Stories

The death of the High Priest, Aaron, is discussed in Numbers 20:23-29 and Deuteronomy 10:6.

The Binding of Isaac is a story found in Genesis 22, in which God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Abraham journeys with Isaac to the designated mountain and prepares. As Abraham grabs the knife, an angel of God calls out to him and instructs him not to sacrifice his son. Instead, Abraham sees a ram and sacrifices that instead. The story has inspired generations of analysis and commentary and is traditionally read on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year.

The "burning bush" refers to a story in the book of Exodus in which Moses, while shepherding in the desert, encounters a bush that is burning but not consumed by fire and turns to examine it. God speaks to Moses from the bush, instructing him to return to Egypt to help take the people of Israel out of there.

Initial actions in the Land of Israel.

Stories of the world's creation appears in the first two chapters of the book of Genesis. Generations of Jewish thinkers have spilled much ink analyzing the meaning and significance of these chapters.

Egyptian decree against newborn sons.

The destruction of the Temple can refer to the destruction of either of the two Temples that stood in Jerusalem in the ancient period. The First Temple, built by King Solomon, as described in the book of I Kings, was destroyed in 586 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The Second Temple, built approximately 70 years after the destruction of the first, was destroyed in 70 CE by the Roman Empire.

Upon placing the first human in the garden of Eden, God immediately commands him not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, lest he die. Several verses later, in Genesis 3, after God has created Adam's counterpart, Eve, a snake convinces her to partake of the forbidden fruit, which she in turn shares with Adam. And while Adam, Eve, and the snake are not punished with death, they are punished.

The biblical flood is described in the book of Genesis, chapters 6-9. In this account, God decides to destroy humanity with a flood. At God’s command, the righteous Noah builds an ark, where Noah, his family, and select animals survive the flood. Later sources analyze the story's themes, messages, and laws derived from it.

The Garden of Eden features in the opening chapters of the book of Genesis. God plants the garden, causes trees to grow there, and places Adam in the garden to work and preserve it. After Eve and Adam eat forbidden fruit, God drives them out. The Garden of Eden has been the subject of analysis and discussion throughout thousands of years of the Jewish textual tradition.

The giving of the Torah is an event described in Exodus 19–20 and Deuteronomy 5, in which God gives the Torah to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. Accompanied by fire, smoke, a cloud, thunder, and lightning, God commands the Ten Commandments. The event is considered a foundational moment in Jewish tradition and is celebrated on the holiday of Shavuot.

“Gog and Magog” refers to enemies of the Jewish people. Jewish texts describe how, at the dawn of a messianic era, Gog and Magog will wage war against Israel, and God will miraculously defeat them. The terms Gog and Magog first appear together in Ezekiel 38–39, where Gog is the name of a leader, and Magog is his land. In rabbinic literature, Gog and Magog are understood to be the names of two nations or one nation with two names.

Shortly after the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, despairing that their leader Moses had died atop the mountain, the Israelites built and began to worship a golden calf — in direct violation of the first commandments of the Ten Commandments. The "golden calf" may refer to either the idol the Israelites built or the narrative. Upon Moses' discovery of the Israelites' grievous transgression, he smashed the tablets of the law, ground up the golden calf, and made the Israelites drink the mixture.

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The story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, in the book of Genesis, recounts a challenging encounter for Joseph. The story lends itself to further interpretation, and texts from various genres have contributed different motivations for both Joseph and Potiphar's wife.

Journey of the Ark in the desert.

The Leviathan is a giant sea creature that features in several places throughout the Jewish textual tradition. In the Bible, it is mentioned a total of six times: in the books of Isaiah, Psalms, and Job. Rabbinic literature describes how God created the Leviathan during the creation of the world and how, in a future world to come, the righteous will feast from the flesh of the Leviathan.

Marah, meaning bitter, was a place in the Sinai that the Israelites reached in their wandering. They couldn't drink the water there because it was bitter until Moses performed a miracle to sweeten it.

Noah is a biblical figure from the book of Genesis, described as the sole righteous person among a wicked generation. When God decided to flood the earth, God warned Noah and instructed him to build an ark. During the flood, Noah, his family, and representatives of every animal survived on the ark.

The Second Passover offering.

Water turning into blood was the first of ten plagues that God wrought upon the Egyptians when Pharoah refused to let the enslaved Israelites go. It is described in Exodus 7:14—24

Darkness is the ninth of ten plagues that God wrought upon the Egyptians when Pharaoh refused to let the enslaved Israelites go. It is described in Exodus 10:21-29.

The plague of frogs is the second of ten plagues that God wrought upon the Egyptians when Pharoah refused to let the enslaved Israelites go. It is described in Exodus 8:1-11

Hail is the seventh of ten plagues that God wrought upon the Egyptians when Pharoah refused to let the enslaved Israelites go. It is described in Exodus 9:13-35

The plague of the firstborn, in which firstborn Egyptian sons died, was the last of ten plagues that God wrought upon the Egyptians when Pharoah refused to let the enslaved Israelites go. It is described throughout Exodus 11:1—12:36.

The Prayer of Abraham was his plea to God not to destroy the evil city of Sodom. This was a manifestation of his great loving kindness towards all people, which brought him to challenge God about His intentions there.

The twelve spies feature in the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy. They were a group of leaders - one from each tribe - sent by Moses to scout the land of Canaan ahead of the Israelites arrival there. They came back reporting that the land was good, but that it was filled with giants and fearsome enemies. This prompted the Israelites to cry and complain that they did not want to enter the land. Two of the twelve spies, Joshua and Caleb, attempted to assuage their fears and remind the people of God’s commitment that the Israelites’ would enter the land.

The Song of the Sea, recorded in Exodus 15:1–18, is a song that the Israelites sang upon miraculously crossing the Red Sea. It thanks God for the redemption from slavery in Egypt and celebrates the downfall of the Egyptian oppressors. The song features prominently in Jewish liturgy as part of the daily shacharit (morning) services.

The splitting of the Red Sea is an event described in Exodus 14:1–15:21, in which God miraculously splits the sea, and the Israelites cross through on dry land. When the Egyptians try to follow the Israelites, the sea closes in on them, and they drown.

The book of Esther is one of the five megillot (scrolls), part of the section of the Hebrew Bible called Writings. It tells the story of Esther, a Jew who becomes queen of Persia and together with her cousin, Mordekhai, foils a plot of the evil Haman to destroy the Jews. To commemorate the transformation from “grief and mourning to festive joy” (9:22), Esther and Mordekhai establish the holiday of Purim. The book of Esther is read publicly in the evening and morning of Purim.

The book of Ruth is one of the five megillot (scrolls) found in the section of the Hebrew Bible called Writings and is traditionally read on the holiday of Shavuot. It tells the story of Ruth, a widow of Moabite origin, who insists on staying with her widowed, Israelite mother-in-law, declaring “Wherever you go, I will go... your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (1:16). Ruth’s loyalty leads her to the field of her kinsman, Boaz, whom she ultimately marries. Together they have a child, who later becomes the grandfather of King David.

The book of Exodus recounts how, after hundreds of years of the Israelites' slavery in Egypt, God miraculously frees the people through a process of ten plagues and the splitting of the Red Sea. The Passover holiday commemorates these events, and discussing the Exodus is a focal point of the Passover seder.

The Davidic lineage.

The idol of Micah refers to a story from the book of Judges, chapters 17 and 18, involving a statue and accompanying temple of a man named Micah, and the tribe of Dan's conquest of the city of Laish.

Ezekiel was a prophet who spoke from Babylonian exile during the destruction of the First Temple. He had visions about God's chariot, dry bones coming to life, a future Temple, and more. According to Jewish tradition, accounts of his visions make up the book of Ezekiel.

The "Ten Commandments" or "Ten Utterances" are the group of the commandments given to the Israelites at Mount Sinai in a constitutive moment of divine revelation to all of the children of Israel. The first set of five commandments establish the rules of God's relationship with humanity, and the second set of five are between people and other people. The Ten Commandments appear twice in the Torah: first, when they are given at Sinai, in Exodus 20 and again in Deuteronomy 5, in Moses' retelling of the earlier narrative.

In the context of the Exodus story, in which God liberates the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, God wreaks a process of ten plagues on Pharaoh and the Egyptians as Pharaoh repeatedly refuses to let the Israelites go. The Ten Plagues, which appear in Exodus chapters 7 through 12, are: water turned to blood, frogs, lice, wild animals, pestilence of livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and death of the firstborn. They are recounted and discussed as part of the Passover seder.

The tree of knowledge is a tree that features in the opening chapters of the book of Genesis. God causes the tree to grow in the Garden of Eden, and commands Adam not to eat from it, lest he die. In the following chapter, Eve, following the enticing of a snake, notices the desirable qualities of a tree in the Garden. She eats from the tree's fruits and gives to Adam as well. God then calls out to Adam, and describes consequences that the snake, Eve, and Adam will each face as a result of their actions.

Meribah is a place mentioned in the books of Exodus and Numbers. In one story in Exodus, the Israelites complain about a lack of water. God instructs Moses to hit a rock; Moses does, and water comes out. The place is then called Massah and Meribah, commemorating the incident. In a similar story described in Numbers, God instructs Moses to take his staff and talk to a rock after the Israelites complain about a lack of water. Moses hits the rock twice and water comes out. God then tells Moses and Aaron that they will not enter Israel, and refers to the water as "water of Meribah."

The Torah singles out the worship of Molekh as particularly abhorrent to God. While the Torah verses clearly state that it involves giving one's child to the deity in a forbidden ritual, later interpreters debate what the ritual actually was, whether it was actual child sacrifice or merely the passing of one's child through fire as a means of dedication.

The Tower of Babel refers to a narrative presented in Genesis 11:1-9. The story describes how people attempted to build a city and tower, the top of which would reach the sky. God confounds their speech and scatters them, ending the project. The story has been the subject of much analysis and discussion throughout thousands of years of the Jewish textual tradition.

The sons of Jacob, founders of the tribes.