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R. JOSE SAID: LET THE PROPERTY OF YOUR FELLOW BE AS DEAR TO YOU AS YOUR OWN; FIT YOURSELF FOR THE STUDY OF THE TORAH, SINCE IT DOES NOT COME TO YOU BY INHERITANCE. What does this m...
Likewise1This passage links up with the dictum in Aboth 2:11 (Sonc. ed., II, 8, p. 18) where Rabban Joḥanan b. Zakkai recounts the distinctive qualifications of his five foremost d...
‘Aḳabya b. Mahalalel said: Whosoever takes four things to heart1Cf. Aboth 3:1 (Sonc. ed., p. 26) where the more popular version reads: ‘Consider three things’, etc., omitting the t...
R. DOSA B. HARKINAS SAID: MORNING SLEEP, AND MIDDAY WINE, [AND CHILDREN’S TALK, AND SITTING IN THE MEETING-HOUSES OF THE IGNORANT] DRIVE A MAN OUT OF THE WORLD.MORNING SLEEP—what d...
BEN ZOMA SAID: WHO IS WISE? HE THAT LEARNS FROM ALL MEN, AS IT IS STATED, FROM ALL MY TEACHERS HAVE I GOT UNDERSTANDING.1Ps. 119, 99, E.V., I have more understanding than all my te...
Elisha b. ’Abuya said: 1This chapter is devoted entirely to the teachings of Elisha b. ’Abuyah, a great scholar of the second century C.E. and teacher of R. Meir, who entered too d...
R. SIMEON B. ELEAZAR SAID IN THE NAME OF R. MEIR: DO NOT APPEASE YOUR FELLOW IN THE TIME OF HIS ANGER; DO NOT COMFORT HIM IN THE TIME OF HIS MOURNING;1Aboth 4:23 (Sonc. ed., IV, 18...
1This paragraph has no connection with the theme of this chapter, which is an extensive commentary on Aboth 5. Such commentary begins with §2. Accordingly it has been suggested tha...
There are seven creations [in the universe] in ascending degrees of importance. High above everything God created the firmament. Above1i.e. of greater importance and usefulness. th...
SEVEN KINDS OF PUNISHMENT COME UPON THE WORLD FOR SEVEN CARDINAL TRANSGRESSIONS. IF SOME GIVE THEIR TITHES AND OTHERS DO NOT, THERE COMES A FAMINE THROUGH DROUGHT.1Aboth 5:11 (Sonc...
Five persons are not granted forgiveness:1The meaning is not that the doors of forgiveness are for ever shut against them, but that they are so hardened in sinning that they will n...
R. SIMEON SAID: THERE ARE THREE CROWNS: THE CROWN OF THE TORAH, THE CROWN OF THE PRIESTHOOD, AND THE CROWN OF ROYALTY; BUT THE CROWN OF A GOOD NAME EXCELS THEM ALL.1Aboth 4:17 (Son...
The Hebrew Bible opens with a spare, magnificent account of creation in seven days. The Targum Jonathan, an ancient Aramaic translation composed between the 2nd and 7th centuries C...
(Genesis 2:7) says God formed man from "the dust of the ground." The Targum Jonathan says something far more specific. God took dust from the place of the Beit HaMikdash (בית המקדש...
The Hebrew Bible says the "sons of God" saw that human women were beautiful, and took wives from among them (Genesis 6:2). That's all it says. The Targum Jonathan rewrites the scen...
When the Flood ended, the Hebrew Bible says God sent a wind to dry the earth (Genesis 8:1). The Targum Jonathan says God sent "the wind of mercies." One word changes the theology. ...
Genesis 14 is a war chapter—four kings against five, a battle in the Valley of Siddim, Lot taken captive, Abraham riding to the rescue. The Hebrew text is spare and military. But t...
Abraham had just defeated four kings and rescued his nephew. In (Genesis 15:1), God simply says "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." But the ancien...
Genesis 17 records the moment God commands Abraham to circumcise himself at ninety-nine years old. The Hebrew text says Abraham "fell on his face" when God spoke to him. It reads l...
The Hebrew Bible says three "men" appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre (Genesis 18:2). The Targum Jonathan tells you exactly what they were and exactly why each one came. They ...
The destruction of Sodom in Genesis 19 is swift and merciless. Fire and brimstone rain down, and the city is gone. But the Targum Jonathan inserts a detail that changes everything:...
Sarah died at one hundred and twenty-seven years old. The Torah records the number. The Targum records the aftermath: Abraham came from "the mountain of worship"—Mount Moriah, wher...
The Hebrew Bible tells a straightforward story about Isaac digging wells in Gerar and feuding with the Philistines over water rights (Genesis 26). The Targum Jonathan transforms it...
Genesis 27 is one of the most psychologically complex chapters in the Torah—the aged Isaac, blind and dying, tricked by his own wife and son into blessing the wrong heir. The Targu...
Genesis 29 tells the story of Jacob arriving in Haran, meeting Rachel at a well, and being deceived by Laban into marrying Leah first. The Targum Jonathan injects dialogue, backsto...
The wrestling match at the Jabbok River is one of the most mysterious scenes in all of Genesis. A man fights Jacob in the dark, and by morning Jacob has a new name and a limp. The ...
The story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife in Genesis 39 is already tense. The Targum Jonathan ratchets the tension higher by adding theological motives, divine intervention, and a tr...
Genesis 40 tells a straightforward story: two prisoners dream, Joseph interprets, one lives, one dies. The Targum Jonathan transforms this episode into a prophetic vision of Israel...
Genesis 42 tells how Joseph's brothers came to Egypt to buy grain during the famine and failed to recognize him. Targum Jonathan turns this reunion into something far more calculat...
When Joseph's brothers return to Egypt with Benjamin in Genesis 43, the Hebrew text describes a tense meal. Targum Jonathan transforms it into a scene loaded with hidden signals, p...
Genesis 44 contains one of the most emotionally powerful speeches in the Hebrew Bible—Judah's plea before the Egyptian viceroy to take Benjamin's place as a slave. Targum Jonathan ...
The reveal scene in Genesis 45—Joseph breaking down and declaring "I am Joseph"—is already one of the most dramatic moments in the Torah. Targum Jonathan transforms it into a proph...
Targum Jonathan takes the story of Jacob's settlement in Egypt and layers it with theological details the Torah never mentions—including an economic revolution, a hidden act of kin...
The Torah describes Jacob's burial as a solemn procession to Canaan. Targum Jonathan turns it into an epic confrontation complete with a golden deathbed, a eulogy comparing Jacob t...
Exodus chapter 6 is mostly genealogy—the kind of passage readers skim. The Targum Jonathan turns it into a minefield of hidden revelations. The chapter opens with God revealing the...
The Targum Jonathan on Exodus 8 contains one of the most remarkable theological additions in all of ancient Aramaic literature: the reason Moses personally refused to bring the pla...
The plague of darkness in Exodus chapter 10 is three days of impenetrable blackness across Egypt. The Hebrew Bible says simply that no one could see anyone else and no one rose fro...
The Targum Jonathan on (Exodus 13) contains one of the most startling cross-references in all of ancient Aramaic translation. It identifies the famous dry bones from (Ezekiel 37) a...
Amalek's attack on Israel at Rephidim is only a few verses in (Exodus 17). The Targum Jonathan expands it into an epic confrontation with backstory, supernatural geography, and a w...
The laws of (Exodus 21) sound harsh in the Hebrew Bible. The Targum Jonathan systematically softens many of them, adding legal specifics that transform ancient punishments into som...
The property and social laws of (Exodus 22) are terse in the Hebrew Bible. The Targum Jonathan expands them with legal reasoning, precise conditions, and moral commentary that tran...
The covenant ceremony at Sinai in (Exodus 24) is solemn in the Hebrew Bible. The Targum Jonathan turns it into a visionary experience with one of the most haunting images in all of...
The instructions for building the Tabernacle in (Exodus 25) read like an architectural blueprint in the Hebrew Bible. The Targum Jonathan adds theological meaning to nearly every m...
The standard biblical text of (Exodus 26:1-37) reads like a construction manual. Ten curtains of fine linen, fifty gold clasps, boards of acacia wood, silver bases. The ancient Ara...
The bronze altar described in (Exodus 27:1-21) gets a practical upgrade in the Targum Jonathan. Where the Hebrew text simply says to build a grate of bronze netting, the Targum exp...
The consecration ceremony of (Exodus 29:1-46) appears in the Hebrew Bible as a solemn ritual. The Targum Jonathan adds precise details that heighten both its gravity and its tender...
The incense altar, the half-shekel tax, and the anointing oil in (Exodus 30:1-38) all receive remarkable expansions in the Targum Jonathan. What the Hebrew text presents as ritual ...
The appointment of Bezalel and the commandment of Sabbath in (Exodus 31:1-18) culminate in one of the most extraordinary images in all of Targum Jonathan: the physical description ...
