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For thirteen years, Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai and his son Rabbi Elazar hid in a cave, fugitives from the Roman Empire. The Talmud (Shabbat 33b) records how they survived and what happ...
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...
The Talmud in tractate Baba Batra (8a) records a teaching about almsgiving that medieval Jewish communities took very seriously — so seriously that it became the foundation for how...
In the days when the Israelites brought their first fruits to the Temple in Jerusalem, a remarkable custom prevailed. The wealthy arrived with their offerings displayed in baskets ...
Bar Kappara was walking along the seashore when he encountered the survivors of a shipwreck — strangers, soaked and shivering, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. They had...
A desperately poor man had nothing — no food, no money, no prospects. He prayed to God for help, but heaven seemed silent. Then the prophet Elijah appeared to him, as Elijah so oft...
The Midrash (Pesikta Rabbati 19, Tanhuma Pinehas) tells a cautionary tale about gluttony — the sin of making the stomach into a god, of subordinating every other value to the next ...
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...
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. ...
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...
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 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...
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...
Widow Comforted. Berahya, No. 80. Maase Buch No. 108. Helvicus, Historien, II, ch. 33, p. 104. Steinschneider, Hebr. Bibl. XIII, p. 77 ff. Steinschneider, ZDMG, 27, P- 563* Griinba...
"Cast your bread upon the waters, for you shall find it after many days" (Ecclesiastes 11:1). This verse became the foundation for one of the most frequently told stories in the Je...
We find a fascinating glimpse into this idea in Bamidbar Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic commentaries on the Book of Numbers. It centers on a seemingly simple verse: "A man who gi...
We're going to unpack the rules surrounding the offerings brought at the conclusion of their period of separation. The verse we’re focusing on is (Numbers 6:19): “The priest shall ...
Could I do more?" The sages certainly wrestled with that feeling, and they had some pretty strong opinions about what happens when we ignore it. The Book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohele...
Our tradition offers some powerful, and perhaps surprising, answers. Take, for example, the interpretation offered by Rabbi Tanhum bar Ḥiyya on a verse dealing with the poor and th...
That nagging sense of "Is this all there is?" That, my friends, is a feeling as old as time itself. The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as it’s known in Hebrew, grapples with this...
It all starts with the verse in (Leviticus 22:29): “When you slaughter a thanks offering to the Lord, you shall slaughter it to garner favor for yourselves.” Now, Rabbis Pinḥas, Le...
“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 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...
“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...
“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...
“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...
“He burned in Jacob like flaming fire, consuming all around.” Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: When calamity comes, it is only Jacob who senses it. What is the source? “He burned in J...
“Arise, cry out at night, at the beginning of the watches, pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands to Him for the life of your infants, who a...
“He brought the contents of His quiver into my kidneys” (Lamentations 3:13).“He brought the contents of His quiver [benei ashpato] into my kidneys” – Rav and Shmuel: Rav said: His ...
“The Lord is good to those who trust in Him, to the soul that seeks Him” (Lamentations 3:25).“The Lord is good to those who trust in Him” – is it, perhaps, to everyone?55One might ...
“For the Lord will not forsake forever. For, if He torments, He will have compassion according to His abundant grace. For He does not afflict willingly and torment the children of ...
“You are covered with wrath and have pursued us; You have killed, did not have compassion. You have covered Yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass. You have rendered us f...
“How has gold tarnished, the fine gold changed? The sacred stones are spilled at the head of every street” (Lamentations 4:1).“How has gold tarnished [yuam]?” Rabbi Shmuel said: Ho...
“The iniquity of the daughter of my people exceeded the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands seized it” (Lamentations 4:6).“The iniquity of the daughter of ...
“The hands of merciful women cooked their children; they were food for them in the disaster of the daughter of my people” (Lamentations 4:10).“The hands of merciful women cooked th...
“The Lord vented His fury; He poured out His enflamed wrath. He ignited a fire in Zion, and it consumed her foundations” (Lamentations 4:11).“The Lord vented His fury; He poured ou...
“The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was captured in their traps; of whom we said: In his shade we will live among the nations” (Lamentations 4:20).“The breath of...
“Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners” (Lamentations 5:2).“Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers.” What type of turning? It is “l...
“We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows” (Lamentations 5:3).“We have become orphans, fatherless.” Rabbi Berekhya said in the name of Rabbi Levi: The Holy O...
“To our necks we have been pursued; we are exhausted, and we have no respite” (Lamentations 5:5).“To our necks we have been pursued.” Hadrian, may his bones be crushed, commanded a...
“It was during the days of Aḥashverosh; that [hu] Aḥashverosh who reigned from India to Kush, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces” (Esther 1:1). Hu [appears] five [times] for ev...
“It was during the days of Aḥashverosh; that [hu] Aḥashverosh who reigned from India to Kush, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces.” “Who reigned” – but had not yet reigned.5This...
Rabbi Levi in the name of Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman said: It is written: “The hair of His head like pure wool” (Daniel 7:9); that He has no debt to any creature. Rabbi Yudan in the n...
Rabbi Ayevu said: It is written: “For dominion belongs to the Lord; He rules over nations” (Psalms 22:29), yet you say, “when King Aḥashverosh was sitting on his royal throne”?18Is...
“One hundred and eighty days” – the last day was like the first day. There was an incident involving a certain man whose name was Barbohin. Our Sages went to him regarding matters ...
“To do as every man desired.” The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘I do not fulfill the wishes of all My creatures, and you seek “to do as every man desired?”’ The way of the world is...
