3,053 texts · Page 17 of 64
Sometimes, digging into the past brings up unexpected things... and uncomfortable questions. Today, we're wading into one of those uncomfortable corners, a place where ancient bias...
It concerns Moses, the ultimate liberator, and some truly wild accusations leveled against him. Now, Josephus, in his work Against Apion, addresses these very claims, specifically ...
We often think of the classic texts – the Torah, the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) – but there's a whole other world of accounts out there, often written by those not ...
We've been looking at how different writers tried to explain the story of the Israelites leaving Egypt. Last time, we dug into Manetho's version, and now we're going to look at Che...
That’s exactly what we find ourselves facing when we delve into the writings of Lysimachus, a figure who, according to Josephus in his work Against Apion, spun a tale so incredibly...
Remember that feeling when someone tells you something so outrageous, so demonstrably false, that you almost don't want to dignify it with a response? But then you realize, silence...
Our guide for this adventure is Flavius Josephus, the first-century Romano-Jewish scholar and historian, and the story comes from his work, Against Apion. This book is essentially ...
Apion was an Egyptian, and he spun a wild yarn about the Jews' exodus from Egypt. Josephus calls it a "novel account," which is a polite way of saying it was complete fiction. But ...
He's responding to the claims of a writer named Apion, who seems to have a real bone to pick with the Jews of Alexandria. Apion, you see, is going after the Alexandrian Jews, criti...
The Jewish people have faced that challenge for centuries, and in his work Against Apion, Josephus steps up to the plate to set the record straight against a particularly virulent ...
The writer Josephus, in his work Against Apion, deals with just such an argument. He's responding to the claims of a fellow named Apion, who’s taking potshots at the Jewish people....
It's more than just a historical account; it's a defense of the Jewish people and their traditions. Josephus wants to set the record straight about Moses. He argues that when our a...
Ever get the feeling someone's telling stories about you, and they're just... not true? That's kind of the situation the Jewish historian Josephus found himself in during the first...
Abraham didn't just go to Egypt to escape famine. According to Josephus, he went to debate the priests. When drought struck Canaan, Abraham heard that Egypt was prosperous and deci...
She faked an illness to be alone with him. That detail—from Josephus's retelling in the Antiquities—transforms a familiar story into something far more calculated. Potiphar's wife ...
Two years. That is how long Joseph sat in an Egyptian prison after correctly predicting the fate of Pharaoh's cupbearer—who had promised to remember him and then promptly forgot. T...
A golden cup hidden in a sack of grain. That was Joseph's final test—not to punish his brothers, but to see whether they had changed. He planted his own drinking cup in Benjamin's ...
Jacob lived seventeen years in Egypt after reuniting with the son he had mourned as dead. Seventeen years of peace, of proximity to Joseph, of watching his family flourish in the l...
The Egyptian princess who raised Moses had to make him swear an oath before handing him over to the king. That is how little she trusted her own father's court—the same court whose...
God declared His secret name to Moses at the burning bush—and then Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, refused to write it down. "It is not lawful for me to say any more,...
Six hundred chariots. Fifty thousand horsemen. Two hundred thousand infantry. That was the army Pharaoh sent racing after the Hebrews barely three days after letting them go—and he...
Rabbi Ishmael, a central figure in the Heikhalot (the heavenly palaces) literature (texts describing mystical ascents to heaven), once posed this very question. He asks, what did Z...
That’s the feeling that leaps off the page of this passage from Mitpachat Sefarim (מטפחת ספרים), a fascinating and relatively obscure work. The title itself, "Scroll Covering," hin...
It’s not just about planting saplings and hugging trunks (though, hey, those are good too!). The celebration of Tu BiShvat, the 15th of the Hebrew month of Shevat, as a "New Year f...
It's not just random notes! There's a whole mystical drama unfolding with each tekiyah, shevarim, and teruah. This teaching comes from the Sefer HaKanah, a Kabbalistic text. Imagin...
Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, offers a breathtakingly beautiful answer. a foundational concept from the Asarah Perakim, "Ten Chapters," of Rabbeinu Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, or Ramchal a...
We’re so used to having eyes that see and ears that hear, that we rarely pause to appreciate the sheer, intricate genius of it all. But according to Da'at (Knowledge) Tevunot, this...
Is God's will inherently good? And if so, how do we reconcile that with the existence of suffering and, let's face it, the occasional outright wicked person seemingly getting away ...
At Sinai, the Israelites experienced the overwhelming presence of HaShem. But what did they actually see? Moses, in his wisdom, warns the Israelites, “And guard your souls very muc...
It's not a simple, linear thing. They used both circles and lines to explain it. Let’s untangle that for a bit. The igul, the circle, represents an all-encompassing governance. It ...
It points out that throughout history, moments of perceived progress, of tikkun (repair) have often been limited in scope. They primarily benefited Israel, while the rest of the wo...
A time when holiness wasn't just a nice idea, but the dominant force. The Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah, a Kabbalistic text whose name roughly translates as "Thresholds of Wisdom," paint...
Our expressions, our micro-movements – they betray what's going on inside, whether we want them to or not. Now, the text we're diving into today, Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah (Wisdom), ...
That feeling – that’s a glimpse of something truly profound. The Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah, an important kabbalistic text, touches upon just this. It speaks of a time when all souls ...
We find echoes of this struggle even in the most mystical corners of Jewish thought. The Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah, a profoundly esoteric text, delves into the very roots of souls an...
It all comes into play in the mystical concept of Arich Anpin. Now, Arich Anpin, often translated as "Long Face" or "Vast Countenance," represents divine patience and forbearance. ...
It might sound strange, but bear with me. We’re about to dive into some seriously deep waters, exploring how even the smallest details can hold profound spiritual significance. We’...
It’s called "growth towards completion." Think of it this way: A Partzuf, a divine configuration or "face" of God, isn't just static. It's dynamic. The Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah (Wis...
Take the creation story, for example. (Genesis 1:3) tells us, "And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." Seems straightforward. But Rabbi Berachiah, in the Sefer Ha...
The Sefer Yetzirah (the World of Formation), or Book of Formation, that mystical text attributed to Abraham himself, unveils layers of meaning we might never suspect. We've been ex...
Jewish mysticism touches on this feeling in some incredibly profound ways, and it all connects to… a bird's nest. Sounds strange. But bear with me. In Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Z...
It’s the word zot – "this." Sounds simple. But in the mystical tradition, particularly within the Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, the zot is anything but simple. It's a doorway....
Jewish tradition offers a powerful image for understanding this struggle, and a path towards liberation. It all revolves around the idea of "fifty gates of freedom." Where does thi...
The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah, delves deep into the mystical significance of sight, and what it reveals about our connection to the Divine. It p...
Jewish mysticism speaks of gates like these – spiritual barriers that seem impenetrable. But what if the key wasn't strength or knowledge, but something far more vulnerable? The Ti...
It's all tied to music. The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar delves deep into the mystical significance of the Hebrew letters and the sounds they create, revealing layers of meani...
In Jewish mysticism, that feeling has cosmic significance. It's connected to the very fabric of reality, and believe it or not, even to matzah, that unleavened bread we eat on Pass...
Jewish tradition often talks about lineage, about belonging, about the importance of staying true to your roots. And within that, there's this fascinating idea about conversion, ab...
