548 texts in Midrash Aggadah
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...
King Monobaz of Adiabene, a convert to Judaism, opened his family's treasuries during a year of famine and distributed everything to the poor. His brothers and his father's family ...
Nahum of Gamzu — the sage whose name became a proverb, because to every misfortune he would say "Gam zu l'tovah," "This too is for the good" — learned the cost of delayed charity t...
The rabbis taught a stark warning: reduce your tithes, and God will reduce your harvests. The Talmud and Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) preserve the story of a family t...
A prosperous farmer in the land of Israel had fields that yielded abundantly, orchting, and vineyard heavy with fruit. Year after year, God blessed his harvests. But the farmer gre...
The Talmud in tractate Kallah (5:1) tells the story of a man who inherited a large sum of money and faced a decision that would define the rest of his life. He could invest the mon...
Meekness of Tar f on. cf. Nedarim, f. 62. J. Shebiit, IV, 2. Kallah, f. 5 b. Lonzano, Maarikh, No. 6. Maase Buch No. 72. - 206— no. Dead Women in Cemetery Foretell Future. Berakhot...
Solomon & Two-Headed Man. Tosafot, Menahot, f. 37. Midr. Hahefes, Cod. Br. M. 2351, f. 200a and 231a. Ben Atar, No. 11. Bezalel, Shifta Meku- beset ad loc. - 207— Farhi, 0. P. I, f...
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...
Solomon's Throne. Kolbo, § 1 19. Yoma, f. 44b. J. Yoma, f. 41a. Targum II to Esther. Bahya (ed. Krakau) f. 36b, 64d, 106b, 142c, 213b. Jerahmeel,ch. LXXXI V, p. 251 & CIX. Cassel, ...
Blessing of Sabbath. Gen. R. 10 §4. Midr. Hagadol, Exod. Jithro. Krauss, Antoninus, p. 37. 121a. Money in Stick. Nedarim, f. 25 a. Shebuot, f. 29 a. Pesikta R. ed. Fried- mann, f. ...
A woman was entrusted with a single dinar for safekeeping. She placed it in a jar of flour, forgot about it, and later unknowingly baked it into a loaf of bread. When a poor man ca...
Money & Hypocrite. Gittin, f. 35. J. Berakhot, II § 3. Pesikta R. ed Fried- mann, No. 22, f. mb. Midr. Hagadol, Exod. Jithro. Nissim, f. 25 a. Farhi, O. P. Ill f. 36a. Araki Cohen,...
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...
The death of Rabbi Eliezer the Great was one of the most poignant moments in the entire Talmud. The sage who had been excommunicated by his own colleagues — placed under a ban beca...
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 ...
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...
Rabbi Akiba was walking through a cemetery when he encountered something terrible — a dead man, naked and blackened, carrying an enormous load of wood on his back. He was running a...
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...
Tamptation of Matia b. Heresh. J. Shabbat (the Sabbath), ch. 3. cf. Story of R. Meir in Kiddush (the sanctification blessing over wine)in. Midr. Abhir in Yalk. § 161. Midr. Decal. ...
Ben Sabar was traveling home one evening when he came upon a young orphan girl weeping by the side of the road. She had no family, no dowry, and no one willing to marry her. Withou...
Bride & Angel of Death. Tobit. Tanh. Deut. Haazinu. Midr. Decalogue, No. VII, 3 b. Ben Atar, No. I, Eliah Cohen. Meil Se- daka 434, reprinted B. H. V, p. 152—154. Farhi, O. P. I, f...
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...
Rabbi Akiba was imprisoned by the Romans. Each day, Rabbi Joshua ha-Garsi brought him a measured ration of water — barely enough to survive. The guards checked every container and ...
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 Hanina ben Dosa's poverty was so extreme that the Talmud (Berakhot 17b, Taanit 24b-25a) says a heavenly voice went out every day declaring: "The entire world is sustained on ...
Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa was one of the most pious men in all of Israel, a miracle worker whose prayers could heal the sick and whose poverty was legendary. One day, the people of his...
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...
The healing power of Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa's prayer was so renowned that the greatest sage of his generation, Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai, relied upon it when his own son fell ill. T...
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...
Rabban Gamliel's pride cost him his position — and the way it happened revealed how even the greatest leader can be brought low by arrogance. The Talmud (Berakhot 27b-28a) records ...
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. ...
A young Jewish girl was sold into slavery to a Greek master. She was small and frightened, torn from her family, and carried to a foreign house where strange gods stood in every co...
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...
Rabbi Meir was known for many things — his brilliance, his sharp tongue, and his wife Beruria's even sharper one. But he was also known for his encounters with the Samaritans, the ...
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...
Rabbi Ishmael ben Jose was making his way to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage when a Samaritan stopped him on the road. The Samaritans — who lived on and around Mount Gerizim and claimed ...
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 ...
Levi ben Sisi was a brilliant scholar, one of the finest students of his generation. When a community in the town of Simonia needed a teacher and judge, Rabbi Judah HaNasi sent Lev...
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...
The Talmud (Jerusalem Talmud, Peah 1:1) presents two contrasting stories that illustrate a paradox: a person who treats their parents well can still end up in Gehinnom (the place o...
When the Babylonians breached the walls of Jerusalem and stormed the Temple, they found something in the courtyard that stopped them cold. A pool of blood. Bubbling. Boiling. Churn...
Woman Carrying Off Husband. Pesikta, f. 147. Pesikta R. ch. 31. Song R. I, 4 § 2. Yalk. § 16. Yalk. Sip. I, p. 62. Tendlau, Sagen3, No. 14. B ergsti asser, N eu- Ar am. March. No. ...
