2,514 texts · Page 5 of 53
God placed seven planets in the firmament and gave each one a distinct personality. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle compiled by Jerahmeel ...
When a person is about to die, the angel assigned to them delivers a devastating eulogy. Not a eulogy of praise. A eulogy of regret. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12t...
Rabbi Eliezer's students asked him a direct question: what happens in the grave? According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle compiled by Jerahmeel ben...
Isaiah son of Amos saw all five kinds of punishment in Gehinnom (the place of spiritual purification after death). According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew c...
Every compartment of Gehinnom (the place of spiritual purification after death) contains 7,000 crevices. Every crevice contains 7,000 scorpions. Every scorpion has 300 cavities, an...
Paradise has two gates made of carbuncle, and sixty myriads of ministering angels guard them. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle compiled by ...
When Darius settled onto the throne of Babylon, his first act was not a military campaign or a political purge. He sent for Daniel. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th...
The jealous princes of Babylon set a trap with surgical precision. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, the...
Daniel had grown old. He came before the king one last time and asked permission to go home. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by...
The contest before King Darius began with the first prince arguing that nothing on earth is as powerful as a king. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew c...
The hatred between Haman the Amalekite and Mordecai the Jew had deep ancestral roots. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses ...
Esther stripped off her royal garments and the ornaments of her majesty. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 189...
Ptolemy of Egypt was a book collector. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle preserved by Moses Gaster in 1899, the Macedonian king who ruled Eg...
Seven brothers and their mother were seized and brought before King Antiochus. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle preserved by Moses Gaster i...
The breaking point came at Mod'aith. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle preserved by Moses Gaster in 1899, after Antiochus departed for Maced...
When Judah Maccabee and the Hassidim entered Jerusalem, the Temple was an abomination. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle preserved by Moses ...
Antiochus Eupator, son of the infamous Antiochus Epiphanes, inherited his father's hatred of the Jews. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle pre...
After Antiochus Eupator fell to Demetrius son of Seleucus, a new threat emerged—and this time it came from a Jewish traitor. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-centur...
This isn't your typical biblical story. It’s a myth, a folk tale, preserved in the Israel Folktale Archives, about a wonder child who lived during the time of the Temple in Jerusal...
The Book of Ezekiel, one of the most powerful and enigmatic texts in the Hebrew Bible, opens with just such an experience. We find Ezekiel, a priest, in exile, far from Jerusalem, ...
Tzadkiel isn't just any celestial being. He's the one who lovingly clothes each soul arriving in Paradise with garments of incredible purity, woven by the "Bride of God." – the car...
Time and again, the Jewish community of Prague faced the horrifying accusation of blood libel – the false claim that they used the blood of children in their Passover matzah. These...
There's a story about a rabbi, Rabbi Hayim ben Attar, known as the Or ha-Hayim (אור החיים), "the light of life," after his famous biblical commentary. He lived in Jerusalem and had...
The followers of the Ba'al Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidic Judaism, knew a thing or two about joy. Every year, they celebrated Simhat Torah – the culmination of Sukkot (the Festiv...
Some believe that certain figures, especially the patriarch Abraham, never truly died. The idea of Abraham continuing to wander the world, making his presence known, is surprisingl...
Amram, Moses’s father, wasn't just any man. He was a skilled doctor, so renowned that he served Pharaoh himself! The text in Tree of Souls tells us of his wisdom, and of God's hand...
We all know the story: Moses, the parting of the waters, a miraculous escape. But what if there was someone else there, seeing even more than meets the eye? That someone was Serah ...
The Torah tells us about such a person: Moses. When he descended from Mount Sinai after those momentous forty days and nights, he was… different. The text says his body was bathed ...
It’s a question that’s captivated mystics and theologians for centuries. Our tradition offers some pretty wild and wondrous answers! According to Legends of the Jews, that incredib...
There's a wild story in Jewish tradition that explains exactly why, involving a heavenly court, a lot of pleading, and even a little bit of divine disappointment. The Legends of th...
Jewish tradition has some pretty incredible answers. to the very first day of creation. According to Legends of the Jews by Ginzberg, on day one, God brought forth ten things. : te...
on the second day, God brought forth four distinct creations: the firmament (rakia in Hebrew), hell, fire, and the angels. Now, the firmament isn't just the heavens we saw on day o...
Before the third day, the earth was a watery expanse. Then, God commanded, "Let the waters be gathered together," and suddenly, mountains and hills burst forth, creating basins for...
It all starts on the fourth day of Creation. According to Legends of the Jews, as retold by Rabbi Louis Ginzberg, the sun, moon, and stars weren't actually made on the fourth day. ...
The fifth day of creation was all about bringing forth life into the waters and the skies. The Legends of the Jews, as retold by Ginzberg, tells us that God took fire and water, se...
Just as fish were formed from water and birds from boggy earth, mammals were formed from solid earth. And among these, we find some truly remarkable beings. Take Behemot, for examp...
As retold by Ginzberg, whatever God created has value. It's a radical idea, isn't it? That the snail leaving its slimy trail is actually serving a purpose, providing a remedy for b...
Jewish tradition offers a powerful, poetic answer: it was all for us, for humankind. But there’s a twist. According to Legends of the Jews, Ginzberg retells a fascinating idea: God...
Jewish tradition offers a particularly fascinating, and sometimes unsettling, account. to the story of the angels and the creation of Adam, the first human. According to Legends of...
Jewish tradition offers a rich, intricate, and frankly, quite beautiful answer. According to the Legends of the Jews, a collection of fascinating rabbinic stories compiled by Louis...
Jewish tradition certainly has, and the figure of Adam, the first man, looms large in that contemplation. to some fascinating stories about him, drawn from the rich tapestry of Jew...
It all starts, according to some traditions, with a clash of egos, a refusal to bow, and a trial of wit gone wrong. The Legends of the Jews, as retold by Ginzberg, gives us a fasci...
Jewish tradition offers some breathtakingly beautiful, and frankly, wild, ideas about the journey of the soul. One particularly vivid picture involves Adam, the first man, acting a...
We often think of it as just a snake, but according to the Legends of the Jews, as retold by Louis Ginzberg, this serpent was something truly extraordinary. It wasn't just any anim...
We often focus on the eating of the fruit itself, but the consequences, as described in Jewish tradition, are pretty fascinating, and, frankly, a little terrifying. According to Gi...
Before the world even existed, there was a need for beings to praise God. So, He created the angels, the holy Hayyot (holy living creatures), the heavens, and ultimately, Adam. The...
The Bible doesn't offer much detail. But the Jewish tradition, rich with stories and interpretations, fills in the gaps, painting a vivid picture of their struggle, their sorrow, a...
Adam wasn't just picking apples and feeling sorry for himself. He was wrestling with the big stuff – the future, his children, and the whole darn world. Adam poured out his heart t...
