1,204 related texts · Page 5 of 26
The verse records a startling act (Exodus 18:12): "Yithro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt-offering and peace-offerings for sacrifice to God." The Mekhilta says that Scripture d...
(Exodus 18:13) "And it was on the morrow that Moses sat to judge the people.": on the morrow of Yom Kippur (after Moses had descended with the second tablets.) "from morning to eve...
Jethro arrived at the Israelite camp and immediately noticed something troubling. His son-in-law Moses sat from morning until evening while the entire nation stood in a line before...
On the second day after the Israelites arrived at Sinai, Moses ascended the mountain to meet God (Exodus 19:3). The Mekhilta notes a crucial detail: God called out to Moses before ...
The Torah states that "when the ram's horn sounds" the people may ascend Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:13). The Mekhilta reads this literally: when the shofar "draws out" its sound — when...
Rabbi Yossi raised a fundamental question about the boundary between heaven and earth. He cited (Psalms 115:16), which declares that "the heavens are the heavens of the Lord, and t...
Rabbi Nathan presents this teaching from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael as a direct rebuttal to heretics who claim there are two divine powers. The argument is elegant in its simpli...
R. Nathan says: Whence is it derived that the L–rd showed our father Abraham, Gehennom, the giving of the Torah and the splitting of the Red Sea? From (Genesis 15:17) "And it was, ...
Rabbi Yishmael noticed something crucial in the opening words of the Torah's civil law code (Exodus 21:1): "And these are the judgments." The key word is "and"—in Hebrew, the conju...
Why do the laws of adjudication — civil justice — take precedence over all the other commandments in the Torah? Rabbi Shimon gave a deceptively simple answer: because adjudication ...
Rabbi Nathan interpreted the verse "and perverts the words of the righteous" (Exodus 23:8) as referring to something far more severe than ordinary judicial corruption. The one who ...
It’s a question that’s haunted mystics and theologians for centuries. And while Jewish tradition generally holds that no one can see God and live, there are whispers and echoes in ...
Jewish tradition has some fascinating ideas, and one of the most poetic involves flying letters! Imagine, if you will, a cosmic soup of Hebrew letters, swirling and chaotic. Before...
We've fasted, we've prayed, we've poured out our hearts. And then… one final, powerful blast of the shofar. But why? It's more than just a signal that the fast is over and bagels a...
Jewish tradition has some pretty vivid ideas about that, especially when it comes to the resurrection of the dead. It’s not just a "poof" and everyone’s back. It's a process, a cos...
Let’s talk about Moses. We all know Moses. The guy who led the Israelites out of Egypt, parted the Red Sea, received the Torah on Mount Sinai. A towering figure of faith and leader...
On the seventh day after the Ten Commandments Moshe went up on the mountain, as it says "The Presence of the LORD abode on Mount Sinai, and the cloud hid it for six days..." (Shemo...
We usually think of the sun, a lightbulb, maybe even a particularly inspiring idea. But Jewish tradition takes it a step further, suggesting light itself has a deeper, more ancient...
Some traditions whisper that it’s so much more. Imagine this: The Red Sea is splitting, a monumental miracle unfolding before the eyes of the Israelites. According to some, at that...
(Exodus 4:20) tells us, "Moses took his wife and his sons, and mounted them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses took the staff of God in his hand." Simple enou...
We find one of those moments in the story of the Golden Calf, and how Aaron, brother of Moses, reacted to it. The scene: Moses is descending from Mount Sinai, clutching the tablets...
The text suggests that these three actions originated from Moses' own reasoning, and, remarkably, his reasoning turned out to be in sync with God's own. The first instance involves...
The Torah tells us that when Moses descended from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony – the luchot ha-brit (לוחות הברית) – he didn't realize his face was radiating li...
And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel (Gen. 14:1). May it please our master to teach us when a proselyte who has been converted on the eve of the Passover is permitted to par...
(Numb. 1:1) “Then the Lord spoke unto Moses in the Sinai desert.” [Sinai] was called by six names: Mountain of God (as in Ps. 68:16), Mount Bashan (ibid.), Mountain of Peaks (ibid....
"And it was on the day that Moses had finished" (Numbers 7:1). So did Rabbi Tanchuma bar Abba open [his discourse from] (Proverbs 30:4), "Who has ascended heaven and come down": Th...
(Exodus 12:43) "And the L–rd said to Moses and Aaron": There are some sections (in the Torah) which are generic in the beginning and specific after, and some which are specific in ...
(Exodus 19:10) "And the L–rd said to Moses: Go to the people and make them ready today"—the fourth day—"and tomorrow"—the fifth day. (Ibid. 11) "And have them be ready for the thir...
The Seder Olam reveals a pattern hidden in the calendar of sacred history: the most important events in Israel's story all cluster around one date — the fifteenth of Nisan. It bega...
Before the universe existed, not even parchment existed — no animals had yet been created to provide skins for scrolls. So the Torah was written on the arm of God Himself, in black...
Hell has seven names. This is what Aggadat Bereshit says when Malachi promises "the day is coming, burning like an oven" (Malachi 3:19). The rabbis did not flinch from the geograph...
The Messiah, say the rabbis, will be greater than all the patriarchs — greater than Abraham, greater than Isaac, greater than Moses. This is the reading Aggadat Bereshit makes of I...
When God looks down at a wicked generation, the rabbis said, He searches for one righteous person to carry the weight of atonement for all the rest. This is the reading Aggadat Ber...
“He sent scrolls to all the king’s provinces, to each province in its script, and to each people in its language; for every man to be the ruler in his house, and speak the language...
We all know the story: Moses goes up Mount Sinai, gets the Ten Commandments, and the Israelites, left to their own devices, panic. But the story, as we find it in Legends of the Je...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael examines God's words to Moses in the days before the revelation at Sinai: "Behold, I shall come to you in the thickness of the cloud" (Exodus 19:9). T...
The text from Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, chapter 45, sheds some light. The Rabbi points out that "All the princes were not associated in the affair of the calf." Where do we see this?...
We know the broad strokes from the Torah, but the rabbinic tradition, particularly as retold in Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews, fills in some fascinating details… details that reve...
In the Hebrew Bible, Jethro visits Moses in the wilderness, gives advice about delegating judges, and leaves. The Targum Jonathan on (Exodus 18) transforms this administrative visi...
The Blessing of Moses in (Deuteronomy 33) gets the full Targum treatment—every tribe's destiny expanded, every blessing loaded with specifics the Torah never mentions. It opens wit...
It all centers around Moses, and a rather interesting agreement he makes with Jethro (also known as Yitro), his future father-in-law. Remember, Moses has just fled Egypt after, sha...
The verse “Yitro…heard” (Exodus 18:1) sparks a fascinating connection to a seemingly unrelated verse from Job: “The stranger does not stay the night outside” (Job 31:32). What’s th...
It all revolves around Yitro, Moses' father-in-law. The verse we're looking at is “Yitro…heard” (Exodus 18:1), which is the start of the portion where Yitro comes to visit Moses in...
It's the idea that God, while ultimately one, expresses different attributes. And one of the most profound shifts happens when we, humanity, turn towards Him in sincere prayer. Rab...
18:1). Scripture says elsewhere in reference to this verse: The wise shall inherit honor; but as for the fools, they carry away shame (Prov. 3:35). The wise shall inherit honor ref...
to a fascinating, and sometimes surprising, peek into the origins of Passover and Shabbat, as seen through the lens of a text called the Book of Jubilees. The Book of Jubilees, som...
We all know about the Exodus, the parting of the Red Sea, and even receiving the Ten Commandments. But what about the nitty-gritty details of setting up their new life, their new r...
We know Moses, of course. But what about the man who welcomed him into his home, whose daughter became Moses' wife, and who offered crucial advice that shaped the Israelite legal s...
