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Teach us, oh teacher – if one has an argument with their friend, how shall they attain atonement on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement)? This is what our Rabbis taught: transgression...
Teach us oh, teacher: A court which sanctified the month, but not at Eintav with witnesses, is it sanctified? R’ Abahu said in the name of R’ Chiya the great: if a court sanctified...
The judgment of the wicked in Gehinnom (the place of spiritual purification after death) lasts twelve months, as it says “And it shall be from new moon to new moon…” (Yeshayahu 66:...
Rabbi Yossi says, "A merit ends up being on a day of merit and a punishment ends up being on a day of punishment. For you will find to say that when the First Temple was destroyed,...
Moses received the Torah at Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the prophets to the Men of the Great Assembly. They said t...
Rabbi said: which is the straight path that a man should choose for himself? One which is an honor to the person adopting it, and [on account of which] honor [accrues] to him from ...
Akabyah ben Mahalalel said: mark well three things and you will not come into the power of sin: know from where you come, and where you are going, and before whom you are destined ...
Ben Zoma said: Who is wise? He who learns from every man, as it is said: “From all who taught me have I gained understanding” (Psalms 119:99). Who is mighty? He who subdues his [ev...
With ten utterances the world was created. And what does this teach, for surely it could have been created with one utterance? But this was so in order to punish the wicked who des...
The sages taught in the language of the Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law). Blessed be He who chose them and their teaching. Rabbi Meir said: Whoever occupies himself with...
In ten articles the world was created, and what is meant to be said, and in one article he could recover, but heal the wicked who destroy the world created in ten sayings and give ...
“YHVH Elohim” – a parable to a king . . . who poured hot and cold mixed into his [glass] cups and they withstood (didn’t break). Thus says the Holy One: If I create with the qualit...
[Ed.: "Menorah" down below should probably be Menuda. "Chazar l'Suro", is the only time in Chazal that that form appears. It appears frequently, also in regard to converts, as Chaz...
The Hebrew Bible records Balaam's first two oracles over Israel (Numbers 23), and both times, the pagan prophet finds himself unable to curse what God has blessed. Targum Onkelos t...
Deborah the prophetess did something no other judge in Israel had done — she held court outdoors, beneath a palm tree. The Yalkut Shimoni on Nach explains exactly why, and the reas...
(7) (Fol. 16) MISHNAH (the earliest code of rabbinic law): At four periods in each year the world is judged; on Passover, in respect to the growth of grain; on Pentecost, in respec...
(15) It is said above that the school of Hillel said: "He who abounds in kindness inclines [the scale of justice] towards the side of kindness." How does He do it? R. Eliezer said:...
(23) (Fol. 19) On the twenty-eighth of Adar, the good news came to the Jews that they need no longer abstain from studying the Law, for the king [of Syria had earlier] issued a dec...
R. Shela beat a man who commited sin with an heathen. He was denounced to the king, but he escaped punishment and obtained a high position through his interpretation of the words: ...
A laborer worked for his master for three full years, faithfully performing every task assigned to him. When the work was finally done, he approached his master and asked for his w...
Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was one of the greatest sages of his generation, a man whose knowledge of Torah was said to be like a plastered cistern that never lost a drop. Yet even ...
The Talmud (Shabbat 127b) tells of a man who worked for an employer in the north of Israel for three years. When his contract ended, he went to collect his wages on the eve of Yom ...
The trustfulness of disciples toward their teachers was a sacred principle in the rabbinic world. The Talmud (Shabbat 127b) extends the lesson of judging others favorably from empl...
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...
A dying father left his entire estate to one of his sons, but several men came forward each claiming to be the rightful heir. The question reached the courts: which one was the rea...
After Titus destroyed the Second Temple in 70 CE, the Rabbis tell us, a small insect flew up his nose and lodged in his brain. It ate at him for the rest of his life. The only thin...
The Torah says (Deuteronomy 21:23), His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; for he that is hanged is accursed of God. The M...
Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai lay dying. He had been one of the greatest of all the sages — the man who, during the Roman siege of Jerusalem, had been smuggled out of the city in a coff...
A rich man once sent his only son abroad to trade in distant markets. During the son's long absence the old father died, and he had left his will in the safekeeping of a trusted sl...
The rabbis of Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer chapter 48 imagined the hand of God as a kind of cosmic instrument, each finger doing its own piece of sacred work. With the little finger, th...
Hiram, king of Tyre, the Phoenician ruler who had once sent cedar and skilled craftsmen to his friend Solomon (1 Kings 5:1), grew so rich that he tried to build heaven for himself....
The Emperor Antoninus once pressed Rabbi Judah the Prince with a sharp question. At the day of judgment, he said, neither body nor soul could be justly punished. The body would ple...
A laborer once worked a long season for his master and came to receive his wages. The master met him at the door with bad news. I have no money to give you. Nor cattle, nor land, n...
The Talmud tells a parable about a king who planted a magnificent garden and hired two guards — one lame, one blind — reasoning that neither could steal the fruit. One day the lame...
Yose ben Yoezer of Tzeredah was being led to his execution during the persecutions of the Hellenistic kings. He was one of the earliest sages, a tzaddik whose teachings stand near ...
Gaster's Exempla (1924), No. 255, remembers a forgotten act of judicial courage. King Yannai — the Hasmonean monarch — had a servant who had committed murder. Jewish law is uncompr...
Samuel the prophet once stood at the bank of a river and watched a strange sight. A frog was swimming across the water with a scorpion riding on its back. The scorpion could not sw...
A ship docked at an island on its way between two ports. The captain announced that he would weigh anchor at a set hour, and he warned the passengers that a bell would sound three ...
Two men in the Babylonian exile claimed to prophesy in the name of the Lord. Their names were Ahab ben Kolayah and Zidkiah ben Ma'aseyah. Their false oracles are mentioned with dis...
A famous debate arose in the academy between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua over the ritual status of a particular oven, called the oven of Akhnai. The technical question has bec...
A young man fell in love with a young woman of his town. His feelings were so intense that he became physically ill. He stopped eating. He grew feverish. His family feared he would...
A pious man on a journey found a cave in the mountains. He entered. Inside was a small pool of water, and behind it, a narrower dark inner chamber. He stepped into the inner chambe...
When Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai lay dying, his disciples came to gather at his bedside. They expected composure from the man they called the Light of Israel, the Pillar of the Right...
The Talmud counts carefully. King David composed one hundred and three psalms, and only after the hundred and third did he allow himself to utter the word Hallelujah. What made him...
The sages taught that when a person stands at the judgment seat of the Holy One after death, six questions are put to the soul. They are not trick questions. They are the exam the ...
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...
Tractate Rosh Hashanah (folio 16, column 2) teaches that on the Day of Judgment three ledgers are opened and three groups of souls appear before the Holy One, blessed be He. The pe...
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...
