35 texts
"My son, hide your money during your lifetime and store it, and until the day of your death, do not give it to your heirs." This is the proverb of the letter Tzadi (צ) in the Alpha...
The Israelites, fresh from their miraculous escape from Egypt, faced just such a dilemma. Imagine the scene: the Red Sea has just crashed back down, swallowing Pharaoh's army whole...
Jewish folklore is full of such moments, and the choices people make in those moments reveal profound truths about human nature and divine providence. to a story recounted in Ginzb...
We search for answers, not to diminish faith, but to deepen our understanding of the divine tapestry. The Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah, a Kabbalistic text, offers a fascinating perspect...
A wealthy burgher and a poor man lived in the same building—the burgher in the upper floors, the pauper in the lower. Neither had children. One night, the burgher dreamed that stra...
There was a man called the Ba'al Tefilah (בעל תפילה)—the Prayer Leader—who lived outside of civilization and spent every moment in prayer, songs, and praises to God. Periodically, ...
The Torah places Israel's encampment "between Migdol and the sea," and the Mekhilta finds layers of meaning in this geography. The word "Migdol" sounds like "gedulah" — greatness. ...
Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai offered his own version of the parable about Egypt's catastrophic miscalculation, and his telling amplified the scale of the blunder dramatically. A man inh...
"from the heavens": from the goodly treasure trove of the heavens, viz. (Devarim 28:12) "The L–rd will open for you His goodly treasure trove, the heavens, etc." R. Shimon b. Gamli...
When Moses shattered the two tablets of the covenant at the foot of Mount Sinai, something extraordinary happened to the sacred letters engraved upon them. According to the Mekhilt...
A man decided to divorce his wife. On paper, this was his right — Jewish law permitted a husband to initiate divorce proceedings under certain circumstances. But this man had a pro...
During a terrible famine, King Monobaz opened the royal treasury and distributed everything inside it to the poor. Every coin, every jewel, every stored reserve of wealth that his ...
There was a man who owned a prosperous vineyard and a cellar full of casks — fine oil and rich wine, the fruits of years of careful labor. He was wealthy by any measure. But he had...
Mar Ukba learned that a certain poor man in his town had once been wealthy — a man accustomed to fine food, comfortable furniture, and the pleasures of an affluent life. Poverty ha...
Korah was the richest man who ever lived — and his wealth destroyed him. The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) teaches that three hundred mules were needed just to carry t...
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 wealthy merchant was traveling far from home when he fell gravely ill. He knew he was dying. His only son was back in his homeland, too far away to reach in time. But the merchan...
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 ...
King Monobaz of Adiabene, a convert to Judaism, opened his family's treasuries during a year of famine and distributed everything to the poor. His brothers and his father's family ...
After the destruction of the Temple, the wealthy families of Jerusalem were reduced to utter destitution. The Talmud (Ketubot 66b) records the most heartbreaking example: the daugh...
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...
Korah's riches were legendary — and his fall was proportional to his wealth. The Talmud (Pesahim 119a, Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 10:1) and Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer describe a fortun...
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....
Alexander of Macedon, conqueror of empires, traveled beyond the known world and arrived at a place called Afriki — a kingdom in the far south. He had come, as he came everywhere, h...
When the Romans stormed the Second Temple, they faced a problem their swords could not solve: none of them wanted to be the first to walk into the sanctuary. The inner chambers wer...
Monobaz was a prince of the royal house of Adiabene, a small kingdom east of the Tigris whose royal family famously converted to Judaism in the first century CE. His mother Queen H...
King Solomon — master of seventy languages, including the speech of birds and insects (1 Kings 4:33) — was boasting. He had spent an afternoon detailing to his court the strength o...
Could I do more?" The sages certainly wrestled with that feeling, and they had some pretty strong opinions about what happens when we ignore it. The Book of Ecclesiastes, or Kohele...
Our tradition offers some powerful, and perhaps surprising, answers. Take, for example, the interpretation offered by Rabbi Tanhum bar Ḥiyya on a verse dealing with the poor and th...
A certain man came to Rabbi Yosei bar Ḥalafta and said to him: ‘I saw in my dream that they said to me: Arise and ascend to Cappadocia and you will take your father’s property.’45Y...
Wealthy families who once dined on aged wine and fine bread ended up rummaging through garbage heaps for food. Eikhah Rabbah, a 5th-century CE midrashic (rabbinic interpretive comm...
Jewish tradition has been grappling with this very idea for millennia. The Midrash of Philo—a collection of interpretations and elaborations on the Torah attributed to the philosop...
If thou lend money to any of my people (Exod. 22:24). Scripture states elsewhere in reference to this verse: He that putteth not out his money on interest (Ps. 15:5). Come and obse...
If thou lend money to any of my people (Exod. 22:24). Scripture states elsewhere in reference to this verse: Well is it with the man that dealeth graciously and lendeth, that order...
(Numb. 32:1:) “Much livestock.” This text is related (to Ps. 75:7), “For it is not from the east or from the west [or from the wilderness that there comes an exaltation (harim)].” ...
