510 texts in Midrash Aggadah
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 16:23) gives us the first explicit teaching of Sabbath cookery in the Torah, and the Targumist relays it with a domestic precision that would be a...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 16:29) transforms a short Hebrew verse into the founding document of the Sabbath's geography: Behold, because I have given you the Sabbath, I gave...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 16:32) gives us one of the great commandments of Israel's memory: a jar of manna, set aside and preserved, so that later, less fortunate generatio...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 16:35) adds a detail that answers a question most readers do not think to ask: when exactly did the manna stop falling? The Targum says: And the c...
When the people again cried for water, the Holy One's instruction to Moses, as Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders (Exodus 17:5), is quietly pointed: Pass over before the people, and ta...
When the people cried out for water at Rephidim, Moses did not simply strike any rock. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan insists on a precise geography: God said, "Behold, I will stand be...
Some places carry the scar of what happened there in their very name. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan explains that Moses called the site of the water-crisis "Temptation and Strife" — i...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan tells the story of Amalek's assault at Rephidim with details the plain Hebrew text does not preserve. "And Amalek came from the land of the south and lea...
When Amalek attacked, Moses turned to Joshua with instructions that reveal what kind of army Israel would fight with. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records the order: "Choose such men...
The plain Hebrew of (Exodus 17:11) says Moses lifted his hands, and when he did, Israel prevailed. What were the raised hands actually doing? The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan leaves no r...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan fills in what the Hebrew leaves implicit: why Moses's hands grew heavy. "The hands of Moses were heavy, because the conflict was prolonged till the morro...
Victory in the Amalek battle came through Joshua, but the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan insists the sword was not his alone. "And Joshua shattered Amalek, and cut off the heads of the str...
After the battle ended, God gave Moses a strange commandment: not to celebrate, but to write. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan reads it this way: "Write this memorial in the book of the ...
After the Amalek battle, Moses built an altar — but the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the name he carved into it with surprising precision: "The Word of the Lord is my banner; f...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan closes the Amalek story with one of the most extraordinary vows in the Torah. "Because the Word of the Lord hath sworn by the throne of His glory, that H...
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 locates Jethro's arrival at Israel's camp with unusual precision: "Jethro the father-in-law of Moses, and the sons of Moses, and his wife came to Moses a...
Few lines in the Torah are as unexpectedly tender as the one the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves at the moment of Jethro's arrival. He sends a message to Moses: "I, thy father-in-...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan stages Moses's greeting of Jethro with cinematic care: "Moses came forth from under the cloud of glory to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance, and ...
When family reunites, the first thing out of the mouth is usually the story of what was survived. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records Moses's account to Jethro in condensed form: "M...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan specifies the three gifts that most moved Jethro: "Jethro rejoiced over all the good which the Lord had done unto Israel, and that He had given them mann...
A former priest of seven gods gives the first blessing-of-the-Name uttered by a convert. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records Jethro's words: "Blessed be the Name of the Lord who hat...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan captures Jethro's theological breakthrough in one line: "Now have I known that the Lord is stronger than all powers; for by the very thing by which the M...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan describes a remarkable scene: "Jethro took burnt offerings and holy sacrifices before the Lord, and Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to eat bread ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records the moment Jethro's role changed from guest to advisor: "The father-in-law of Moses saw how much he toiled and laboured for his people; and he sa...
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 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 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 expands Jethro's counsel into a short curriculum of communal life. "Give them counsel about the statutes and laws, make them understand the prayer they a...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan translates Jethro's criteria for judges into four clear qualifications: "Thou shouldst elect from all the people men of ability who fear the Lord, uprigh...
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 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 spells out the staggering arithmetic of Moses's judicial reform: "Moses selected able men from all Israel, and appointed them chief over the people — rab...
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...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves one of the most surprising details in the entire Sinai narrative: "Moses on the second day went up to the summit of the mount; and the Lord cal...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan opens one of the most astonishing passages in the entire exodus tradition. "Ye have seen what I did to the Mizraee; and how I bare you upon the clouds as...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the conditional terms of Israel's unique standing: "Now, if you will truly hearken to My Word and keep My covenant, you shall be more beloved b...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records one of the most consequential sentences ever spoken by a people: "All the people responded together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we w...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records God's reason for the coming theophany: "Behold, on the third day I will reveal Myself to thee in the depth of the cloud of glory, that the people...
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 Targum Pseudo-Jonathan intensifies the penalty for trespass at Sinai: "Touch it not with the hand; for he will be stoned with hailstone, or be pierced with arrows of fire; whet...
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...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records one of the most dramatic images in all of rabbinic tradition: "Moses brought forth the people from the camp to meet the glorious Presence of the ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders the theophany with thick sensory detail: "All the mount of Sinai was in flame; for the heavens had overspread it, and He was revealed over it in ...
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: (...
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, ...
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...
God's instruction to Moses at Sinai comes with a precise choreography. "Go down, and then ascend, thou and Aaron with thee; but let not the priests or the people directly come up t...
