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This is the verse the Maggid saves for last — the one where grief and joy shake hands. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 24:67) describes what happened when Isaac brought Rebekah ...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 25:8) records the death of Abraham in a phrase so compact it can be read in five seconds and pondered for a lifetime. "Abraham expired, and died ...
The Torah in (Genesis 25:17) gives us a short obituary for Ishmael: one hundred and thirty-seven years, and then he "expired and was gathered to his people." Targum Pseudo-Jonathan...
Of all the Targum's expansions, this one may be the darkest. Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 25:29) describes the day Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of lentils — and tells us exac...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan lets us listen in on Esau's inner counsel, and it is chilling. "Esau said in his heart, I will not do as Kain did, who slew Habel in the life (time) of h...
Leah had four sons. Rachel had none. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 30:1) preserves the raw edge of her suffering. Rachel was envious of her sister. The Aramaic does not hi...
When Laban accused the camp of stealing his teraphim, Jakob answered with a vow that sounds, read in hindsight, like a tragedy spoken aloud. With whomsoever thou shalt find the ima...
"And Deborah, the nurse of Rebecca, died, and was buried below Bethel, in the field of the plain. And there it was told Jacob concerning the death of Rebecca his mother; and he cal...
"And the Lord revealed Himself to Jacob again on his return from Padan of Aram, and the Lord blessed him by the name of His Memra, after the death of his mother." Targum Pseudo-Jon...
The Torah says Jacob refused to be comforted and declared he would go down to the grave mourning. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 37:35) adds a heartbreaking line the Hebrew onl...
The Targum does not soften the sentence. At the end of three days, Pharoh with the sword will take away thy head from thy body, and will hang thee upon a gibbet, and the birds will...
In the middle of Judah's speech, a sentence lands that should have broken Joseph's composure on the spot. "We told my lord, We have an aged father, and a son of his old age, a litt...
Jacob speaks. For the first time in the Targum's chapter, he is called by his second name — Israel. "Israel said, Many benefits hath the Lord wrought for me; He delivered me from t...
The Holy One makes Jacob a promise so intimate that the Targum cannot bear to phrase it as mere accompaniment. It phrases it as presence. "I am He who in My Word will go down with ...
Read (Genesis 46:21) in a plain chumash and it looks like a list: Bela, Beker, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Chuppim, Ard — ten sons of Benjamin. But the Targum Pseudo-J...
The reunion scene in (Genesis 46:29) should be pure joy. After twenty-two years of believing Joseph was dead, Jacob finally sees his son alive, a ruler in a chariot, riding out to ...
When Jacob finally looks into the face of Joseph alive, his words in (Genesis 46:30) could have been pure relief. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan hears something subtler. Jacob says, "I...
Pharaoh asked Jacob his age, and Jacob's answer in (Genesis 47:9) is one of the rawest sentences in Torah. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders it with all its weight: "The days of t...
When Jacob asked Joseph to bury him in Canaan rather than Egypt, he did not ask for a simple promise. In (Genesis 47:29) he asked Joseph to "put thy hand under my thigh" — a euphem...
In (Genesis 47:31), once Joseph has sworn to bury him in Canaan, Jacob does something cryptic. He "bowed himself upon the bed's head." The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan pulls back the cur...
In (Genesis 48:7), as he prepares to bless his grandsons, Jacob breaks off to explain to Joseph something that has haunted the family for decades. "Rachel died by me suddenly in th...
When the blessings were finished, Jacob turned to the practical. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records his request with the gravity of a last will. "I am to be gathered to my people; bury...
Jacob names the burial site with the precision of a deed. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the legal language. "In the cave that is in the Double Field over against Mamre in the la...
Joseph was the second most powerful man in Egypt. He could have ordered the funeral procession with a wave of his hand. Instead, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves a curious diplomat...
Joseph's request to Pharaoh hinges on a vow he cannot break. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders it simply. "My father made me swear, saying, Behold, I die, in the sepulchre which I hav...
When Pharaoh granted Joseph's request, a procession formed that had no precedent in Hebrew history. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records it plainly. "And Joseph went up to bury his fathe...
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...
When the Canaanite natives saw the Egyptian-Israelite procession mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they did something startling. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records it. "They loo...
The funeral was supposed to be solemn. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records one of the wildest scenes in all of midrash instead. "When his sons had brought him into the land of Kenaan, a...
"And Joseph died, the son of a hundred and ten years. And they embalmed him with perfumes, and laid him in an ark, and submerged him in the midst of the Nilos of Mizraim." The Tora...
The fifth plague is livestock pestilence, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:3) renders it with memorable Aramaic precision: the stroke of the Lord's hand shall be as it hath ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 11:5) announces the tenth plague in language that is almost merciless in its precision. "Every firstborn in the land of Mizraim shall die: fro...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 13:17) answers a question the Torah only gestures at. Why did God not send Israel by the short coastal road through the land of the Philistine...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 13:19) tells a story the Hebrew only hints at. Moses, on the night Israel leaves Egypt, is not packing or leading. He is recovering a body. Jo...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 14:30) adds two uncanny words to the aftermath. Israel, safe on the far shore, looks back and sees the Mizraee—dead and not dead—cast upon the...
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...
(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...
This is the verse that unlocks the whole story. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan fills in what the plain Hebrew leaves as silence: "For Aaron had seen Hur slain before him, and was afraid; a...
The story of Abraham's negotiation with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, found in the book of Genesis, is a powerful exploration of justice, compassion, and the courage to ...
Take lentils, for example. Humble, unassuming… yet, in Jewish tradition, they're deeply tied to mourning and sorrow. Why lentils? The tradition tells us that when Cain killed Abel,...
The great Moses himself had such an experience. As we read in (Exodus 4:24), on the road one night, Adonai—God—encountered Moses and sought to kill him. Talk about a plot twist! Wh...
God, as we know, gave Adam a pretty straightforward instruction: "Of every tree of the garden you are free to eat; but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not ea...
One that opens up a whole world of understanding about the special role this tribe played. Our story starts in the Book of Numbers, Bamidbar in Hebrew, which literally means "in th...
We find it in (Numbers 3:4): "Nadav and Avihu died before the Lord when they offered alien fire before the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children. Elazar and Ita...
Take the story of Nadav and Avihu, the sons of Aaron, who famously perished while offering "alien fire" before the Lord (Leviticus 10:1). Their death is mentioned no less than four...
Today, we're diving into a fascinating passage from Bamidbar Rabbah, specifically section 2, which gives us a peek into the lives of Aaron's sons, Elazar and Itamar, and their role...
It wasn't just about following instructions; it was about life and death. A fascinating passage in Bamidbar Rabbah 5 delves into the story of the sons of Kehat, whose job it was to...
Rabbi Yosei HaGelili, a sage known for his sharp insights, challenges us to consider just that. He points to a time when things were different for the Israelites, a time of purity ...
