137 passages in Rabbinic Midrash
Individual passages from Midrash Mishlei, shown in source order. Page 2 of 3.
"For whoever finds me finds life" (Proverbs 8:35). The word for finds, matzui, also means found or present, and the rabbis turned it both ways at once. Whoever makes himself presen...
Midrash Mishlei, a collection of rabbinic interpretations on the Book of Proverbs, unpacks this verse in some truly fascinating ways. First off, it equates "Wisdom" with the Torah....
"The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the LORD," Solomon wrote, and the midrash reads the whole line as a portrait of Torah and the people who give their lives to it. The fear of...
"If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; and if you scoff, you alone shall bear it" (Proverbs 9:12). To open the verse, the sages told a parable about two neighbors. The rich m...
"The woman of folly is clamorous" (Proverbs 9:13), and the midrash first reads her as the twin of the fool. The fool struts and shouts in his foolishness; she struts and shouts in ...
Rabbi Ishmael taught that the one who clings to God's ways and His Torah brings joy to his Maker, and so Solomon could write, "A wise son makes a glad father" (Proverbs 10:1). The ...
Do not tell yourself, the midrash warns, that since you put in your Torah years already you can now switch to chasing money and property. You do not realize that wealth buys you no...
"Hand to hand, the evil one will not go unpunished" (Proverbs 11:21). Look at your two hands, the midrash says. Steal with one and give charity with the other, and the charity does...
"A ring of gold in the snout of a pig" (Proverbs 11:22). The image is deliberately ugly. Set a beautiful ring of gold, or any silver, in a pig's snout, and the pig trots off to roo...
There is a riddle hidden in the way wealth behaves. The Book of Proverbs says that a person who keeps giving away his money somehow ends up with more, while the one who clutches wh...
Proverbs draws two portraits side by side. The man who looks for the good in his neighbor wins favor in heaven, where the angels begin speaking well of him before God. The man who ...
Proverbs says deceit lives in the heart of those who plot evil, while those who counsel peace are filled with joy. Rabbi Chama bar Chanina drew a sharp line from it. The truly evil...
Proverbs promises that the one who walks with the wise becomes wise, while the companion of fools comes to harm. The midrash makes the principle almost physical with two shops you ...
Proverbs sets two destinies running across time. Evil pursues sinners, and good repays the righteous. The midrash refuses to let either verb stop at a single lifetime. The pursuit ...
The verse from Proverbs is cryptic, speaking of much food lying in the tillage of the poor and of someone swept away without justice. The sages heard in it the cry of the exploited...
The verse sounds harsh at first hearing. "He who spares the rod hates his son." The sages stop and press on it: is there truly a father anywhere who hates his own child? Surely not...
One short proverb, and the sages turn it over until it shows half a dozen faces. "The righteous eats to the satisfaction of his soul, but the belly of the wicked shall want." The p...
"The wisest of women builds her house." The sages read the verse as a portrait of Jochebed, and what a house she built. From one mother came three who carried Israel through the wi...
"In the multitude of the people is the glory of the king." The sages hear in this a startling claim about God. Before the Holy One stand uncountable armies of ministering angels, t...
"Righteousness exalts a nation." Rabbi Yochanan pours out a litany on the power of charity. It rests in God's own right hand. It crowns the one who practices it with life and honor...
"Better a meal of herbs where there is love than a fatted ox with hatred in it." Rabbi Levi tells the story behind the proverb. There was a stretch when Solomon lost his throne and...
Two men face the same provocation, and Proverbs measures them by how long their patience holds. The hot-tempered man, says Rabbi Nehemiah, is the one whose patience runs out fast. ...
When does a son truly gladden his father? The midrash answers with a single image: the hour he sits and studies Torah. Wealth and reputation are pleasant, but they are not what thi...
Rabbi Aha bar Hanina set father against son and found Solomon the harder teacher. David had sung that God is near: "The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon ...
Proverbs says that the light of the eyes gladdens the heart, and the midrash names that light: the masters of Torah, who brighten a person's eyes the way the commandments themselve...
It begins with an ear. The person willing to hear hard truth about himself, "the reproof of life" (Proverbs 15:31), earns a seat among the wise. The one who shuts that ear despises...
Solomon draws a line between what a person plans and what actually comes out of his mouth. "To man belong the arrangements of the heart, but from the LORD comes the answer of the t...
King Solomon was given more wisdom than any other mortal, and the danger of that gift is plain: a clever tongue can bend the truth in a thousand directions, and no one would be the...
A king built a high tower in the middle of his orchard, and from its top he could watch every laborer he had hired, though none of them could see him. All day they worked, or didn'...
Gray hair, the verse says, is a crown of glory, and it is "found on the path of righteousness." The midrash reads that almost literally: if you want to know how a person earns a lo...
"Better a dry crust with quiet than a house full of feasting and strife." Rabbi Yohanan hears in that verse a teaching about the Land of Israel. A person can live there on bread an...
Rabbi Eliezer asked his teacher a blunt question: what can a person do to be spared the judgment of Gehinnom? "Go and busy yourself with good deeds," came the answer. Then Eliezer ...
"Discipline your son while there is hope." Rabbi Yishmael lifts that verse into a meditation on how Torah is won. Kingship, he says, is acquired through thirty qualities and the pr...
This idea comes to us from Midrash Mishlei, a collection of insightful interpretations of the Book of Proverbs. It's in this text that we find a Rabbi Huna making a pretty astoundi...
The verse says, "Wine is a scoffer, strong drink is riotous" (Proverbs 20:1). Rabbi Ze'ira hears something hidden inside the warning. He reminds us that Torah itself is compared to...
"The terror of a king is like the roaring of a young lion" (Proverbs 20:2). The sages turn this into a meditation on how an infinite Voice reaches finite ears. Thunder shakes the w...
"Who can say, I have purified my heart?" (Proverbs 20:9). The midrash answers with two generations of one royal family learning the same lesson. David once prayed boldly, "Create f...
"The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He desires" (Proverbs 21:1). Rabbi Yishmael reaches for an image everyone has seen. Pour w...
"To do charity and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice" (Proverbs 21:3). The sages mine four verses to lift everyday goodness above the altar. Rabbi Elazar says t...
"A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the strength in which it trusted" (Proverbs 21:22). The midrash decodes every phrase. The city of the mighty is heaven, ho...
Scripture says, "He who guards his mouth and his tongue guards his soul from troubles" (Proverbs 21:23). Rabbi Ishmael read those words and heard something startling in them. He ta...
"A name is to be chosen over great wealth; good favor over silver and gold" (Proverbs 22:1). The midrash invites us to weigh the two on a scale and watch which side sinks. Pile up ...
"The reward of humility is the fear of the LORD, wealth and honor and life" (Proverbs 22:4). Rabbi Hanin took the verse as a kind of chain. Begin with humility, the willingness to ...
"Train up a youth according to his way" (Proverbs 22:6). Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua both leaned on the same verse and drew the same lesson from two directions. Rabbi Eliezer pu...
"Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise" (Proverbs 22:17). The midrash turns the verse into a scene you can walk into. You step into the study house and find sages already...
"Have I not written for you noble things in counsels and knowledge?" (Proverbs 22:20). The Hebrew word the verse uses, shalishim, can be heard several ways, and the sages played ea...
Why does Solomon say "poor" twice in one short line? The rabbis hear no wasted word. A man drained of his property loses more than coins. His wisdom goes unheard, because the world...
"Do not move the ancient boundary your fathers set," says Solomon, and the simplest reading is about land, a man quietly nudging the property line into his neighbor's field. But Ra...
