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Two men were crossing the desert together, each carrying his own provisions. One of them — the cunning one — proposed that they first eat all the provisions of his companion and sa...
The Talmud preserves a strange journey. Benaiah son of Jehoiada has captured Ashmedai, the king of the demons, and leads him bound toward Solomon's court. Along the road, the demon...
The story picks up after Ashmedai, king of the demons, has seized Solomon's magical ring and flung it into the sea. Power stripped, Solomon is no longer Solomon. The demon king hur...
A pious man was digging in his field one afternoon when his spade struck something hard. He uncovered a marble statue — finely carved, half buried in the soil of generations. As he...
A woman in a certain town had a reputation for extraordinary piety. She visited every household in which a woman had gone into labor. She prayed by the bedside. She comforted the m...
King Solomon needed the Shamir, a creature no larger than a barley grain but strong enough to split any stone, because the Torah forbade iron tools on the Temple's stones. To find ...
In the coastal city of Ashkelon, two men died on the same day. One was Baya, the local tax collector, a figure the community despised. The other was a gentle Torah scholar. Both pr...
The Talmud in tractate Gittin preserves a wild stretch of stories in which Benaiah ben Yehoyada, one of King David's mighty men, captures Ashmedai, king of the demons, and leads hi...
Once Solomon had chained the demon king Ashmedai, he held him captive until the Temple was completed. When the work was done, the king grew curious. "What is your superiority over ...
A strange episode is preserved in the Talmud: a witch once transformed a man into an ass. He found himself in the marketplace on four legs, mounted like any beast of burden. One of...
A pagan once approached Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai — the sage who had smuggled himself out of besieged Jerusalem inside a coffin and refounded Judaism at Yavneh — and said bluntly,...
There was a season when Solomon was not Solomon. The demon king Ashmedai had stolen his signet ring — the one engraved with the Ineffable Name — and taken his place on the throne o...
In the town of Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee, a dangerous group practiced sorcery. Among their victims was Chananya, the nephew of Rabbi Yehoshua. They cast a spell on him — the ...
When Adam understood that his own transgression had drawn death into every future generation, he did not try to defend himself. He mourned. He fasted for one hundred and thirty yea...
King Solomon wanted to build the Temple from unhewn stone. The Torah forbade iron tools on the altar, and Solomon, meticulous as always, extended the prohibition to the whole sanct...
A merchant on the road was joined by an innkeeper who asked to travel with him. As they walked, they passed a blind man by the roadside. The merchant stopped, opened his purse, and...
A man named Yochanan once kept a pet frog. The frog, according to the Rabbis, was not a frog at all. It was a child of Lilith, the demon of night. The creature taught Yochanan. Fir...
Abba Benjamin used to say, “If our eyes were permitted to see the malignant sprites that beset us, we could not rest for a moment on account of them.” The air, the rabb...
There was once a man who lived near an old tree. One morning, cutting branches for firewood, he raised his axe, and a voice came out of the wood. “Stop,” said the voice...
King Solomon once wrote in Ecclesiastes, “One man out of a thousand I have found, but a woman among all those I have not found” (Ecclesiastes 7:28). It was a line his m...
The Talmud in Gittin tells one of the strangest stories about King Solomon. The king, in his pride, once compelled Ashmedai, the chief of demons, to serve him. Through a chain of t...
The Flood did not arrive gently. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 7:11) dates it with astonishing precision: the six-hundredth year of Noah's life, the second month, the seventee...
The plain Hebrew says Aaron took the gold from the people's hands, fashioned it with a tool, and made a molten calf. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan adds a single phrase that changes the sc...
(Genesis 2:3) ends with a grammatically odd phrase: God rested from all His work "which God had created to make." Not "which God had made." Which God had created to make. Midrash T...
The Book of Genesis tells us, "The Lord God said, 'It is not good for man to be alone; I will make a fitting helper for him.'" (Gen. 2:18). A "fitting helper." That's a loaded phra...
The story goes that after his less-than-amicable departure from his father-in-law Laban, Jacob found himself at the River Yabbok (Yabbok, a river in the Transjordan, now part of Jo...
The great Moses himself had such an experience. As we read in (Exodus 4:24), on the road one night, Adonai—God—encountered Moses and sought to kill him. Talk about a plot twist! Wh...
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 ...
It wasn't just bad manners, folks. The story, as the rabbis tell it, is far more… complicated. Adam was made in God's image. And so was his son Seth, and Seth's son, Enosh. Accordi...
Turns out, the rabbinic tradition has quite a bit to say about its motivations and character. The Torah tells us, "Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent out t...
(Genesis 11:1) tells us, "Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words." Imagine the possibilities! With this miraculous language, some say, anything could be accompl...
Jewish tradition has a lot to say about that moment – that before and after. And it all starts with a verse from Song of Songs: "Behold the bed of Solomon..." (Song of Songs 3:7). ...
That image, that feeling, is right at the heart of Psalm 91, and it takes center stage in a fascinating passage from Bamidbar Rabbah 12. The verse "He who dwells in the shelter of ...
It's more than just letters; it's a tapestry woven with stories, numbers, and profound insights. Today, we're going to delve into a fascinating passage from Bamidbar Rabbah 18, a t...
What do these four seemingly disparate things have in common? They're all described as chukim – decrees or statutes – things we do simply because God commanded them, even if the re...
He was a non-Israelite diviner, a kind of prophet, hired to curse the Israelites as they approached Moab. But the story takes a twist, doesn't it? Let's look at the moment when God...
The story of the Israelites and their encounter with the daughters of Moab is a stark reminder. It's a tale of temptation, idolatry, and the devastating consequences of losing sigh...
We’re talking about the primordial stuff, the ingredients God used when He, blessed be He, created everything. It’s a question that’s captivated mystics and philosophers for millen...
Take, for example, the verse in (Genesis 2:21), "He took one of his sides [mitzalotav]..." Now, mitzalotav can mean either "one of his ribs" or "one of his sides." So, which was it...
Today, we're diving into a fascinating passage from Bereshit Rabbah 36, a midrashic (rabbinic interpretive commentary) commentary on the Book of Genesis, which grapples with this v...
The Rabbis certainly wondered. Bereshit Rabbah, that incredible collection of rabbinic interpretations of Genesis, dives deep into this seemingly simple verse. It asks, why a viney...
We all know the basic plot: humanity, united and speaking one language, decides to build a tower so tall it reaches the heavens. God, not thrilled with this ambition, scatters them...
We know the story: God commands Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son. But what about the whispers, the doubts, the anxieties that surely must have plagued them both? The Book of Ge...
We all know the story: Abraham, tested by God, is asked to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. He obeys, bringing Isaac to Mount Moriah. Just as Abraham raises his knife, an angel in...
While there aren't easy answers, Jewish tradition grapples with this in profound ways. Today, we're diving into a fascinating Midrash – a rabbinic interpretation – from Bereshit Ra...
Take the birth of Jacob and Esau, for example. Seems straightforward. But Bereshit Rabbah, the ancient rabbinic commentary on Genesis, dives deep, revealing layers of interpretatio...
The scene: Jacob is about to deceive his father Isaac in order to receive the blessing meant for his brother Esau. He's understandably nervous. "Behold," he says to Rebecca, "Esau ...
Sometimes, in the most unexpected places, it even offers us ways to protect ourselves. Take, for example, the seemingly simple mitzvah (commandment) of sending away the mother bird...
