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The Israelites, fresh from the Exodus, knew that feeling all too well. And in Deuteronomy, Moses doesn’t pull any punches reminding them of it. He lays it all out, a litany of miss...
Imagine: forty years wandering the desert. Forty years! And according to tradition, it was all their own fault. Moses, their leader, didn’t hold back as they stood on the cusp of f...
Talk about pressure! The Israelites weren’t exactly waging war on Moab, but their very presence – a kind of “hostile, though not warlike, attitude” as Ginzberg phrases it in Legend...
Jewish tradition certainly hints at that possibility! Take Balaam, for example. You know, the one hired to curse the Israelites? The Moabites and Midianites thought he was Moses' e...
He knew his army wasn't strong enough, his strategies weren't clever enough. He needed an edge, something… supernatural. So, he turned to Balaam. Now, Balaam was no ordinary sorcer...
The story begins with an ass – not just any ass, mind you, but one created on the sixth day of creation itself! According to Legends of the Jews, this creature was gifted to Balaam...
Imagine the scene: Balaam, the non-Jewish prophet-for-hire, is up to no good. He's been hired by Balak, king of Moab, to curse the Israelites (Numbers 22-24). He's built seven alta...
It’s a question that’s echoed through the ages, and in the story of Balak and Balaam, we get a glimpse of a fascinating answer. Remember Balak, the King of Moab, and Balaam, the pr...
It might seem like a simple administrative task, but according to some fascinating Jewish traditions, there's a deeper, more spiritual reason behind it. The story goes that God com...
