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The servant keeps circling this moment. He circles it because he cannot get over it. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 24:45) has him tell Laban's household: "I had not yet finish...
One verse, a whole liturgy. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 24:63) translates the Hebrew word la-suach — which can mean "to meditate" or "to wander" — as something specific: Isa...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, that wild Aramaic expansion of the Torah, hears something in Esau's words that the plain text only hints at. Esau does not just say, "Behold, I am at th...
Esau looked at the caravan and asked the question any returning brother might ask: "Who are these with you?" (Genesis 33:5). In the plain text Jacob answers simply, "the children w...
There is a kind of tear a powerful man cannot afford to show in public. Joseph, vizier of all Mizraim, feels it rising, and runs. "Joseph made haste," the Targum reports, "for his ...
In the middle of Judah's speech, a sentence lands that should have broken Joseph's composure on the spot. "We told my lord, We have an aged father, and a son of his old age, a litt...
Three words in Hebrew, and a palace full of lies collapses. Ani Yosef. I am Joseph. "Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph! Is my father yet alive? But his brothers could not an...
The brothers arrive in Canaan. They find their father. They deliver the news. And Jacob cannot hear it. "They declared to him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and is ruler over all th...
Words did not persuade Jacob. But the wagons did. "They told him all the words of Joseph which he had spoken to them. And when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to bring him,...
Jacob speaks. For the first time in the Targum's chapter, he is called by his second name — Israel. "Israel said, Many benefits hath the Lord wrought for me; He delivered me from t...
When Jacob finally looks into the face of Joseph alive, his words in (Genesis 46:30) could have been pure relief. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan hears something subtler. Jacob says, "I...
Why did redemption come when it did, and not earlier? The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (2:25) has a startling answer. "And the Lord looked upon the affliction of the bondage of...
Moses returns to the slaves with the five expressions of redemption — and they do not hear him. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the heartbreak: Mosheh spake according to this to t...
When God told Moses to take a census of Israel, the command came wrapped in a warning that Targum Pseudo-Jonathan makes explicit: every man must give a ransom for his soul when he ...
One of the most radical moments in Torah commerce: Targum Pseudo-Jonathan repeats the Torah's command that the rich shall not add to, and the poor shall not diminish from, the half...
What happened to all those half-shekels? Targum Pseudo-Jonathan follows the Torah's answer: Moses was to gather the silver of the ransom from the sons of Israel and apply it to the...
At the heart of the Sabbath command stands a theological riddle. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves it faithfully: "In six days the Lord created and perfected the heavens and the ear...
The most extraordinary sentence in Moses' Sinai prayer is not a petition. It is an offer. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, renders it this way. "If You ...
If you were God, and you had to create things above and below, which realm would you offend first? Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bereshit 15:1 imagines the problem as a diplomatic crisis...
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." It's a statement of immense power, a foundation upon which an entire worldview is built. But what does it really mean? to t...
Jewish tradition offers some pretty wild and wonderful cosmologies. And a recurring image? Water. Waters upon waters, in fact. According to some mystical teachings, long ago, prime...
Jewish tradition offers some pretty amazing answers, and one of the most fascinating involves a celestial body known as the Council of Souls. Imagine a gathering of the most righte...
I'm not talking about God, necessarily, but about the powerful figures who manage the day-to-day operations of the cosmos. Well, buckle up, because we're about to dive into the sto...
Jewish tradition gives us a pretty vivid, and frankly terrifying, answer: Gehenna. Now, Gehenna – sometimes also called Gehinnom (the place of spiritual purification after death) –...
We usually think of the sun, a lightbulb, maybe even a particularly inspiring idea. But Jewish tradition takes it a step further, suggesting light itself has a deeper, more ancient...
We often think of rewards, of rest, of being in the presence of the Divine. But what does that mean, practically? What do we do? Well, imagine this: God, the ultimate teacher, pers...
We all know the story: Abraham and Sarah, finally blessed with a child in their old age. But what if there was more to the story than meets the eye? What if, as some ancient texts ...
What happens to the abandoned? What happens to the children left to the elements, victims of cruelty and fear? Sometimes, stories offer us the most profound answers. Think about th...
(Genesis 11:1) tells us, "Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words." Imagine the possibilities! With this miraculous language, some say, anything could be accompl...
Yet, Jewish tradition whispers of just such a mystery: that the Messiah himself will descend from the side of evil. How can this be? Well, the story starts with King David, the anc...
This week, we're diving into a powerful message about gratitude, using the ancient text of Bamidbar Rabbah, specifically Bamidbar Rabbah 1. It all starts with a verse: “The Lord sp...
The king, instead of addressing the crowd, singles you out. He speaks directly to you. That, my friends, is the opening of Bamidbar Rabbah, the ancient midrash on the Book of Numbe...
It all starts with the verse, "Bring the tribe of Levi near and stand it before Aaron the priest, and they shall serve him" (Numbers 3:5–6). This is where our sages begin to unpack...
We know, according to tradition, that God created the world in six days. But what about since then? The Talmudic sages pondered this very question. In Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection...
The book of Bamidbar Rabbah, a treasure trove of rabbinic commentary on the Book of Numbers, delves into this very idea. It all starts with the command to count the firstborn males...
We can see this theme beautifully illustrated in Bamidbar Rabbah (Numbers Rabbah) 4, which draws a powerful lesson from the seemingly straightforward verse, “The charge of Elazar, ...
That's the situation the sons of Kehat found themselves in, in the Book of Numbers. Our story begins in Bamidbar Rabbah, specifically section 5, which delves into the passage about...
In the Book of Numbers, Bamidbar, we read about how the Kehatites, a family within the tribe of Levi, had the unique and profoundly important task of carrying the Ark of the Covena...
Leprosy, for example, wasn't just a disease. According to some Jewish traditions, it could be a sign of something deeper, a consequence of wrongdoing. But what wrongdoing specifica...
The ancient rabbis grappled with these questions constantly, searching for meaning in misfortune. One particularly fascinating exploration revolves around the affliction of leprosy...
Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of Midrashic (rabbinic interpretive commentary) teachings on the Book of Numbers, tackles this very question, and the answer might surprise you. The p...
Jewish tradition grapples with this very idea. Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Numbers, dives deep into the concept of actions that leave irrepar...
The ancient Rabbis grappled with this very human impulse, especially when it came to matters of infidelity and divine justice. to a fascinating passage from Bamidbar Rabbah 9 that ...
We find in Bamidbar Rabbah (Numbers Rabbah) 9, a fascinating, and frankly, a bit intense dive into the laws surrounding a suspected adulteress, the sotah. It’s a passage that pulls...
I find those connections absolutely fascinating! Today, let’s dive into a passage from Bamidbar Rabbah 9, which springs from the Book of Numbers and then takes us on a whirlwind to...
The sages of the Talmud grappled with this very emotion, particularly in the context of marriage and fidelity. And surprisingly, the Torah has a lot to say about it. to an intrigui...
Take, for instance, the ritual of the sotah, the suspected adulteress, described in the Book of Numbers (Bamidbar). It’s… complicated. The priest writes curses on a scroll and then...
There’s a fascinating teaching attributed to Rabbi Meir in Bamidbar Rabbah 9 that gets right to the heart of it. He asks, how do we know that the way we treat others is the very sa...
