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R’ Shim’on ben Lakish makes a startling claim: Pinhas is Eliahu! Yes, Pinhas, the zealous priest who took action to stop the plague, is none other than the prophet Elijah, who will...
Take, for example, the beginning of the book of Numbers (Bamidbar in Hebrew), where we find a meticulous accounting of the Israelites' travels in the wilderness. It seems a little…...
In the book of Numbers (33:55), we find a rather stark warning: "And if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, then those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your ...
Five sisters walked into Moses's tent and changed Jewish inheritance law forever. Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 788 wrestles with some tricky questions arising from that encounter — the ...
It all starts with the phrase "this good mountain and the Lebanon." This isn't just any mountain, you see. It's the mountain. Everyone, it seems, calls it that. Abraham calls it a ...
Jewish tradition certainly grapples with this idea, especially when considering the long and often painful history of exile. In the Yalkut Shimoni, a compilation of rabbinic commen...
It's something the Jewish people have grappled with throughout our history, especially during times of exile. Imagine being uprooted, torn from your home, your land, everything fam...
Today, we're diving into a fascinating, and admittedly unsettling, passage from Sifrei Bamidbar, a collection of legal interpretations related to the Book of Numbers. It deals with...
There's a fascinating passage in Sifrei Bamidbar, a collection of ancient rabbinic legal interpretations on the Book of Numbers, that dives deep into this very idea. It uses the st...
Sifrei Bamidbar, an ancient commentary on the Book of Numbers, unpacks this seemingly simple phrase in a multitude of beautiful and insightful ways. The most straightforward unders...
It’s fascinating to see how ancient texts like Sifrei Bamidbar, a legal midrash on the Book of Numbers, attempt to define and describe where we might find that light. It all starts...
It's almost like one verse says one thing, and another… well, it says the opposite! It can be confusing. But Jewish tradition is brilliant at wrestling with these apparent contradi...
You're not alone! Our sages grappled with these apparent inconsistencies too. The passage opens with a head-scratcher concerning the number of angels. One verse says, "Is there any...
The ancient rabbis certainly did, and they found a powerful metaphor for this in the ocean itself. The ocean is vast, powerful, seemingly limitless. It could, if it chose, engulf e...
We often hear blessings, maybe even offer them ourselves, but what's actually going on? In Jewish tradition, blessings are a big deal, and the Torah gives us some pretty specific i...
It describes the offerings brought by the leaders of Israel: "And the chiefs of Israel presented (their offerings)." Now, who were these chiefs? Were they just some random people a...
We're in the Book of Numbers, Bamidbar (7:18), where the heads of the tribes are bringing offerings to the Tabernacle. It says, "On the second day, Nethanel ben Tzuar, the chief of...
We get a tantalizing glimpse into this very question in Sifrei Bamidbar, a rabbinic commentary on the Book of Numbers. The text grapples with a fascinating problem: scripture seems...
Sounds daunting. Well, according to Sifrei Bamidbar (Numbers), Moses himself had a little trouble with it! In (Numbers 8:4), we read, "And this was the work of the menorah… accordi...
It’s a question that’s resonated throughout Jewish history, and the answer, surprisingly, is all about perspective. Our tradition teaches us that the way we count time is intimatel...
Our jumping-off point is a verse from Numbers (Bamidbar) 10:10: "And on the day of your rejoicing and on your appointed times you shall sound the trumpets." Seems straightforward. ...
It can be surprisingly complicated! Today, we're diving deep into a seemingly simple question: Who exactly was Moses' father-in-law? Was it Chovav, or Reuel, or maybe someone else ...
Today, we're diving into a fascinating moment from the book of Bamidbar (Numbers), chapter 10, verse 29, where Moses makes a heartfelt plea to his father-in-law, Yitro (Jethro). Th...
all who hate the righteous are, in effect, haters of the Holy One, blessed be He. Think of it like this: when we strike out against goodness, against justice, against those who emb...
The Torah, in the book of Bamidbar (Numbers), uses a fascinating turn of phrase to describe exactly that kind of spiritual relapse. It says, "And the people were ['vayehi'] as seek...
The Israelites, fresh out of Egypt and sustained by miraculous manna in the desert, certainly did. And their grumbling, as recorded in Sifrei Bamidbar, offers a fascinating glimpse...
That feeling, that intense pressure, isn't new. Moses, the great leader of the Israelites, felt it too. And the Torah, in its unflinching honesty, doesn't shy away from showing us ...
Moses was carrying the weight of an entire people on his shoulders, and somewhere along the way even the meekest man on earth hit his limit. No wonder he was feeling the pressure! ...
The Israelites, fresh out of Egypt and wandering in the desert, definitely knew that feeling. We find ourselves in Bamidbar (Numbers), specifically chapter 11, verse 18. The people...
The scene: the Israelites are in the desert, and something unusual is happening. Two men, Eldad and Medad, are prophesying within the camp (Bamidbar/(Numbers 11:2)7). A "youth" run...
The Torah portion of Bamidbar (Numbers) opens a fascinating window into exactly that, with a story about Miriam and Aaron speaking against their brother, Moses. The verse in (Numbe...
The passage opens with a rather startling image: "And the L-rd said suddenly." R. Shimon b. Menassia points out that Moses himself was frightened by the word "suddenly" earlier in ...
It might seem obvious, but the Torah actually gives us some pretty profound insights into this very thing. We find in Sifrei Bamidbar, a midrashic (rabbinic interpretive commentary...
Today, let’s dive into a fascinating story from the book of Bamidbar (Numbers), specifically chapter 12, verse 10, and explore the moment Miriam, Moses' sister, is struck with tzar...
Jewish tradition certainly has, and it teaches us profound lessons about cause and effect, especially when it comes to how we treat others.It all starts with a verse from Bamidbar ...
The ancient Sifrei Bamidbar, a commentary on the Book of Numbers, grapples with this very idea, specifically in relation to the sin of idolatry. The text starts with a seemingly si...
We're talking about acting "with a high hand"—b'yad ramah—and the consequences, according to the ancient text Sifrei Bamidbar, are pretty severe. So, what does it mean to act "with...
They might seem like a minor detail, but within those knotted threads lies a whole world of meaning. Today, we're diving into Sifrei Bamidbar, a collection of ancient rabbinic lega...
Today, we’re diving into the book of Bamidbar (Numbers), specifically chapter 18 in Sifrei Bamidbar, to unpack the intense responsibilities placed on the Kohanim and Levi'im (Levit...
It’s a fascinating topic, and today we're diving into a passage from Sifrei Bamidbar, a collection of legal interpretations on the Book of Numbers, that sheds light on just that. T...
Our source today is Sifrei Bamidbar, and it unveils a remarkable array of gifts bestowed upon the Cohanim – the priests. We're talking about twelve specific offerings originating "...
Jewish tradition grapples with these questions in fascinating ways, often through the stories of our ancestors. Take the prophet Ovadiah, for instance. The book of Ovadiah opens wi...
The passage opens with the verse from Devarim (Deuteronomy) 3:23: "And I supplicated (va'ethchanan) the L-rd." Va'ethchanan, the text tells us, is a term loaded with entreaty, a he...
We find ourselves in the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy), where Moses is recounting his life to the Israelites. He’s looking back at his plea to enter the Promised Land, Eretz Yisrae...
In Sifrei Bamidbar, a collection of legal and ethical teachings from the Book of Numbers, we find a discussion about that very moment. (Deuteronomy 34:4) tells us, "And the L-rd sa...
It’s a question that echoes through the ages, and Jewish tradition offers a fascinating perspective. The Sifrei Bamidbar, a collection of legal and ethical teachings connected to t...
Our tradition teaches us it's something far more profound, something deeply connected to the well-being of the people. We find a fascinating insight in Sifrei Bamidbar, a collectio...
The word atzeret (עצרת) appears in Bamidbar, or the Book of Numbers (29:35), in the context of Shmini Atzeret, the "eighth day" that follows the seven days of Sukkot, the Festival ...
