76 passages in Modern Compilations & Folklore
Individual passages from Otzar Midrashim (Eisenstein), shown in source order. Page 2 of 2.
Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) Levanat HaSapir is a midrash on the Torah in the style of kabbalah, in Aramaic like the Zohar. It is not extant before us today. The Yuha...
The Book of the Wellspring of Wisdom When Moses ascended on high, a cloud came up against him, and Moses our teacher did not know if one rides it or holds it. Immediately, the clou...
"It happened with King Jehoiachin, of whom it is written: 'Thus says the Lord, Write this man childless.' When he fell into the hands of the wicked Nebuchadnezzar, he was imprisone...
"The Secret of the Intercalation: On the adjustment of festivals and leap years. In the Talmud: Abba, the father of Rabbi Shmuel, said to Shmuel, 'Does the master know this matter ...
In conclusion: Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin (Riv"l) in his book 'Yehoshafat' (page 59) says in the name of Rigevo that the Yalkut brings teachings on the verse 'All my bones shall sa...
This passage, preserved in Eisenstein's Otzar Midrashim, records the strange afterlife of a lost book called the Sefer Adinut, the Book of Delicacies. Rabbi Aaron the Elder cited i...
This entry from Otzar Midrashim, the anthology of lesser-known midrashic texts compiled by Judah David Eisenstein, is less a story than a scholar's note tracing a lost work. It rec...
"The Book of Ayun (Insight)": Secrets in Kabbalah regarding the matters of God's existence. The author of "Siftei Yeshenim" attributed it to Rabbi Chamai Gaon, and Rabbi Shem Tov i...
Alphabet of Rabbi Akiva (Nusaḥ II) [according to the Krakow and Amsterdam printings] Said Rabbi Aqibha: these are the 22 letters with which the Torah was given to the tribes of Isr...
The Small Letters and their Purposes The ALEPH in ויקרא And He called (Leviticus 1:1) is small, to teach that the Holy Blessed One is only revealed to the nations of the earth thro...
The Hebrew Torah scroll contains a hidden layer of meaning that most readers never notice: certain letters are written larger or smaller than normal. The Midrashim (rabbinic interp...
This teaching from Otzar Midrashim, the anthology of lesser midrashim compiled by Judah David Eisenstein, sets out a schematic accounting of the exiles endured by the people of Isr...
Before the universe existed, not even parchment existed, no animals had yet been created to provide skins for scrolls. So the Torah was written on the arm of God Himself, in black ...
“And of Benjamin he said, The Lord's beloved…” (Devarim 33:12) One verse says “As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out…” (...
Rabbi Yehuda said, "Three books are opened on Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) before the Holy One, Blessed be He: One of wholly righteous people; and they are immediately writt...
Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) Read-but-not-Written I) But [the children of] Benjamin would not yield (Judges 20:13). The word the children of is missing, for they did ...
Written but not Read "For rather Amnon" (II Samuel 13:33) is written, because at first Jonadab son of Shim'ah said "for Amnon alone has died," for the truth of the matter that Amno...
The author of Rav Pealim [Vilna Gaon] wrote about the Socher Tov of Midrash Tehillim and said: I found in the book, Ohel Yosef by Rabbi Yosef the Sefaradi on Parashat Vayikra, on t...
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai boarded a ship bound for Rome on a mission to the emperor. That night, on the water, a figure appeared in his dream. It was Ashmedai, king of the demons. "A...
The Aggadah (non-legal rabbinic narrative) of Shimon Kefa preserves a remarkable tradition about how the early Jewish sages worked to establish a clear separation between the Jewis...
Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) Sheni Ketuvim In the beginning God created etc. - To declare the might of the acts of creation to creatures, and to make it known to them...
[From the Sefer Raziel] Rabbi Ishmael said, "I saw the King of Kings sitting on a high and exalted throne, with His legions standing before Him, upon His right and upon His left. (...
These are the ten questions that Rabbi Eliezer asked regarding the resurrection of the dead: The first one is - will God resurrect some of Israel or all of them? The answer is that...
Rabbi Yishmael asked: why did Job risk everything by demanding an answer from God (Job 31:35)? Because Job understood something terrible. Without death, life has no name. Without d...
Book of Eldad the Danite A Question and Answer between the People of Kairouan and Rabbi Zemach Gaon [Epstein, Eldad the Danite, Story I] Before the chariot of Israel and its horsem...
Story of Eldad the Danite, Narrative B In the name of the LORD God of Israel, blessed be His name, of our God the King, King of kings, Who chose Israel from among all nations and g...
Jewish tradition, particularly Kabbalah, has some pretty mind-bending answers. The core idea? That God, the ultimate source of everything, was the first to exist. But here's the ki...
It’s about the birth of Armilus, a figure who looms large in Jewish messianic mythology as the ultimate false messiah. The story starts in Rome. Not just any Rome, but a Rome harbo...
