154 texts in Midrash Rabbah
The story goes that before disaster struck, the prophet Jeremiah pleaded with the people to turn away from their wrongdoings, to repent (do teshuva) so they could avoid exile. But ...
That raw, visceral feeling is at the heart of a powerful story about Moses and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Imagine Moses, our leader, the one who brought us out of ...
“How does the greatly crowded city sit alone? She has become like a widow. Great among the nations, a princess among the states: She has become a vassal” (Lamentations 1:1).“How [e...
“The greatly crowded city,” Rabbi Shmuel taught: There were twenty-four thoroughfares in Jerusalem, each and every thoroughfare had twenty-four streets, each and every street had t...
“She has become like a widow.” Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: They did not go to extremes vis-à-vis the attribute of justice, and the attribute of justice did not go to extremes in th...
“Great [rabati] among the nations,” but was it not already stated [in the verse]: “greatly [rabati] crowded”? Why does the verse say: “Great [rabati] among the nations”? It means g...
A certain Jerusalemite went to see a merchant in Athens. He was put up in an inn. He found people who were beginning to sit and drink wine. After he ate and drank, he sought to sle...
An Athenian came to Jerusalem and encountered a certain child. He gave him coins and said to him: ‘Go bring me figs and grapes.’ He said to him: ‘Well done, you with your coins and...
An Athenian came to Jerusalem and encountered a certain child. He gave him coins and said to him: ‘Go and bring me something so that I can eat, be sated, and have leftovers to take...
An Athenian came to Jerusalem and found a discarded mortar. He took it and brought it to a tailor. He said to him: ‘Sew this broken mortar for me.’ [The tailor] took out a handful ...
An Athenian came to Jerusalem and encountered a certain child. He gave him coins and said to him: ‘Go and bring me eggs and cheese.’ When [the child] returned, [the Athenian] said ...
A visitor from Athens arrived in Jerusalem with a trick question, certain he could stump the local priests. According to Eikhah Rabbah, a midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)...
An Athenian came to Jerusalem. He entered a school and found children sitting there but their teacher was not there with them. He was asking them questions and they would respond. ...
An Athenian came to Jerusalem. He devoted three and a half years to learn the language of wisdom,28Scholars would speak in riddles that could not be understood by the average perso...
An Athenian came to Jerusalem, and he greatly mocked the residents of Jerusalem. They said: ‘Who will go and bring him to us?’ One person said to them: ‘I will go and I will bring ...
A certain Cuthite passed himself off as an interpreter of dreams. Rabbi Yishmael ben Rabbi Yosei heard and said: Shall I not go and see this foolish Cuthite who deceives people? He...
A certain Cuthite said: ‘I will go and see a certain Jewish elder40Rabbi Yishmael ben Rabbi Yosei. who mocks people.’ He came and sat near him. He said to him: ‘I saw in my dream f...
One of the students of Rabbi Yoḥanan was sitting before him. [Rabbi Yoḥanan] explained [the lesson] to him but he did not understand it. [Rabbi Yoḥanan] said to him: ‘Why do you no...
A certain man came to Rabbi Yosei bar Ḥalafta and said to him: ‘I saw in my dream that they said to me: Arise and ascend to Cappadocia and you will take your father’s property.’45Y...
A certain woman came to Rabbi Elazar. She said to him: ‘I saw that the rafter in the house snapped.’ He said to her: ‘This woman will bear a male child.’ She went, and so it was fo...
There was an incident in which Rabbi Yehoshua was walking along the path.49This was a path through a field that was created by people traversing it. A certain person found him walk...
“A princess among the nations,” Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Because Israel violated the terms that they accepted at Sinai, therefore, “she has become a vassal [lamas].” Sinai is lamas, the...
Jeremiah wrote the Book of Lamentations as an alphabetical curse — each verse beginning with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, a devastation so systematic it marched from Ale...
“She weeps bitterly at night and her tears are on her cheeks; she has no comforter from all her lovers. All her allies have betrayed her, have become her enemies” (Lamentations 1:2...
“I remember my song in the night; I meditate with my heart, and my spirit searches” (Psalms 77:7). Rabbi Yehuda ben Rabbi Simon and Rabbi Aivu.58The text of the midrash (rabbinic i...
“At night,” why at night? Because sound travels only at night, that is why it is stated: “At night.” Rabbi Aivu said: Night draws lamentation with it.80When one cries at night, it ...
“And her tears are on her cheeks [leḥya],” over her priests, just as it says: “He shall give to the priest the foreleg, the jaw [haleḥayayim], and the maw” (Deuteronomy 18:3). Alte...
“She has no comforter.” Rabbi Levi said: Any place that it is stated: “Has no [ein],” [ultimately] she will have. “Sarai was barren, she had no [ein] child” (Genesis 11:30), but [u...
Even the angels turned against Israel. According to Rabbi Yaakov of Kefar Hanan, quoted in Eikhah Rabbah (a 5th-century CE midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary)ic commentary o...
“Judah was exiled due to affliction and great enslavement. She settled among the nations, did not find rest; all her pursuers have overtaken her within the straits” (Lamentations 1...
“And great enslavement,” Rabbi Aḥa said: Because they would keep the Hebrew slave in servitude, just as it says: “At the end of seven years [each of] you shall free [his Hebrew bro...
“The ways of Zion are in mourning, without Festival pilgrims; all her gates are desolate; her priests sigh; her maidens are forlorn, and she is embittered” (Lamentations 1:4).“The ...
“Her adversaries have become the head, her enemies are tranquil, for the Lord has tormented her for her abundant transgressions; her infants are led into captivity before the adver...
“For the Lord has tormented her for her abundant transgressions.” Is it, perhaps, for nothing? The verse states: “For her abundant transgressions.” “Her infants are led into captiv...
“Gone from the daughter of Zion is all her splendor. Her princes are like deer that have not found pasture; they went powerless before the pursuer” (Lamentations 1:6)“Gone from the...
“Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and her wretchedness, all her delights that she had from the days of old; with the fall of her people into the hand of the adver...
“Jerusalem has committed a sin, therefore she has become a pariah. All who honored her demean her because they have seen her nakedness. She, too, sighed and turned back” (Lamentati...
“Her impurity is on her hems, she had not considered her end; she has declined extraordinarily, there is no one to comfort her. See, Lord, my affliction, for the enemy has expanded...
When Rabbi Yosei of Milḥaya died, Rabbi Yoḥanan and Reish Lakish went up to perform an act of kindness136They went to participate in the funeral. and Rabbi Yitzḥak Pesaka went up w...
“The adversary extended his hand over all her delights; for she saw the nations entering her Sanctuary, whom You had commanded that they should not enter Your assembly” (Lamentatio...
“All its people are sighing, seeking bread; they have given their delights for food to restore life. See, Lord, and look, for I have become abject” (Lamentations 1:11).“All its peo...
“May it not befall you, all wayfarers. Look and see: Is there any pain like my pain, which has been done to me, with which the Lord has tormented me on the day of His enflamed wrat...
“From on high He sent fire into my bones, and He crushed them; He spread a net for my feet, He turned me back. He rendered me desolate, suffering all day” (Lamentations 1:13).“From...
“The yoke of my transgressions is preserved in His hand, becoming entangled, coming upon my neck, sapping my strength. The Lord delivered me into the hands of those against whom I ...
“Sapping my strength,” Rabbi Tanḥum ben Rabbi Yirmeya said: There are four matters that exhaust a person’s strength, and they are: Fasting, the road, iniquity, and the kingdom of B...
“The Lord trampled all my mighty in my midst; He proclaimed a festival against me to break my young men; the Lord has trodden the maiden daughter of Judah in a winepress” (Lamentat...
“For these I weep, my eye, my eye sheds water; for a comforter, restorer of my soul, has grown distant from me; my children have become desolate, because the enemy has prevailed” (...
There was an incident involving the two children of Tzadok the priest, who were taken captive, one male and one female. This one fell to a certain officer and that one fell to a ce...
