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IV. Three young men served King Solomon. After three years' apprenticeship, believing they had learned nothing, they asked leave of departure from Solomon. He offered them each 100...
V. A beautiful woman, persecuted by the governor, put her gold in jars and covered it on the top with honey. She left them with a friend and went away. After the death of the goxer...
VIII. God decreed that Solomon should be punished for transgressing three laws. Ashmedai, after the building of the temple, told Solomon that he would show him some wonderful thing...
b) Two men again are pointed out to R. Beroka as worthy of Paradise. On enquiring he learned that wherever people were in grief and sorrow, those two used to go and cheer them and ...
King David once asked God what good there was in gnats, spiders and fools. One day, fleeing from Saul, he hid in a cave and a spider quickly covered the opening with its web. Saul,...
In time of drought, the people appealed to Honi to pray on their behalf. He drew a circle, stood in the midst of it and prayed saying he would not step out of the circle until rain...
In time of drought the Rabbi was informed from Heaven to appeal to a merchant for intercession. He was 166— ashamed to call upon an apparently ignorant man but none the less did so...
King Solomon was an excellent chess player. He played with Benaya his general and always won. Once a noise in the street drew Solomon to the window. Benaya took a piece from the bo...
King Solomon was asked what was the meaning of his saying, “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.” (Prov. 15, 17.) He said when he was ...
A king once entered a school where the master was sitting at the desk with a rod in his hand. The children prostrated themselve before the king but the master took no notice. The k...
At the court of a king there lived a Jew who was very handsome. The wife of the minister fell in love with him, but he refused her advances. After a time she gave birth to a boy an...
A man once caught stealing was ordered by the king to be hanged. On the way to the gallows he said to the governor that he knew a wonderful secret and it would be a pity to allow i...
A king once determined to build a town and selected a site. The astrologers approved of the place on condition that a child be walled in alive, brought voluntarily by its mother. A...
A pious and rich man had an only son. He was a merchant but for a long time the son showed no wish to trade. Urged by his friends, he one day asked his father to give him 1000 dina...
[Another variant.] A great scholar, who spent his time studying with his pupils, got a son in his old age. He kept him in the house, never allowing him to go out but gave him more ...
A woman was weeping and mourning over the grave of her dead husband for a long time. Close by stood a gallows and a watchman was appointed by the king to see that none of the bodie...
The story continues as follows:— 184— The frog, which is none other than a child of the demon Lilith teaches Johanan the knowledge of all the languages and before leaving, calls al...
The sages taught that ten kings have ruled — or will rule — over the entire world. The list reads like a history of power itself, stretching from the beginning of time to its end. ...
Hiram, king of Tyre, was one of the most audacious men in all of scripture. God had given him wealth, beauty, and a lifespan that stretched across centuries — some sages say he liv...
Alexander Legend. J. Aboda Zara, III, 1. Midr. Psalms, 93, 6. Numb. R. ch. 13. cf. Ps. Callisthenes II, ch. 38 and 41. cf. Hebrew Alexander Legend ed. Gas ter, Romance of Alexander...
When Alexander the Great conquered the known world, he did not merely defeat armies — he rearranged the claims of nations. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 91a) records that after his conques...
The Roman Emperor once challenged the Jewish sages with a question designed to mock their God. "Your God is described as all-powerful," the Emperor said, "a mighty warrior, a king ...
The Emperor once invited the Jewish sages to a grand banquet and posed what he thought was an impossible challenge. "I wish to prepare a feast for your God," he announced. "Tell me...
A Roman emperor — the Talmud does not always specify which one — once summoned the Jewish sages to answer a question that he believed would expose their faith as foolishness. "You ...
The sages of Israel taught that God does not scatter wisdom like rain falling on barren ground. He gives wisdom only to those who already possess it — to those who have labored to ...
The patience of Hillel was not merely a personal virtue — it was a teaching method that transformed lives. The Talmud (Shabbat 31a) records three separate occasions when difficult,...
Rabbi Judah HaNasi and his household were known for their dignified appearance, but the principle of "shining through cleanliness" extended throughout the rabbinic world. The Talmu...
How should a person pray? The Talmud (Berakhot 30b) records a teaching that reshaped how Jews understood their daily standing before God. When you pray, the sages said, you are not...
Destruction of Bet Tur. Gittin, f. 57 a. Sanhedrin (the supreme rabbinic court), f. 17 b. Rosh Hashana, f. 18 b. Taanit, 26 b, 29 a. Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law) Taa...
Merodach-Baladan, the king of Babylon, once experienced something that shook his understanding of the natural order. The Talmud records that he noticed the sun behaving strangely —...
Meekness of Tar f on. cf. Nedarim, f. 62. J. Shebiit, IV, 2. Kallah, f. 5 b. Lonzano, Maarikh, No. 6. Maase Buch No. 72. - 206— no. Dead Women in Cemetery Foretell Future. Berakhot...
Solomon & Two-Headed Man. Tosafot, Menahot, f. 37. Midr. Hahefes, Cod. Br. M. 2351, f. 200a and 231a. Ben Atar, No. 11. Bezalel, Shifta Meku- beset ad loc. - 207— Farhi, 0. P. I, f...
Solomon's Throne. Kolbo, § 1 19. Yoma, f. 44b. J. Yoma, f. 41a. Targum II to Esther. Bahya (ed. Krakau) f. 36b, 64d, 106b, 142c, 213b. Jerahmeel,ch. LXXXI V, p. 251 & CIX. Cassel, ...
Blessing of Sabbath. Gen. R. 10 §4. Midr. Hagadol, Exod. Jithro. Krauss, Antoninus, p. 37. 121a. Money in Stick. Nedarim, f. 25 a. Shebuot, f. 29 a. Pesikta R. ed. Fried- mann, f. ...
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...
The healing power of Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa's prayer was so renowned that the greatest sage of his generation, Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai, relied upon it when his own son fell ill. T...
A young Jewish girl was sold into slavery to a Greek master. She was small and frightened, torn from her family, and carried to a foreign house where strange gods stood in every co...
The ancient rabbis taught a striking idea that reversed what most people assumed about the relationship between God and humanity. Most would say that humans wait on God — for bless...
King Shapur of Persia once asked the sage Shmuel: "Tell me what I will see in my dream tonight." It was a test — could a Jewish sage truly predict what a foreign king would dream? ...
King Solomon, the wisest of all kings, once taught a lesson about wealth and poverty using the simplest of demonstrations: two meals. The first meal was served in the house of a ri...
The Leviathan — the great sea creature that God created on the fifth day — was so enormous that the sages struggled to find words adequate to describe it. The Talmud (Bava Batra 74...
High Priest Simeon & Alexander. Taanit, f. 7 b, 88 b. Meg. Taanit, ch. 9, 21 st Kislev. Yoma, f. 69 a. cf. 61 a. cf. J. Berakhot, IV, 1. cf. Pesikta, Parah. Pesikta Zutta to Exod. ...
The sages taught that wealth spent on Torah study is the only wealth that endures. The Midrash (Pesikta 28, Leviticus Rabbah 30) tells of a man who possessed great fortune and face...
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...
Joab, the mighty general of King David, figures in rabbinic legend as a warrior of such ferocity that even the angels feared him. The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) pre...
The sages taught that God created no creature without a purpose — not the serpent, not the spider, not the scorpion. The story preserved under the title "Saved from Serpent" illust...
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...
The sages taught that a single good deed — performed at the right moment, with the right intention — can tip the scales of a person's entire life. The story of "Reward for a Single...
