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The Torah says God made the midwives "houses." The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (1:21) tells us exactly what those houses were. "And forasmuch as the midwives feared before the...
When the Torah sums up who stood before Pharaoh to demand Israel's release, it simply says these are they (Exodus 6:27). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 6:27) supplies the titles...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 15:13) translates the end of the Song of the Sea not as a geographical promise but as a spiritual homecoming: Thou hast led in Thy mercy the peopl...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan transforms the concluding verse of the Song of the Sea into a piece of cosmic architecture: Thou wilt bring them in, and plant them on the mountain of Thy sa...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan opens one of the most astonishing passages in the entire exodus tradition. "Ye have seen what I did to the Mizraee; and how I bare you upon the clouds as...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan gives the simple altar law a mystical interior. "An altar of earth ye shall make to My Name, and sacrifice upon it thy burnt offerings and thy sanctified...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves one of the strangest laws in the Torah. "If thou wilt make an altar of stones unto My Name, thou shalt not build them sculptured; for if thou l...
The last verse of the Decalogue's aftermath contains a detail about priestly decency. "And you, the priests, who stand to minister before Me, shall not ascend to My altar by steps,...
The ancient world knew the right of sanctuary. A murderer who reached a temple's altar could cling to the horns of the altar and claim divine protection. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan...
The harvest is in. The grapes are crushed. The wine has just begun to settle in its jars. The farmer stands over his abundance and feels the old pull of hesitation. Perhaps next we...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:15) sets the pilgrimage: The feast of unleavened cakes thou shalt keep. Seven days thou art to eat unleavened bread, as I have instructe...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 23:16) names two festivals without naming them by their later names: the feast of the harvest first-fruits of the work thou didst sow in th...
Before Aaron's household held the priesthood, someone else did. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus (Exodus 24:5) preserves this little-known tradition: Mosheh sent the firstborn of t...
When the Holy One commanded Israel to contribute materials for the Mishkan, the Tabernacle in the wilderness, the instruction could have been simple taxation. Every household owes ...
(Exodus 25:22) contains one of the most intimate promises in the Torah. The Holy One tells Moses that He will meet with him there, above the kapporet, the mercy-seat, between the t...
The construction of the Mishkan is described in Exodus 26 with a catalog of measurements and materials that reads, on the surface, like an architect's invoice. Ten curtains of fine...
(Exodus 26:28) describes an engineering detail. A middle bar, passing through the boards of the Tabernacle from end to end, holding the walls together. Plain Hebrew gives the speci...
The Torah closes the Tabernacle construction chapters with a quiet command. In the Tent of Meeting, outside the parochet that conceals the Ark, Aharon and his sons are to tend a la...
(Exodus 28:1) names the first family of Jewish priests. Aharon, brother of Moses, is brought near with his four sons: Nadab, Abihu, Elazar, and Itamar. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan p...
When God commissioned the priestly wardrobe, He did not sketch a uniform. He named eight specific garments, each with a job. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:4) lists them ...
The shoulder-stones of the ephod were not to be carved roughly. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:11) insists the engraver work as the engraving of a ring — every letter dis...
Most translations of (Exodus 28:12) call the shoulder-stones a memorial, and leave the word undefined. A memorial of what? The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan fills the silence. The gems ar...
Even the best judge eventually meets a case he cannot crack. Two witnesses contradict. A motive stays buried. A theft leaves no trail. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:15) ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:17) reads the gemstones as geography. The breastplate held four rows of precious gems, answering to the four regions of the world. When Aar...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:18) names the second row of the high priest's breastplate: smaragd, and sapphire and chalcedony. On them were engraved Judah, Dan, and Naph...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:19) lists the third row of the breastplate: ligure, and agate, and amethyst, engraved with Gad, Asher, and Issachar. The tribes of this row...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:20) closes the breastplate's geography with the fourth row: chrysolite, onyx, and jasper, engraved with Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. The ...
The shoulder stones were a memorial. The breastplate was something more intimate. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:29) insists that Aaron bore the names of the sons of Isra...
The most electric line in this chapter of the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan is hidden inside a description of a priestly accessory. On (Exodus 28:30), the text explains what the Urim and ...
The robe of the high priest rang when he walked. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:34) gives a specific count: a golden bell, then a pomegranate of hyacinth and crimson, alt...
Why did the high priest's robe need bells at all? The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:35) gives the quiet, terrifying answer. Its voice shall be heard at the time that he hath...
The gold plate on the forehead of the high priest was tied to a hyacinth ribbon. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:37) names the sin it was meant to repair: it make amends f...
A worshipper brings an offering but his heart is not really in it. He makes a vow and regrets it mid-sentence. He dedicates a field and secretly hopes to walk it back. What happens...
Most translations of (Exodus 28:39) describe the weaving of the tunic and leave it there. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan refuses that minimalism. Each garment atones for something spec...
The last of the priestly garments was the most private. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 28:43) explains that Aaron and his sons had to wear the fine linen undergarments — the...
Of all the ordination rites, this one is the strangest. Moses slaughtered the second ram, and the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 29:20) tells us exactly what he did with the blo...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 29:30) legislates how the high priesthood is passed on. For seven full days, the son who rises after his father wears the vestments and enters...
When Moses consecrated Aaron and his sons to the priesthood, a week-long ritual bound them to the altar — daily offerings, daily bread, daily blood. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (redacte...
Before the altar of the Mishkan could receive Israel's offerings, it had to be made holy itself. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (an Aramaic paraphrase whose expansions preserve tannaitic a...
Seven days of atonement, and then the altar was something else entirely — not a piece of furniture, not a table of stone, but kodesh kodashim, the altar of the Holy of Holies. Targ...
The Torah says God would meet Israel at the door of the Tent of Meeting. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan hears that verse and adds one carefully chosen word: Memra. Not simply, "I will meet...
The climax of the consecration chapter is not a ritual instruction. It is a declaration, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan gives it a weight the plain Hebrew only hints at: the sons of Is...
The golden incense altar stood just outside the veil — not inside the Holy of Holies, but as close to it as any vessel of daily service could come. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan places th...
Once a year — only once — Aaron approached the golden incense altar with a different purpose. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the command that on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur,...
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...
Between the altar of sacrifice and the Tent of Meeting stood a basin — not of gold, not of silver, but of bronze. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan names its purpose simply: the kiyor was for...
The recipe for the holy anointing oil is exact and extravagant: five hundred minas of myrrh, two hundred and fifty of sweet cinnamon, two hundred and fifty of sweet calamus, five h...
The spices were weighed. The oil was gathered from the twelve tribes. But the mixture itself required something the Torah calls "the work of the perfumer." Targum Pseudo-Jonathan p...
