4,128 texts · Page 63 of 86
Hillel the Elder faced many tests of his patience, but few were as deliberate as the man who came to him with intentionally absurd questions. The Talmud (Shabbat 31a) records that ...
In a year of terrible drought, Nakdimon ben Gorion — one of the three wealthiest men in Jerusalem — approached a Roman official and made a desperate bargain. He borrowed twelve wel...
The mysteries of creation — the Maaseh Bereshit — were considered so dangerous that the sages restricted who could study them. The Talmud (Hagigah 14b) famously records the story o...
Weasel & Well. Taanit, f. 8. Rashi ad loc. Tosafot ad loc. Midr. Hagadol, Gen. Lekh Lekha. Nathan, Arukh, s. v.hld. Gedalyah, Shalshelet, f. 17. Luzzatto, Kaftor, f. 99 a. Farhi, O...
A student once approached Rabbi Akiba and asked him a deceptively simple question: "How great is the value of the Torah?" Rabbi Akiba did not hesitate. "Each single word of the Tor...
Eleazar, the son of Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai, inherited more than his father's brilliance in Torah. He was endowed with staggering physical strength — the kind of strength that seeme...
Rabbi Elazar ben Shimon was known for many things — his learning, his piety, his complicated relationship with the Roman authorities. But the Talmud (Pesahim 86b, Bava Metzia 83b-8...
The physical strength of Rabbi Elazar ben Shimon was legendary, but it was after his death that the most astonishing miracle occurred. The Talmud (Bava Metzia 84b) records that whe...
Rabbi Akiba was known throughout Israel not only for his vast learning but for the sharpness of his legal judgments. The Mishnah (the earliest code of rabbinic law) in Baba Kama (f...
Rabbi Akiba once saw a man drowning in the sea. The man was pulled under by the waves, and despite every effort, he could not be saved. Rabbi Akiba stood on the shore and mourned —...
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 ...
A prosperous farmer in the land of Israel had fields that yielded abundantly, orchting, and vineyard heavy with fruit. Year after year, God blessed his harvests. But the farmer gre...
The Talmud in tractate Kallah (5:1) tells the story of a man who inherited a large sum of money and faced a decision that would define the rest of his life. He could invest the mon...
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...
Robert of Sicily. Wickerhauser, p. 167. Ring. Badder, Badische Sagen, No. 405. Comestor, 1, III. Eisenmenger I, 351 ff. Gervasius, ed. Lieb- recht, p. 8 and note 12, p. 77. Gesta R...
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...
Money & Hypocrite. Gittin, f. 35. J. Berakhot, II § 3. Pesikta R. ed Fried- mann, No. 22, f. mb. Midr. Hagadol, Exod. Jithro. Nissim, f. 25 a. Farhi, O. P. Ill f. 36a. Araki Cohen,...
When a slave belonging to Rabban Gamliel died, the sage's students came to offer condolences, as was the custom when a member of a household passed away. But Rabban Gamliel refused...
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...
Tamptation of Matia b. Heresh. J. Shabbat (the Sabbath), ch. 3. cf. Story of R. Meir in Kiddushin (the sanctification blessing over wine). Midr. Abhir in Yalk. § 161. Midr. Decal. ...
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 rabbis took the washing of hands before meals with deadly seriousness — and the Talmud (Yoma 83b, Hullin 106a) preserves stories showing why. A man once neglected to wash his h...
If neglecting to wash hands before meals could lead to disaster, the Talmud teaches that neglecting to wash after meals was equally dangerous — and one story proved why. A man's fa...
Rabbi Akiba was imprisoned by the Romans. Each day, Rabbi Joshua ha-Garsi brought him a measured ration of water — barely enough to survive. The guards checked every container and ...
The daughter of Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa fell into a deep pit, and the entire neighborhood panicked. They rushed to tell the great miracle-worker that his child was in mortal danger, ...
Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa's poverty was so extreme that the Talmud (Berakhot 17b, Taanit 24b-25a) says a heavenly voice went out every day declaring: "The entire world is sustained on ...
Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa was one of the most pious men in all of Israel, a miracle worker whose prayers could heal the sick and whose poverty was legendary. One day, the people of his...
A venomous serpent terrorized a certain neighborhood, biting anyone who came near its den. People were dying. The townspeople came to Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa and begged him to do som...
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...
Hanina ben Dosa was the most famous miracle worker in all of rabbinic literature, and his signature miracle was healing the sick — not with medicine, not with herbs, not with any p...
Rabban Gamliel's pride cost him his position — and the way it happened revealed how even the greatest leader can be brought low by arrogance. The Talmud (Berakhot 27b-28a) records ...
Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was the son of a wealthy landowner who wanted nothing more than for his boy to work the fields. But Eliezer wanted Torah. At the age of twenty-two — far older ...
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 Talmud in Hullin (f. 87a) preserves a curious exchange between a Min — a heretic — and a rabbi, concerning the nature of wind and divine power. The heretic approached the rabbi...
Rabbi Perida had a student who was extraordinarily slow to learn. While other pupils grasped a teaching after hearing it once or twice, this student required something far more ext...
Rabbi Meir was known for many things — his brilliance, his sharp tongue, and his wife Beruria's even sharper one. But he was also known for his encounters with the Samaritans, the ...
Rabbi Meir once stayed at an inn whose keeper was a wicked man. The Talmud and Midrash (Midrash HaGadol, Genesis) record what happened when the innkeeper's true nature was revealed...
Rabbi Ishmael ben Jose was making his way to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage when a Samaritan stopped him on the road. The Samaritans — who lived on and around Mount Gerizim and claimed ...
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...
The respect that Dama ben Netina showed his father became the standard against which all filial devotion was measured — and Dama was not even Jewish. He was a gentile merchant in t...
The Talmud (Kiddushin 31a-b) collects multiple stories about the extraordinary respect Dama ben Netina showed his father, but it also records stories of Jewish sages who went to re...
The commandment to honor one's father and mother stands among the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:12), equal in weight to the commandments governing humanity's relationship with God. T...
The Talmud (Jerusalem Talmud, Peah 1:1) presents two contrasting stories that illustrate a paradox: a person who treats their parents well can still end up in Gehinnom (the place o...
When the Babylonians breached the walls of Jerusalem and stormed the Temple, they found something in the courtyard that stopped them cold. A pool of blood. Bubbling. Boiling. Churn...
Woman Carrying Off Husband. Pesikta, f. 147. Pesikta R. ch. 31. Song R. I, 4 § 2. Yalk. § 16. Yalk. Sip. I, p. 62. Tendlau, Sagen3, No. 14. B ergsti asser, N eu- Ar am. March. No. ...
Rabbi Akiba taught that visiting the sick was not merely a kindness — it was a matter of life and death. The Talmud (Nedarim 40a) records his dramatic demonstration of this princip...
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...
