for I have defied His word. Hear now all you peoples, and see my pain: My young women and young men have gone into captivity” (Lamentations 1:18).“The Lord ...
“Turn away, impure, they called to them. Turn away, turn away, do not touch, because they were loathsome, and also wandering; they said among the nations: They will not continue to...
“Esther said, to respond to Mordekhai” (Esther 4:15). She said to him: “Go, assemble all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast on my behalf; do not eat and do not drink for...
“The king said to her: What troubles you, Queen Esther, and what is your request… Esther said: If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet… The king sa...
God told Israel three separate times: do not go back to Egypt. According to Esther Rabbah, they violated every single warning and paid for every single one. Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai ...
The rabbis of Esther Rabbah made a stunning claim: every time the Hebrew word vayhi ("it was") appears in the Torah, it signals disaster. Rabbi Tanhuma, Rabbi Berekhya, and Rabbi H...
It's more than just good manners; it's woven into the very fabric of our spiritual well-being. Ben Sira, that wise sage whose words didn't quite make it into the Tanakh (Hebrew Bib...
It wasn't just fabric and thread; it was a carefully constructed, divinely ordained manifestation of glory. Ben Sira, in his wisdom, gives us a glimpse into this splendor. He tells...
It’s more than just an old tale; it's a primal scream about jealousy, rejection, and the very first act of murder. to a deeper layer of this narrative, guided by the Book of Jubile...
The Book of Jubilees, an ancient Jewish text not included in the Hebrew Bible but considered scripture by some, touches on this very idea. It speaks of a profound responsibility: "...
When Noah finally stepped onto dry land, one of the first things he did was offer a sacrifice. But what was so special about it? The Book of Jubilees, a text that expands on the st...
