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16. A pious man, digging up the ground, found a marble statue. It spoke to the man and asked to be cleaned and to be placed in the house in a clean place, promising riches. One day...
A wicked man lay on his deathbed. He had lived selfishly, hoarded his wealth, and never once given charity. The Angel of Death was approaching, and the man's ledger in heaven was c...
II. A young man travelling from Tiberias to Betar saw a young woman who fell in love with him and married him. After a year she asked him to return home on a visit. On the way they...
In time of drought the sages sent to Abba Hilkiah to pray for rain. They found him digging in the field and he did not reply to their greeting. In the evening, returning home, the ...
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 pious man, travelling, saw a cave in the mountains and on entering, found a pool of water and behind it another small dark cavern. He went thither and was on the point of returni...
A rich man, having confidence in his son gave him all his property in his lifetime. After a while the son commenced to neglect his father, ill-treating him and sending him away to ...
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...
Rav Huna was a wealthy man who owned vast vineyards and employed many laborers to tend them. But he had a flaw. When the harvest was finished and the grapes had been pressed and th...
A. & B. Abraham & Nimrod. Pirke de R. Eliezer, XXVI. Midr. Hagadol, Gen. Lekh Lekha. Gen. R. 38 § 19. Gen. R. of Moses Hadar- shan to 11, 28 and 46, 28. Horowitz, Eked, I, 40. Jera...
The sages taught that God is not like any light that human beings have ever seen. The sun can be blocked by a cloud. A lamp can be extinguished by the wind. Even the stars fade whe...
Sabbath Pre-Eminence. Sanhedrin (the supreme rabbinic court), f. 65 a—b. B. Batra, 6. Sota, V. cf. Sota, 31, s. v. Gadol. J. Berakhot, IX. Pesikta R, ch. 23, f. 119b. Tanh. Exod. K...
Queen Cleopatra — not the famous Egyptian, but a later queen by the same name — posed a question to Rabbi Meir that had puzzled both scholars and common people: "When the dead rise...
Jose ben Yoezer of Tzeredah was one of the first of the zugot (pairs) — the great paired leaders who guided the Jewish people in the centuries before the common era. He was also on...
Nahum ish Gamzo — called that because no matter what happened, he always said "Gam zu le-tovah" ("This too is for the best") — was sent by the Jewish community to the Roman Emperor...
A gentile once came to the great sage Shammai with a provocative request: "Convert me to Judaism, but only on the condition that you teach me the entire Torah while I stand on one ...
Beruria, the brilliant wife of Rabbi Meir, is one of the few women in the Talmud whose legal opinions are cited alongside those of the greatest sages. And one of her most famous in...
Three clever Jewish slaves, sold into captivity after the destruction of the Temple, outwitted their Roman masters using nothing but their wits. Each was given an impossible task, ...
The martyrdom of Rabbi Hananya ben Teradyon is one of the most searing stories in all of rabbinic literature. The Talmud (Avodah Zarah 18a) records that the Romans found him sittin...
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. ...
The Talmud (Shabbat 156b) tells the story of a woman who consulted astrologers about her newborn son. They told her with certainty: "Your son will be a thief." She was devastated. ...
The Talmud (Bava Batra 75a) records a breathtaking vision of the future Jerusalem: its gates would be made of single pearls, each pearl so enormous that it could be carved into a g...
Elazar ben Dordaya was a man consumed by desire. The Talmud (Avodah Zarah 17a) records that he was so enslaved to his passions that he traveled across seven rivers to visit a parti...
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. ...
A desperately poor man had nothing — no food, no money, no prospects. He prayed to God for help, but heaven seemed silent. Then the prophet Elijah appeared to him, as Elijah so oft...
A drunkard wandered into a cemetery — the one place in the ancient world where no sane person would voluntarily spend the night. The dead were there, and so were the spirits, and s...
Wicked-Brother-in-Law. Holeh Tamim u. Poel Sedek. • m Eisenstein, Oser, P. 343. Husin, Maasim Tobim, No. 2. Maase Buch No. 204. Levi, R. E. J. XXXIII, p. 234 ff. Ben Gorion I, p. 2...
Seven Good Years when Young. Midr. Zutta (Ruth) ed. Buber, p. 55. Nissim, f. 36b. Yalk. II, § 607. Rappaport, R. Nissim. Husin, Maase Nissim, No. 33. Yalk. Sip. Ill, pp. 107, no. c...
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...
Mar Ukba's generosity was legendary, but it was a woman named Hannah who embodied the even higher virtue of righteous silence. The Talmud (Shabbat 56b, Sanhedrin 31b) preserves her...
Moses stood apart from every other prophet who ever lived. The rabbis taught that while other prophets saw God through clouded glass, Moses alone saw through a clear lens — an unob...
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...
The tale of "Half a Friend" is among the most widely circulated stories in medieval Jewish ethical literature. It poses a question that cuts to the heart of human relationships: wh...
Bread upon the Waters. Yebamot, f. 121b. cf. Baba Batra, f. 74 a to b. Tanh. Numb. Hukkat 1. • • Abot de R. Nathan, ch. 3. Gen. R. ch. 22. cf. Numb. R. 18 § 22. Eccles. R. II, i;V,...
A married woman betrayed her husband with a robber — and the story that unfolds from this betrayal became a cautionary tale about the entanglement of sin and its consequences. The ...
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...
A man hid his gold in a set of clay jars — the ancient equivalent of a safe deposit box — and the story of what happened to those jars became a parable about the fragility of earth...
A wealthy man grew so weary of his riches that he decided to give them away — but not to the poor. He wandered outside the city and found a beggar sitting in the dust, dressed in r...
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...
In a time of devastating drought, the people of Israel came to Honi ha-Meagel — "Honi the Circle-Drawer" — and begged him to pray for rain. Honi drew a circle in the dirt, stepped ...
38- Wiinsche, J. Talmud, p. 148 f. Griinbaum, Jud.Deutsch Deu ts ch. Chres t. p. 400. Singer, Z. V. Vlksd. II, p. 298. Ancona, II Cavaliero Senso, p. 97—130; 151—187. _ Gaster, Chr...
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...
Shabbat Shekalim arrives on the Shabbat before the month of Adar ends, the first of the four special Sabbaths that prepare the Jewish people for Passover. The Torah reading is brie...
Some verses in Isaiah sound like they are narrating a future cataclysm, and the rabbis who sat in the study halls of the Galilee knew a secret about such verses. Sometimes the prop...
Rosh Hashanah is not only about apples and honey. In the talmudic imagination, it is the day when three great books are opened in heaven, and every soul is sorted. Ein Yaakov, Rabb...
The procedure for a capital trial under the Sanhedrin, as preserved in the Mishnah (Sanhedrin 6) and carried forward in the 1901 anthology Hebraic Literature, sounds less like an e...
