198 texts · Page 4 of 5
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...
In a moment easy to skip, the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 47:30) flags a subtle refusal. Jacob had asked Joseph to place his hand on the mark of the covenant and swear to bu...
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...
Comes the answer. Joseph looks at his brothers — these old, frightened men — and finally explains the awkward meal. "You indeed imagined against me evil thoughts, that when I did n...
"And He said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Izhak, and the God of Jakob. And Mosheh covered his face; for he was afraid to look upon the height of the ...
"And Moses said before the Lord, Behold, I will go to the sons of Israel, and say to them, The Lord God of your fathers hath sent me to you: and they will say to me, What is His Na...
At the burning bush, the Holy One asks Moses to do something that violates every shepherd's instinct. The staff he has carried through decades in Midian has just become a serpent. ...
The second sign at the burning bush is more disturbing than the first. The serpent was outside Moses' body; the leprosy is on it. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the bluntness of ...
Even after three signs, Moses refuses. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the protest with a phrase more vivid than the Hebrew: Moses is of a staggering mouth and staggering speech —...
The Holy One answers Moses' protest about his lame speech with a question that has echoed through three thousand years of Jewish reflection. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders it with ...
Four refusals in, the Holy One's patience runs out. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the flash: the anger of the Lord was kindled against Mosheh. This is unusual. The Torah rarely ...
Before Moses can begin the Exodus, he has to say goodbye to the family that took him in. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the scene's restraint. Moses does not march out. He return...
After the slaves refuse to hear him, Moses turns to God with a new version of his old protest. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the logic: Behold, the sons of Israel do not hearken...
Here is one of the most tender footnotes in all of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. Aharon lifts his hand, the frogs swarm up. And the meturgeman pauses to explain why it is Aharon, not Mos...
Pharaoh has begged. Now Moses gives him an extraordinary gift: pick the hour. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:5) renders the offer with unmistakable dignity to Pharaoh's office...
The third plague is lice — venomous insects that emerge from the dust. Again Aharon must wield the rod, not Moses. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:12) gives the breathtaking re...
"Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel," Moses and Aaron declare, "How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before Me? Let My people go, that they may worship before Me" (Targu...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 11:3) notes a transformation that had happened gradually, almost without anyone noticing. "The Lord gave the people favour before the Mizraee;...
The tool that saved Israel was the humblest plant in the garden. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:22) says that each household took a bunch of hyssop, dipped it in the lamb's b...
One of the most tender details in the Exodus is hidden in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:34). As Israel fled Mizraim, the people carried their unleavened dough on their heads...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 14:14) finishes the fourfold answer from the verse before. Two parties still need their reply: the fighters and the screamers. To the company ...
If Moses's song is a national anthem, Miriam's song, as Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders it, is a moral theorem. She sang to the women: Let us give thanks and praise before the Lord,...
When the people grumbled for bread, Moses's reply, as Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders it, is a lesson in chain-of-command theology: By this you shall know, when the Lord prepareth y...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan fills in what the Hebrew leaves implicit: why Moses's hands grew heavy. "The hands of Moses were heavy, because the conflict was prolonged till the morro...
Few lines in the Torah are as unexpectedly tender as the one the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves at the moment of Jethro's arrival. He sends a message to Moses: "I, thy father-in-...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan stages Moses's greeting of Jethro with cinematic care: "Moses came forth from under the cloud of glory to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance, and ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan describes a remarkable scene: "Jethro took burnt offerings and holy sacrifices before the Lord, and Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to eat bread ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records the moment Jethro's role changed from guest to advisor: "The father-in-law of Moses saw how much he toiled and laboured for his people; and he sa...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan sharpens Jethro's warning with a realism the plain text softens: "Thou wilt verily wear thyself away. Aaron also, and his sons, and the elders of thy peo...
The last verse of the Decalogue's aftermath contains a detail about priestly decency. "And you, the priests, who stand to minister before Me, shall not ascend to My altar by steps,...
The ox that wanders free was one thing. This case is harder. The donkey has collapsed under its load. Its owner — a man you dislike for good reason — is struggling to lift it. And ...
The gift arrives quietly. A gesture of friendship, perhaps. A token. The judge tells himself he can take it without being influenced. He is a man of integrity. He has ruled fairly ...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 24:3) describes the extraordinary moment before the covenant is sealed: Mosheh came and set before the people all the words of the Lord, an...
Why did the high priest's robe need bells at all? The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:35) gives the quiet, terrifying answer. Its voice shall be heard at the time that he hath...
The gold plate on the forehead of the high priest was tied to a hyacinth ribbon. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:37) names the sin it was meant to repair: it make amends f...
The last of the priestly garments was the most private. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:43) explains that Aaron and his sons had to wear the fine linen undergarments — the...
The incense was not simply mixed. It was beaten. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records the instruction: after the spices were compounded, Moses was to beat them small — ground fine — and ...
The moment the calf was made, the voice on the mountain changed. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the chilling command God gave to Moses: "Descend from the greatness of thine honou...
The great intercessor did not rise to his prayer from confidence. He rose from terror. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the detail the Hebrew leaves out: Moses was shaken with fear...
After forty days on Sinai, Moses came down with the two tablets of testimony in his hand, and something had happened to his face. The Torah's Hebrew says karan — literally, his fac...
Moses wore a veil over his face after Sinai, because the shining of his skin frightened the people (Exodus 34:30). But there was one moment he always took it off. Targum Pseudo-Jon...
After every encounter in the Tent of Meeting, Moses came out with his face alight. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 34:35) says plainly: the sons of Israel saw the countenance of ...
There is only one fundraising story in all of Jewish history where the problem was too much money. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 36:6) describes it: Mosheh commanded, and they ...
The greatest prophet in the Torah, the man who spoke with God "face to face" (Exodus 33:11), the builder of the sanctuary itself — and he could not walk inside. Targum Pseudo-Jonat...
David, in (Psalm 18:36), sings a sentence so audacious that the rabbis read it again and again looking for the trick. "You gave me Your shield of salvation, and Your right hand sus...
How do you know who the teacher is? By who shows up first. Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bereshit 4:2 offers a second riff on (Psalm 18:36)'s line about divine humility, and this one tur...
A single grammatical detail in (Exodus 19:19) triggered centuries of rabbinic reflection. The verse reads: "Moses spoke, and God answered him out loud." Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Ber...
Earthly kings love main gates. They enter cities through the grandest archway, with trumpets and banners, so everyone sees the procession. Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bereshit 4:4 argu...
