510 texts in Midrash Aggadah
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:13) gives an unusual command: of all the precepts that I have spoken to you, be careful; and the names of the idols of the Gentiles reme...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:15) sets the pilgrimage: The feast of unleavened cakes thou shalt keep. Seven days thou art to eat unleavened bread, as I have instructe...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:16) names two festivals without naming them by their later names: the feast of the harvest first-fruits of the work thou didst sow in th...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:18) gives the Pesach offering a particular constraint: Sons of Israel My people, while there is leaven in your houses you may not immola...
This single verse holds two of the most important laws in Jewish life — and the Targum layers them tightly together. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:19) says: The first...
God is sending an angel to lead Israel through the wilderness. But this is no ordinary angel. The Targum's warning is severe and strange at the same time. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:22) makes a promise that sounds almost like a battle cry: if thou wilt indeed hearken to His Word, and do all that I speak by Him, I wil...
When Israel enters the Land, the Torah expects a specific kind of work — not only settlement, but demolition. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:24) commands: Thou shalt n...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:25) gives a promise that ties worship to health: you shall do service before the Lord our God and He will bless the provision of thy foo...
Before a single Israelite sword is drawn in the Land, God goes ahead. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:27) says: My terror will I send before thee, and will perturb all ...
The promise is stunning and, at first, confusing. God has committed to dispossess the Canaanite nations before Israel. Why not do it all at once? Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:31) maps Israel's inheritance: I will set thy boundary from the sea of Suph, to the sea of the Philistaee, and from the desert unto the ...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:33) gives a final warning before the conquest: Thou shalt not let them dwell in thy land, lest they cause thee to err, and to sin before...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 24:1) opens with an unexpected speaker: Michael, the Prince of Wisdom, said to Mosheh on the seventh day of the month, Come up before the L...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 24:3) describes the extraordinary moment before the covenant is sealed: Mosheh came and set before the people all the words of the Lord, an...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 24:4) describes what Moses built at dawn: Mosheh wrote the words of the Lord, and arose in the morning and builded an altar at the lower pa...
Before Aaron's household held the priesthood, someone else did. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 24:5) preserves this little-known tradition: Mosheh sent the firstborn of t...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 24:7) records the moment the covenant was sealed: Mosheh took the Book of the Covenant of the Law and read before the people; and they said...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 24:8) describes the most solemn act of the covenant ceremony: Mosheh took half of the blood which was in the basins, and sprinkled upon the...
When Nadab and Abihu lifted their eyes at Sinai and beheld the glory of the God of Israel, they saw something no prophet had described before. Beneath the divine throne, serving as...
The narrative in Exodus 24 troubles the ancient interpreters. Nadab and Abihu, the comely young sons of Aharon, ascended the mountain with the elders, beheld the God of Israel, and...
The plain Hebrew of (Exodus 24:12) reads simply that God promised Moses the tablets of stone, the Torah, and the commandment. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan cannot leave it that spare....
The Targum on (Exodus 24:16) preserves a detail that the plain text rushes past. The glory of the Lord's Shekhinah rested on Mount Sinai, and the Cloud of Glory covered it for six ...
The plain Hebrew of (Exodus 24:17) says that the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. The T...
The plain verse of (Exodus 24:18) is almost flat. Moses entered the cloud and went up the mountain, and he was there forty days and forty nights. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan cannot ...
When the Holy One commanded Israel to contribute materials for the Mishkan, the Tabernacle in the wilderness, the instruction could have been simple taxation. Every household owes ...
(Exodus 25:22) contains one of the most intimate promises in the Torah. The Holy One tells Moses that He will meet with him there, above the kapporet, the mercy-seat, between the t...
The construction of the Mishkan is described in Exodus 26 with a catalog of measurements and materials that reads, on the surface, like an architect's invoice. Ten curtains of fine...
(Exodus 26:28) describes an engineering detail. A middle bar, passing through the boards of the Tabernacle from end to end, holding the walls together. Plain Hebrew gives the speci...
The Torah closes the Tabernacle construction chapters with a quiet command. In the Tent of Meeting, outside the parochet that conceals the Ark, Aharon and his sons are to tend a la...
(Exodus 28:1) names the first family of Jewish priests. Aharon, brother of Moses, is brought near with his four sons: Nadab, Abihu, Elazar, and Itamar. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan p...
When God commissioned the priestly wardrobe, He did not sketch a uniform. He named eight specific garments, each with a job. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:4) lists them ...
The shoulder-stones of the ephod were not to be carved roughly. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:11) insists the engraver work as the engraving of a ring — every letter dis...
Most translations of (Exodus 28:12) call the shoulder-stones a memorial, and leave the word undefined. A memorial of what? The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan fills the silence. The gems ar...
Even the best judge eventually meets a case he cannot crack. Two witnesses contradict. A motive stays buried. A theft leaves no trail. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:15) ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:17) reads the gemstones as geography. The breastplate held four rows of precious gems, answering to the four regions of the world. When Aar...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:18) names the second row of the high priest's breastplate: smaragd, and sapphire and chalcedony. On them were engraved Judah, Dan, and Naph...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:19) lists the third row of the breastplate: ligure, and agate, and amethyst, engraved with Gad, Asher, and Issachar. The tribes of this row...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:20) closes the breastplate's geography with the fourth row: chrysolite, onyx, and jasper, engraved with Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. The ...
The shoulder stones were a memorial. The breastplate was something more intimate. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:29) insists that Aaron bore the names of the sons of Isra...
The most electric line in this chapter of the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan is hidden inside a description of a priestly accessory. On (Exodus 28:30), the text explains what the Urim and ...
The robe of the high priest rang when he walked. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:34) gives a specific count: a golden bell, then a pomegranate of hyacinth and crimson, alt...
Why did the high priest's robe need bells at all? The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:35) gives the quiet, terrifying answer. Its voice shall be heard at the time that he hath...
The gold plate on the forehead of the high priest was tied to a hyacinth ribbon. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:37) names the sin it was meant to repair: it make amends f...
A worshipper brings an offering but his heart is not really in it. He makes a vow and regrets it mid-sentence. He dedicates a field and secretly hopes to walk it back. What happens...
Most translations of (Exodus 28:39) describe the weaving of the tunic and leave it there. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan refuses that minimalism. Each garment atones for something spec...
The last of the priestly garments was the most private. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:43) explains that Aaron and his sons had to wear the fine linen undergarments — the...
Of all the ordination rites, this one is the strangest. Moses slaughtered the second ram, and the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 29:20) tells us exactly what he did with the blo...
