4,614 related texts · Page 83 of 97
Jewish mysticism wrestles with this very idea – the nature of perception, of revelation, and how we encounter the Divine. to a fascinating passage from Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei ...
Prayer, it suggests, isn't just about reciting words. It's about creating a connection, a pathway for the Divine Presence to descend. And the first step? Invoking the Holy One, ble...
In Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar 70, we find ourselves amidst a fascinating and somewhat cryptic discussion about the beings surrounding God's throne. The text speaks of entiti...
It's more than just a cool visual; it's packed with layers of meaning. The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah, delves deep into these mysteries, and Tikk...
Jewish mysticism has a powerful image for that feeling, and a way to get beyond it. to a passage from the Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a later addition to the core Zoharic te...
We all know the story: the Israelites are thirsty, Moses is frustrated, and God commands him to speak to a rock to bring forth water. Instead, in a moment of anger and doubt, Moses...
In Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar 99, we find a fascinating idea: the left side is associated with Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, a time of judgment and introspection. The right s...
And today, we're diving into a fascinating little corner of that world – a peek into the Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar. The Tikkunei Zohar? Think of it as the Zohar's super-cha...
The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a later, more mystical expansion on the Zohar (the foundational text of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism), delves into the depths of Moses's plea a...
And it's all wrapped up in… well, in letters. The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a later and more esoteric expansion on the Zohar itself, that foundational text of Kabbalah, un...
This struggle is a central theme in many mystical traditions, including the Kabbalah, and it's beautifully illustrated in a passage from the Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar. The ...
And then, every now and then, you stumble across a passage that makes those connections sing. to a fascinating idea tucked away in the Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, specifical...
The Tikkun (spiritual repair)ei Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah, gives us a glimpse into a beautiful, mystical explanation, connecting the holiness of Shabbat (the Sabbath) to so...
When God told Abraham, "Go to the land that I will show you" (Genesis 12:1), He was deliberately vague. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev reads this vagueness as a divine instructi...
"And Jacob settled in the land where his father dwelled" (Genesis 37:1). Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk opens his commentary on Parashat Vayeshev not with Joseph's coat or his brother...
Sefer Raziel HaMalakh contains a detailed cosmological map of the seven heavens—a tradition rooted in early rabbinic literature (Chagigah 12b) and expanded dramatically in the Hekh...
The heart of Harba de-Moshe (the Sword of Moses) is its catalog of divine names—and the greatest of these is the Great Name, composed of 70 component names. The number 70 is not ar...
The practical section of Harba de-Moshe (the Sword of Moses) reads like a catalog of emergencies and the divine names that solve them. Fever, snakebite, enemy attack, court cases, ...
The seventh heaven in Sefer HaRazim is where the text's ascending structure reaches its climax—the Kisei HaKavod (כסא הכבוד), the Throne of Glory, where God sits in unapproachable ...
The climax of Maaseh Merkavah (the Divine Chariot) is the mystic's arrival in the seventh palace—the throne room of God. After passing through six gates, surviving the challenges o...
Jewish demonology recognizes three main classes of evil spirits, though as Joshua Trachtenberg noted, medieval Jews had long stopped distinguishing between them. The shedim (שדים) ...
Medieval Jews did not merely fear demons. They fought them—systematically, ritually, and with an arsenal of weapons that combined Talmudic tradition, Kabbalistic innovation, and sh...
Despite the Torah's explicit prohibition against divination (Deuteronomy 18:10-12), medieval Jews practiced it extensively—and spent centuries debating exactly where the line fell ...
Dreams occupied a unique space in Jewish tradition—neither fully trusted nor fully dismissed, they hovered between divine communication and meaningless noise. The Talmud devotes ex...
The debate over where the Israelites placed the Passover blood continues in the Mekhilta, and Rabbi Nathan and Rabbi Yitzchak stake out dramatically different positions — each reve...
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...
And thus do you find with the forefathers, that they deported themselves with circumspection (in this regard), viz.: (Genesis 22:3) "And Abraham arose early in the morning," (Ibid....
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, addresses a question that cuts to the heart of the Passover story: who actually killed the firstborn of Egypt? The verse states simpl...
When the Israelites finally left Egypt, they did not leave empty-handed. The Torah describes them departing with "flocks and herds, a great crush of cattle" — a staggering processi...
Two verses in the Torah appear to contradict each other about how long the Israelites were connected to Egypt. One verse states: "And the habitation of the children of Israel in th...
R. Eliezer says: On it they were redeemed; but they are destined to be redeemed only on Tishrei, as it is written (Psalms 81:4) "Blow the shofar (of redemption) on the month (of Ti...
(Exodus 13:17) "And it was, when G–d sent ("shalach") the people": "sending" in all places is accompaniment, viz. (Genesis 18:16) "And Abraham went with them to send them," (Ibid. ...
"by way of the land of the Philistines, for it was near": Near (i.e., "close") is the thing of which the Holy One Blessed be He spoke to Moses (Exodus 2:12): "When you take the peo...
(Exodus 13:19) "And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him": This apprises us of the wisdom and saintliness of Moses. All of Israel were occupying themselves with the spoils (of E...
(Exodus 13:21) "And the L–rd went before them by day": Can this be said? Is it not written (Jeremiah 23:22) "'Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?' says the L–rd"? and (Isaiah ...
Four "harnessed" with joy: Abraham—(Genesis 22:3) "And Abraham rose early in the morning (for the binding of Isaac), and he saddled his ass." Now did he not have many servants?—(He...
The Mekhilta draws yet another proof of prayer's supreme power from Jacob's blessing over the tribe of Judah. The Torah declares: "A lion's whelp is Judah" (Genesis 49:9). On the s...
Variantly: "Stand ready to see the salvation of the L–rd": They: When? Moses: Tomorrow. They: Moses our teacher we do not have the strength to wait. At that time Moses prayed and t...
Rabbi Yehudah ben Betheirah offered a teaching that collapses the distance between God's promise and its fulfillment at the Red Sea. God told Moses: "I have already fulfilled My pr...
Pappus and Rabbi Akiva clashed again, this time over one of the most enigmatic verses in Genesis. After Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge, God said: "Behold, the man has become l...
The eighth, that of Solomon, viz. (Psalms 30:1) "A psalm, a song of the inauguration of the Temple of David." Now did David built it? Did not Solomon build it? viz. (I Kings 6:14) ...
And thus Sancheriv—With what he vaunted himself, punishment was exacted of him, viz. (II Kings 19:23) "Through your envoys you have blasphemed the L–rd, etc.", and (Ibid. 24) "It i...
"The L–rd is a man of war": Is it possible to say this (i.e., to refer to Him as "a man")? Is it not written (of His transcendent majesty) (Jeremiah 23:24) "Do I not fill heaven an...
The Mekhilta lifts the declaration "Who is like You among the mighty" out of the earthly realm and directs it upward — toward the angelic hosts who minister before God on high. "Wh...
Rabbi Yitzchak posed a deceptively simple question about one of the most famous promises in the Torah. In (Exodus 15:26), God tells the Israelites that if they follow His commandme...
"and his hands were steadfast until the sun set": We are hereby apprised that he was (occupied with prayer and) fasting (until sunset). These are the words of R. Yehoshua. R. Eliez...
The phrase "until Dan" appears not only in Moses' vision but much earlier in the Torah, when Abraham "pursued them until Dan" (Genesis 14:14) during his rescue of his nephew Lot. T...
The Mekhilta continues cataloguing everything God showed Moses from Mount Pisgah. The question this time: how do we know that God showed him even the graves of the forefathers? The...
