930 passages in Modern Compilations & Folklore
Individual passages from Exempla of the Rabbis (Gaster, 1924), shown in source order. Page 20 of 20.
A man walking across a frozen field saw a snake lying stiff in the snow. Touched by pity, he picked up the creature, placed it inside his shirt against his chest, and continued on....
A woman was weeping and mourning over the grave of her dead husband for a long time. Close by stood a gallows and a watchman was appointed by the king to see that none of the bodie...
Widow Comforted. Berahya, No. 80. Maase Buch No. 108. Helvicus, Historien, II, ch. 33, p. 104. Steinschneider, Hebr. Bibl. XIII, p. 77 ff. Steinschneider, ZDMG, 27, P- 563* Griinba...
There was once a widow who wept over her husband’s grave day and night. The rabbis kept the story as a bitter parable about how quickly grief, left alone, forgets itself. Not...
Three questions were posed to a sage. And his answers became legendary. The "Three Questions" format appears throughout medieval literature, but the Jewish versions are distinguish...
A poor but pious man had three silver pieces, all he had in the world. He took them to the mill, bought flour for his household, and walked home carrying the sack. On the way, at t...
The verse in Deuteronomy asks a haunting question: "How could one pursue a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight?" (Deuteronomy 32:30). The answer, the Torah says, is that G...
An apostate once led the king into a synagogue at precisely the hour when the Torah reader was chanting the verse from Deuteronomy: "How can one pursue a thousand, and two put ten ...
Three maxims were given to a man, three simple rules for living. And his obedience to these maxims saved his life. The tale, found in Jewish and comparative folklore collections, d...
A Jewish man and a gentile once made a wager about whose religion was true. Satan, disguised as an ordinary man, appeared and ruled in favor of the gentile, who took all the money....
Two men were crossing the desert together, each carrying his own provisions. One of them, the cunning one, proposed that they first eat all the provisions of his companion and save...
A star fell from heaven. And its fall marked the beginning of a corruption that would lead to the great Flood. The Midrash (Genesis Rabbah of Rabbi Moses HaDarshan, Midrash Abkhir)...
When Moses ascended to receive the Torah (Exodus 19), an angel stood at the gate of Heaven and refused him entry. "This is not your place," the angel said. "You are made of earth. ...
"Cast your bread upon the waters, for you shall find it after many days" (Ecclesiastes 11:1). This verse became the foundation for one of the most frequently told stories in the Je...
A pious man in a certain town gave charity every day to the poor. The townspeople hated him for it. They passed a decree that anyone who gave charity would be cast into the sea or ...
A virtuous woman, falsely accused and abandoned, has her hands cut off and is driven from her home, yet her innocence is vindicated and her hands are miraculously restored. Gaster ...
Rabbi Akiva had a pious first wife who fed and housed his five hundred students for years. On her deathbed she asked her daughter to continue the work. The daughter accepted the tr...
Robert of Sicily. Wickerhauser, p. 167. Ring. Badder, Badische Sagen, No. 405. Comestor, 1, III. Eisenmenger I, 351 ff. Gervasius, ed. Lieb- recht, p. 8 and note 12, p. 77. Gesta R...
