12,014 related texts · Page 130 of 251
Teach us oh, teacher: A court which sanctified the month, but not at Eintav with witnesses, is it sanctified? R’ Abahu said in the name of R’ Chiya the great: if a court sanctified...
Four rabbis entered the Pardes (פרדס)—the orchard, a code word for the deepest levels of mystical knowledge. According to Chagigah 14b, only one came out whole. The four were Ben A...
A Roman emperor once told Rabban Gamliel: "Your God is a thief. He put Adam to sleep and stole one of his ribs." Before Rabban Gamliel could answer, his daughter interrupted. Accor...
Before you were born, you knew everything. According to Niddah 30b, an angel teaches each soul the entire Torah while the baby is still in the womb. A light burns above the child's...
What does God do all day? The Talmud in Tractate Avodah Zarah takes this question seriously. The rabbis laid out a detailed twelve-hour schedule. During the first three hours, God ...
Jacob's deathbed blessings (Genesis 49) are among the most obscure passages in the Torah. Targum Onkelos does not merely translate them—he decodes them, turning cryptic poetry into...
The Hebrew Bible says Moses came to "the mountain of God" at Horeb (Exodus 3:1). Targum Onkelos specifies: "the mountain on which the Glory of God was revealed." The mountain is no...
The Hebrew Bible calls Moses "the man of God" (Deuteronomy 33:1). Targum Onkelos adds one word: "the prophet of God." Moses is not merely a man who belongs to God. He is a prophet—...
"There are four corners in the earth. From the eastern corner, light comes into the world. From the southern corner, the dew of blessing comes into the world. From the western corn...
And 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,...
... 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 ana...
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 ...
...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 th...
See [Hen], God is beyond reach in His power (Job 36:22): Rav Berakhiah said, "It is in the Greek language [as hen means one]. It is as you say, One is our God: Exalted in His power...
Ten decrees were decreed upon Adam, ten upon Eve, ten upon the serpent, and ten upon the earth: Ten upon man: He was clothed in garments of splendor, but God stripped them from him...
And these are the generations of Aaron and Moses. [Betai Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ot Third Chamber] Our rabbis taught: Brothers who are partners and who increased ...
Agur: Rabbi Menachem de Lonzano mentions it in the introduction to his book 'Shtei Yadot' (Venice, 5488 [1728]). He intended to print it in the second part, following the 'Midrash ...
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...
"Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) Esfah": This midrash is based on the verse "Gather for me seventy men" (Numbers 11:16), explaining the names of those seventy individual...
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 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...
R. Isaac b. Samuel in the name of Rab said: "Three watches has the night and at the beginning of every watch the Holy One, praised be He! sits and roars like a lion and says 'Woe t...
Our Rabbis have taught: "The night has four watches," so says Rabbi. R. Nathan says "Three." What is R. Nathan's reason? It is written (Judges 6:19) "And Gidon, and the hundred men...
(Fol. 5a) R. Levi b. Chama, in the name of Simon b. Lakish said: "At all times let man stir up his good inclination against the evil inclination), for it is said (Ps. 4:5) Tremble,...
Furthermore, said R. Levi b. Chama, in the name of Resh Lakish : "What is meant by the passage (Ex. 24:12) And I will give thee the tablets of stone, with the law and the Commandme...
(8) With whose opinion does our Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law) agree? Neither with that of R. Maier, nor with that of R. Juda, nor with that of R. Jose, nor with that ...
(18) R. Samuel b. lnya said in the name of Rab: "Whence do we know that a decree against a community is not confirmed." Is that true? Behold, it is written (Jer. 2, 22) The stain o...
(19) On New Year's Day all the inhabitants of the world pass before Him, Kibne Maron. What is the meaning of Kibne Maron? Here (in Babylonia) they translated it "like sheep." But R...
What is meant by 'a wicked bond'? Shebna taught to twelve myriads, while Hezekiah taught to eleven myriads. When Sennacherib came and besieged Jerusalem, Shebna wrote on an arrowhe...
Nimrod declared himself a god to be worshipped. He made a round tower of stone planted in the midst of the earth, and placed a throne of cedar on the stone, and upon this one of ir...
The daughter of the Emperor said to Rabbi Joshua: “Your God is a builder, so let Him build a tent here." She became leprous and had to be placed in a tent as they do in Rome. She a...
Turnus Rufus and Akiba dispute about the preeminence of the Sabbath. Rufus holds high office, having been appointed by the Emperor. Akiba says that the Sabbath has also been appoin...
Turnus Rufus and Akiba disputed about the merits of charity; as God decreed that a man be poor why should the rich contravene God's command? Akiba replied: “Men are not strangers t...
A child learned part of the book of Genesis, is captured and put into prison. The Emperor asked for a book from the library and it happened to be the Jewish Bible. No one could rea...
A man whilst praying did not return the salute of the Hegemon. The excuse he gave was that standing before the King of Kings, he could not pay respect to inferiors.
Beruria and the wife of a Min disputed about the words "Rejoice O barren one”, and the woman asked why she should rejoice because she had not had any children and the answer was, l...
Short note of the destruction of Bet-Tur through the axle of the waggon. They used to plant trees on the birth of a child and afterwards used them at its wedding. These were once c...
R. Johanan b. Zakai was asked by R. Eleazar b. Arach permission to expound some of the mysteries of the creation (Ma’ase Merkaba). R. Johanan dismounted from his ass, as angels mig...
A man who pursued an ascetic life, was accused by his sister-in-law of having stolen her jewelery; He declined to take an oath to prove his innocence. R.Johanan b.Zakkai prayed to ...
Rabbi Eliezer was one of the most formidable scholars in Israel — a man whose rulings could silence an entire academy. So when a slave in his household died and his students came t...
A man made an appointment with a woman and she purposely sent his own wife as a substitute. He did not recognize her and when he repented afterwards of his sin she told him that he...
Rabbi Ishmael ben Yose was making his pilgrimage to Jerusalem — one of the three annual journeys that every Jewish man was commanded to undertake. Along the way, he passed through ...
After the death of Moses, an emperor — some say it was a Roman ruler centuries later — heard rumors that the greatest prophet who ever lived was buried somewhere on Mount Nebo. He ...
Rabbi Yohanan ben Matya instructed his son to hire Jewish laborers and feed them properly. The son went out, hired the workers, and came back with a question that stopped his fathe...
Simeon ben Rabbi forgot to invite Bar Kappara to dinner. The latter wrote on the door: ‘‘After joy death.” Invited afterwards to another dinner, he kept the guests so amused by his...
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? ...
Rabbi Nehemia was a man of simple tastes. He ate plain food, lived modestly, and saw no reason to indulge in luxuries. One day, he invited a well-known gourmand — a man famous for ...
