God Chose the One Man Who Didn't Want to Be High Priest
When God chose Aaron as High Priest, Aaron didn't want the job. He was a man who shunned distinctions, and Moses had to persuade him to accept.
22 texts
to a few verses from his writings. He starts with a seemingly straightforward observation: "A noble, ruler, judge shall be glorified, but nothing is greater than fearing the Lord."...
The ancient sage Ben Sira, writing over two thousand years ago, wrestled with these very same questions. He saw the world around him, and he wasn't always thrilled with what he saw...
That’s exactly what the wisdom of Ben Sira is getting at in this passage. Ben Sira, also known as Sirach or the Wisdom of Yeshua ben Sira, is a book of wisdom literature, a treasur...
That's the situation the brothers of Joseph found themselves in, as told in Legends of the Jews. They arrive at Joseph's house – remember, they don't know it's him yet, disguised a...
Jewish tradition says it does. Absolutely. God sees it all, and nothing goes unrewarded. Not even a respectable word. Think about Lot's daughters. A pretty uncomfortable story. Aft...
According to the Legends of the Jews (Ginzberg), Solomon, in all his glory, was wandering through a valley. Now, this wasn't just any valley – it was the valley of the ants. Imagin...
Let’s talk about Jehoshaphat, son of Asa, a king of Judah. Now, according to the biblical narrative in the Book of Kings, and amplified in works like Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews...
The prophet Elijah, that fiery figure of Jewish tradition, sometimes took it upon himself to nudge people in the right direction. And sometimes, that nudge was more like a cosmic s...
It happens to the best of us, and even to some of the greatest Rabbis in Jewish lore. Take the story of Rabbi Joshua, for example. We all know the prophet Elijah. The one who ascen...
It grapples with a fundamental question: why would the Divine, in all its perfection, choose to involve itself with a world that, let's face it, often feels pretty imperfect? The a...
A king told his wise man: there exists another king who signs his letters with three claims—that he is mighty, truthful, and humble. "Mighty I can confirm," said the king. "The sea...
Shimon ben Azzai expanded his teaching about the doubled verbs in the Torah with an even more radical claim. The principle of "heed, you shall heed" does not only mean that heaven ...
The great sage Eliezer once found himself in a similar situation. We find this story in the Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating text that delves into the lives and teachings of p...
We often think of strength, wisdom, or maybe even wealth. But what about humility? The Torah, in the Book of Numbers, specifically Bamidbar (Numbers 12:3), tells us something profo...
Hillel taught: "Be of the disciples of Aaron — loving peace and pursuing peace, loving people and drawing them near to the Torah." But what did Aaron actually do? Rabbi Meir explai...
And the one who offered his sacrifice on the first day was Nachshon ben Aminadab of the tribe of Judah (Numbers 7:12). Our Rabbi, the one who offered the sacrifice to the altar, ta...
A non-Jew once asked Rabban Gamliel a question that seemed simple but concealed a philosophical trap. "Your God," he said, "is supposedly the master of the entire universe. He crea...
Rabbi Akiva sat in judgment over a case that would become one of the most famous legal rulings in all of rabbinic literature. A man had publicly humiliated a woman by tearing the c...
Rabbi Elazar ben Shimon and the prophet Elijah once met on the road, and the Talmud preserves a strange and vivid account of what happened next. Elijah was traveling in disguise — ...
Levi ben Sisi was a brilliant scholar, one of the finest students of his generation. When a community in the town of Simonia needed a teacher and judge, Rabbi Judah HaNasi sent Lev...
Like there's a surface narrative, and then... something deeper, waiting to be uncovered? That's precisely what the ancient sages believed about the Torah. They saw layers upon laye...
Philo, the great Jewish philosopher of Alexandria, grappled with this very idea centuries ago. In his writings, often called "The Midrash of Philo" by scholars, he touches upon the...