180 texts · Page 4 of 4
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 14) transforms a list of dietary laws into a detailed zoological manual. Where the Hebrew names animals and moves on, the Targum adds identifyin...
“YHVH Elohim” – a parable to a king . . . who poured hot and cold mixed into his [glass] cups and they withstood (didn’t break). Thus says the Holy One: If I create with the qualit...
"From the families of Menashe son of Yosef" (Numbers 27:1) - just as Yosef loved the land, so too those who came from his loins loved the land. "The names of the daughters were Mah...
Rabbi Akiba, the greatest sage of his generation, did not begin his life as a scholar. Until the age of forty, he was an illiterate shepherd who could not read a single letter of H...
R. Tarfon was beaten by his superintendent, who finding him in the vineyard took him for a trespasser, he not telling who he was through his meekness. 79 ~ no. a man overheard a di...
Rabbi Ishmael's mother loved him with a love so fierce that it made her do extraordinary things. The Talmud records that when her son — the great sage, the High Priest's descendant...
Rabbi Akiba was brought a case that tested the limits of both law and compassion. A girl, only three years old, had been presented to the priestly authorities as a candidate for ri...
The donkey of Rabbi Pinehas ben Yair was as righteous as its master — or so the Talmud (Jerusalem Talmud Demai 1:3, Hullin 7a-b) suggests through a story that became one of the mos...
Two friends loved the same woman. This is the setup for one of the most painful dilemmas in human experience — and the Jewish version of the story resolves it with an act of sacrif...
The sages told a parable about a man who had three friends. The first friend he loved above all others and showered with gifts. The second friend he respected but kept at a distanc...
Two friends loved each other so deeply that one was willing to die for the other — and the other refused to let him. This tale of ultimate friendship, preserved in the Exempla of t...
That’s kind of the situation the Israelites found themselves in after the sin of the spies. They'd just heard a terrifying report about the Land of Israel and, gripped by fear, the...
A moment of pure creation, bringing something from absolutely nothing. What was that feeling like? What was God's immediate reaction? Well, our tradition grapples with this very qu...
The sages of old grappled with this very question. How could a benevolent God create a world so full of suffering? The answer, according to Bereshit Rabbah, a classic collection of...
The Book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as it's known in Hebrew, certainly thought so. And the Rabbis, plumbing its depths in Kohelet Rabbah, took that idea and ran with it. Consider ...
The text asks, “How upright [yashiryan] are the ones You love?” (Shir HaShirim Rabbah 4). The answer? The patriarchs! They are the epitome of uprightness, of unwavering devotion. R...
The Rabbis certainly did, and their answers, as found in Shir HaShirim Rabbah, are…well, they're Rabbi Berekhya offers us one possibility: the wilderness itself! Can you imagine? T...
“The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she found favor and grace in his eyes more than all the virgins. He set the royal crown on her head, and made her queen in place...
King Saul was told to destroy Amalek completely. He did not. Centuries later, according to Esther Rabbah, the Jewish people paid for that moment of misplaced mercy with a genocidal...
The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), that treasure trove of Jewish storytelling and interpretation, loves to dig into these little details. And guess what? Philo of Alex...
Take the image of the cherubim, those powerful, enigmatic beings guarding the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve were expelled. What do they really represent? Philo, a Jewish philos...
And God remembered Noah (Gen. 8:1). May it please our master to teach us the benediction recited upon witnessing a rainbow. Thus did our masters teach us: Upon seeing a rainbow, on...
And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel (Gen. 14:1). May it please our master to teach us when a proselyte who has been converted on the eve of the Passover is permitted to par...
And the Lord said: “Shall I hide from Abraham that which I am doing?” (Gen. 18:17). May it please our master to teach us whether one may recite the Aramaic translation (Targum) of ...
Go into the wilderness to meet Moses (Exod. 4:27). Scripture states elsewhere in allusion to this verse: Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each ...
21:1). Scripture states (elsewhere in reference to this verse): The strength also of the king who loveth justice. Thou hast established equity and righteousness in Jacob (Ps. 99:4)...
And thou shalt command (Exod. 27:20). Scripture states elsewhere in reference to this verse: Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair (Song 1:15). R. Akiba said: The e...
And he gave unto Moses, etc. (Exod. 31:18). Scripture states elsewhere in allusion to this verse: Thy lips, O my bride, drop honey (Song 4:11). R. Abba the son of Judah said: The c...
(Lev. 19:2:) “You shall be holy.” Why? Because I have made you cling to My loins, as stated (in Jer. 13:11), “For as the girdle clings unto one's loins, [so I have made all the Hou...
Another interpretation (of Lev. 19:23), “When you come into the land.” This text is related (to Jer. 3:19), “But I said how I would put you among the children and give you a desira...
Another interpretation (of Lev. 27:2), “When anyone explicitly vows”: The nations say (in (Micah 6:6)-7), “With what shall I come before the Lord, bow myself before God on high, […...
(Numb. 2:2:) [“The Children of Israel shall camp,] each with his standard, under the banners for their fathers' houses….” This text is related (to Ps. 20:6), “Let us shout for joy ...
Another interpretation (of Numb. 2:2), “Each with his standard, under the banners.” This text is related (to Cant. 2:4), “He brought me unto the banquet house, [and His standard (d...
"And it was on the day that Moses had finished to erect the tabernacle" (Numbers 7:1). This is [the meaning of] that which was stated by the verse (Song of Songs 4:16), "Awake, O n...
(Numb. 34:1-2:) “Then the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, ‘Command the Children of Israel and say unto them, “When you come into the land of Canaan.”’” Let our master instruct us: B...
Rabbi Tanchuma opened [his discourse] in the name of R. Judan [who] said in the name of R. Ayyevu (Ps. 32:9), “’Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding….’25PRK 3:3;...
