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Rabbi said: which is the straight path that a man should choose for himself? One which is an honor to the person adopting it, and [on account of which] honor [accrues] to him from ...
Akabyah ben Mahalalel said: mark well three things and you will not come into the power of sin: know from where you come, and where you are going, and before whom you are destined ...
Ben Zoma said: Who is wise? He who learns from every man, as it is said: “From all who taught me have I gained understanding” (Psalms 119:99). Who is mighty? He who subdues his [ev...
With ten utterances the world was created. And what does this teach, for surely it could have been created with one utterance? But this was so in order to punish the wicked who des...
The sages taught in the language of the Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law). Blessed be He who chose them and their teaching. Rabbi Meir said: Whoever occupies himself with...
In ten articles the world was created, and what is meant to be said, and in one article he could recover, but heal the wicked who destroy the world created in ten sayings and give ...
And from where is "Aleph" called one, it is said, "How shall one rout one thousand?" And from where is the Holy One, blessed be He, called one as it is said "Hear O Israel the Lord...
Another taught: "The holy blessed one said to the Torah: 'Let us make the human...' She [Torah] replied, 'This human will be short of days, full of conflict, and fall into the hand...
“YHVH Elohim” – a parable to a king . . . who poured hot and cold mixed into his [glass] cups and they withstood (didn’t break). Thus says the Holy One: If I create with the qualit...
Trees talk to each other. That is not a modern botanical discovery — it is a teaching from the Yalkut Shimoni, a medieval anthology of midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic ...
Another thing, the Book of Adam's Descendants was passed before him. He saw David's portion of life would be three hours. He said, "Master of the world, this should not be decreed!...
When God appeared to Abram and commanded him to circumcise himself, the patriarch was already ninety-nine years old. According to the Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 80, God's words carrie...
The field that Abraham bought from the children of Chet etc --- R Tanchuma said: from the burial of Sarah to the burial of Abraham was 38 years...... it comes to teach you that all...
And he arrived at the place – Why do we use a pseudonym and call the Holy One ‘place’ (makom)? Because He is the place of the world and the world is not His place. R’ Yosi ben Hali...
and he lay down in that place – R’ Yehudah says ‘here he lay down, but all fourteen years that he was hidden away in the land serving Ever he never laid down.’ R’ Nechemia says ‘he...
“…that he did not obey her…” (Bereshit 39:10) Rebbe said: he listened to her but the Holy One brought the likeness of his father and he was embarrassed and fled. The second time he...
"Until he comes to Shiloh" - as in the future all of the nations of the world will bring a present to (shai le) the Messiah, the son of David, as it is stated (Isaiah 18:7), "at th...
"So the Egyptians enslaved the children of Israel with back breaking labor [b'farech]" (Ex. 1:13). R. Elazar says, "B'pe rach—with a soft mouth." R. Shmuel says, "B'frichah—With ri...
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...
"This month shall be for you." It shall be turned over to you. R. Yehoshua b. Levi said, "It's like a king who had a horologue. When he looked at it, he would know what time of day...
Rabi Pinchas and Rabi Chilkiyah said in the name of Rabi Simon: the ministering angels gathered to Hashem and said before Him: Master of the world, when is the beginning of the yea...
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...
"And the waters will came back and cover the chariot and the horsemen" (Exodus 14:26) And even Par'oh, according to Rabi Yehuda, as it says "the chariots of Phar'oh and his army" (...
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...
Rabbi Yehoshua of Sikhnin said in the name of Rabbi Levi: Great is peace for all blessings are sealed with peace: The reading of the Shema—"spreads the shelter of peace." The [stan...
[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 ...
R' Shim'on ben Lakish said, "Pinhas is Eliahu. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to him, 'You have made peace between Israel and Me in this world. Even in the next world, you are t...
"From the families of Menashe son of Yosef" (Numbers 27:1) - just as Yosef loved the land, so too those who came from his loins loved the land. "The names of the daughters were Mah...
Parashat Masei These are the journeys of the children of Israel. The Lord said to Moses, "Write down the journeys that the Israelites have taken in the wilderness, so that they may...
Moses had the worst errand of his life. God told him to bring his brother up the mountain to die. He could not bring himself to say the words. Aaron said them for him. "My brother,...
In ancient Israel, a person who killed someone by accident did not go free. Neither was he executed. He ran for his life to one of six cities of refuge, and the roads that led ther...
Pray let me cross over. The word nah indicates that this is a request. the good land that is on the other side of the Jordan. This is what R’ Yehudah meant when he said that the la...
Another explanation: And you will quickly perish (Deuteronomy 11:17)—exile after exile. And thus do you find with the ten tribes, exile after exile. And thus do you find with the t...
“For you have not yet come…” (Devarim 12:9) this was said in order to permit private altars between the ‘resting place’ and the ‘inheritance’, because the resting place refers to S...
The Talmud claims you are never alone. According to Berakhot 6a, the sage Abba Binyamin taught that if the human eye were granted permission to see demons, no living creature could...
Rabbi Meir had a problem. Hooligans in his neighborhood were making his life miserable. His solution was direct—he prayed to God for them to die. His wife, Beruria, one of the shar...
The Talmud records some of the most intimate prayers ever spoken—personal confessions the great Sages whispered after their formal prayers were complete. According to Berakhot 17a,...
Where do dreams come from? The Talmud in Berakhot 55a offers a surprisingly psychological answer: from the dreamer's own mind. Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahmani taught in the name of Rabbi ...
The principle that a dream follows its interpretation is not an abstraction. The Talmud in Berakhot 55b demonstrates it through the life of Joseph—and through a hard rule about tim...
There were twenty-four dream interpreters in Jerusalem, and if you brought the same dream to all of them, you would get twenty-four different answers. According to Berakhot 56a, ev...
Bar Haddaya, the dream interpreter who gave favorable readings to paying clients and devastating ones to non-payers, eventually paid for his corruption with his life. Berakhot 56b ...
The Talmud in Berakhot 57a catalogues an entire symbolic vocabulary of dreams—a dictionary of the unconscious, organized by category, where every image carries a fixed meaning. Ani...
