74 passagesc. 13th century CEHebrew / AramaicCC0
Individual passages from Yalkut Shimoni, shown in source order. Page 1 of 2.
Yalkut Shimoni turns to The Ninth Of Av In The Future. We remember the destruction of both Holy Temples in Jerusalem on this day. Not just that, but a whole string of tragedies tha...
The story goes that on the day Abraham was to die, he received a vision. It wasn't a grim reaper or a fearsome angel, but the voice of the Lord himself. "Open your eyes," the voice...
For forty long years, as they wandered, they had a constant companion: a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. The Torah tells us, in (Exodus 13:21), "And Yahweh w...
It all starts with… dew. Yes, dew. Specifically, the tal, the dew of resurrection. But where does this life-giving moisture originate? According to some, it descends from the very ...
In ten articles the world was created, and what is meant to be said, and in one article he could recover, but heal the wicked who destroy the world created in ten sayings and give ...
From where is "Aleph" called one, it is said, "How shall one rout one thousand?" And from where is the Holy One, blessed be He, called one as it is said "Hear O Israel the Lord our...
Another taught: "The holy blessed one said to the Torah: 'Let us make the human...' She [Torah] replied, 'This human will be short of days, full of conflict, and fall into the hand...
This midrash explains why the Torah pairs two distinct names of God at the start of the creation narrative, where Scripture shifts from "Elohim" alone to "YHVH Elohim" (Gen. 2:4). ...
Trees talk to each other. That is not a modern botanical discovery, it is a teaching from the Yalkut Shimoni, a medieval anthology of midrashic (rabbinic interpretive commentary) i...
"A husband inherits from his wife." From where do we learn this? Learn it from “And he shall inherit it,” (Numbers 27:11) with the word “it” written in the feminine “otah,” which c...
The Yalkut Shimoni, a great medieval anthology that gathers midrashic teachings across the whole of Scripture, here retells a striking legend about Adam and the gift of years. The ...
Devorah, was a prophetess. What was she like, that she prophesied about Israel and judged them? Wasn't Pinchas ben Eleazar alive then? I bring Heaven and Earth to bear witness that...
This account from Yalkut Shimoni, the great anthology of midrash on the Prophets and Writings, gathers several rabbinic readings of the description of the prophetess and judge Debo...
Deborah the prophetess did something no other judge in Israel had done, she held court outdoors, beneath a palm tree. The Yalkut Shimoni on Nach explains exactly why, and the reaso...
Rabbi Samuel son of Nachmani, a teacher of the land of Israel renowned for weaving prophecy into living tradition, preserves a fierce teaching about Esau's fall and the children of...
When God appeared to Abram and commanded him to circumcise himself, the patriarch was already ninety-nine years old. According to the Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 80, God's words carrie...
The passage from the Yalkut Shimoni, the sweeping medieval anthology of midrash arranged across Scripture, gathers teachings about the burial of Abraham in the cave at the field he...
He arrived at the place – Why do we use a pseudonym and call the Holy One ‘place’ (makom)? Because He is the place of the world and the world is not His place. R’ Yosi ben Halifta ...
He lay down in that place – R’ Yehudah says ‘here he lay down, but all fourteen years that he was hidden away in the land serving Ever he never laid down.’ R’ Nechemia says ‘here h...
David arose, and fled that day from before Saul: This is [the meaning of] the verse, He has made everything beautiful in its time (Ecclesiastes 3:11), everything that the Holy One,...
“…that he did not obey her…” (Bereshit 39:10) Rebbe said: he listened to her but the Holy One brought the likeness of his father and he was embarrassed and fled. The second time he...
This comment from the Yalkut Shimoni, the medieval anthology of midrash arranged across the books of the Bible, draws out a messianic reading from Jacob's blessing of Judah on his ...
Jewish tradition is rich with imagery about the Olam Ha-Ba, the World to Come, and one particularly striking image involves the enthronement of the Messiah. The future has arrived....
"So the Egyptians enslaved the children of Israel with back breaking labor [b'farech]" (Ex. 1:13). R. Elazar says, "B'pe rach, with a soft mouth." R. Shmuel says, "B'frichah. With ...
En esos tiempos hubo una guerra entre Kush y los Bnei Kedem. Salió Konkos Rey de Kush a la guerra contra Aram y los Bnei Kedem, dejando a Bilam -que es Laban el Arameo de Petor- el...
Another explanation: As she purified the entire house of her father like the blood of a bird (tzipor, used in purifying some impurities). Rabbi Yose bar Chaninah said, 'They sought...
The Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 187 preserves a terse but powerful warning about the danger of asking the wrong questions. Or more precisely, about knowing when to stop asking. God del...
"This month shall be for you." It shall be turned over to you. R. Yehoshua b. Levi said, "It's like a king who had a horologue. When he looked at it, he would know what time of day...
Rabi Pinchas and Rabi Chilkiyah said in the name of Rabi Simon: the ministering angels gathered to Hashem and said before Him: Master of the world, when is the beginning of the yea...
Another Explanation "And first born of your children you shall redeem" (Exodus 13:13) Where [is this law sourced:] If his father did not redeem him, he should redeem himself. [We a...
"And the waters will came back and cover the chariot and the horsemen" (Exodus 14:26) And even Par'oh, according to Rabi Yehuda, as it says "the chariots of Phar'oh and his army" (...
R’ Yehoshua of Sachnin said in the name of R’ Levi: “And I placed My words into your mouth…” This refers to the Torah. “…and with the shadow of My hand I covered you…” (Isaiah 51:1...
The Yalkut Shimoni preserves a vivid cosmological teaching that maps the world by its four corners, each sending a different force into creation. From the eastern corner, light com...
They have built the shrines of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom: Our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said that even though all the houses of idolatry were in Jerusalem, the...
Said R' Levi: The Holy One Blessed Be He appeared to them like a picture which is visible form all angles. A thousand people may gaze on it and it gazes on all of them. So is the H...
As I live, declares the Lord God, I will reign over you with a strong hand, etc., and with overflowing fury: It is taught, we do not have less than ten [verses about God's] kingshi...
The Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 392 makes a breathtaking claim about the two stone tablets that Moses received on Mount Sinai: they were not made from any earthly material. "The tablet...
When the Holy One came to give the Torah to Moshe, he said over the order of the Readings, the Mishna, the aggadah (non-legal rabbinic narrative) and the Talmud as it says "And God...
. Another reading: “Comfort, oh comfort My people” (Isaiah 40:1) Said the Holy Blessed One: Who needs to be comforted? For one whose wife died, not the husband? Thus was Zion analo...
Rise! Shine! For your light has come. Rebe Yochanan said: this can be compared to one who was going on his way in the evening. One comes along and kindles a candle for him, and it ...
Our Rabbis taught: At the time that the anointed king comes, he [will] stand on the roof of the temple and announce to Israel and say "Humble ones! The time of your redemption has ...
[When] a man goes to honor the rulers, he goes full and returns empty. But the Holy One, blessed be He, is not like this. Rather we go to him empty and we return full, as it is sta...
In a compact but deeply layered teaching from the Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 533, Rabbi Natan and Rabbi Acha transmit a tradition in the name of Rabbi Simon that uses gematria, the sys...
As if a man flees from the lion and the bear meets him, and he comes to the house and leans his hand on the wall, and a serpent bites him. (Amos 5:19) ‘As if a man flees from the l...
This midrash from Yalkut Shimoni opens the book of Ruth by asking a pointed question about its first verses, where Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two sons are each named as t...
Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back" (Ruth 1:8): Why did she send them back? In order not to be embarrassed by them. For so did we find that in Jerusalem there were se...
He will be like a planted tree: Rabbi Yose expounded, "To what is the matter similar? To a man that was walking in an arid land and his soul was dismayed with thirst. He [then] fou...
This teaching from the Yalkut Shimoni on the Prophets and Writings reworks a single word from the heading of a psalm into a meditation on God's hidden timing. The superscription "F...
