1,216 texts · Page 21 of 26
The medieval Jewish collection known as the Parables of Solomon preserves a story about a man whose faithfulness was tested in the most extreme circumstances — a test that proved, ...
King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, was once brought a legal case so subtle that its resolution required the full depth of his legendary understanding. The dispute centere...
The story of Solomon's daughter and the bastard — the mamzer — is one of the most poignant tales in rabbinic literature. The Midrash (Tanhuma, Introduction) tells how Solomon, desp...
The story of Solomon and the boiled egg appears in multiple collections, each version adding new details to the king's legendary wisdom. In this telling, drawn from German and Jewi...
Solomon and the ant — a story that combines the king's legendary wisdom with a creature so small that most people would crush it without a thought. The Midrash (rabbinic interpreti...
Solomon and the worthless woman — a tale from the collection of Solomon's legendary encounters with the full range of human character. The sages preserved these stories as illustra...
A young boy discovered that he could understand the language of birds. When sparrows chattered on the rooftops, he heard gossip. When ravens called from the treetops, he heard warn...
Maimonides — the great philosopher, physician, and legal authority — once interpreted a king's dream with such precision that the story entered the canon of Jewish wisdom tales alo...
Two friends loved the same woman. This is the setup for one of the most painful dilemmas in human experience — and the Jewish version of the story resolves it with an act of sacrif...
A king fell gravely ill, and none of his physicians could cure him. They tried every medicine, every herb, every treatment known to the medical science of the age. Nothing worked. ...
Rabbi Akiba and the pearl — a story about how the greatest treasures are sometimes hidden in the most unlikely places. The tale is preserved in medieval collections including the M...
A king once raised a boy in total isolation, keeping him locked away from birth so that he would never see a woman. According to a tale preserved in the Exempla of the Rabbis (comp...
Blood Test. Baba Batra, f. 58 a. Parables of Solomon, I. Zabara, Shaashuim, LXII. ed. Davidson. Simhat Hanefesh (the vital soul), p. 12. Sef. Hasidim, ed. Hil- desheimer § 291. Far...
Joshua v. Levi & Prophet Elijah. Pesikta, f. 36 a. Nissim, f. 4 b. Maase Hashem, f. 41a to 43 a. Eliah Cohen, Meil Se- daka §439. Heilperin, Seder Hado- rot, s. v. Joshua b. Levi. ...
Solomon sThreeM a xims. Dibre Hayamim sihel Moshe, ed. Constple. 1516. Farhi, O. P. I, f. 23. Jellinek, B. H. IV, p. 148. Eisenstein, Oser, p. 532. Husin, Maase Nissim, No. 31. Yal...
Solomon & Daughter of King of Ammon. Gittin, f. 68b. cf. Yalk. Hadash. • m Hirz, Emek Hamel ekh, f. 15. Jellinek, B. H. II, p. 86. Eisenstein, Oser, p. 530. Maase Buch No. 104. Ten...
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...
King David once questioned the purpose of three seemingly useless or harmful creatures: the gnat, the spider, and the fool. "Why did God create these things?" he asked. "The gnat b...
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...
Abba Hilkiah — the grandson of Honi the Circle-Drawer — inherited his grandfather's extraordinary ability to bring rain through prayer. But his methods were so peculiar that the sa...
Solomon and chess — a pairing that connects the king's legendary wisdom with the world's most intellectual game. While chess in its modern form postdates Solomon by many centuries,...
A man was granted a wish — and what he wished for became the source of his downfall. The tale of the "Foolish Wish" is found in dozens of cultures, but the Jewish version carries a...
Grateful Dead. Farhi, O. P. Ill, f. 11 to 1 7. Burton, Supplemental Nights, IV, p. 325. Wife making Tapestry. cf. Gas ter, Gypsy Tales. Scala Celi, s. v. Clema- sina. Simrock, Gute...
Three questions were posed to a sage — and his answers became legendary. The "Three Questions" format appears throughout medieval literature, but the Jewish versions are distinguis...
Forty days! Now, think about that journey, from the south all the way to the north. That's a long walk. Could they really have covered all that ground, the entire breadth of the la...
It’s not just a simple border dispute; there's so much more bubbling beneath the surface. We find the story in (Numbers 21:23): “Siḥon did not allow Israel to pass within his borde...
Our tradition has some fascinating things to say about that, especially when it comes to warfare and justice. to a curious little passage from Bamidbar Rabbah 19, which elaborates ...
Forget the dainty portions we see in movies. Let's talk about Solomon. I Kings gives us a glimpse, doesn't it? "Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty kor of choice flour, sixt...
Rabbi Yehoshua, speaking in the name of Rabbi Levi, offers a beautiful image. He suggests that God consulted with the "works of the heavens and the earth." It's like a king who has...
And their answer, as we find it in Bereshit Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic interpretations of the Book of Genesis, is surprisingly poetic. Imagine a king. A newly crowned king, b...
They envisioned something far grander than just a single tree. Imagine a tree so immense, so vital, that it’s said the life force of all people emanates from it! A single source, n...
The story goes that a noblewoman, clearly not shy about asking tough questions, once approached Rabbi Yosei. "Why," she demanded, "did God create Eve as if by theft? Why take Adam'...
We read the story so quickly, but the Rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary), those ancient interpreters of scripture, lingered on the details, drawing out every ...
Innocent creatures caught in the wake of human sin. But the ancient rabbis grappled with this question too, offering powerful, and perhaps unsettling, explanations. In Bereshit Rab...
The book of Genesis, Bereshit, is brimming with these moments. Take Lot, Abraham's nephew. We remember him mostly for his unfortunate choice of neighbors: the wicked inhabitants of...
Turns out, that impulse might be older – and more significant – than you think. We’re talking about land, about ownership, and about the very act of claiming something as your own....
And sometimes, those signs came from the most unexpected places… even from barking dogs. I know, it sounds a little out there. But bear with me. The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive ...
The Torah, in (Genesis 49:20), says of Asher, "From Asher, his bread is rich, and he will provide royal delicacies." Simple enough. But as is often the case with sacred texts, ther...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet, gets it. "All matters are wearying; man cannot utter it, the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing" (Ecclesiastes ...
King Solomon, the wisest of all men, certainly grappled with that question. And in the book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet, he gives us a glimpse into his own striving. The verse we'r...
Kohelet, the book of Ecclesiastes, gives us a glimpse. In chapter 2, verse 7, it says, "I purchased myself slaves and maidservants and I had stewards. I also had great possession o...
Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet as we know it in Hebrew, is full of Solomon's reflections on life, often tinged with a certain weariness. And one particular verse, (Ecclesiastes 2:25), re...
It’s a very human feeling, this sense of being limited to the present. The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet, wrestles with this very idea. "I saw that there is nothing better than ...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet, as it's known in Hebrew, wrestles with these very questions. And Kohelet Rabbah, the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) that elaborate...
"Sweet is the sleep of the laborer, whether he eats a little or a lot; but the satiety of the wealthy does not allow him to sleep" (Ecclesiastes 5:11). It's a powerful image, this ...
The book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohelet in Hebrew, grapples with these questions. One verse in particular catches our attention: "Behold what I have seen to be good: That it is fine t...
The Book of Kings tells us that Solomon "spoke three thousand proverbs" (I (Kings 5:1)2). But wait a minute... when we actually read through the Bible, how many proverbs do we find...
In fact, it's echoed in ancient texts that speak to the timeless struggle between humanity and… well, something much bigger than ourselves. Let’s turn to Kohelet Rabbah, a collecti...
