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En esos tiempos hubo una guerra entre Kush y los Bnei Kedem. Salió Konkos Rey de Kush a la guerra contra Aram y los Bnei Kedem, dejando a Bilam -que es Laban el Arameo de Petor- el...
Another explanation: As she purified the entire house of her father like the blood of a bird (tzipor, used in purifying some impurities). Rabbi Yose bar Chaninah said, 'They sought...
The Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 187 preserves a terse but powerful warning about the danger of asking the wrong questions — or more precisely, about knowing when to stop asking. God de...
Another Explanation "And first born of your children you shall redeem" (Exodus 13:13) Where [is this law sourced:] If his father did not redeem him, he should redeem himself. [We a...
R’ Yehoshua of Sachnin said in the name of R’ Levi: “And I placed My words into your mouth…” This refers to the Torah. “…and with the shadow of My hand I covered you…” (Isaiah 51:1...
Said R' Levi: The Holy One Blessed Be He appeared to them like a picture which is visible form all angles. A thousand people may gaze on it and it gazes on all of them. So is the H...
The Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 392 makes a breathtaking claim about the two stone tablets that Moses received on Mount Sinai: they were not made from any earthly material. "The tablet...
When the Holy One came to give the Torah to Moshe, he said over the order of the Readings, the Mishna, the aggadah (non-legal rabbinic narrative) and the Talmud as it says "And God...
[Ed.: "Menorah" down below should probably be Menuda. "Chazar l'Suro", is the only time in Chazal that that form appears. It appears frequently, also in regard to converts, as Chaz...
“Take the staff…” (Bamidbar 20:8) This is what the scripture says “The staff of your might the Lord will send from Zion…” (Psalms 110:2) This is the staff which was in the hand of ...
Rabbi Akiva was caught teaching Torah in public after the Roman Empire banned its study following the Bar Kokhba rebellion. When Pappus ben Yehuda warned him of the danger, Akiva a...
Three converts came to Shammai with impossible requests. All three were turned away. All three then went to Hillel, who accepted every one of them. The contrast, recorded in Shabba...
When God gave the Torah at Sinai, the Israelites did not simply accept it freely. According to Shabbat 88a, Rabbi Avdimi bar Hama bar Hasa taught that God uprooted Mount Sinai and ...
When Moses ascended to heaven to receive the Torah, the angels were furious. According to Shabbat 88b, they confronted God directly: "What is a human being doing among us?" God tol...
The full scope of Moses's argument against the angels is recorded in Shabbat 89a, and it is a masterclass in turning your opponent's own premises against them. Moses went through t...
Who wrote the Hebrew Bible? The Talmud in Bava Batra 14b provides a complete accounting, attributing every book to a specific author. Moses wrote his own book—the Torah—and also th...
The question of whether Moses wrote the last eight verses of the Torah—the ones describing his own death—provoked one of the most poignant debates in the Talmud. Bava Batra 15a pre...
The rabbis once overruled God—and God laughed. According to Bava Metzia 59b, the incident began with an argument about an oven. Rabbi Eliezer declared a certain oven ritually pure....
Reish Lakish was a bandit. He was also, according to Bava Metzia 84a, one of the most physically imposing men alive—a gladiator, a highwayman, a man who lived by violence. Then he ...
Before you were born, you knew everything. According to Niddah 30b, an angel teaches each soul the entire Torah while the baby is still in the womb. A light burns above the child's...
The people of Judea were precise with their language. The people of Galilee were not. According to Eruvin 53a, this difference was not a minor cultural quirk—it had real consequenc...
Beruria—wife of Rabbi Meir, and one of the only women cited as a legal authority in the Talmud—was famous for her sharp tongue and sharper mind. According to Eruvin 53b, she once c...
Berurya, one of the sharpest minds in all of Talmudic literature, once caught a student studying Torah in a whisper. She kicked him and said: Scripture teaches that Torah must be "...
The Talmud in Tractate Eruvin asks a strange question: why is the Torah compared to a deer? The answer: a deer's womb is narrow. Every time the deer mates, it is as cherished as th...
What does God do all day? The Talmud in Tractate Avodah Zarah takes this question seriously. The rabbis laid out a detailed twelve-hour schedule. During the first three hours, God ...
The Talmud in Tractate Avodah Zarah says that every afternoon, God plays with Leviathan—the colossal sea creature described in (Job 41:1) and (Psalms 104:26). The fourth quarter of...
The Hebrew Bible opens with "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). Targum Onkelos, the authoritative Aramaic translation read alongside the Torah ...
The Hebrew Bible says God "blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). Targum Onkelos renders that final phrase differently: man became ...
The Hebrew Bible says God "descended to see the city and the tower" of Babel (Genesis 11:5). Targum Onkelos will not allow that reading. God does not descend. Instead, "God became ...
The Hebrew Bible says God "descended upon" Mount Sinai in fire (Exodus 19:18). Targum Onkelos will not allow God to descend. He writes: "God became revealed upon it in fire." The m...
"I am God, your Lord, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 20:2). Targum Onkelos translates the Ten Commandments with almost no deviation from the Hebrew—a remarkable ...
The Hebrew Bible says Moses, Aaron, Nadav, Avihu, and seventy elders "saw the God of Israel" (Exodus 24:10). This is an extraordinary claim—direct visual perception of the divine. ...
The Hebrew Bible says the people told Aaron: "Make us gods that will lead us, for this Moses, we do not know what happened to him" (Exodus 32:1). Targum Onkelos translates this wit...
The Hebrew Bible records Moses making the most audacious request in Scripture: "Show me Your glory" (Exodus 33:18). Targum Onkelos renders the response with his most careful theolo...
The Hebrew Bible says God "passed before" Moses and proclaimed the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy (Exodus 34:6). Targum Onkelos renders this as God "made His Shechinah pass" before M...
The Hebrew Bible records Moses's great farewell poem, the Song of Ha'azinu (Deuteronomy 32), a sweeping poetic indictment of Israel's future unfaithfulness. Targum Onkelos translat...
The Hebrew Bible commands: "Hear, O Israel! God is our Lord, God is one" (Deuteronomy 6:4). Targum Onkelos translates the Shema—Judaism's central declaration of faith—with perfect ...
The Hebrew Bible makes one of its most radical claims in (Deuteronomy 30:12-14): "It is not in heaven... nor is it overseas... for the matter is extremely close to you, in your mou...
The Hebrew Bible begins with "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). Targum Neofiti, the Palestinian Aramaic translation, opens with something gran...
Lapidot - Rabbi Itzchak from the House of Rabi Ami: because she made the wicks for the Tabernacle. And she sat under the date palm - Rabbi Shimon be Avshalom: because of yichud. An...
Deborah the prophetess did something no other judge in Israel had done — she held court outdoors, beneath a palm tree. The Yalkut Shimoni on Nach explains exactly why, and the reas...
... Another reading: “Comfort, oh comfort My people” (Isaiah 40:1) Said the Holy Blessed One: Who needs to be comforted? For one whose wife died, not the husband? Thus was Zion ana...
Rise! Shine! For your light has come. Rebe Yochanan said: this can be compared to one who was going on his way in the evening. One comes along and kindles a candle for him, and it ...
He will be like a planted tree: Rabbi Yose expounded, "To what is the matter similar? To a man that was walking in an arid land and his soul was dismayed with thirst. He [then] fou...
He cast the pur - that is, the lot: Rabbi Chama bar Chanina said, "It was taught [that] when it fell out in the month of Adar, [Haman] rejoiced with great joy: He said, 'The lot fe...
[1] "And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, etc." (Exodus 20:1-2) Blessed is the Place, blessed is He, who chose Israel from all His handiwork and acquired ...
It was said before Abraham was born. Nimrod was a heretic concerning the truth of the lord blessed be he. He was conceited and he said that he himself was a God. And the people of ...
These are the generations of Aaron and Moses. [Betai Midrashot (rabbinic interpretive commentary) Third Chamber] Our rabbis taught: Brothers who are partners and who increased asse...
