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Let’s talk about baskets. Yes, baskets. Specifically, the basket mentioned in Devarim (Deuteronomy) 26:2, as it says: "And you shall put (them) in a basket." What’s the big deal, y...
(Deuteronomy 26:3) says, "I have professed this day..." But what exactly are you professing? And how often? Sifrei Devarim, a collection of legal midrash (rabbinic interpretive com...
He was a righteous man, tested beyond measure. But how did tragedy initially strike his family? As we learn in Sifrei Devarim, it wasn't due to any inherent sinfulness on their par...
Like you're putting your energy into something that's just... not really there? Our ancestors grappled with this too. The ancient text, Sifrei Devarim (Deuteronomy), dives deep int...
It uses some pretty strong imagery to describe the leaders and righteous individuals within a community. The passage starts with a rather unsettling phrase: "Bitter clusters are th...
to a fascinating, and perhaps unsettling, interpretation from the Sifrei Devarim (a legal midrash on the book of Deuteronomy). We find ourselves looking at the verse in Deuteronomy...
It all comes down to a verse, a blessing really, found in (Deuteronomy 33:13): "And of Joseph he said: 'Blessed of the L-rd is his land.'" Sounds simple enough. But the rabbis of t...
It starts with the rather simple phrase: "And of Naftali he said." Now, you might be thinking, "Okay, who’s Naftali and why should I care?" Good question! The text itself poses tha...
We often think of the biblical tribes as these monolithic entities, but they were families, prone to squabbles and reconciliation just like us. Take the tribe of Asher. What made t...
The book of Devarim (Deuteronomy) describes the blessing to the tribe of Asher with the phrase, "and he shall dip his foot in oil" (Deuteronomy 33:24). But what does that mean? The...
Moses stood on Mount Sinai wrapped in cloud for six days before God spoke a single word to him. Why the silence? Rabbi Jose the Galilean said it was purification — six days to burn...
‘Aḳabya b. Mahalalel said: Whosoever takes four things to heart1Cf. Aboth 3:1 (Sonc. ed., p. 26) where the more popular version reads: ‘Consider three things’, etc., omitting the t...
R. DOSA B. HARKINAS SAID: MORNING SLEEP, AND MIDDAY WINE, [AND CHILDREN’S TALK, AND SITTING IN THE MEETING-HOUSES OF THE IGNORANT] DRIVE A MAN OUT OF THE WORLD.MORNING SLEEP—what d...
R. ḤANINA B. DOSA SAID: HE WHOSE FEAR OF SIN COMES BEFORE HIS WISDOM, HIS WISDOM SHALL ENDURE; [BUT HE WHOSE WISDOM COMES BEFORE HIS FEAR OF SIN, HIS WISDOM SHALL NOT ENDURE,] as i...
R. NATHAN1Aboth 4:11 (Sonc. ed., IV, 9, pp. 48f) where the dictum is given in reverse order in the name of R. Jonathan. GRA emends to R. Jonathan b. Joseph, a disciple of R. ‘Aḳiba...
The opening verse of Deuteronomy lists a string of place names — "in the wilderness, in the Arabah, over against Suph, between Paran and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Di-zah...
Five persons are not granted forgiveness:1The meaning is not that the doors of forgiveness are for ever shut against them, but that they are so hardened in sinning that they will n...
There are four acts that a man performs, the fruits of which he enjoys in this world, while the capital is laid up for him in the world to come. They are: honouring father and moth...
(Genesis 4:8) contains one of the strangest silences in the Torah. It says "Cain spoke to Abel his brother," and then nothing. The sentence just stops. The next thing that happens ...
The Hebrew Bible says the "sons of God" saw that human women were beautiful, and took wives from among them (Genesis 6:2). That's all it says. The Targum Jonathan rewrites the scen...
In (Genesis 13:10), Lot "lifted up his eyes and saw the whole plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere." A simple observation about good farmland. But the ancient A...
The destruction of Sodom in Genesis 19 is swift and merciless. Fire and brimstone rain down, and the city is gone. But the Targum Jonathan inserts a detail that changes everything:...
Abraham tells a foreign king that Sarah is his sister. Again. He already pulled this move with Pharaoh in Egypt (Genesis 12:13). Now in Gerar, he does it a second time—and the Targ...
Genesis 27 is one of the most psychologically complex chapters in the Torah—the aged Isaac, blind and dying, tricked by his own wife and son into blessing the wrong heir. The Targu...
The story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife in Genesis 39 is already tense. The Targum Jonathan ratchets the tension higher by adding theological motives, divine intervention, and a tr...
The plague of darkness in Exodus chapter 10 is three days of impenetrable blackness across Egypt. The Hebrew Bible says simply that no one could see anyone else and no one rose fro...
The golden calf episode in (Exodus 32:1-35) is already one of the Torah's most dramatic stories. The Targum Jonathan makes it wilder, stranger, and more theologically loaded than a...
After the golden calf, God told Moses something devastating in (Exodus 33:1-23). The Shekinah (the Divine Presence) would not travel with Israel anymore. The Targum Jonathan turns ...
When the entire community of Israel sinned by accident, who took responsibility? The Hebrew Bible says "the elders of the congregation" laid their hands on the bull (Leviticus 4:15...
What happens when you cannot afford a lamb? Leviticus 5 introduces one of the most compassionate mechanisms in ancient law—a sliding scale for guilt offerings—and the Targum Jonath...
The Targum Jonathan opens Leviticus 11 with a number the Hebrew Bible never provides: Israel must "separate on account of uncleanness eighteen kinds of food to be rejected." The st...
Leviticus 15 deals with bodily discharges—a topic the Targum Jonathan handles with surprising clinical specificity. The Hebrew Bible says a person with an issue becomes unclean. Th...
Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). The holiest day. The most dangerous ritual in the entire Torah. And the Targum Jonathan adds details that turn Leviticus 16 into a thriller. Firs...
Leviticus 26 contains the blessings and curses—God's promise of abundance for obedience and a cascading nightmare for rebellion. The Targum Jonathan adds a breathtaking historical ...
Everyone knows the Priestly Blessing: "The Lord bless you and keep you" (Numbers 6:24-26). What most people do not know is that the Targum Jonathan expands those three elegant vers...
Korah did not just challenge Moses. According to the Targum Jonathan, he manufactured a theological argument using the very fabric of his clothing, hid treasure he had looted from ...
The Targum's version of (Numbers 23) reveals Bileam's inner strategy. When he looked at Israel, "he knew that strange worship was among them, and rejoiced in his heart." He spotted...
The Targum's version of (Numbers 28) transforms a dry sacrificial calendar into a theology of continuous atonement. Where the Torah simply lists the daily offerings, the Targum exp...
The standard text of (Deuteronomy 1) opens with Moses speaking to Israel "beyond the Jordan." But the Targum Jonathan, an ancient Aramaic translation composed between the 1st and 4...
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 9) contains one of the most dramatic expansions in all of Aramaic literature. When Moses recalls the golden calf, the Hebrew says God was angry ...
The Torah's promise of return from exile in (Deuteronomy 30) is hopeful. Targum Jonathan makes it messianic. Where the Hebrew says God will gather the scattered, the Targum says: "...
The Blessing of Moses in (Deuteronomy 33) gets the full Targum treatment—every tribe's destiny expanded, every blessing loaded with specifics the Torah never mentions. It opens wit...
And it will be, from new month to new month, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh will come to bow before Me," said Hashem (Isaiah 66:23). Teach us, our teacher, a person from Is...
Another explanation. “And all the work that king Solomon had wrought in the house of the Lord was finished.” (Melachim I 7:51) What does ‘all the work’ mean? It was built by itself...
The angels said before the Holy One, ‘Master of the World! Isn’t this Jerusalem?!’ as it is said “This is Jerusalem; in the midst of the nations I have placed her…” (Yechezkel 5:5)...
Another explanation. “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion… And many nations shall join the Lord…” (Zechariah 2:14-15) R’ Chanina bar Papa said: this verse is only speaking of that...
The judgment of the wicked in Gehinnom (the place of spiritual purification after death) lasts twelve months, as it says “And it shall be from new moon to new moon…” (Yeshayahu 66:...
And from where is "Aleph" called one, it is said, "How shall one rout one thousand?" And from where is the Holy One, blessed be He, called one as it is said "Hear O Israel the Lord...
