4,331 texts · Page 78 of 91
Rabbi Zadok, captive in Rome, refused to be tempted to sin by the slave girl sent by the Matrona, as he declared that he was a descendant of the noblest family of high priests and ...
A certain Nathan was saved from committing sin with a famous Hetaera in the Island of the Sea through observing the commandment of the fringes, because on seeing them he was remind...
R. Eliezer, charged with heresy, was saved from punishment by saying, “The judge knows the truth" which the Hegemon interpreted as a tribute to his justice. Tlje reason why he got ...
Turnus Rufus and Akiba disputed about the merits of charity; as God decreed that a man be poor why should the rich contravene God's command? Akiba replied: “Men are not strangers t...
A child learned part of the book of Genesis, is captured and put into prison. The Emperor asked for a book from the library and it happened to be the Jewish Bible. No one could rea...
Simeon b. Kamhith, a high priest, walked about with a heathen king and got his clothes defiled and was incapacitated from acting on the day of atonement. His place was taken by his...
A Matrona asked R. Jose b. Halafta why it was said "God gives wisdom to the wise.” The answer was: "Because they know how to make use of it, they study in schools and colleges and ...
A Matrona asked R. Jose b. Halafta why the covenant of Abraham was not mentioned in the ten commandments and the reply was: "The proselyte mentioned therein implies to the covenant...
A non-Jew once asked Rabban Gamliel a question that seemed simple but concealed a philosophical trap. "Your God," he said, "is supposedly the master of the entire universe. He crea...
A Matrona charged R. Jeliuda b. Hai with being an usurer or rearer of swine (that was why he looked so well-fed): He denied it and explained that it was due to his cleanliness and ...
An heathen accused R. Jehuda b. Hai of usury because he looked so well-fed. The reply was, that it was not from usury, rearing of swine or drinking, all forbidden to the Jews that ...
A man whilst praying did not return the salute of the Hegemon. The excuse he gave was that standing before the King of Kings, he could not pay respect to inferiors.
Beruria, the brilliant wife of Rabbi Meir, was one of the sharpest minds in all of rabbinic literature. And one day, she corrected her husband on a point of theology that has echoe...
Beruria and the wife of a Min disputed about the words "Rejoice O barren one”, and the woman asked why she should rejoice because she had not had any children and the answer was, l...
A Min and R. Abahu disputed about the sequence of Ps. 3—57 and he asked why Absolom was mentioned before Saul. The reply was that, in the Bible events were not always narrated in c...
A Min and R. Ami disputed about the resurrection of the dead after they are changed into dust. R. Ami replied with., a parable. A king ordered his servants to build a palace where ...
Two Jews were carried away captive from Mount Carmel. The captor following them overheard one saying to the other “A she -camel has passed before us, she is blind of one eye and on...
The Rabbis Huna and Hisda refused at the beginning to be polite to Gniba. He approached them and saluted them humbly and twice he called them kings. Asked for reason for this kind ...
R. Shela beat a man who commited sin with an heathen. He was denounced to the king, but he escaped punishment and obtained a high position through his interpretation of the words: ...
Proklos b. Filoslos asks R. Gamliel why does not God destroy the idols. The Rabbi replies "If a man calls a dog by the name of his father, will the father be angry with the son or ...
The Emperor and R. Gamliel dispute and the Emperor says "God is a thief, He threw Adam into a sleep and then stole a rib from him." The daughter of the Emperor replies, "He is a fi...
Woman cannot keep a secret. A Hegemon twits a Jew with that saying, and is convinced of the truth by feigning illness and telling his wife under an oath, that he had become pregnan...
Miriam and her seven sons died as martyrs for their holy faith. Each of her sons refused to worship idols quoting the appropriate passages from the Bible. When the last boy was cal...
Rabbi Jehuda ben Hanina was traveling through Rome when he saw something that stopped him in his tracks. In the slave market — that brutal engine of the Roman economy where human b...
The beautiful son and daughter of R. Ishmael were sold as slaves, and were shut up by their masters in one room in order to obtain similarly beautiful children, not recognising one...
Zophnat, daughter of the high priest, was torn from everything she had ever known. Sold into slavery, she stood on the auction block while the seller stripped away her garments one...
When King Ptolemy of Egypt ordered the Hebrew Bible translated into Greek, the sages of Israel did not celebrate. They mourned. The day the Torah was rendered in a foreign tongue, ...
The Egyptians brought their case before Alexander of Macedon, and they were confident they would win. Their claim was simple: when the Israelites left Egypt during the Exodus, they...
Rabbi Akiva sat in a Roman prison, and his captors gave him a choice: abandon the Torah, or rot in chains. He chose the chains. The Roman authorities pressed him repeatedly. They o...
Rabbi Akiva was locked in a Roman prison, cut off from his students and colleagues. But the study of Torah does not stop for prison walls. Rabbi Johanan ben Nuri had an urgent ques...
In the dark years of Roman persecution, when teaching Torah was a crime punishable by death, two students of Rabbi Joshua went into hiding. They disguised themselves and moved care...
The students of Rabbi Akiba were traveling on a road between towns when they spotted a band of robbers approaching from the opposite direction. The bandits were armed and dangerous...
The son of Hananya joined a band of robbers and betrayed them to one of the great men of Rome. They found it out and killed him. In the funeral oration his father delivered, he tri...
Rome had issued a decree: no new rabbis could be ordained. The empire understood that as long as the chain of rabbinic authority remained unbroken, the Jewish people could never tr...
When the Roman siege tightened around Jerusalem, starvation became a weapon more terrible than any sword. Doeg ben Josef was a man of means — he offered a full measure of gold for ...
The story of Kamsa and bar Kam§a and the fall of Jerusalem. A man had company and had invited Bar Kamsa who was his enemy, by mistake. He afterwards turned him out in spite of his ...
Ankelos ben Kalinikos, nephew of the Roman Emperor Titus, was searching for truth. Despite being born into the most powerful family in the world, he felt a spiritual hunger that Ro...
It was the custom to present newly married people with a hen and a cock and once the Roman soldiers passing by caught the birds and ate them; the Jews then attacked them. This was ...
A young man and woman who were betrothed to one another were seized by raiders and sold into slavery. By cruel coincidence — or perhaps by providence — they were sold to the same m...
A man decided to divorce his wife. On paper, this was his right — Jewish law permitted a husband to initiate divorce proceedings under certain circumstances. But this man had a pro...
Short note of the destruction of Bet-Tur through the axle of the waggon. They used to plant trees on the birth of a child and afterwards used them at its wedding. These were once c...
The Romans led Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel and Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha to their execution together. Both were among the greatest sages of their generation, and both had been condemne...
Mesha, the king of Moab, heard the story of the Binding of Isaac and drew exactly the wrong conclusion. He learned that Abraham, the father of the Israelites, had been willing to s...
When the prophet Isaiah prayed for a sign to confirm that King Hezekiah would recover from his illness, God performed one of the most spectacular miracles in all of scripture: the ...
A laborer worked for his master for three full years, faithfully performing every task assigned to him. When the work was finally done, he approached his master and asked for his w...
A pious man did strange things, i. e., placed a young girl in his bed, &c., but was not suspected of any wrong by his disciples who found afterwards that they were justified in not...
A young Torah scholar died in the prime of his life, and his widow was inconsolable. He had been pious, devoted, careful in his observance of every commandment. Why would God take ...
Two boys walked past a group of Elders who were sitting together in study. One boy had his head covered, as was the custom of modesty and reverence. The other boy walked by with hi...
