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The blessings of (Deuteronomy 28) receive domestic detail. Being blessed "when you go out" becomes "blessed shall you be in your coming in to your houses of instruction, and blesse...
The death of Moses in (Deuteronomy 34) is eight verses in the Torah. Targum Jonathan turns it into one of the most elaborate death scenes in all of ancient Jewish literature. From ...
It will be, from new month to new month, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh will come to bow before Me," said Hashem (Isaiah 66:23). Teach us, our teacher, a person from Israel...
Every corner of the known world smelled like paradise the day King Solomon completed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. According to the Pesikta Rabbati, a collection of midrashic (rabb...
Jeremiah said: when I was coming up to Jerusalem, I lifted up my eyes and saw a woman sitting on the mountaintop, her clothes were black and her hair unkempt. She cried: I am seeki...
Teach us oh, teacher: once the Ninth of Av has ended, is everything permitted? R’ Chiyah the Great taught like this: once the Ninth of Av has ended, one is permitted to do anything...
Chapter 1 From Adam to the Flood was 1656 years, and this is their enumeration: Adam 130, Seth 105, Enosh 90, Kenan 70, Mahalalel 65, Jared 162, Enoch 65, Methuselah 187, Lamech 18...
The Flood was all of twelve months,1R. Eliyahu from Vilna explains that according to Seder Olam a year about which no details are given is a simple, regular year of 354 days follow...
"And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year..." (Numbers 1:1).1Guggen...
Akabyah ben Mahalalel said: mark well three things and you will not come into the power of sin: know from where you come, and where you are going, and before whom you are destined ...
Ben Zoma said: Who is wise? He who learns from every man, as it is said: “From all who taught me have I gained understanding” (Psalms 119:99). Who is mighty? He who subdues his [ev...
The sages taught in the language of the Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law). Blessed be He who chose them and their teaching. Rabbi Meir said: Whoever occupies himself with...
Another taught: "The holy blessed one said to the Torah: 'Let us make the human...' She [Torah] replied, 'This human will be short of days, full of conflict, and fall into the hand...
Another thing, the Book of Adam's Descendants was passed before him. He saw David's portion of life would be three hours. He said, "Master of the world, this should not be decreed!...
When God appeared to Abram and commanded him to circumcise himself, the patriarch was already ninety-nine years old. According to the Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 80, God's words carrie...
He lay down in that place – R’ Yehudah says ‘here he lay down, but all fourteen years that he was hidden away in the land serving Ever he never laid down.’ R’ Nechemia says ‘here h...
"So the Egyptians enslaved the children of Israel with back breaking labor [b'farech]" (Ex. 1:13). R. Elazar says, "B'pe rach—with a soft mouth." R. Shmuel says, "B'frichah—With ri...
En esos tiempos hubo una guerra entre Kush y los Bnei Kedem. Salió Konkos Rey de Kush a la guerra contra Aram y los Bnei Kedem, dejando a Bilam -que es Laban el Arameo de Petor- el...
Said R' Levi: The Holy One Blessed Be He appeared to them like a picture which is visible form all angles. A thousand people may gaze on it and it gazes on all of them. So is the H...
The Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 392 makes a breathtaking claim about the two stone tablets that Moses received on Mount Sinai: they were not made from any earthly material. "The tablet...
When the Holy One came to give the Torah to Moshe, he said over the order of the Readings, the Mishna, the aggadah (non-legal rabbinic narrative) and the Talmud as it says "And God...
Another explanation: And you will quickly perish (Deuteronomy 11:17)—exile after exile. And thus do you find with the ten tribes, exile after exile. And thus do you find with the t...
Adam was created in twelve hours. According to Sanhedrin 38b, Rabbi Yohanan bar Hanina mapped each hour of the first man's first day onto a specific stage of formation. In the firs...
After the expulsion from Eden, Adam separated from Eve for 130 years. According to Eruvin 18b, during that long estrangement, he fathered an entirely different kind of offspring—de...
The Hebrew Bible says God "blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). Targum Onkelos renders that final phrase differently: man became ...
The Hebrew Bible says the serpent told Eve, "You will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5). Targum Onkelos changes one word: "You will be like great ones." Not God. Gr...
The Hebrew Bible says God "paid regard" to Abel's offering but not to Cain's (Genesis 4:4-5). Targum Onkelos rephrases this as: "There was favor before God" for Abel's offering, bu...
The Hebrew Bible says God "shut him in" the ark (Genesis 7:16)—a strangely intimate image of the Creator personally closing Noah's door. Targum Onkelos renders this as "God protect...
The Hebrew Bible says God "descended to see the city and the tower" of Babel (Genesis 11:5). Targum Onkelos will not allow that reading. God does not descend. Instead, "God became ...
The Hebrew Bible makes one of its most radical claims in (Deuteronomy 30:12-14): "It is not in heaven... nor is it overseas... for the matter is extremely close to you, in your mou...
Deborah the prophetess did something no other judge in Israel had done — she held court outdoors, beneath a palm tree. The Yalkut Shimoni on Nach explains exactly why, and the reas...
They have built the shrines of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom: Our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said that even though all the houses of idolatry were in Jerusalem, the...
Why does the text announce him (by name), and his wife, and his sons? Because they didn't prevent each other [from abandoning the poor in Beit Lechem and leaving for Moav], [and th...
"From the kingship of the hypocritical man from the snares of the people" (Job 34:30) Abba Gurion, from Sidon, said five things in the name of Rabban Gamliel: (1) When lying judges...
Ten decrees were decreed upon Adam, ten upon Eve, ten upon the serpent, and ten upon the earth: Ten upon man: He was clothed in garments of splendor, but God stripped them from him...
The Feast of the Garden of Eden [in Seder Rav Amram Gaon 13b, and Beit haMidrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) vol. 5, 45] In the future to come, the Holy Blessed One will rev...
The Book of Gehinnom (the place of spiritual purification after death) [Reishit Chochmah: Gate of Fear: Chapter 12; Beit haMidrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary): Section 1] It...
Seventy Names of Metatron: The book "Seventy Names of Metatron", which Rabbi Yishmael revealed, 23 of which he received when he ascended on high. The book was brought to print by R...
Pirkei Avot, also known as "Ethics of the Fathers," is one of the most widely studied texts in all of Jewish literature — and one of the most unusual tractates in the Talmud. Unlik...
Avkir: This Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) is named so because of the acronym at the end of the teachings: Amen, B'yamenu, Ken, Yehi, Ratzon (in our days, so be it). Th...
Book of Eldad the Danite A Question and Answer between the People of Kairouan and Rabbi Zemach Gaon [Epstein, Eldad the Danite, Story I] Before the chariot of Israel and its horsem...
Story of Eldad the Danite, Narrative B In the name of the LORD God of Israel, blessed be His name, of our God the King, King of kings, Who chose Israel from among all nations and g...
The "Book of the Ways of Life," attributed to Rabbi Eliezer, reads like a father's urgent final letter to his son — a distillation of everything that matters into short, unforgetta...
When God created the first man from the dust of the earth, He looked at Adam standing alone and said what the Torah itself records: "It is not good for this man to be alone" (Genes...
The Holy One created twenty-two good attributes in His world. All of them were nullified and in the future the Holy One will return them to Israel in the time to come. They are: fo...
The Book of the Wellspring of Wisdom When Moses ascended on high, a cloud came up against him, and Moses our teacher did not know if one rides it or holds it. Immediately, the clou...
The Hebrew Torah scroll contains a hidden layer of meaning that most readers never notice: certain letters are written larger or smaller than normal. The Midrashim (rabbinic interp...
Rabbi Yehuda said, "Three books are opened on Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) before the Holy One, Blessed be He: One of wholly righteous people; and they are immediately writt...
