548 texts in Midrash Aggadah
Maimonides — the great philosopher, physician, and legal authority — once interpreted a king's dream with such precision that the story entered the canon of Jewish wisdom tales alo...
The prophet Elijah gave three gifts to a poor man — and the story of those gifts became a parable about the nature of divine assistance. The details of the gifts vary across differ...
Abraham ibn Ezra and Yehuda Halevi were two of the greatest Jewish minds of medieval Spain — but their partnership was as unlikely as it was legendary. Ibn Ezra was a wandering poe...
The tale of "Half a Friend" is among the most widely circulated stories in medieval Jewish ethical literature. It poses a question that cuts to the heart of human relationships: wh...
Two friends loved the same woman. This is the setup for one of the most painful dilemmas in human experience — and the Jewish version of the story resolves it with an act of sacrif...
A man was accused of a crime he did not commit. He faced execution, disgrace, and the destruction of his family's name. His friend, knowing the truth — knowing the accused man was ...
The meeting — whether real or legendary — between Rabbi Eleazar of Worms and Maimonides represents one of the great contrasts in Jewish intellectual history. Eleazar, the Ashkenazi...
A man once made a vow that he would never lose his temper, no matter what his wife did to provoke him. According to a tale preserved in the Exempla of the Rabbis (compiled by Moses...
A king fell gravely ill, and none of his physicians could cure him. They tried every medicine, every herb, every treatment known to the medical science of the age. Nothing worked. ...
A Jewish sage was challenged to a public contest against a pagan wizard-priest — a battle of spiritual power that would determine, in the eyes of the watching crowd, whose god was ...
Rabbi Akiba and the pearl — a story about how the greatest treasures are sometimes hidden in the most unlikely places. The tale is preserved in medieval collections including the M...
A king once raised a boy in total isolation, keeping him locked away from birth so that he would never see a woman. According to a tale preserved in the Exempla of the Rabbis (comp...
Three brothers set out on a journey — and encountered a witch who tested them with riddles, tricks, and dark magic. The tale, preserved in Jewish and comparative folklore collectio...
A miraculous apple from Paradise — a single fruit carrying the fragrance and power of the Garden of Eden — is the subject of this tale, preserved in medieval Jewish and comparative...
The folk traditions of Israel contain many tales of encounters between ordinary Jews and the demons that inhabit the hidden corners of the world. The story known as "The Demon and ...
Man Who Would Not Swear. Ben Atar, No. 5, f. 23 a. Midr. Decalogue, III, 2. Nissim, Reprinted Sef. Hayashar, Livorno 1862, f. I39bf. Yalk. Exod. II, p. 138. Farhi, O. P. I, f. 26 a...
Joseph Mokir Shabbat (the Sabbath) — "Joseph Who Honors the Sabbath" — was a man whose devotion to the Sabbath was so complete that it became the engine of his fortune. The Talmud ...
Bread upon the Waters. Yebamot, f. 121b. cf. Baba Batra, f. 74 a to b. Tanh. Numb. Hukkat 1. • • Abot de R. Nathan, ch. 3. Gen. R. ch. 22. cf. Numb. R. 18 § 22. Eccles. R. II, i;V,...
Two robbers had been terrorizing the roads between towns, ambushing travelers, stealing their goods, and leaving them bruised and empty-handed in the dust. The local authorities se...
Rabbi Meir used to stop at the house of Judah the butcher whenever he made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Judah's wife was a righteous woman who looked after the traveling sage with ...
Two Sisters & Waters of Ordeal. Tanh. Numb. Naso, § 6, f. *81 b. Numb, R. ch. 9 § 9. Tanh. Eccles. § 10. Yalk. II, § 978. Simhat Hanefesh (the vital soul), f. 30. Yalk. Sip. IV, p....
The Midrash (Tanhuma, Teruma) teaches that the merchandise of a Torah scholar is unlike any other merchandise in the world. When a merchant sells a bolt of cloth, the cloth leaves ...
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 birth of Ben Batira — or more precisely, the circumstances that led to his birth — is preserved in the Jerusalem Talmud (Sanhedrin 7:13) as one of the stranger stories in rabbi...
Korah's riches were legendary — and his fall was proportional to his wealth. The Talmud (Pesahim 119a, Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 10:1) and Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer describe a fortun...
Bird’s Three Advices. Tendlau, Fellmeier, No. 21. Grunbaum, Jud. Dtsch. Chrest. p. 249. Ginzburg, Hagoren, 1923, p. 42. Benfey,Pantschat.I,38o. Barlaam u. Josaphat, v. Wiener, Jahr...
Blood Test. Baba Batra, f. 58 a. Parables of Solomon, I. Zabara, Shaashuim, LXII. ed. Davidson. Simhat Hanefesh (the vital soul), p. 12. Sef. Hasidim, ed. Hil- desheimer § 291. Far...
Joshua v. Levi & Prophet Elijah. Pesikta, f. 36 a. Nissim, f. 4 b. Maase Hashem, f. 41a to 43 a. Eliah Cohen, Meil Se- daka §439. Heilperin, Seder Hado- rot, s. v. Joshua b. Levi. ...
A wealthy man lay dying, and he knew his three sons well enough to worry. They were good boys, but reckless with money — the kind who would burn through an inheritance before the f...
The sages taught that God is nearer to His people than any earthly king is to his subjects. The Midrash (Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 9:1, Mekhilta to Jethro) develops this idea throu...
A married woman betrayed her husband with a robber — and the story that unfolds from this betrayal became a cautionary tale about the entanglement of sin and its consequences. The ...
Solomon sThreeM a xims. Dibre Hayamim sihel Moshe, ed. Constple. 1516. Farhi, O. P. I, f. 23. Jellinek, B. H. IV, p. 148. Eisenstein, Oser, p. 532. Husin, Maase Nissim, No. 31. Yal...
A man hid his gold in a set of clay jars — the ancient equivalent of a safe deposit box — and the story of what happened to those jars became a parable about the fragility of earth...
Solomon & Daughter of King of Ammon. Gittin, f. 68b. cf. Yalk. Hadash. • m Hirz, Emek Hamel ekh, f. 15. Jellinek, B. H. II, p. 86. Eisenstein, Oser, p. 530. Maase Buch No. 104. Ten...
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...
Rabbi Beroka was walking through the marketplace with the prophet Elijah — who appeared to him in disguise, as he often did to the great sages — when Beroka asked a question that b...
A heretic challenged the sages with a question about God's justice toward the disabled. "If your God is good, why does He create people who are maimed — the blind, the deaf, the la...
Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa lived in grinding poverty, but the treasures of Paradise were within his reach — literally. The Talmud (Taanit 24b-25a) records a series of miracles that occu...
Immaculate Shirt. Farhi, O. P. Ill, f. 62. Sef. Hamaasiyot, ed.Araki Cohen, ch.59. Yalk. Sip. Ill, p. 106. Zunz, G. V. p. 140, note c. Tendlau, Fellmeier, No. 18. Ben Gorion I, p. ...
In a certain town, a young woman had been married for years but could not conceive. Her husband loved her, and they prayed together for a child, but month after month passed with n...
Companion in Paradise. Taanit, f. 21b. Maase Buch No. 39. Ben Gorion II, p. 220, 354- cf. Bousset, Der ver- borg. Heilige, Archiv. f. Relig.Wiss. col. 21, p. iff. Conde Lucanor, ch...
A wealthy man grew so weary of his riches that he decided to give them away — but not to the poor. He wandered outside the city and found a beggar sitting in the dust, dressed in r...
Elijah, Slave & Builder. Yalk. Reubeni, Gen. f. 9b. Eliah Cohen, Meil Se- daka, § 568. Farhi, O. P. I, f. 28. Sef. Hamaasiyot, ed. Araki Cohen, ch. 104. Eisenstein, Oser, p. 325. Y...
The sages told a parable about a man who had three friends. The first friend he loved above all others and showered with gifts. The second friend he respected but kept at a distanc...
Charity rewarded — the phrase appears throughout rabbinic literature because the sages considered it not a pious hope but a cosmic law. The Talmud (Taanit 24a, Jerusalem Talmud Hor...
King David once questioned the purpose of three seemingly useless or harmful creatures: the gnat, the spider, and the fool. "Why did God create these things?" he asked. "The gnat b...
Two friends loved each other so deeply that one was willing to die for the other — and the other refused to let him. This tale of ultimate friendship, preserved in the Exempla of t...
In the distant lands of Persia, where fire altars burned day and night in honor of the elements, the Jewish communities faced a peculiar danger that was not from human persecutors ...
