5,406 related texts · 40 related myths · Page 1 of 113
The vision of Obadiah, the shortest prophetic book in the Hebrew Bible, is entirely about the punishment of Edom. Rabbi Berachiah asked: why did God choose Obadiah specifically for...
Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt (Genesis 42:1). He saw it. But the midrash immediately pivots to a verse from Proverbs: "The ear that hears and the eye that sees, the Lord ...
"And Jacob sent messengers ahead of him" (Genesis 32:4). The first reading, Jacob is preparing to meet his brother Esau. Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk, reading Parashat Vayishlach, s...
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 One ...
"Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel." Targum Pseudo-Jonathan adds a line the plain text only implies (Genesis 32:29): the new name was given "because you are magni...
Rabbi Yishmael ben Yose, the son of the great Galilean sage Rabbi Yose, was walking on pilgrimage toward Jerusalem when a Samaritan stopped him on the road near Mount Gerizim. The ...
"I have seen the look of your face, and it is to me as the vision of the face of your angel." Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves Jacob's most startling line to his brother (Genesis 3...
The Hebrew Bible says Jacob "wrestled a man" until dawn (Genesis 32:25). Targum Onkelos stays with the Hebrew here, it was "a man," not an angel, not a demon, not a divine being. B...
The Torah tells the story quickly — too quickly, the rabbis felt. Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, was taken and violated by Shechem, the prince of the local city. Her ...
The angel struck first. That detail matters. At the river Jabboc, in the dead of night, with Jacob alone and his entire family already across the water, a divine being appeared and...
When Jacob finally addressed the question of Joseph's two sons in (Genesis 48:5), he did something startling. He said: "Ephraim and Menasheh, as Reuben and Shimon shall be reckoned...
"Then Jacob came in peace with all that he had to the city of Shekem, in the land of Canaan, in his coming from Padan Aram; and he dwelt near the city." Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Gen...
The Torah says simply that Esau took his wives, his sons, his flocks, and moved to another land. It sounds like a practical decision, too many cattle, not enough grass. The verse e...
The ancient rabbis grappled with that very feeling when they looked at the story of Dina, Jacob’s daughter, in the Book of Genesis. The Torah tells us that Dina went out to visit t...
The scene: Jacob, on his deathbed, surrounded by his sons. You’d think it would be a time for peace, reflection, maybe a little bit of forgiveness. But no. Jacob’s got some things ...
"And the sun rose upon him before his time." Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Genesis 32:32) preserves one of the tenderest details in the whole Jacob cycle: the sun itself rearranged its s...
"And it was on the third day, when they were weak from the pain of their circumcision, two of the sons of Jacob, Shimeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, took each man his sword, a...
"Put away the idols of the peoples which are among you, which you took from the temple of Shekem, and purify you from the uncleannesses of the slain whom you have, and change your ...
The nine brothers stopped for the night, and one of them discovered something impossible. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 42:27) names him: Levi, "who had been left without Sime...
It's one of the most enigmatic scenes in the entire Torah (Genesis 32:24-30), and Jewish tradition has offered some pretty wild interpretations over the centuries. One compelling i...
Rabbi Ḥama ben Rabbi Ḥanina suggests that Jacob wasn't wrestling just anyone; he was battling Esau’s guardian angel! Remember when Jacob says, "For therefore I have seen your face,...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, takes up a question about the Israelites' first stop after leaving Egypt: a place called Succoth. "And they traveled from Rameses to ...
The pattern repeats. Israel suffers, God rescues, and Israel sings. Then the singing stops, and the same behavior that caused the original suffering returns. The Holy One watches t...
A Roman legend told how the daughter of a certain emperor had so admired the beauty of Rabbi Ishmael's face that after his martyrdom his skin was removed, embalmed, and kept among ...
"And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell upon his neck and kissed him, and they wept." In the plain Torah text, this is a moment of pure reconciliation. Targum Pseudo-...
Not some friendly sparring, but a fierce, all-night battle with a mysterious being. It turns out, according to Legends of the Jews, Jacob had good reason to keep replaying that sce...
This one's from the Book of (Genesis 34:25-29), amplified and expanded in the Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg, and it's. intense. It all begins with Dinah, Jacob's daughter, ...
The story of Dinah in Genesis 34 is already one of the most violent chapters in the Torah. The Targum Jonathan, the ancient Aramaic translation, does not soften it. Instead, it sha...
Shechem son of Hamor once assembled a troupe of girls with tambourines to play outside the tent of Dinah, and when she "went out to see them" (Genesis 34:1), he carried her off. Fr...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves one of the strangest accounts in all of Jewish tradition (Genesis 32:25). Jacob was left alone across the Jabbok, and an angel wrestled him in the ...
"Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there, and make there an altar unto Eloha, who revealed Himself to you in your flight from before Esau your brother." Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Gene...
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 their heritage" (Genesis ...
"Jacob fled to the land of Aram" (Hosea 12:13). The prophet is not describing geography, he is making a theological point about the interior life. Isaiah completes it: "My people, ...
When Esau came back from the hunt and saw that Jacob had taken the blessing, he plotted his revenge quietly. The sages, reading the reunion years later in Genesis 33, noticed that ...
"Save me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him." Jacob's plea in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Genesis 32:12) names two things most ancient prayers leave imp...
Book of Jubilees turns to Jacob Becomes Israel After Wrestling at Night. The scene: it's night. Jacob is alone, perhaps wrestling with his thoughts, his past, his future. And then,...
Levi, third son of Jacob and Leah, called his sons together when he knew his death was near. It had been revealed to him that he would die. When they gathered, he told them everyth...
Ten brothers stood before him, and Joseph picked Simeon. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 42:24) preserves the reason the Torah leaves quiet: Simeon "had counselled them to kill ...
Jacob certainly did. You've just wrestled with an angel (or at least, a really tough guy who might as well have been an angel!), you're about to face your estranged brother who mig...
It’s a tale filled with passion, deceit, and the raw emotions that boil within families. The story goes that Shechem, son of Hamor, defiled Dinah. When Jacob heard this news, he se...
Legends of the Jews turns to Esau — Jacob Wrestles the Angel. This isn't just any prayer. It’s a powerful, heartfelt plea, steeped in the tradition of his ancestors. As Ginzberg re...
The second twin emerged differently. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 25:26) gives the detail plainly: "Afterward came forth his brother, and his hand had hold on the heel of Esa...
"And he saw that he had not power to hurt him." Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Genesis 32:26) pauses to notice something the plain verse whispers but does not say outright: the angel lost...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan gives the wrestling angel a confession that the plain text never imagined (Genesis 32:27). When dawn came, the angel pleaded: "Let me go, for the column of t...
When Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers in Shechem, the Torah gives no reason for the trip other than routine concern. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 37:13) reveals a f...
The wrestling match at the Jabbok River is one of the most mysterious scenes in all of Genesis. A man fights Jacob in the dark, and by morning Jacob has a new name and a limp. The ...
"Many peoples have afflicted me from my youth" (Psalm 129:1). The Assembly of Israel, the collective voice of the nation, says this as a Song of Ascents, sung while ascending to th...
"And your eyes shall see" (Malachi 1:5). The prophet promises that Israel will watch the fall of Edom, watch it with their own eyes, from their own territory, and say: "Great is th...
