23 texts
That’s the picture painted for us in the opening of the Book of Maccabees I. The scene is Israel, and a pall has fallen over the land. "Therefore there was a great mourning in Isra...
That’s the kind of raw, desperate place we find ourselves in at the beginning of the story of Mattathias and the Maccabees. The Book of Maccabees I plunges us into a world where Je...
That’s what faced Judah Maccabee and his followers as they finally reached the Beit HaMikdash, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Let’s set the scene. The year is roughly 164 BCE. After...
That feeling echoes through the ages, especially when we look at the story of Judas Maccabeus. The Book of Maccabees I, a historical text from the Second Temple period not included...
Two men stood in the ashes of the world. Baruch and Jeremiah — the scribe and the prophet — whose hearts had been found pure from sin, who had not been captured when the city fell....
And when tragedy struck, his friends showed up. But their arrival wasn't exactly a comfort. Instead, it opened up a whole new layer of… well, let's just say it was complicated. The...
The Torah instructs placing tefillin (leather phylacteries worn during prayer) "between your eyes." Taken literally, this would mean on the bridge of the nose or the forehead direc...
Rabbi Eliezer Hamodai calculated exactly how long the manna lasted after the death of Moses: seventy days. Not a rough estimate — a precise count, worked out from the calendar itse...
But have you ever heard the story that the Wall itself weeps? On the night of Tisha B'Av, the Ninth of Av, the day we mourn the destruction of the Temple, a strange phenomenon is s...
Can you feel the tension? Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer elaborates on this already dramatic moment. Haman approaches Mordecai with the royal garments. “Arise,” he says, dripping with fals...
Our story comes from Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Deuteronomy. It zeroes in on a specific verse, (Deuteronomy 1:27): "And you murmured in yo...
In Jewish tradition, especially when it comes to fulfilling mitzvot (commandments), the answer is a resounding yes.It’s a fascinating glimpse into the meticulous nature of ancient ...
When a slave belonging to Rabban Gamliel died, the sage's students came to offer condolences, as was the custom when a member of a household passed away. But Rabban Gamliel refused...
King Solomon, wiser than anyone, certainly thought so. In the book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as we call it in Hebrew, he tells us, "A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to b...
This feeling isn’t new. In fact, the ancient rabbis grappled with it, too, and found profound meaning in it. Rav Ḥanan of Tzippori offers a beautiful interpretation of doing acts o...
“The Lord accomplished what He devised: He implemented His statement that He commanded from the days of old; He destroyed and had no compassion. He caused the enemy to rejoice over...
“I called Your name, Lord, from the depths of the pit” (Lamentations 3:55).“I called Your name, Lord, from the depths of the pit” – this is Joseph, this is Jeremiah, this is Daniel...
“The tongue of the suckling sticks to its palate from thirst; infants request bread, and no one breaks it with them” (Lamentations 4:4).“The tongue of the suckling sticks.” Rabbi A...
Wealthy families who once dined on aged wine and fine bread ended up rummaging through garbage heaps for food. Eikhah Rabbah, a 5th-century CE midrash (rabbinic interpretive commen...
“The attention of the Lord has divided them; He will not continue to look at them. They did not respect priests and were not gracious to elders” (Lamentations 4:16).“The attention ...
“Our water we drank for money; our wood comes at a price” (Lamentations 5:4).“Our water we drank for money.” One time, the tormentors entered and took their bread, their wine, thei...
“Servants rule over us; there is no deliverer from their hand” (Lamentations 5:8).“Servants rule over us,” this is Egypt.11They descend from Ham, who was cursed by Noah that his de...
“Princes were hanged by their hand; the elders were not shown deference” (Lamentations 5:12).“Princes were hanged by their hand.” There was a government steward who entered the cit...
