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Moses stood before Israel and said: "You have been shown to know that the Lord, He is God; there is none beside Him" (Deuteronomy 4:35). Not told — shown. The plagues, the sea, the...
The full scope of Moses's argument against the angels is recorded in Shabbat 89a, and it is a masterclass in turning your opponent's own premises against them. Moses went through t...
The book of Proverbs throws out one of the great riddles of the Hebrew Bible. "Who has ascended to Heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in the hollows of his hands? Who ...
(Exodus 19:18) "And the whole of Mount Sinai smoked": I might think the place of the divine Presence alone; it is, therefore, written "the whole." "for the L–rd had come down upon ...
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...
(Exodus 19:20) "And the L–rd descended upon Mount Sinai": I might think that the "Glory" itself descended on Mount Sinai. It is, therefore, written (Ibid. 20:19) "that from the hea...
What does it mean to see a sound? The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan takes the strange Hebrew phrase and leans into the miracle. "And all the people saw the thunders, and were turned back,...
As retold by Rabbi Louis Ginzberg, that’s pretty much what happened when the Ten Commandments were given. When the first commandment, Anochi Hashem Elokecha – "I am the Lord your G...
The Midrash of the Ten Commandments, a medieval midrashic anthology organized around the Decalogue that was popular in Jewish communities from Spain to Yemen in the eleventh and tw...
The Hebrew Bible says God "descended upon" Mount Sinai in fire (Exodus 19:18). Targum Onkelos will not allow God to descend. He writes: "God became revealed upon it in fire." The m...
We all know the story: Moses goes up the mountain, gets the Ten Commandments, and comes back down. But what if there was more to the story? What if the Bible we know is just a glim...
You’re marching towards… well, you don't exactly know where, but it's away from Pharaoh! Wouldn't you expect the Divine to hand down the ultimate instruction manual right then and ...
Did you know it has six names? for a second. Six different names, each hinting at a different facet of that earth-shattering moment. It’s like trying to describe a diamond – you ca...
That's where we find ourselves in this intriguing little story. The story unfolds with an unnamed seeker, desperate to find Moses. He believes that God may have commanded Moses to ...
We often think of it as a moment of pure revelation, of divine gift-giving. But some ancient stories paint a picture far more…intense. A picture of near annihilation and miraculous...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan dates the great revelation with precision: "It was on the third day, on the sixth of the month, in the time of the morning, that on the mountain there we...
Before the Ten Words were spoken, Moses did something remarkable — he spoke back to God. "The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai," he said, "because You Yourself instructed us, s...
The phrase "and I brought you to Me" refers to the moment God gathered Israel before Mount Sinai to receive the Torah. But Rabbi Akiva added a detail to this scene that transforms ...
"And the whole mountain trembled" (Exodus 19:18) — when God descended onto Mount Sinai, the mountain shook. But the Mekhilta reveals that Sinai was not the only mountain trembling....
They’ve journeyed far, and now, they're about to experience something beyond comprehension. Exodus 19 tells us that on the third day, as morning broke, the atmosphere crackled with...
When Moses ascended to heaven to receive the Torah, the angels were furious. According to Shabbat 88b, they confronted God directly: "What is a human being doing among us?" God tol...
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...
In the years after the fall of the holy city, a mother named Hannah and her seven sons were thrown into prison. One by one, in order of their ages, the tyrant brought the boys befo...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves Jethro's opening directive with a nuance the Hebrew leaves quieter: "Now hearken to me and I will advise thee; and may the Word of the Lord be ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the triage principle Jethro proposed: "Let them judge the people at all times, and every great matter bring to thee, but every little thing let...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan marks the arrival at Sinai with three extraordinary words: "They had journeyed from Rephidim, and had come to the desert of Sinai, and Israel encamped th...
Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal midrashim (rabbinic interpretive commentary) (interpretations) on the Book of Deuteronomy, gives us a fascinating breakdown. It suggests there...
The revelation at Sinai is awe-inspiring in the Hebrew Bible. The Targum Jonathan on (Exodus 19) makes it terrifying. It adds details about God physically uprooting the mountain, I...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves Moses's answer to Jethro's probing question: "When they have a matter for judgment, they come to me, and I judge between a man and his fellow, ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan closes the Sinai prelude with one of the most tender lines in the entire revelation narrative: "The voice of the trumpet went forth, and grew stronger: (...
Not just any mountain, but Mount Sinai itself, the very place where God met Moses. It’s a mind-bending image, isn't it? That's how some of our tradition describes the moment of rev...
The mountain was on fire, the sky had turned black, and every person in the camp was convinced they were about to die. That was the scene at Mount Sinai when God spoke the Ten Comm...
"I am God, your Lord, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 20:2). Targum Onkelos translates the Ten Commandments with almost no deviation from the Hebrew—a remarkable ...
News travels, but rarely does it move a prince of Midian to action. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records the turning point: "And Jethro, prince of Midian, the father-in-law of Moses,...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan sharpens Jethro's warning with a realism the plain text softens: "Thou wilt verily wear thyself away. Aaron also, and his sons, and the elders of thy peo...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan closes Jethro's advice with a striking promise: "If thou wilt do this, and exempt thyself from judging (every case) as the Lord shall give thee instructi...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records the terrifying perimeter drawn around the mountain: "Thou shalt set limits for the people that they may stand round about the mountain, and shalt...
The mountain trembled because God Himself had come down upon it. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders the moment with startling directness: the Lord revealed Himself on Mount Sinai, ...
The timeline is what makes the sin unbearable. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves God's charge with its full sting: "Quickly have they declined from the way which I taught them in Si...
When God gave the Torah at Sinai, the Israelites did not simply accept it freely. According to Shabbat 88a, Rabbi Avdimi bar Hama bar Hasa taught that God uprooted Mount Sinai and ...
... Another reading: “Comfort, oh comfort My people” (Isaiah 40:1) Said the Holy Blessed One: Who needs to be comforted? For one whose wife died, not the husband? Thus was Zion ana...
Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) Sheni Ketuvim In the beginning God created etc. - To declare the might of the acts of creation to creatures, and to make it known to them...
It all starts with a divine download, so to speak. The book tells us it contains the secret history of how time is divided – days, weeks, years, and especially those big jubilees, ...
He'd come to stay with Moses for over a year! But here's a little wrinkle in the story: for the first few months, Jethro didn't really see Moses in action as a judge. Why? Because,...
It wasn't exactly a picnic. The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) paints a picture of intense anticipation, mixed with a healthy dose of terror. From the moment the Israel...
We often focus on the Ten Commandments themselves, but the experience rippled through the entire Israelite community in ways that are, well, almost unbelievable. According to Legen...
We open our mouths, make noises, and those noises carry meaning. The person listening hears us. But that's all they do. They hear. They don't see the sound. Unless... unless you we...
"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 ...
