2,458 texts in Legends of the Jews (Ginzberg)
Even though Abraham knew in his heart that Isaac, his beloved son, was the most deserving of his paternal blessing, he held back. Why? According to Legends of the Jews (Ginzberg), ...
Legends of the Jews turns to Isaac and the Angels of Abraham. Abraham, on his way home with a mysterious stranger, hears a voice coming from a tree. Not just any voice, but one pro...
The legends paint him as nearly unparalleled in his virtue. Now, the time was approaching for Abraham to depart from this world, but the angel Michael found himself in a bit of a p...
It’s a story filled with angelic visits, tearful goodbyes, and a final, audacious request. According to Legends of the Jews, after Michael the archangel’s arrival, a joyous meal wa...
The tale goes like this: The archangel Michael himself descended, not in a flashy sports car, but in a chariot of the cherubim – those powerful, angelic beings. Can you imagine the...
The Jewish mystical tradition is rich with stories and visions of the afterlife, and one particularly fascinating account involves Abraham, led by the angel Michael himself. Michae...
Abraham, our ancestor Abraham, did just that. Think back to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. A harrowing tale. We read in the Torah about Abraham pleading with God to spare the cit...
The patriarch Abraham did. And the encounter, as you might imagine, was… intense. The story goes that Abraham was sitting under the oak of Mamre, a place of significance in Genesis...
Not necessarily! The Legends of the Jews hints that even after Abraham's passing, his work wasn't finished. It paints a picture of him continuing to intercede for sinners, not just...
The people of Hebron certainly did, right before Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It's the eve of the holiest day of the year, a time for communal prayer and reflection. But Hebro...
Legends of the Jews turns to Abraham and the Patriarchs of Hebron. The scene is Hebron, a city of immense significance in Jewish history, resting place of the Patriarchs and Matria...
The story goes that these Jews were living under the thumb of a particularly cruel ruler. This lord of Hebron, as Ginzberg tells us in Legends of the Jews, was a real piece of work...
Legend tells us Isaac wasn't just Abraham's son; he was his counterpart. The Legends of the Jews tells us he resembled his father "in beauty, wisdom, strength, wealth, and noble de...
Rebekah? She shone. The text says she didn’t walk in their ways; her piety, her devotion, was on par with Isaac himself. Yet, their marriage wasn't all smooth sailing. Can you imag...
Their story is well-known: a righteous couple, deeply devoted, yet facing the heartbreaking reality of infertility. They pleaded with God. They poured out their hearts in prayer. A...
The story of Rebekah and her twin sons, Jacob and Esau, is a wild ride that takes us just there. According to Legends of the Jews, by Louis Ginzberg, Rebekah's pregnancy wasn't exa...
Legends of the Jews turns to Rebekah's Agonizing Pregnancy Drove Her to Shem and Eber. She suffered terrible pains, unlike anything she'd ever felt before. She asked other women if...
It wasn't your typical baby shower, that’s for sure. The atmosphere was thick with anticipation, but also… something else. Something a bit unsettling, perhaps? The story, as told i...
Jewish tradition certainly seems to think so. Take the story of Jacob and Esau, those eternally feuding twins from the Book of Genesis. Their very names, given at birth, are loaded...
Take the tale of Jacob and Esau. As babies, they were basically indistinguishable. Like a myrtle and a thorn bush just sprouting – you can't tell them apart yet. But give them time...
In this case, it wasn't just a matter of personal preference; it was tied to a much larger destiny. Our sages tell us that Rebekah possessed a remarkable clarity of vision. She saw...
The reason why might surprise you. In some traditions, it was actually thanks to the merits of his grandson, Jacob, that Abraham himself was rescued from the fiery furnace! The fai...
Abraham actually died five years early. That's right. He was supposed to live to be a ripe old 180, the same age his son Isaac eventually reached. But something… someone… cut his l...
Esau. We know him as Jacob's brother, the one who traded his birthright for a bowl of stew. But there's so much more bubbling beneath the surface. According to Ginzberg's retelling...
The answer, according to Jewish legend, lies with Nimrod and some very special garments. The stories tell us that Nimrod, a mighty hunter and king, possessed clothes imbued with an...
It all boils down to a simple bowl of lentils. Yep, lentils. According to Ginzberg's retelling in Legends of the Jews, this encounter happens soon after the death of their grandfat...
The patriarch Jacob and his brother Esau, those iconic twins, grappled with these very questions in a fascinating exchange, as recorded in Legends of the Jews. The scene. These two...
Legends of the Jews turns to Birth of Esau of Jacob. The traditional texts suggest there was much more at stake. The scene: Jacob, ever the thoughtful one, isn't so much interested...
That, my friends, is Esau in a nutshell. The familiar story is this:. Esau, the elder twin, sells his birthright to his younger brother Jacob for a bowl of lentil stew. But what wa...
These brothers, figures from the very dawn of our tradition, had a sibling rivalry that's… well, legendary. The familiar story centers on Jacob and Esau. Twins, but as different as...
Take Isaac, for example. His life, as the great compilation Legends of the Jews tells us, reads like a mirror image of his father Abraham's. Abraham had to leave his homeland. So d...
Legends of the Jews turns to Isaac and the Patriarchs of Abimelech. Word of Rebekah's loveliness eventually reaches the king, Abimelech. Now, Abimelech wasn't a fool. He remembered...
The roots go way back, further than it first appears, to the patriarch Isaac himself. In Ginzberg's retelling in, Legends of the Jews, after Isaac's interactions with King Abimelec...
The Torah hints at it in so many ways. the story turns to the story of Isaac and some very important wells. Isaac, as we know, was the son of Abraham, and he found himself in Gerar...
You, almost miraculously, strike water. Not once, but repeatedly. That was Isaac. But his success? It only stoked the flames of envy in the hearts of the Philistines. The text says...
Our story takes us back to Isaac, the son of Abraham, and a rather awkward encounter with Abimelech, king of the Philistines. Abimelech, was feeling a little… guilty? Anxious? Perh...
Take Shib'ah, for instance. It's the name given to the spot where Isaac made a covenant with the Philistines. But why Shib'ah? Well, according to tradition, it's a double entendre,...
Some say it was Isaac! Or, as he's sometimes called, Elihu the son of Barachel. Imagine: it was through his debates with Job that the hidden wonders of nature were revealed. Quite ...
Esau was out on a hunting trip, a rugged figure making his way through the mountainous region of Mount Seir. It was there, according to Legends of the Jews, that he met Judith, a w...
The Torah tells us that Rebekah, knowing what was right and divinely inspired, took matters into her own hands to make sure that Jacob, not Esau, received Isaac’s blessing. But tha...
His blindness is often remembered as a simple physical ailment, a consequence of old age perhaps. But the legends, oh, they tell a different story. According to Legends of the Jews...
Isaac, son of Abraham, certainly did. As Isaac neared the age his mother Sarah had reached when she passed – 123 years old – he began to contemplate his own mortality. It’s a natur...
Even as Esau spoke respectfully to his father, a darkness lurked within him, a hidden desire for Isaac's end. It’s a chilling thought, isn't it? To harbor such feelings while outwa...
It might have something to do with a blessing – or the lack thereof. to a story from Legends of the Jews, specifically about Isaac, Esau, and a fateful Passover eve. It's a moment ...
See, Isaac, nearing his end (or so he thought), wanted to bestow his blessing upon his elder son, Esau. All Esau had to do was hunt some game and prepare a tasty meal. Simple enoug...
Rebekah, wife of Isaac and mother of Jacob and Esau, certainly did. Isaac, old and blind, is about to bestow a blessing – a powerful, almost magical blessing – on his eldest son, E...
Rebekah's role in the story of Jacob and Esau is often remembered as somewhat manipulative, but when you dig into the legends, you find a fierce maternal love driving her actions. ...
It's a painful scene. He was in tears, his body bowed with the weight of it all. He didn’t want to do it! Rebekah, driven by her own convictions, was insistent. Her plan involved t...
