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Jose ben Yoezer of Tzeredah was one of the first of the zugot (pairs) — the great paired leaders who guided the Jewish people in the centuries before the common era. He was also on...
The destruction of Jerusalem did not end when the Temple burned. In the years that followed, the Romans hunted down the children of the sages, enslaving some, executing others, sca...
When a young person dies, the grief is compounded by the terrible question: why? The sages wrestled with this question and offered an answer that was as unsettling as it was compas...
What happens to a person after death? The Talmud (Yoma 35b) presents the judgment that awaits every soul — and reveals that no excuse will be accepted, because for every temptation...
The physical strength of Rabbi Elazar ben Shimon was legendary, but it was after his death that the most astonishing miracle occurred. The Talmud (Bava Metzia 84b) records that whe...
Rabbi Akiba was known throughout Israel not only for his vast learning but for the sharpness of his legal judgments. The Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law) in Baba Kama (f...
Rabbi Akiba once saw a man drowning in the sea. The man was pulled under by the waves, and despite every effort, he could not be saved. Rabbi Akiba stood on the shore and mourned —...
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...
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 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...
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...
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...
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 Akiba taught that visiting the sick was not merely a kindness — it was a matter of life and death. The Talmud (Nedarim 40a) records his dramatic demonstration of this princip...
Rabbi Johanan was famous throughout the land of Israel for his extraordinary beauty. The Talmud in Berakhot (5b) describes him as radiating an almost supernatural light, and the sa...
The death and last will of Rabbi Judah HaNasi — simply called "Rabbi" — was one of the most solemn moments in the history of the Jewish people. The Talmud (Ketubot 104a, Jerusalem ...
A drunkard wandered into a cemetery — the one place in the ancient world where no sane person would voluntarily spend the night. The dead were there, and so were the spirits, and s...
Rabbi Meir had a principle: never trust a person whose name contains the word for evil. The Talmud (Yoma 83b) tells the story of how this principle was tested — and proven devastat...
Butcher Companion in Paradise. Ben Atar, No. 13, f. 31a. Midr. Decalogue, V, 2. Nissim, f. 20a. Zabara, Shaashuin ed. Davidson, p. 1. Eliah Cohen, Meil Se- daka § 441. Heilperin, S...
Burial of Scholar & Taxgather. Shimeonh. Shetah&W itches m of Ascalon. J. Hagigah, II, 2. Sifre, Deut. § 221, f. 114 b. Midr. Decalogue, IX, ib. Nissim, f. 3 b. Rashi to Sanhedrin ...
Maimonides & Lime Kiln. cf. Eisenstein, Oser, P- 35i- 247 Behrnauer, 40 Veziere 26th Night, p. 250. Benfey, Pantschat. I, p. 320. Boccaccio, Decameron, II, 2. Brockhaus, Somadeva, ...
There was once a man so wicked that the entire town avoided him. He cheated in business, spoke cruelty to strangers, and mocked the sages when they tried to rebuke him. Everyone ag...
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...
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 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 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...
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...
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...
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...
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 early biblical usage, Satan functioned primarily as "an adversary" in various contexts—military enemies, courtroom accusers, or obstacles. The Book of Job represents a pivotal s...
Adam is the Hebrew and Biblical designation for humanity generally, and specifically for the progenitor of the human race. According to Genesis i, mankind was created on the sixth ...
The article presents Eden as an "earthly paradise" described in Genesis ii-iii where Adam and Eve resided before their fall. The term "Eden" likely derives from Assyrian "edinu" (m...
This extensive article by Kaufmann Kohler from the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia explores the Jewish doctrine of "last things"—the final destiny of the Jewish nation and humanity. Escha...
Gehenna (Hebrew: Gehinnom (the place of spiritual purification after death); Greek: Geenna) originated as "the valley of the son of Hinnom," south of Jerusalem, where child sacrifi...
Dreams have at all times and among all peoples received much attention. In the youth of a nation, as in the youth of an individual, dreams are so vivid that they appear to be hardl...
This word occurs only once in the Bible, in Ps. cxxxix. 16, where it means "embryo." In tradition everything that is in a state of incompletion, everything not fully formed, as a n...
Name of the prince of demons. The meaning of the name and the identity of the two forms here given are still in dispute. Asmodeus first appears in the Book of Tobit. According to T...
Prince of the demons, and an important figure both in Talmudic and in post-Talmudic literature, where he appears as accuser, seducer, and destroyer. His name is etymologized as = "...
Divination using the deceased was reportedly widespread among Persians, Greeks, and Romans. The Israelites likely adopted this practice from Persian sources and engaged in it exten...
Metatron is the name of an angel found only in Jewish literature. Elisha b. Abuyah, seeing this angel in the heavens, believed there were "two powers" or divinities (Hag. 15a). Whe...
The cherub represents a winged celestial being frequently referenced throughout Scripture. According to the prophet Ezekiel's vision, cherubim appear as a group of four living crea...
"Behemoth" denotes the hippopotamus, though the Biblical description contains mythical elements suggesting these were not ordinary animals. The creatures appear in Job xl, where be...
