9,687 related texts · Page 127 of 202
The Emperor once invited the Jewish sages to a grand banquet and posed what he thought was an impossible challenge. "I wish to prepare a feast for your God," he announced. "Tell me...
A Roman emperor — the Talmud does not always specify which one — once summoned the Jewish sages to answer a question that he believed would expose their faith as foolishness. "You ...
Jose ben Yoezer of Tzeredah was one of the first of the zugot (pairs) — the great paired leaders who guided the Jewish people in the centuries before the common era. He was also on...
Nahum ish Gamzo — called that because no matter what happened, he always said "Gam zu le-tovah" ("This too is for the best") — was sent by the Jewish community to the Roman Emperor...
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...
A gentile once confronted Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai with a cutting observation: "Your ceremony of the red heifer looks exactly like witchcraft. You take a cow, burn it, grind it up,...
Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was one of the greatest sages of his generation, a man whose knowledge of Torah was said to be like a plastered cistern that never lost a drop. Yet even ...
Beruria, the brilliant wife of Rabbi Meir, is one of the few women in the Talmud whose legal opinions are cited alongside those of the greatest sages. And one of her most famous in...
A min (מין) — the rabbinic term for a heretic or sectarian — once confronted Gaboha with a challenge that strikes at the heart of Jewish faith. "You claim that God will raise the d...
Proklos the philosopher once posed a challenge to Rabban Gamliel: if God truly hates idol worship, why does He allow the sun and moon to continue shining? After all, millions of pe...
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...
Miriam [Hannah) & Her Seven Sons Martyr*. II Bk. Maccabees, ch. VII. IV Bk. Maccabees ch. VIII, ff. Ketubot, f. 64. J. Ketubot, V, II. Gittin, f. 56 b. Pesik. R. Rabati,XLIII. Tana...
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...
When the Roman legions surrounded Jerusalem and cut off every supply route, the famine inside the walls became unspeakable. People chewed leather. They ate grass from between the s...
Kamsa&Fall of Jerusalem. Git tin, f. 55b, 56b, 57. Sanhedrin (the supreme rabbinic court), f. 104. Pirke de R. Eliezer, ch. 49. Tanh. Numb. Hukkat § 1. and B. ibid. p. 99. Midr. Ha...
The Talmud (Shabbat 127b) tells of a man who worked for an employer in the north of Israel for three years. When his contract ended, he went to collect his wages on the eve of Yom ...
In a year of terrible drought, Nakdimon ben Gorion — one of the three wealthiest men in Jerusalem — approached a Roman official and made a desperate bargain. He borrowed twelve wel...
The mysteries of creation — the Maaseh Bereshit — were considered so dangerous that the sages restricted who could study them. The Talmud (Hagigah 14b) famously records the story o...
What happens to a person after death? The Talmud (Yoma 35b) presents the judgment that awaits every soul — and reveals that no excuse will be accepted, because for every temptation...
Rabbi Elazar ben Shimon was known for many things — his learning, his piety, his complicated relationship with the Roman authorities. But the Talmud (Pesahim 86b, Bava Metzia 83b-8...
The physical strength of Rabbi Elazar ben Shimon was legendary, but it was after his death that the most astonishing miracle occurred. The Talmud (Bava Metzia 84b) records that whe...
The Talmud (Bava Batra 11a) records a teaching that transformed how the sages understood the mechanics of divine reward: charity does not merely help the recipient — it literally s...
Robert of Sicily. Wickerhauser, p. 167. Ring. Badder, Badische Sagen, No. 405. Comestor, 1, III. Eisenmenger I, 351 ff. Gervasius, ed. Lieb- recht, p. 8 and note 12, p. 77. Gesta R...
The most dramatic dispute in the history of Jewish law ended with a voice from heaven — and the sages overruled it. The Talmud (Bava Metzia 59b) records the famous argument between...
When Rabbi Eliezer fell gravely ill, four of the greatest sages came to comfort him. Rabbi Tarfon, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, and Rabbi Akiba each tried to ease his ...
After the destruction of the Temple, the wealthy families of Jerusalem were reduced to utter destitution. The Talmud (Ketubot 66b) records the most heartbreaking example: the daugh...
The rabbis took the washing of hands before meals with deadly seriousness — and the Talmud (Yoma 83b, Hullin 106a) preserves stories showing why. A man once neglected to wash his h...
If neglecting to wash hands before meals could lead to disaster, the Talmud teaches that neglecting to wash after meals was equally dangerous — and one story proved why. A man's fa...
A venomous serpent terrorized a certain neighborhood, biting anyone who came near its den. People were dying. The townspeople came to Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa and begged him to do som...
Hanina ben Dosa was the most famous miracle worker in all of rabbinic literature, and his signature miracle was healing the sick — not with medicine, not with herbs, not with any p...
Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was the son of a wealthy landowner who wanted nothing more than for his boy to work the fields. But Eliezer wanted Torah. At the age of twenty-two — far older ...
The Talmud (Shabbat 156b) tells the story of a woman who consulted astrologers about her newborn son. They told her with certainty: "Your son will be a thief." She was devastated. ...
The Talmud in Hullin (f. 87a) preserves a curious exchange between a Min — a heretic — and a rabbi, concerning the nature of wind and divine power. The heretic approached the rabbi...
Rabbi Perida had a student who was extraordinarily slow to learn. While other pupils grasped a teaching after hearing it once or twice, this student required something far more ext...
Two men came before Rabbi Eliezer to pray. One prayed at great length, pouring out his heart in elaborate, detailed petitions that went on and on. The other prayed briefly — a few ...
The respect that Dama ben Netina showed his father became the standard against which all filial devotion was measured — and Dama was not even Jewish. He was a gentile merchant in t...
The Talmud (Kiddushin 31a-b) collects multiple stories about the extraordinary respect Dama ben Netina showed his father, but it also records stories of Jewish sages who went to re...
The commandment to honor one's father and mother stands among the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:12), equal in weight to the commandments governing humanity's relationship with God. T...
Rabbi Johanan ben Matya gave his son a simple instruction: go and hire laborers, and make sure to feed them properly. The son went out, found workers, and promised them a meal. But...
The Prophet Elijah, who never died but was taken up to Heaven in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11), was known to appear to the righteous in moments of great need. One such visit was...
The Talmud (Bava Batra 75a) records a breathtaking vision of the future Jerusalem: its gates would be made of single pearls, each pearl so enormous that it could be carved into a g...
The Roman Emperor wanted to test the wisdom of the Jewish sages, so he sent word that a great luminary should be dispatched to his court. The Jewish leaders chose Rabbi Meir, whose...
The sages of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) asked a question that seems simple but opens onto infinity: where does all the water in the rivers go? Every river on ea...
Rabbi Yohanan and Resh Lakish — the sage and the former bandit — formed one of the most famous study partnerships in the Talmud. Their relationship began in the most unlikely way: ...
Mar Ukba's generosity to the poor was extraordinary — but his method of giving was even more remarkable than the amounts. The Talmud (Ketubot 67b) records that he regularly left mo...
Rabbi Shimon ben Halafta was known as a man who tested everything through experience rather than theory alone. When a question arose about the nature of children, he did not consul...
