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Believe it or not, that feeling has ancient roots in how we've historically treated those deemed "unclean." to a fascinating, and frankly, unsettling passage from Vayikra Rabbah, a...
Rabbi Elazar, in Vayikra Rabbah 35, offers a powerful comparison. He says, "The way of the world is that a king issues a decree; if he wishes to fulfill it, he fulfills it, and if ...
“She has become like a widow.” Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: They did not go to extremes vis-à-vis the attribute of justice, and the attribute of justice did not go to extremes in th...
Jeremiah wrote the Book of Lamentations as an alphabetical curse — each verse beginning with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, a devastation so systematic it marched from Ale...
“And her tears are on her cheeks [leḥya],” over her priests, just as it says: “He shall give to the priest the foreleg, the jaw [haleḥayayim], and the maw” (Deuteronomy 18:3). Alte...
“Judah was exiled due to affliction and great enslavement. She settled among the nations, did not find rest; all her pursuers have overtaken her within the straits” (Lamentations 1...
“Her adversaries have become the head, her enemies are tranquil, for the Lord has tormented her for her abundant transgressions; her infants are led into captivity before the adver...
“Her impurity is on her hems, she had not considered her end; she has declined extraordinarily, there is no one to comfort her. See, Lord, my affliction, for the enemy has expanded...
When Rabbi Yosei of Milḥaya died, Rabbi Yoḥanan and Reish Lakish went up to perform an act of kindness136They went to participate in the funeral. and Rabbi Yitzḥak Pesaka went up w...
“The adversary extended his hand over all her delights; for she saw the nations entering her Sanctuary, whom You had commanded that they should not enter Your assembly” (Lamentatio...
“May it not befall you, all wayfarers. Look and see: Is there any pain like my pain, which has been done to me, with which the Lord has tormented me on the day of His enflamed wrat...
There was an incident involving Miriam bat Baitus, the baker, who was taken captive and redeemed in Akko. They purchased a mantle for her.180The local Jewish community ransomed her...
There was an incident involving Doeg ben Yosef who died and left a young son to his mother. She would measure him in handbreadths and donate his weight in gold to the Temple182Lite...
“The Lord is righteous, for I have defied His word. Hear now all you peoples, and see my pain: My young women and young men have gone into captivity” (Lamentations 1:18).“The Lord ...
“Let all their wickedness come before You, and do to them as You did to me for all my transgressions, for my sighs are many and my heart is suffering” (Lamentations 1:22).“Let all ...
“How the Lord has clouded the daughter of Zion in His wrath. He cast the splendor of Israel from the heavens to the earth, and did not remember His footstool on the day of His wrat...
“He drew His bow like an enemy; His right hand stood as an adversary, and he killed all delights of the eye. In the tent of the daughter of Zion, He poured out His fury like fire” ...
“The Lord was like an enemy. He demolished Israel, demolished all its palaces, destroyed its strongholds. He multiplied mourning and moaning in the daughter of Judah” (Lamentations...
“I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His fury” (Lamentations 3:1).“I am the man” – Rabbi Ḥama bar Ḥanina began: “Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Barukh s...
“He fenced me in that I will not emerge; He made my fetters heavy” (Lamentations 3:7).“He fenced me in that I will not emerge” – Rabbi Aivu said: This is the enclosure of the Arabs...
“He has broken my teeth with gravel, covered me in ashes” (Lamentations 3:16).“He has broken my teeth with gravel” – there was an incident involving the son of Rabbi Ḥananya ben Te...
“It is the Lord’s kindnesses that have not ceased, for His mercies have not ended” (Lamentations 3:22).“It is the Lord’s kindnesses that have not ceased” – Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish ...
“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 ...
“Let him sit alone and be silent, because He has laid it upon him” (Lamentations 3:28).“Let him sit alone and be silent” – Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman said: The Holy One blessed be He ...
“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 ...
“Who is it who said and it occurred, if the Lord did not command it?” (Lamentations 3:37).“Who is it who said and it occurred, if the Lord did not command it?” – who did command? H...
“Let us search and examine our ways, and return to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens” (Lamentations 3:40–41).“Let us search and examine our wa...
“May You pursue them in wrath and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord” (Lamentations 3:66).“May You pursue them in wrath and destroy them” – Jeremiah said: “May you pur...
There was an incident involving Rabbi Yehoshua ben Ḥananya, who went to the great city of Rome. They said to him: ‘There is a certain child in prison in disgrace.’10The Romans were...
“The tongue of the suckling sticks to its palate from thirst; infants request bread, and no one breaks it with them” (Lamentations 4:4).“The tongue of the suckling sticks.” Rabbi A...
“It was due to the sins of her prophets, the iniquities of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst” (Lamentations 4:13).“It was due to the sins of her prophet...
“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...
“Your iniquity is completed, daughter of Zion; He will not continue to exile you. He will reckon your iniquity, daughter of Edom, He will expose your sins” (Lamentations 4:22).“You...
“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...
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...
“In those days, when King Aḥashverosh was sitting on his royal throne that was in the Shushan citadel” (Esther 1:2). This is one of the places15The reference to “places” is unclear...
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...
“And governors of the provinces before him.” Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman: Rabbi Elazar said: Like the court in Geder, where the king sits in judgment above, and all th...
The fool vents all his spirit, and the wise will soothe it, restraining it” (Proverbs 29:11). “The fool vents all his spirit” – this is Aḥashverosh; “and the wise will soothe it, k...
“Many days” – days of suffering, and similarly: “It was during those many days…the children of Israel sighed due to the work, and they cried out, and their plea rose to God from th...
Rabbi Ḥiyya had a gentile friend in Ashna, who prepared a feast for him, during which he served him everything that had been created in the six days of Creation. He said to him: ‘W...
“Upon the completion of [uvimlot] those days” – it is written uvimlot [plene, with the extra vav],8It is not clear if this is merely a textual note or somehow related to the follow...
“Hangings of white [ḥur], green [karpas] and blue [tekhelet], fastened with cords of fine linen and purple wool on silver rods and marble pillars, couches of gold and silver, on a ...
“Couches of gold and silver” – Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Neḥemya: Rabbi Yehuda said: For one [for whom] silver was fitting, silver, and for one [for whom] gold was fitting, gold. Rabb...
“On a floor of alabaster, marble, mother-of-pearl, and onyx.” Rav Naḥman said: Come and see what the comfort of that wicked one was like. His house was paved with precious stones a...
“Drink was served in vessels of gold and vessels of diverse kinds, and abundant royal wine, in keeping with the king’s bounty” (Esther 1:7).“Drink was served in vessels of gold” – ...
“The drinking was as customary, without coercion, for so did the king establish with all the stewards of his house, to do as every man desired.” (Esther 1:8). “The drinking was as ...
“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...
