9,687 related texts · Page 42 of 202
Numbers 7 is the longest chapter in the Torah, listing identical offerings from twelve tribal princes across twelve days. It is famously repetitive. The Targum Jonathan rescues it ...
A man gathered wood on the Sabbath and was executed for it. The Hebrew Bible tells this story in three verses. The Targum Jonathan expands it into a legal precedent about judicial ...
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 10) buries an entire civil war inside what the Hebrew Bible treats as a simple travel itinerary. The Hebrew says Israel "journeyed from Beeroth ...
The judgment of the wicked in Gehinnom (the place of spiritual purification after death) lasts twelve months, as it says “And it shall be from new moon to new moon…” (Yeshayahu 66:...
The Seder Olam reveals a pattern hidden in the calendar of sacred history: the most important events in Israel's story all cluster around one date — the fifteenth of Nisan. It bega...
Where do dreams come from? The Talmud in Berakhot 55a offers a surprisingly psychological answer: from the dreamer's own mind. Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahmani taught in the name of Rabbi ...
There were twenty-four dream interpreters in Jerusalem, and if you brought the same dream to all of them, you would get twenty-four different answers. According to Berakhot 56a, ev...
Bar Haddaya, the dream interpreter who gave favorable readings to paying clients and devastating ones to non-payers, eventually paid for his corruption with his life. Berakhot 56b ...
How long will the Messianic era last? The Talmud in Sanhedrin 99a records a staggering range of opinions—from forty years to eternity. Rabbi Eliezer said forty years, based on (Psa...
On the night of the Exodus, while the entire nation of Israel was loading Egyptian gold and silver, Moses was doing something else. According to Sotah 13a, he was searching for the...
The people of Judea were precise with their language. The people of Galilee were not. According to Eruvin 53a, this difference was not a minor cultural quirk—it had real consequenc...
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] kingship...
When Israel went out of Egypt, Moses said ‘Judah became His -holy one, Israel, His dominion’ (Psalms 114:2); and when Israel went out of Jerusalem, Jeremiah said ‘“Away! Unclean!” ...
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 ...
Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) Read-but-not-Written I) But [the children of] Benjamin would not yield (Judges 20:13). The word the children of is missing, for they did ...
(20) MISHNAH (the earliest code of rabbinic law): For the proclamation of six New Moon days, messengers are sent out: for Nissan, on account of the Passover; for Ab, on account of ...
Ten kings ruled over the whole world:—God, Nimrod, Joseph, Solomon, Ahab, Nebuchadnezzar, Koresh (Ahas- uerus ruled over half). Alexander of Macedonia not only ruled over the whole...
Alexander the Great tied two eagles together with meat in front of them, so they fly upwards with him until his eyelids dropped from the cold. He then descends in a glass box to th...
The Egyptians brought their case before Alexander of Macedon, and they were confident they would win. Their claim was simple: when the Israelites left Egypt during the Exodus, they...
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 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 ...
Ankelos ben Kalinikos, nephew of the Roman Emperor Titus, was searching for truth. Despite being born into the most powerful family in the world, he felt a spiritual hunger that Ro...
The judgment of poor, rich, and young after death when they neglect study. The poor man who pleads want of 75 - means is compared to Hillel who was wont to work all day for a very ...
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...
Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa was one of the most miracle-working sages in all of Jewish history. He lived in grinding poverty — the Talmud says that each week he survived on a single meas...
There was an inn on a certain road where travelers learned, too late, that the hospitality was a trap. The innkeeper welcomed his guests warmly, fed them well, and showed them to c...
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 ...
A mother had several sons, and the older brothers murdered the youngest. It was a killing born of jealousy — the kind of fratricidal violence that echoes the very first murder in t...
The prophet Elijah — who never died but was taken alive to heaven (2 Kings 2:11) — appears throughout rabbinic literature as a mysterious figure who walks the earth in disguise, te...
A man once caught stealing was ordered by the king to be hanged. On the way to the gallows he said to the governor that he knew a wonderful secret and it would be a pity to allow i...
A man once said that if he wanted to lose his property nobody could stop him. Another replied that no one could fight against God's providence. The man, however, said he would try....
The sages taught that God has a task that occupies Him constantly — matchmaking. The Talmud records that a Roman matron once challenged a rabbi: "Your God created the world in six ...
A Jewish child had learned the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis — just the beginning, nothing more — before he was captured and thrown into a Roman prison. He was young, alo...
Kimhit was a woman whose modesty was so complete that, according to the Talmud (Yoma 47a), even the beams of her house never saw her hair uncovered. The sages said this was the rea...
When the Romans imprisoned Rabbi Akiba for the crime of teaching Torah in public, his colleagues did not abandon him. They found ways to visit, to smuggle messages, and — most impo...
Merodach-Baladan, the king of Babylon, once experienced something that shook his understanding of the natural order. The Talmud records that he noticed the sun behaving strangely —...
The students of Rabbi Joshua were traveling between cities when night overtook them. They found lodging at an inn run by a man whose appearance was deeply off-putting — ugly, unkem...
When a slave belonging to Rabban Gamliel died, the sage's students came to offer condolences, as was the custom when a member of a household passed away. But Rabban Gamliel refused...
The daughter of Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa fell into a deep pit, and the entire neighborhood panicked. They rushed to tell the great miracle-worker that his child was in mortal danger, ...
Rabbi Meir once stayed at an inn whose keeper was a wicked man. The Talmud and Midrash (Midrash HaGadol, Genesis) record what happened when the innkeeper's true nature was revealed...
Bar Hedya was a professional dream interpreter in the Talmudic era, and the Talmud (Berakhot 56a) reveals his scandalous method: he interpreted dreams based not on their content bu...
A woman came to Rabbi Eliezer with a dream she could not understand. She described it in detail — the images, the sequence, the feeling of it — and asked the great sage what it mea...
High Priest Simeon & Alexander. Taanit, f. 7 b, 88 b. Meg. Taanit, ch. 9, 21 st Kislev. Yoma, f. 69 a. cf. 61 a. cf. J. Berakhot, IV, 1. cf. Pesikta, Parah. Pesikta Zutta to Exod. ...
Onkelos — known in some traditions as Aquila — was a Roman nobleman, a nephew of the Emperor himself, who converted to Judaism. His conversion scandalized the imperial court and be...
A Jew once owned a cow that refused to work on the Sabbath. The story, preserved in the Midrash (Pesikta Rabbati 14) and the Maase Buch, became one of the most beloved animal tales...
The story of Solomon's daughter and the bastard — the mamzer — is one of the most poignant tales in rabbinic literature. The Midrash (Tanhuma, Introduction) tells how Solomon, desp...
The Angel of Death came to an inn — and found the innkeeper so stingy, so devoid of charity, that even the angel was disgusted. The story, preserved in medieval Jewish ethical coll...
The Talmud (Taanit 22a) tells of Elijah the prophet revealing to Rabbi Beroka which people in the marketplace were destined for the World to Come. Rabbi Beroka expected Elijah to p...
