Modern Compilations & Folklore
16 passages1853–1878 CEHebrew / AramaicCC-BY
Individual passages from Beit HaMidrash (Jellinek), indexed for close reading, source verification, and myth source-checking.
Moses spent forty days and nights in this heavenly yeshiva before receiving the Torah. During this time, he learned all 613 commandments and all the secrets of the Torah. However, ...
Beit HaMidrash (Jellinek) turns to The Torah Written On The Arm Of God. After all, the tradition tells us that the Torah was one of the seven things created even before the rest of...
The story goes that God, in His infinite wisdom, desired to bring Moses up to His Throne of Glory, to show him the very angels of heaven. A breathtaking invitation, to say the leas...
It's wild, and it's connected to none other than King Solomon and the building of the Beit HaMikdash, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. The story goes that the demons were, shall we sa...
A world where the divide between heaven and earth blurs, and the sacred becomes tangibly real. What if I told you that in Jewish tradition, there's a vision of the future where the...
Why are our patriarchs, the Avot – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – said to be buried in the Land of Israel, specifically in the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron? It's more than just geograp...
Beit HaMidrash (Jellinek) turns to The Palaces Of Heaven. The Olam Ha-Ba, the World to Come, isn't just a static reward; it's a continuation of our earthly pursuits, especially the...
A fiery prophet, a champion of God, and a recurring figure who pops up in Jewish stories whenever things need a divine kick in the pants. And Lilith… well, Lilith is a whole other ...
Gehenna. What exactly is Gehenna? And where is it? Well, that’s where things get interesting. It's not quite as simple as "heaven" and "hell." Jewish tradition sees Gehenna more as...
This passage, drawn from Jellinek's Beit HaMidrash anthology of aggadic and visionary texts, describes Gehenna as the place where the souls of the wicked are held to account after ...
Jewish tradition has always grappled with the mysteries of life, death, and what lies beyond. And when we explore some of the lesser-known corners of our folklore, we find some tru...
Jewish tradition has a place for them, a place of purification and, yes, punishment called Gehenna. It's not exactly hell, but it's definitely not a pleasant resort. Who's in charg...
It’s not a job many would apply for, but Jewish tradition tells us there is someone – an angel, in fact – tasked with this grim responsibility. His name is Samriel, and he's the ga...
It's a moment watched over, judged, and ultimately, a reckoning. As a person breathes their last, two angels are there, witnessing everything. These aren't just any angels; accordi...
We spend so much time thinking about life, about the “now,” that the “what comes next” can feel like a distant, almost abstract question. But Jewish tradition offers some pretty vi...
Jewish tradition is rich with imagery of the End of Days, and one particularly potent symbol keeps popping up: a gate. Not just any gate, but the Golden Gate of Jerusalem. Jerusale...
