Great Is Peace That Scripture Bends Its Wording for It

Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 68:5

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

"Behold now, you are barren and have not borne" (Judges 13:3). Bar Kappara says: Great is peace, for Scripture spoke a fabricated wording in the prophets in order to make peace between a man and his wife. For it is written, "Behold now, you are barren and have not borne" [implying the fault lay with her]. But to Manoah the angel did not speak thus; rather he said, "From all that I said to the woman let her beware" (Judges 13:13) [not specifying who was childless]. In any case, she needed remedies [for the matter to be set right].

Themes

PeaceMarriageProphecy

Continue Reading

The Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)Solomon's Daughter and the Bastard in the TowerKing Solomon and King Hiram of Tyre once marched their armies to opposite banks of a river. Tension rose. Solomon, worried his soldiers would collapse in the suTargum Pseudo-Jonathan on GenesisMilcah and Iska — The Two Names of SarahA genealogy in the Hebrew Bible almost always repays slow reading. The Targumist on (Genesis 11:29) drops a single clause into the list of wives and changes theTargum Pseudo-Jonathan on GenesisThe Blessing That Sent Rebekah Out With ThousandsThe mother and brother gather around Rivekah on the morning she is to leave, and they speak a blessing that the Jewish people have been whispering over their daYalkut Shimoni on NachThe Vineyards of Timnah and the Spirit That Stirred SamsonAs Samson walks toward Timnah with his parents, they pass through its vineyards, and the Sages turn this detail into a warning spoken between the lines. Rabbi SMekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben YochaiTrue Judgment Brings Peace to All CreationJethro told Moses to appoint judges who could sit "at all times." The sages asked who could possibly be that available. The answer surprised them: not idlers, bPesikta de-Rav KahanaOn This Very Day the Torah Is Always Newly GivenThe verse says Israel came to the wilderness of Sinai "on this day," and the sages pause over the wording. Did they really arrive on this very day? The point is