137 passagesc. 11th century CEHebrew / AramaicCC-BY
Individual passages from Midrash Mishlei, shown in source order. Page 1 of 3.
Our tradition teaches that wisdom isn't just something you're born with. It's something you actively seek, something you pray for, something you might even… fast for. The Midrash M...
The ancient wisdom tradition has something to say about it. to Midrash Mishlei, a collection of rabbinic teachings on the Book of Proverbs, that jewel of wisdom literature. The rab...
Midrash Mishlei, an ancient collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Proverbs, tackles that very question. It all starts with (Proverbs 1:3): "To receive the instructi...
Even King Solomon, the wisest of all men, felt that way. to Midrash Mishlei – a collection of stories and interpretations that examine the Book of Proverbs. And right at the beginn...
The Book of Proverbs opens with a line that, on its surface, seems almost paradoxical. Why would a wise man need to hear more? Isn't wisdom already wisdom? Midrash Mishlei, the agg...
It's about how we learn and what we do with that knowledge. Midrash Mishlei, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Proverbs, offers some beautiful insights into t...
Midrash Mishlei, a collection of insightful teachings on the Book of Proverbs, begins to unpack this idea with a profound statement: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowl...
Midrash Mishlei, a fascinating collection of interpretations on the Book of Proverbs, to explore this very idea. (Proverbs 1:10) warns us: "My son, if sinners entice you, do not co...
Midrash Mishlei, a collection of rabbinic teachings that draws insights from the Book of Proverbs, dives deep into the complexities of this foundational narrative. It begins with a...
They left us some pretty powerful guidance, hidden in plain sight within the Book of Proverbs. Let’s take a look at a fascinating passage from Midrash Mishlei, a collection of rabb...
A collection of insightful commentaries on the Book of Proverbs, even animals know to avoid it! We find this idea in the midrash on (Proverbs 1:17), "Indeed, in vain is the net spr...
Oh no, it’s right out in the open, making a joyful noise! (Proverbs 1:20) tells us, "Wisdom calls aloud in the street." But what does that mean? The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive ...
Midrash Mishlei turns to Korah Beyond the Firmament. There's hope! (Proverbs 1:23) offers a chance for redemption: "Turn to my reproof." The Midrash interprets this as referring to...
At Mount Sinai the Holy One spoke a promise into the ear of Israel that reaches far past that morning of thunder. "My son," the verse says, "if you take my words and treasure up my...
Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish read the verse "if you seek it like silver" and drew a hard, practical truth from it. Torah does not chase the person who will not chase it. Picture a merch...
Rabbi Eliezer came to Rabbi Yehoshua with a single verse and a single question. "Tell me," he said, "what does this mean: 'He treasures up sound wisdom for the upright' (Proverbs 2...
"To guard the paths of justice" (Proverbs 2:8). The midrash hears in those words a charge laid on anyone who takes a seat as a judge. The verb is "guard," as though justice were a ...
"Then you will understand righteousness and justice" (Proverbs 2:9). The midrash keeps its eye on the judge from the previous verses. Because he sits in judgment, the verse says, h...
"For wisdom will enter your heart" (Proverbs 2:10). The midrash reads this as a promise of guardianship. Once you have truly acquired the words of Torah, they begin to keep you in ...
"To save you from the evil way" (Proverbs 2:12). Busy yourself with the words of Torah, the midrash teaches, and they have the power to pull you off the wrong road. Why should mere...
"Above all guarding, guard your heart" (Proverbs 4:23). Of all the things a person is told to protect, the verse puts the heart first. The midrash hears in that command a word of r...
"Remove from yourself crookedness of mouth" (Proverbs 4:24). The midrash takes that crooked mouth and names it plainly. It is evil speech, the talk that tears down a person behind ...
There is a verse that sounds at first like advice about walking down a road: "Let your eyes look straight ahead" (Proverbs 4:25). The sages of Midrash Mishlei heard something else ...
"Weigh the path of your foot" (Proverbs 4:26). On its face the verse is about caution, the careful traveler who checks the ground before each step. The sages of Midrash Mishlei poi...
"Turn neither to the right nor to the left; remove your foot from evil" (Proverbs 4:27). Two sages took up this verse and read it as a warning about staying true to what you have l...
"My son, attend to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding" (Proverbs 5:1). The sages noticed that the verse names two different acts, attending and inclining the ear, and ...
"For the lips of a strange woman drip honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil" (Proverbs 5:3). The teacher leans in like a father at the door. Beware, my son, of the seductress w...
"And now, children, listen to me" (Proverbs 5:7). The sages asked the obvious question: listen to what, exactly? The next verse answers, "Keep your way far from her" (Proverbs 5:8)...
"Drink water from your own cistern, and flowing waters from the midst of your own well" (Proverbs 5:15). Water in the books of the sages is almost always Torah, and the rabbis took...
"Let your springs flow outward, streams of water in the open squares" (Proverbs 5:16). Rabbi Elazar read this as a question of timing. If you see a generation that treasures the wo...
"Let your fountain be blessed" (Proverbs 5:18). From these words the sages drew a portrait of a settled, blessed life. Happy is the man whose wife is from his own town, whose Torah...
There is a thought that creeps in when no one is looking. A person tells himself, I will slip away and do this one wrong thing, because the Holy One, blessed be He, cannot see me. ...
Picture a fisherman wading out and spreading his net across the water, then drawing it tight around the fish that swam in unaware. That, the midrash says, is exactly how sin works....
This short teaching reads a single verse twice, and the two readings turn on the same words. "He shall die for lack of discipline" (Proverbs 5:23). The midrash does not soften it. ...
"My son, if you have stood surety for your fellow" (Proverbs 6:1). The midrash turns this line into the great scene at Sinai. The Holy One, blessed be He, asks Israel a question be...
It tells us, "Go and observe the ant, lazybones!" (Proverbs 6:6). But what does that really mean? In a beautiful teaching in, Midrash Mishlei, this little verse packs a powerful pu...
"A base man, a man of iniquity, walks with a crooked mouth" (Proverbs 6:12). Who is this? The midrash names him plainly. This is the person who deals in slander, the carrier of an ...
"These six the LORD hates, and seven are an abomination to His soul" (Proverbs 6:16). The midrash walks through the list the verse itself gives. The six He hates are vivid and bodi...
"Guard, my son, the commandment of your father" (Proverbs 6:20). The midrash asks a simple question of the text: what comes right after this charge? The next verse answers, "Bind t...
"For the commandment is a lamp and the Torah is light" (Proverbs 6:23). Rabbi Meir loved this verse, for Torah is the lamp that keeps a person from the evil way. Reading on, he tur...
"Men do not despise a thief if he steals to fill his soul when he is hungry" (Proverbs 6:30). The midrash hears something tender in this line. Imagine an unlearned person who has d...
Solomon called the adulterer a man who "lacks a heart," and Rabbi Zavda pressed on the strange phrase. A heart is not a thing a person loses by accident. So what happens here? The ...
The teaching about the cost of sin runs straight into Solomon's warning. "Let not your heart turn aside to her ways" (Proverbs 7:25). The midrash hears this as prophecy, not just a...
Rabbi Meir had a habit of starting praise where you might least expect it. Happy is the person, he taught, who keeps his heart far from another man's wife and far from sin, and who...
Look at the reach of Solomon's wisdom, the kind that made him cry out, "Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of man" (Proverbs 8:4). The double address catches the ...
"Hear, for I will speak excellent things" (Proverbs 8:6). The Hebrew for excellent things, negidim, sounds like the word for declaring, maggidim, and the rabbis heard both at once....
Rabbi Chanina invited his listeners to consider the best thing God made before there was any world to put it in. What was it? The Torah. The teaching they had received counted seve...
"Now therefore, O sons, hearken unto me" (Proverbs 8:32). The Holy One says: I am asking nothing of you but this one thing, that you listen. Listen to Me, and I will make good what...
