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The Torah's account of Jacob blessing Joseph's sons is already dramatic—the old patriarch crossing his hands to favor the younger son over the firstborn. But Targum Jonathan adds l...
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 2) adds a theological bombshell that the Hebrew text only hints at. God commands Israel not to touch the land of Esau—not because of a treaty or...
From Ephraim, who wrote in Amalek after you, Benjamin (Judges 5:14). May our Rabbis teach us what a person should say when he reads the Book of Esther. The Talmud teaches us that o...
Chapter 2 Our forefather Jacob was 63 when he was blessed. Ishmael died at that time as is written, "Esau saw that Isaac had blessed...Jacob listened to his father...Esau saw [the ...
and he lay down in that place – R’ Yehudah says ‘here he lay down, but all fourteen years that he was hidden away in the land serving Ever he never laid down.’ R’ Nechemia says ‘he...
En esos tiempos hubo una guerra entre Kush y los Bnei Kedem. Salió Konkos Rey de Kush a la guerra contra Aram y los Bnei Kedem, dejando a Bilam -que es Laban el Arameo de Petor- el...
Rav Nachman once made a statement that shocked his colleague: "Jacob our father never died." Rabbi Yitzchak pushed back immediately. "They embalmed him. They eulogized him. They bu...
The Hebrew Bible says Jacob "wrestled a man" until dawn (Genesis 32:25). Targum Onkelos stays with the Hebrew here—it was "a man," not an angel, not a demon, not a divine being. Bu...
The Hebrew Bible says Balaam saw "a star shall come from Jacob, and a scepter shall arise from Israel" (Numbers 24:17). Targum Onkelos renders this as: "A king has gone forth from ...
Berachoth: Chapter One From what time on may we read the Sh'm'a of the evening? "From the time the priests enter to eat their Terumah until the end of the first watch," said R. Eli...
Another thing said R. Zerika in the name of R. Ami, who speaks in the name of R. Joshua b. Levi: "In the presence of the dead it is not proper to speak of anything except things co...
Buried in the Ein Yaakov's collection from Berakhot is a teaching that sounds more like ancient medical advice than religious law: "The rabbis taught that asparagus is good for the...
Rabba b. b. Chana said further: "He said again to me: 'Come and I will show you where earth and heaven meet.' I followed him and saw it was made full of apertures. I took my basket...
The sages taught that God has a task that occupies Him constantly — matchmaking. The Talmud records that a Roman matron once challenged a rabbi: "Your God created the world in six ...
When Jacob fled from his brother Esau and set out on the long road to Haran, he stopped at a place called Bethel and made a vow to God. "If God will be with me and guard me on this...
Wars of Jacob against Sichem. Midr. Hagadol Gen. Vayyehi, f. 153 a. Midr. Vayisau. cf. Gen. R. ch. 80, 97. Jerahmeel, ed. Gaster XXXVI, 6, p. 80 and Introd. p. XXXI f. Bahya Com. G...
God looked down at the world before the flood and saw something He hadn't seen since the days of Adam — a civilization that had talked itself into impunity. The wicked had done the...
Gog makes his plans in secret. He thinks his strategies are hidden — the alliance-building, the schemes against Israel, the invasions planned in quiet rooms. "On that day, thoughts...
A psalm of David, written after Doeg the Edomite betrayed him — that's where Aggadat Bereshit anchors the story of Jacob's ladder. Strange placement. But the rabbis had a method. D...
Israel in Egypt — fruitful and multiplying, a thousand thousand and myriad myriads — and still, in God's eyes, like a single beloved child. That's the paradox this section of Aggad...
When a lion roars, every animal in the forest freezes. Even the ones who have never been hunted. Even the ones too far away to be prey. The sound itself is the message: there is so...
"A little that the righteous have is better than the abundance of many wicked" (Psalm 37:16). The rabbis of Aggadat Bereshit loved this verse because it turned ordinary logic on it...
Israel in exile speaks like a child who has finally stopped lying. "Master of the Universe, at first I said 'I have not sinned,' and You brought suffering upon me. Now I say: I hav...
Each prophet saw God differently. Amos saw Him standing — "I saw the Lord standing beside the altar" (Amos 9:1). Isaiah saw Him sitting — "I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high ...
"Far be it from You to do such a thing!" Abraham said it to God's face. He was standing between Sodom and heaven, and he was arguing (Genesis 18:25). The Hebrew word is chalilah — ...
"I will not break my covenant, nor change that which has come out of my lips" (Psalm 89:35). The binding of Isaac begins with this verse in Aggadat Bereshit — not with the command ...
What made Eli the priest live so long? The midrash gives a simple answer: Torah study. "Fortunate is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of ...
When the righteous multiply in the world, good things multiply with them. This is Aggadat Bereshit's reading of "When the righteous are many, the people rejoice" (Proverbs 29:2). N...
Jacob blessed Esau's son but knew the blessing came from somewhere deeper than himself. "And God shall give you the dew of heaven" (Genesis 27:28) — this is the dew of Mount Hermon...
Before the sun existed, there was light. This is one of the oldest puzzles in Genesis — God creates light on the first day, but the sun and moon don't appear until the fourth. The ...
The Messiah, say the rabbis, will be greater than all the patriarchs — greater than Abraham, greater than Isaac, greater than Moses. This is the reading Aggadat Bereshit makes of I...
Esau sees that the women of Canaan displease his father Isaac (Genesis 28:8). So what does he do? He goes and marries a daughter of Ishmael. Adding trouble upon trouble, the rabbis...
"Jacob fled to the land of Aram" (Hosea 12:13). The prophet is not describing geography — he is making a theological point about the interior life. Isaiah completes it: "My people,...
"And your eyes shall see" (Malachi 1:5). The prophet promises that Israel will watch the fall of Edom — watch it with their own eyes, from their own territory, and say: "Great is t...
Leah was hated — or unloved, depending on the translation, but the Hebrew is harsh — and God saw it (Genesis 29:31). This is where Aggadat Bereshit begins: with the divine attentio...
When God looks down at a wicked generation, the rabbis said, He searches for one righteous person to carry the weight of atonement for all the rest. This is the reading Aggadat Ber...
Hannah vowed at Shiloh — if God gives her a son, she will give him back (1 Samuel 1:11). Rabbi Berachiah used this verse to address four theological objections that people raise ag...
When the final redemption comes, God will redeem Israel from one place only: Zion. Not from the desert, not from the waters, not from any place of exile — from the Temple Mount. "F...
Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau (Genesis 32:4). The Hebrew word is malachim — messengers, angels. The midrash says this literally: Jacob sent actual angels. He had ...
The vision of Obadiah — the shortest prophetic book in the Hebrew Bible — is entirely about the punishment of Edom. Rabbi Berachiah asked: why did God choose Obadiah specifically f...
Zechariah saw a horseman in a vision of the night (Zechariah 1:8). The rabbis identified this figure as the prince of Edom — the heavenly guardian angel of the nation that had rule...
Jacob saw the leaders of Esau listed in the Torah — king after king after king (Genesis 36:31-43) — and was afraid. "How can I stand against all of them? I am one man." The Holy On...
The pattern repeats. Israel suffers, God rescues, and Israel sings. Then the singing stops, and the same behavior that caused the original suffering returns. The Holy One watches t...
Jacob said: "My way is hidden from the Lord, and my justice has passed away from my God" (Isaiah 40:27). This was Israel speaking — the whole nation's complaint condensed into one ...
"Many peoples have afflicted me from my youth" (Psalm 129:1). The Assembly of Israel — the collective voice of the nation — says this as a Song of Ascents, sung while ascending to ...
"And it came to pass at that time that Judah went down" (Genesis 38:1). The rabbis heard in "went down" more than geography. Judah left his brothers, married a Canaanite woman, and...
"Do not be hasty with your words, and let your heart not rush to bring a matter before God" (Ecclesiastes 5:1). Jacob had said: "My way is hidden from the Lord." The rabbis found t...
The Assembly of Israel in exile cries out: "See, O Lord, the distress I am in! My heart is in anguish; outside the sword deals death; inside, the plague" (Lamentations 1:20). There...
