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The covenant at Moab in (Deuteronomy 29) is addressed to the Israelites standing there. Targum Jonathan expands the audience to infinity: "all the generations which have arisen fro...
And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be your name (41:18:31). May our ...
And the one who offered his sacrifice on the first day was Nachshon ben Aminadab of the tribe of Judah (Numbers 7:12). Our Rabbi, the one who offered the sacrifice to the altar, ta...
From Ephraim, who wrote in Amalek after you, Benjamin (Judges 5:14). May our Rabbis teach us what a person should say when he reads the Book of Esther. The Talmud teaches us that o...
The angels said before the Holy One, ‘Master of the World! Isn’t this Jerusalem?!’ as it is said “This is Jerusalem; in the midst of the nations I have placed her…” (Yechezkel 5:5)...
“He does the will of those who fear Him…” (Tehillim 145:19) Meaning that Gd does not annul his prayers and gives him what he requests. This refers to David, of whom it is written “...
Chapter 2 Our forefather Jacob was 63 when he was blessed. Ishmael died at that time as is written, "Esau saw that Isaac had blessed...Jacob listened to his father...Esau saw [the ...
“And in the first year of Cyrus, the king of Persia, at the completion of the word of the Lord from the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord aroused… So said Cyrus, the king of Persia… Who ...
Said R' Levi: The Holy One Blessed Be He appeared to them like a picture which is visible form all angles. A thousand people may gaze on it and it gazes on all of them. So is the H...
When the Holy One came to give the Torah to Moshe, he said over the order of the Readings, the Mishna, the aggadah (non-legal rabbinic narrative) and the Talmud as it says "And God...
Another explanation: And you will quickly perish (Deuteronomy 11:17)—exile after exile. And thus do you find with the ten tribes, exile after exile. And thus do you find with the t...
"Haggadah (non-legal rabbinic narrative)": A collection of legends and tales that was available to the ancient scholars. Rashi, of blessed memory, cites it in Sanhedrin (31b): "I f...
The Talmud in Berakhot records a teaching that reads like a warning from a horror story: "For three reasons shall no person enter a ruin." The three dangers listed are suspicion, s...
Another thing said R. Zerika in the name of R. Ami, who speaks in the name of R. Joshua b. Levi: "In the presence of the dead it is not proper to speak of anything except things co...
A Kuthean disputed with R. Meir as to the righteousness of Jacob who only separated Levi tithed as one of the io tribes, instead of separating one more for the remaining two. For h...
Simeon b. Kamhith, a high priest, walked about with a heathen king and got his clothes defiled and was incapacitated from acting on the day of atonement. His place was taken by his...
Rome had issued a decree: no new rabbis could be ordained. The empire understood that as long as the chain of rabbinic authority remained unbroken, the Jewish people could never tr...
The tribe of Asher received its inheritance in a strip of land along the northern coast of the Land of Israel, and the blessing that Moses gave them proved spectacularly true: "Let...
Benjamin the Righteous served as the guardian of the community charity fund. Every donation that came in, every disbursement that went out, passed through his honest hands. The peo...
Dispute between R. Eliezer and R. Joshua about levi- tical purity. Appealed to in turn, the Harub tree [uprooted itself], the water turned back, the walls of the Midrash (rabbinic ...
Rabbi Meir was traveling through Samaria when he encountered a Samaritan who was proud of his lineage. "I am a descendant of Joseph," the man declared — claiming descent from the m...
Rabbi Yohanan was the most beautiful man in Israel. The Talmud describes his appearance in terms usually reserved for angels — radiant skin, luminous eyes, a face that literally se...
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...
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...
The sages taught that God has a task that occupies Him constantly — matchmaking. The Talmud records that a Roman matron once challenged a rabbi: "Your God created the world in six ...
The Roman general Trayanos captured two Jewish brothers — Lulianus and Pappus — in the city of Laodicea and sentenced them to death. Before the execution, Trayanos offered them a t...
Old Man Planting Charub Tree. Yebamot, f. 63a. Tanh. and B to Levit. Kedoshim, § 8. Midr. Hagadol, Gen. f. 56d—57a. Exod. R., ch. 2. Levit. R., 25 §5. Eccles. R., 2 § 16. Yalk. § 6...
FalseProphets in Babylon. Sanhedrin (the supreme rabbinic court), f. 93 a. J. Sanhedrin, XI, 5. Pesikta, f. 164b—165a. Pirke de R. Eliezer, ch. 33. Tanh. Levit. Vayyikra, § 6 and B...
When Jacob fled from his brother Esau and set out on the long road to Haran, he stopped at a place called Bethel and made a vow to God. "If God will be with me and guard me on this...
Rabbi Tzadok was a man of extraordinary discipline. The Talmud (Kiddushin 40a) records that he was once tempted in a way that tested every fiber of his righteousness — and his resp...
A Jewish child had learned the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis — just the beginning, nothing more — before he was captured and thrown into a Roman prison. He was young, alo...
Kimhit was a woman whose modesty was so complete that, according to the Talmud (Yoma 47a), even the beams of her house never saw her hair uncovered. The sages said this was the rea...
When God gave the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, the sages taught that He did not speak them into a void. Each commandment was connected to the covenant God had already made with...
After Alexander the Great conquered the known world, the Egyptians saw an opportunity to settle old scores with the Jews. They came before Alexander's tribunal with a legal claim: ...
The Talmud (Hullin 41b, Avodah Zarah 25b) preserves a cautionary teaching about the vulnerability of scholars traveling on dangerous roads. Students of the sages were sometimes set...
Kamsa&Fall of Jerusalem. Git tin, f. 55b, 56b, 57. Sanhedrin (the supreme rabbinic court), f. 104. Pirke de R. Eliezer, ch. 49. Tanh. Numb. Hukkat § 1. and B. ibid. p. 99. Midr. Ha...
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 —...
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...
The students of Rabbi Joshua were traveling between cities when night overtook them. They found lodging at an inn run by a man whose appearance was deeply off-putting — ugly, unkem...
When a young person dies, the grief is compounded by the terrible question: why? The sages wrestled with this question and offered an answer that was as unsettling as it was compas...
A woman was entrusted with a single dinar for safekeeping. She placed it in a jar of flour, forgot about it, and later unknowingly baked it into a loaf of bread. When a poor man ca...
The most dramatic dispute in the history of Jewish law ended with a voice from heaven — and the sages overruled it. The Talmud (Bava Metzia 59b) records the famous argument between...
Levi ben Sisi was a brilliant scholar, one of the finest students of his generation. When a community in the town of Simonia needed a teacher and judge, Rabbi Judah HaNasi sent Lev...
Rabbi Johanan ben Matya gave his son a simple instruction: go and hire laborers, and make sure to feed them properly. The son went out, found workers, and promised them a meal. But...
The Roman Emperor wanted to test the wisdom of the Jewish sages, so he sent word that a great luminary should be dispatched to his court. The Jewish leaders chose Rabbi Meir, whose...
A man cleared stones from his own field and threw them onto the public road. A pious man passing by saw this and rebuked him: "Fool, why do you throw stones from a field that is no...
