29 texts
Ben Sira, that ancient sage, was all over these social complexities. He offers us some seriously practical, if a little sharp, advice in his wisdom text. "Not with all men should o...
Ben Sira, that ancient sage, certainly understood the power of temptation. In his wisdom, preserved in the book we know as Ben Sira (also called Sirach or Ecclesiasticus), he offer...
The ancient wisdom of Ben Sira, a book of Jewish wisdom literature also known as Sirach, grapples with precisely these tricky situations. It offers some pretty direct, and frankly,...
It has some pretty strong words for those of us prone to envy. "In the eye of a fool," Ben Sira tells us, "his portion is small; but he that taketh his neighbour's portion wasteth ...
The ancient wisdom literature gets it. It really does. We find this sentiment echoed powerfully in the Book of Ben Sira, a treasure trove of practical and spiritual advice. It obse...
The serpent did not act alone. Behind the serpent stood a jealous angel -- and behind the angel stood a grudge older than humanity itself. Eve gathered all her children and grandch...
Simeon, second son of Jacob and Leah, was dying in his hundred and twentieth year. Joseph his brother had already passed. When his sons came to visit, Simeon strengthened himself, ...
We often picture it as a peaceful, almost idyllic scene. But imagine being cooped up in that ark, not knowing when the flood would end. Tensions would be high. Well, the legends te...
The story of Joseph, or Yosef as he's known in Hebrew, is a timeless tale of jealousy, brotherhood, and ultimately, redemption. And it begins with a terrifying moment. Imagine the ...
We all know how that ended up, but the lead-up is just as juicy. Zuleika wasn't just going to rely on her friends to get her revenge on Joseph. Oh no, she had a plan of her own, a ...
She wasn’t just a pretty face. She was a woman caught in an impossible situation, concealing her Jewish identity in the heart of the Persian court. But even a queen, it seems, can ...
Goliath of Gath stood between the two armies for forty straight days, bellowing the same challenge. He was over nine feet tall. His bronze armor weighed five thousand shekels. His ...
A king without children decreed that the Jews must pray for him to have an heir, or face consequences. The Jews searched until they found a hidden tzaddik (צדיק)—a righteous man so...
The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael identifies another pairing across the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. "Honor your father and your mother" stood directly opposite "You shall not ...
Rebbi — Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi — noticed that the Torah prohibits coveting in two separate places using two different Hebrew words. (Exodus 20:14) says "You shall not covet," while (...
"You shall not covet your neighbor's house"—general. "and his man-servant, and his maid-servant, and his ox, and his ass—particular. general-particular (The rule is:) There exists ...
And trust me, the list is pretty surprising. The passage we're looking at today focuses on Psalm 80, specifically the verse "Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh." Now, these are...
It’s a story we all know, but the details, the serpent's strategy, are often overlooked. The Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a fascinating collection of Biblical stories and elaborations f...
We all know the story of Cain and Abel, their offerings, and the tragic outcome. But what if there was more to it than just a simple case of sibling rivalry? Rabbi Joshua ben Ḳorch...
It turns out, that feeling is ancient, and our tradition has some pretty pointed wisdom about it. We're diving into a fascinating, short-but-powerful teaching found in the Yalkut S...
The Sotah ritual—the ordeal of the woman accused of adultery—is already one of the strangest passages in the Hebrew Bible. The Targum Jonathan makes it stranger, adding psychologic...
The rabbis spoke often of two invisible forces that shape every human encounter: the good eye and the evil eye. The Maase Buch (No. 196) preserves a tale that illustrates the diffe...
Sometimes, it's in those tiny details that we find the biggest insights into the heart of the matter. Take the ritual of the sota, the woman suspected of adultery, described in Num...
Take the curious case of the Sotah – the suspected adulteress – described in the Book of Numbers (Bamidbar). The verse we're focusing on comes from (Numbers 5:29): "This is the law...
Take, for example, the laws of the sotah, the suspected adulteress, described in Numbers chapter 5. It’s a fascinating, and frankly, rather strange ritual. But let’s dive into one ...
It's a heavy place to be, and ancient Jewish law, specifically in the Book of Numbers, addresses this very situation with the ritual of the sotah, the suspected adulteress. But wha...
“Couches of gold and silver” – Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Neḥemya: Rabbi Yehuda said: For one [for whom] silver was fitting, silver, and for one [for whom] gold was fitting, gold. Rabb...
We get a glimpse into the story of the very first murder in the Torah, but the text leaves so much unsaid. What drove Cain to such a horrific act? Was it simply jealousy over God f...
Our masters have said in the name of R. [Hanina] (Huna) the father of R. Aha, “The adulterer and adulteress transgress the Ten Commandments.”13Numb. R. 9:12. [They] said to [him], ...
