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The Hebrew Bible says God "hardened Pharaoh's heart" and he pursued the Israelites (Exodus 14:8). Targum Onkelos translates this without softening or explaining. The hardening stan...
The Hebrew Bible records Moses and the Israelites singing a triumphant song after the sea closes over the Egyptians (Exodus 15). Targum Onkelos transforms this victory hymn into so...
The Hebrew Bible begins with "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). Targum Neofiti, the Palestinian Aramaic translation, opens with something gran...
When they went out of Egypt, Moses said ‘while you, who held fast to God your God, are all alive today’ (Deuteronomy 4:4); and when they went out of Jerusalem, Jeremiah said ‘the t...
"Book of Trust": This book is attributed to Rabbi Yehuda ben Beteira. Rabbi Hai Gaon (a renowned Jewish sage) mentioned it in his book "The Unity", and it was also referenced by th...
Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) Chacham HaRazim" (The Sage of Secrets): A Midrash regarding angels and gematria (Jewish numerology). According to Stein Schneider, this i...
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...
“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…” (...
We are taught that R. Simon b. Jochai said: "Three precious gifts the Holy One, praised be He! bestowed on Israel, and none of them was bestowed without affliction. The gifts are, ...
A disciple recited before R. Jochanan: "Whoever occupies himself with the study of the Torah and with the practice of loving kindness and (Ib. b.) buries his children [during his l...
(24) (Fol. 21b) It is written (Ps. 12, 7) The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver refined in the crucible of earth, purified seven times. Rab and Samuel both explain it. On...
Adrianus asks R. Joshua why God’s name is not mentioned in the five last commandments, which appears to apply to all nations. Joshua takes him over the town and shows him his statu...
A Matrona asked Rabbi Joshua what God has been doing since Creation. The reply was: “He pairs people.” The Ma- trona then ordered a number of male slaves to marry female slaves, th...
The wicked kingdom once decreed that the Jews should not keep the Sabbath, nor circumcise their children, nor keep the law of purification according to the Bible. Reuben the son of...
The Jews being prevented by decree from studying, Pappos met R. Akiba who had defied that decree. Rebuked by Pappos Akiba replied: “A fox on the shore of the sea saw some fish hidi...
A certain Nathan was saved from committing sin with a famous Hetaera in the Island of the Sea through observing the commandment of the fringes, because on seeing them he was remind...
Proklos b. Filoslos asks R. Gamliel why does not God destroy the idols. The Rabbi replies "If a man calls a dog by the name of his father, will the father be angry with the son or ...
When King Ptolemy of Egypt ordered the Hebrew Bible translated into Greek, the sages of Israel did not celebrate. They mourned. The day the Torah was rendered in a foreign tongue, ...
Rabbi Akiva was locked in a Roman prison, cut off from his students and colleagues. But the study of Torah does not stop for prison walls. Rabbi Johanan ben Nuri had an urgent ques...
In the dark years of Roman persecution, when teaching Torah was a crime punishable by death, two students of Rabbi Joshua went into hiding. They disguised themselves and moved care...
The son of Hananya joined a band of robbers and betrayed them to one of the great men of Rome. They found it out and killed him. In the funeral oration his father delivered, he tri...
The story of Kamsa and bar Kam§a and the fall of Jerusalem. A man had company and had invited Bar Kamsa who was his enemy, by mistake. He afterwards turned him out in spite of his ...
Two boys walked past a group of Elders who were sitting together in study. One boy had his head covered, as was the custom of modesty and reverence. The other boy walked by with hi...
Two men came to pray before Rabbi Eliezer. One prayed at enormous length — pouring out his heart in elaborate, detailed petitions that stretched on and on. The other prayed briefly...
A heretic — the Talmud calls him a "Min" — came to Rabbi Ishmael with a series of strange dreams, seeking interpretation. The dreams were vivid, unsettling, full of bizarre imagery...
King Shapur of Persia once asked the sage Shmuel: "Tell me what I will see in my dream tonight." It was a test — could a Jewish sage truly predict what a foreign king would dream? ...
12. Rabbi Joshua b. Levi and the prophet Elijah travelled together although the prophet said R. Joshua would see things which he would not understand. The first night they slept at...
13. Rabbi Meir once left synagogue earlier than usual. Wonder at the reason. He had overheard a snake saying, “I am sent to kill R. Judah the Antoti and his whole family because ha...
At the court of a king there lived a Jew who was very handsome. The wife of the minister fell in love with him, but he refused her advances. After a time she gave birth to a boy an...
When the Romans made it a capital offense to study Torah, Rabbi Akiba continued to teach openly, gathering great assemblies of students in public. Pappos ben Yehuda found him and w...
When Moses descended from Mount Sinai carrying the two tablets of the covenant, he found the Israelites dancing around a golden calf. His fury was absolute. He shattered the tablet...
The patience of Hillel was not merely a personal virtue — it was a teaching method that transformed lives. The Talmud (Shabbat 31a) records three separate occasions when difficult,...
A heretic once challenged the sages with what he thought was a devastating logical trap. "Your God is a thief," the man declared. "The Torah says that God caused a deep sleep to fa...
When King Ptolemy of Egypt gathered seventy-two Jewish elders and placed them in separate rooms, commanding each to translate the Torah into Greek, a miracle occurred. The Talmud (...
The Talmud (Hullin 41b, Avodah Zarah 25b) preserves a cautionary teaching about the vulnerability of scholars traveling on dangerous roads. Students of the sages were sometimes set...
The martyrdom of Rabbi Hananya ben Teradyon is one of the most searing stories in all of rabbinic literature. The Talmud (Avodah Zarah 18a) records that the Romans found him sittin...
Bride & Angel of Death. Tobit. Tanh. Deut. Haazinu. Midr. Decalogue, No. VII, 3 b. Ben Atar, No. I, Eliah Cohen. Meil Se- daka 434, reprinted B. H. V, p. 152—154. Farhi, O. P. I, f...
Rabban Gamliel's pride cost him his position — and the way it happened revealed how even the greatest leader can be brought low by arrogance. The Talmud (Berakhot 27b-28a) records ...
When Moses and Aaron walked into Pharaoh's palace to demand the release of the Israelite slaves, they were not entering a building. They were entering a fortress designed to intimi...
The philosophers of Alexandria were famous throughout the ancient world for their cleverness, their logical traps, and their determination to humiliate any thinker who could not ma...
Gog makes his plans in secret. He thinks his strategies are hidden — the alliance-building, the schemes against Israel, the invasions planned in quiet rooms. "On that day, thoughts...
"The righteous will give thanks to Your name; the upright will dwell in Your presence" (Psalm 140:14). The rabbis noticed something beautiful in this promise — God does not judge I...
When the righteous multiply in the world, good things multiply with them. This is Aggadat Bereshit's reading of "When the righteous are many, the people rejoice" (Proverbs 29:2). N...
Hannah vowed at Shiloh — if God gives her a son, she will give him back (1 Samuel 1:11). Rabbi Berachiah used this verse to address four theological objections that people raise ag...
The vision of Obadiah — the shortest prophetic book in the Hebrew Bible — is entirely about the punishment of Edom. Rabbi Berachiah asked: why did God choose Obadiah specifically f...
Zechariah saw a horseman in a vision of the night (Zechariah 1:8). The rabbis identified this figure as the prince of Edom — the heavenly guardian angel of the nation that had rule...
"And it came to pass at that time that Judah went down" (Genesis 38:1). The rabbis heard in "went down" more than geography. Judah left his brothers, married a Canaanite woman, and...
That’s what we’re talking about when we talk about God. famous verse from Exodus (3:14), where God tells Moses, "I shall be what I shall be." It’s so much more than just a name. It...
