1,416 texts · Page 10 of 30
The Shekhinah, the divine feminine presence, is woven into the very structure of creation. It all starts with a powerful image: a Tree, vast beyond our comprehension, spanning a di...
Of all the letters in the Hebrew alphabet, one stands out as the eternal seal of the covenant between God and the Children of Israel: the letter Hei (ה). As (Exodus 31:17) puts it,...
The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a companion to the Zohar, that foundational text of Kabbalah, hints at just that. It's a wild, poetic, and deeply symbolic exploration of the...
The ancient mystics certainly did. They saw the universe itself as a delicate act of balancing, constantly maintained by unseen forces. to a fascinating passage from the Tikkunei (...
The mystical text Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a companion to the Zohar, delves into just that feeling, exploring how even Moses, the great lawgiver, experienced a disconnect...
The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a crucial text of Kabbalah, invites us to see something far deeper. It sees the candle as a representation of the divine, a microcosm of the ...
The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a foundational text of Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), reads the story of Jonah – Jonah swallowed by the great fish – as a metaphor for the soul...
A cornerstone of Kabbalistic literature, Jonah isn't just Jonah. He’s… also the dove from Noah’s ark? Mind. Blown. The Tikkunei Zohar is a collection of mystical commentaries that ...
We're going to explore the significance of the Hebrew letter Yod (י) – that tiny little mark that looks like an apostrophe hanging in the air. Why the Yod? What makes it so special...
We're turning to the Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, specifically Tikkun 108. The Tikkunei Zohar is like the Zohar's cool, slightly more esoteric cousin, offering "corrections" ...
The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah, dives deep into these mysteries, and in Tikkunei Zohar 110, we get a glimpse of this feminine presence. It speaks...
It's more than just refraining from work; it's about elevating the entire atmosphere, transforming the mundane into something sacred. And the Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a c...
It might sound a little out there, but ancient Jewish tradition offers some surprisingly specific guidance. It all revolves around Shabbat (the Sabbath), that precious day of rest ...
Take tefillin (leather phylacteries worn during prayer), those leather boxes containing sacred scrolls that observant Jews bind to their arm and forehead during morning prayer. Eve...
It's a wild ride, so buckle up! The verse in question speaks of Mordechai, the guardian of Esther: "And he was the guardian of Hadassah (Esther 2:7)..." But the Tikkunei (spiritual...
Jewish mysticism often speaks of such crucial, minute details, and their immense consequences. The text focuses on the Hebrew letters in two powerful words: ShaDaY and EḤaD. ShaDaY...
The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah, delves deep into the mystical meanings hidden within the Torah and other Jewish texts. And in this particular sec...
The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a companion volume to the Zohar – the foundational text of Kabbalah – opens up some breathtaking vistas of connection. In Tikkunei Zohar 115,...
It suggests that our actions, our very choices, can impact the divine realm itself. Specifically, the Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a later expansion on the core teachings of ...
The ancient sages felt that too. And they saw a direct connection between the stars above and our daily bread. to a fascinating, and admittedly complex, passage from the Tikkunei (...
The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah, certainly sees it that way. In Tikkunei Zohar 124, we find this very image: the Torah as a garden, specifically a...
symbolism. The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a companion to the more well-known Zohar, is a collection of mystical commentaries on the Torah, particularly focused on the first...
(Genesis 1:26). We hear that phrase all the time, but what's the deeper, more mystical understanding behind it? The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah, o...
"I will tell you about being happy," Rabbi Nachman said. And then he told the strangest, most luminous story he ever told. A king had an only son. He decided to transfer his kingdo...
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev opens his commentary on Parshat Va'era with a question about the nature of prophecy. God tells Moses, "I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jac...
Why does God sometimes tell Moses to "go to Pharaoh" (lekh el Par'oh) and other times to "come to Pharaoh" (bo el Par'oh)? Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev discovers two entirely ...
When the sea split, the angels fell behind. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev reads the verse, "The angel of God who had been traveling in front of the Israelite camp moved to thei...
"And God spoke to Moses" (Exodus 6:2). The Hebrew word for "spoke" (vayedaber) implies harshness, while "said" (vayomer) implies gentleness. Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk uses this g...
"And it came to pass when Pharaoh sent out the people" (Exodus 13:17). Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk reads the entire Exodus story as a map of the soul's struggle against the evil in...
Gaster's exemplum No. 365 preserves one of the most vivid Kabbalistic legends from medieval Ashkenazi Jewry — a tale about the Chasidei Ashkenaz, the mystics of the Rhine Valley in...
(Exodus 12:2) records God's instruction to Moses: "This month shall be to you the beginning of months." It is the very first commandment given to Israel as a nation, even before th...
Rabbi Yonathan taught a striking principle about eclipses. Both solar and lunar eclipses, he declared, were given as signs — but not for Israel. They were relegated entirely to the...
Moses told the Israelites to take a lamb for the Passover offering, and they were terrified. The Mekhilta preserves their fearful protest: "Will we slaughter the abomination of Egy...
Rabbi Nathan takes on a question that had puzzled scholars of the Torah for generations: what does the Hebrew phrase ben ha'arbayim actually mean? The term appears in the Passover ...
(Exodus 12:7) "And they shall take from the blood": I might think either by hand or by vessel; it is, therefore, written (Ibid. 22) "And you shall dip it in the blood which is in t...
The debate over where the Israelites placed the Passover blood continues in the Mekhilta, and Rabbi Nathan and Rabbi Yitzchak stake out dramatically different positions — each reve...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus compiled in the 2nd century CE, traces another instance of the Bible's "as He spoke" formula — a device the rabbis use to link later p...
(Ibid. 12:27) "Then you shall say that it is a Paschal sacrifice to the L–rd.": R. Yossi Haglili said: The Jews would have deserved to die in Egypt (if not for the merit of the Pas...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic midrash on Exodus, preserves a teaching from Rabbi Yossi HaGlili that explains why the Egyptians willingly handed over their treasures to the departing ...
"and they emptied out Egypt": We are hereby apprised that their idols melted and returned to their former state, (so that they were now permitted to take them.) And whence is it de...
(Exodus 12:37) "And the children of Israel journeyed from Ramses to Succoth": From Ramses to Succoth was a distance of forty parasangs, and the voice of Moses traveled (the distanc...
The word ugoth in the phrase "ugoth matzoth" (Exodus 12:39) refers to thin wafers — flat cakes of unleavened dough. The Mekhilta establishes this meaning by cross-referencing two o...
Thus do you find, that whenever Israel is in bondage, the Shechinah is with them, viz. (Exodus 24:10) "And they saw the G��d of Israel, and under His feet, as the work of a sapphir...
Rabbi Chiyya ben Nachmani delivered a teaching in the name of Rabbi Yishmael that cuts against every natural human instinct. The verse in (Deuteronomy 8:10) already commands, "You ...
(Exodus 13:3) records Moses telling the people, "This day you go out, in the month of Aviv." The Hebrew word Aviv means spring. But the verse seems redundant — everyone present alr...
(Exodus 13:9) speaks of the account of the Exodus serving "as a sign upon your hand." The Mekhilta derives from this verse a specific ruling about the construction of tefillin — th...
Rabbi Eliezer agreed that the tefillin (leather phylacteries worn during prayer) belong on the upper arm rather than the palm, but he arrived at the conclusion through entirely dif...
The verse (Exodus 13:9) states, "And it shall be to you as a sign upon your hand and as a memorial between your eyes." The Mekhilta derived from the sequence of this verse a precis...
