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The Targum catches a small pastoral detail. Joseph asked the chiefs of Pharoh who were with him in the custody of his master's house, saying, Why is the look of your faces more evi...
When the dream was decoded, Joseph did not stop at interpretation. He handed Pharaoh a policy. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 41:34, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah that too...
There is a quiet engineering decision tucked inside Joseph's plan that the Torah narrates in a single breath but the Targum lingers on. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 41:35 desc...
The Torah says Joseph stored grain in cities. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 41:36 adds a detail that changes the picture entirely: the provision was laid up "as in a cavern in ...
Seven harvests, gathered with deliberate care. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 41:48 records the logistics Joseph used: "he laid up the produce in the cities; the produce of the ...
The seed itself failed. That is the detail Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 41:55 adds to the Torah's account: the famine in Egypt was not merely the absence of rain but the refus...
Jacob sent ten sons to Egypt, and they entered not as a group but through ten different doors. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 42:5 preserves the reason: "every one by one door, ...
The famine grinds on. Grain runs thin. And Jacob, the aged patriarch, sits paralyzed at the thought of sending his youngest, Benjamin, down into Mizraim (Egypt). The viceroy there ...
The steward's reply is the gentlest sentence in all of Genesis 43. The brothers have just thrust their silver forward, insisting on their innocence. And the steward — Menasheh, in ...
Joseph has been holding a pose for three chapters. Stern vizier. Egyptian potentate. Accuser, examiner, power. Then he lifts his eyes and sees, standing among his brothers, the boy...
At Joseph's table the platters move in a strange rhythm. Every brother receives a portion. Then Benjamin receives five.Targum Pseudo-Jonathan accounts for the arithmetic. "Benjamin...
Judah keeps building the case. He reminds the vizier of every step, every conversation, every refusal. The family could not return to Egypt without the youngest brother."We told hi...
When the news reaches the palace, Pharaoh is delighted — and the Targum hears the reason under the delight."A voice was heard in the royal house of Pharaoh, saying, The brothers of...
Pharaoh sends his own invitation. "Take your father and the men of your house, and come to me, and I will give you the best of what is desirable in the land of Mizraim, and you sha...
The inventory of Joseph's gift to his father is recorded with precision. "These presents he sent to his father; ten asses laden with wine and the good things of Mizraim, and ten sh...
The caravan forms at dawn. An old man. His sons. His grandchildren. His daughters-in-law. Seventy souls in all, according to the count the Torah gives us later (Genesis 46:27)."Jac...
Before the family of Jacob was even presented to Pharaoh, Joseph coached his brothers on what to say. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 46:34) records his instruction: say you...
The meeting between Pharaoh and Joseph's brothers was over quickly. In (Genesis 47:6) Pharaoh gave them Goshen, as expected — but the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan lingers on the second h...
The Torah states, almost in passing, that Joseph "removed the people to cities from one end of the border of Egypt to the other" (Genesis 47:21). Why? The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan gi...
The Torah sums up the family's first years in Egypt in a single line: "And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen, and they had possessions therein, and grew a...
When Jacob finally addressed the question of Joseph's two sons in (Genesis 48:5), he did something startling. He said: "Ephraim and Menasheh, as Reuben and Shimon shall be reckoned...
Every Friday night, in homes from Jerusalem to Buenos Aires, Jewish fathers place their hands on their sons' heads and say the same words: "May God make you like Ephraim and like M...
Some tribes fought. Some farmed. Zebulun sailed. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan takes the brief Hebrew line in Genesis 49:13 and gives it a maritime vista. "Zebulon shall dwell upon the ba...
Gad chose land east of the Jordan. The Hebrew blessing in Genesis 49:19 puns on the name — gad sounds like gedud, a raiding band. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan expands the pun into a batt...
The Hebrew calls Naphtali "a hind let loose, that giveth goodly words" (Genesis 49:21). The image is a deer sprinting across a mountainside with news. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan names ...
The blessings are done. Jacob has said something hard or something heroic about each of his sons — one has lost the birthright, two have been scattered for their rage, one has been...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records a small, telling detail about the funeral caravan. "And all the men of Joseph's house, and his brethren, and his father's household: only their child...
Midway between Egypt and Hebron, the procession stopped. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan describes the scene. "They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jardena, and the...
The Torah names two cities: Pithom and Ra'amses. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (1:11) names two others: Tanis and Pelusium."And they set over them work-masters to affli...
Pharaoh's whole policy had one aim — shrink the Hebrews. And this verse is the Targum's quiet demolition of the whole policy."But as much as they depressed them, so much they ...
"And they made their lives bitter by hard service in clay and bricks, and all the labour of the face of the field; and in all the work which they made them do was hardness.&qu...
The Torah says God made the midwives "houses." The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (1:21) tells us exactly what those houses were."And forasmuch as the midwives fea...
He had grown up in silk. Now he stepped out into the brick kilns."And in those days when Mosheh was grown up, he went forth to his brethren, and saw the anguish of their souls...
The Hebrew says only "two Hebrew men." The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (2:13) names them."And he went out the second day, and looked; and, behold, Dathan and Ab...
Dathan's answer is a dagger."Who is he who hath appointed thee a chief man and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me, said he, as thou didst the Mizraite? And Mosheh was afraid, ...
"And their cry was heard before the Lord, and before the Lord was the covenant remembered which He had covenanted with Abraham, with Izhak, and with Jakob."The Targum Pse...
"And He said, The oppression of My people who are in Mizraim is verily manifest before Me, and heard before Me is their cry on account of them who hold them in bondage; for th...
"And the Lord said again unto Mosheh, Thus shalt thou speak to the sons of Israel: The God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Izhak, and the God of Jakob, hath se...
"Go, and assemble the elders of Israel, and say to them, The Lord God of your fathers hath appeared unto me, the God of Abraham, Izhak, and Jakob, saying, Remembering, I have ...
Before Moses ever steps into Pharaoh's throne room, God rehearses the scene with him in advance. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the expansive Aramaic paraphrase, preserves the staging: th...
Four refusals in, the Holy One's patience runs out. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the flash: the anger of the Lord was kindled against Mosheh. This is unusual. The Torah rarely ...
Once Aaron is appointed the spokesman, the Holy One explains how the chain of communication will actually work. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the threefold structure: thou shalt...
Before Moses can begin the Exodus, he has to say goodbye to the family that took him in. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the scene's restraint. Moses does not march out. He return...
After the terror at the inn, the reunion at Sinai feels like exhale. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the geography with reverent precision: Aaron came and met him at the mountain ...
The first public assembly ends not in riot but in worship. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the triple movement: the people believed, and heard that the Lord had remembered the son...
Pharaoh's response to the slaves' religious request is to tighten the screws. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the logic with cruel precision: the (same) number of bricks which the...
The cruelty has a chain of command. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the structure: the exactors whom Pharoh set over them as officers beat the sons of Israel, saying, Why have not...
The foremen walk out of Pharaoh's court knowing they have lost. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the grim recognition: the foremen of the sons of Israel saw that they were in evil,...
