Stories

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, was destroyed in 586 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The Second Temple, built 70 years after the destruction of the first, was destroyed in 70 CE by the Roman empire.

The giving of the Torah is an event described in the Books of Exodus and Deuteronomy, in which God gives the Torah to the Israelites on Mount Sinai. Accompanied by fire, smoke, a cloud, thunder and lightning, God recounts the Ten Commandments, with Moses serving as a messenger. The event is considered a foundational moment in Jewish tradition, and is celebrated on the holiday of Shavuot.

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.

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 Exodus from Egypt is a story described in the Book of Exodus, in which the Israelites’ are miraculously freed from enslavement in Egypt through ten plagues and the splitting of the Red Sea. The holiday of Passover commemorates these events, and discussing the exodus is a focal point of the Passover seder.