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The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a core text of Kabbalah, delves into just that – the intricate connections that bind the universe, especially during the holy time of Shavu'o...
The Zohar, that mystical cornerstone of Kabbalah, suggests there's a reason for that. It all begins with a seemingly simple connection: bread. Yes, that humble loaf we break and sh...
It holds the key to understanding exile, blessing, and ultimately, redemption. When the prophet saw Israel in exile, what gave him hope? According to the Tikkunei Zohar, he saw no ...
It's not just some divine download, a cosmic email arriving in your inbox. The Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, paints a far more intricate and beautiful picture. Think of it like this:...
The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a profound work of Kabbalah, offers a glimpse into just that kind of interconnectedness. It speaks of knowing the Divine through "this" – a s...
Jewish mysticism delves into that very feeling, and reveals that even God, in a sense, experiences a similar yearning. It's a radical thought, isn't it? God, waiting. But that's wh...
The mystics understood that feeling deeply. They saw it as a reflection of something profound happening in the spiritual realms, a cosmic ebb and flow of souls and divine presence....
The Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, a central text of Kabbalah, offers a breathtaking image. It begins with a single word: yasis. The text doesn't elaborate much on the word its...
To a fascinating passage from the Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, specifically Tikkun 289, where the human eye becomes a microcosm of the divine. The Tikkunei Zohar, a later exp...
The image is vivid: a rose, white and red, drawing energy from both the right and left. The white, the Zohar tells us in Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar 290, symbolizes the clari...
Jewish mystical tradition, especially in texts like the Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar, often sees the human form as a microcosm of the divine. to one fascinating passage, Tikku...
"He blessed them on that day, saying: may God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh" (Genesis 48:20). Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev uses Jacob's blessing to explain a peculiar tea...
"And these are the names of the children of Israel" (Exodus 1:1). The Torah lists the twelve tribes again, even though they were already named in Genesis. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Be...
Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk opens his teaching on Parashat Vayechi with a striking image from the Talmud (Shabbat 78b): a person who has "not yet repaid" their debt. Every human be...
Strip away the medieval slander and a real tradition of Jewish magic emerges—one that Joshua Trachtenberg traced from the Bible through the Talmud and into the folk practices of me...
Jewish demonology recognizes three main classes of evil spirits, though as Joshua Trachtenberg noted, medieval Jews had long stopped distinguishing between them. The shedim (שדים) ...
Demons were not abstract theology for medieval Jews. They were a daily hazard requiring specific countermeasures, and Joshua Trachtenberg catalogued an elaborate system of protecti...
If demons crowded the dark spaces of medieval Jewish life, angels filled the light. Joshua Trachtenberg showed that Jewish angelology was not merely theological—it was operational....
Amulets were everywhere in medieval Jewish life. Pregnant women wore them to prevent miscarriage. Children carried them against the evil eye. Men tucked inscribed parchments into t...
Despite the Torah's explicit prohibition against divination (Deuteronomy 18:10-12), medieval Jews practiced it extensively—and spent centuries debating exactly where the line fell ...
The Hebrew word mazal (מזל) originally meant "constellation" or "star." Only gradually did it shift to mean "luck"—and the journey of that word tells the story of Jewish astrology ...
When Shabbat ends and three stars appear in the sky, Jewish custom has always lingered a little longer over the Sabbath queen's departure. One of the oldest customs is to sing hymn...
Before David was chosen (as king) every Israelite was kasher for kingship. Once David had been chosen, the other Israelites (i.e., those not in his line) were excluded. As it is wr...
Even when God spoke to the prophets outside the land of Israel, He did so only in the merit of the patriarchs — and even then, only in a ritually clean place near water. The Mekhil...
The opening of the book of Ezekiel contains a grammatical oddity that the Mekhilta refuses to ignore. The phrase "the word of the Lord was, was" (hayoh hayah) uses the verb twice, ...
We find there to have been three (kinds of) prophets. One claimed the honor of the Father and the father of the son; another, the honor of the Father, but not the honor of the son;...
Jonah made a fateful choice. When God commanded him to prophesy against the city of Nineveh, Jonah weighed two competing loyalties — his duty to God and his love for Israel. He cho...
R. Yochanan said: Jonah went (on that voyage) only to cast himself into the sea, as it is written (Jonah 1:12) "And he said to them: Lift me up and cast me into the sea." All this ...
(Exodus 12:1) "saying": Go and say it to them immediately. These are the words of R. Yishmael. As it is written (Exodus 34:34) "And he went out and spoke to the children of Israel ...
R. Oshiyah said: When the Holy One Blessed be He decrees good and bad decrees for Israel, a report is returned to Him for the good, but not for the bad, viz. (Ezekiel 9:2-11) "And,...
Rabbi Akiva found a hidden message in a single word from (Exodus 12:1) — the word "saying." When God spoke to Moses, the instruction included "saying," which Akiva interpreted as a...
R. Shimon b. Azzai said: I do not come to detract from my master's words, but to add to them, viz.: Not to Moses alone did He speak in the merit of Israel, but to all of the prophe...
Thus do you find with Baruch the soon of Neriah, who complained before the L–rd, (Ibid. 45:3) "You (Baruch) say: Woe unto me, the L–rd has added grief to my pain!" (You say:) Why a...
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...
(Exodus 12:6) "And it shall be to you for a keeping": Why does the taking of the Pesach (Passover) precede its slaughtering by four days? R. Matia b. Charash says: It is written (E...
R. Yehudah b. Betheira says: It is written (Exodus 6:9) "And they would not hearken to Moses (as to G–d's delivering them), for shortness of spirit, etc." Now is there anyone who i...
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...
Abba Channan says in the name of R. Elazar: This ("in haste") is the haste of the Shechinah. And even though there is no proof for this, it is intimated in (Song of Songs 2:8) "the...
When God announces the final plague, He uses a word that seems simple but carries layers of meaning: "And I shall pass through the land of Egypt" (Exodus 12:12). The Hebrew is ve'a...
"and I shall see the blood": R. Yishmael was wont to say: Isn't everything revealed to Him, viz. (Daniel 2:22) "He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him," and (P...
The Torah describes the Israelites in Egypt dipping hyssop into blood "which is in the saf." The Mekhilta records Rabbi Yishmael's reading of this enigmatic word, and his interpret...
"and you shall not go out, a man from the door of his house: We are hereby taught that once permission has been given to "the destroyer" to destroy, he does not distinguish between...
Thus do you find with the forefathers, that they deported themselves with circumspection (in this regard), viz.: (Genesis 22:3) "And Abraham arose early in the morning," (Ibid. 28:...
"and the L–rd will skip over the blood": Now does this not follow a fortiori, viz.: If of the blood (on the door) of the Pesach (Passover) of Egypt, the less "formidable," which ob...
The Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael draws attention to a striking pattern woven through Scripture: when the prophets speak, they echo words that God already uttered long before. The chai...
The Mekhilta, the tannaitic commentary on Exodus, arrives at one of the most dramatic prophetic verses in all of Scripture: "The glory of the Lord shall appear, and all flesh will ...
The Mekhilta, the halakhic midrash on Exodus from the 2nd century CE, examines one of the starkest either-or passages in the Prophets. Isaiah delivers God's ultimatum: "If you acqu...
