Exegetical interpretation, often of verses in Tanach. The term also refers to books based on these interpretations, e.g., Midrash Rabba, Midrash Tanchuma, et al.
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7answers
331 views
How did the moon shrink?
The Bavli, Chulin 60:2, says (in my own loose translation):
Rabbi Shim'on ben Pazi noted a contradiction: [B'reshis 1:16] says, "God made the two big luminaries" and "the big luminary… and ...
13
votes
5answers
492 views
Anyone who says these people sinned is mistaken. For real?
The Gemara (Talmud Bavli Shabbos 55b-56b) relates that several Biblical figures who, from the text itself, seemed to have sinned, in reality did not. These statements take the form of "כל האומר פלוני ...
11
votes
1answer
218 views
What happened to Zeresh (Haman's wife)?
Virtually all of the major charachters (and some of the minor ones) in Megillas Esther have a clear ending for them. Mordechai and Esther live happily ever after (sort of). Haman and his ten songs are ...
11
votes
1answer
104 views
At what age should we start teaching the distinction between Midrash and Text?
At a very early age children learn the history of the world and the Jews through the enthralling stories found in many varied sources.
They learn that the world was created in six days; that ...
11
votes
1answer
127 views
Was Og responsible to follow the commandments for B'nei Noach?
The Midrash relates that Og, later to become King of Bashan, survived the flood in the generation of Noach (Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer, 23). Was he responsible for following the seven commandments despite ...
9
votes
2answers
137 views
When was Moshe conceived?
We know that Amram and Yocheved (Moshe and Miriam's parents) divorced so as not to give birth to baby boys and Miriam explained to them that they should get remarried because not only are they killing ...
9
votes
2answers
189 views
Why do we say that Hashem chose us if He offered to the Torah to all the other nations first?
According to Midrash Sifri (Deuteronomy 343), Hashem first went around to all the nations and offered them the Torah before offering it to Bnei Yisroel. So why do we say in Kiddush and Birchas ...
9
votes
3answers
152 views
How did Avrohom learn that nine doesn't work?
The Midrash says (Bereshis Rabbah 49:13 quoted in Rashi Genesis 18:32) that Abraham stopped asking HaShem to save Sodom in the merit of less than 10 people because Noah and his family who were 8 ...
8
votes
6answers
467 views
does one have to take a Midrash/Aggadah literally?
Does one have to take a Midrash/Aggadah literally?
8
votes
4answers
179 views
Why did Esther make two parties; why not just one?
What was the purpose of the two parties with Haman and Achashverosh if one could have done the job? Meaning, what happened that she needed a second party?
8
votes
3answers
241 views
Moshe and the Red-Hot Coals
A midrash that myself and I'm sure many others have heard in grade school is that when Moshe was a baby, still crawling, his "grandfather" Pharaoh, incited by an incident in which Moshe took off ...
8
votes
2answers
221 views
What does the angel Gavriel represent?
In trying to come up with an answer to this question, I became aware that the angel Gavriel plays a common role in several aggados and midrashim. Not only in the midrash with Moshe and the burning ...
8
votes
1answer
113 views
Why did the 40th-year Jews think they'd erred about Av? Sanhedrin had declared it
Rashi says that
ובשנת ארבעים שנה עשו ולמחר עמדו כולן חיים וכיון שראו כך תמהו ואמרו שמא טעינו בחשבון החדש חזרו ושכבו בקבריהן בלילות עד ליל חמשה עשר וכיון שראו שנתמלאה הלבנה בט"ו ולא מת אחד מהם ...
8
votes
1answer
49 views
Why does “בני ישראל” sometimes include גרים and sometimes not?
Tosafos (to Suka 28, Sanhedrin 86, and M'nachos 61; and Tos'fos Harosh to Sanhedrin 86) cite various verses containing the words "בני ישראל", b'ne Yisrael. In some cases, they note, the g'mara seeks ...
8
votes
1answer
98 views
Years and years and years of Yishmael
Genesis 25:17 says:
וְאֵלֶּה שְׁנֵי חַיֵּי יִשְׁמָעֵאל מְאַת שָׁנָה וּשְׁלשִׁים שָׁנָה
וְשֶׁבַע שָׁנִים וַיִּגְוַע וַיָּמָת וַיֵּאָסֶף אֶל עַמָּיו׃
And these are the years of the life of ...
8
votes
1answer
230 views
Flying and sorcery
Rashi (Sanhedrin 44b, s.v. D'ba'ya) relates the story of Shimon ben Shetach's capture of 80 witches. He instructed his students to pick up the witches because the sorcery would be powerless against ...
7
votes
3answers
142 views
Why is the Evil Inclination Called a “Fool”?
Koheles (4:13), (as explained by the Midrash Rabba) describes the Yetzer Hara (Evil Inclination) as "A king, old, and a fool".
It explains:
"...ולמה קורא אותו כסיל? שהוא מלמד לאדם דרך רעה...".
...
7
votes
3answers
344 views
Basic laws, why is milk with meat not kosher?
I've recently read (again) the verse "לא תבשל גדי בחלב אמו", meaning, "Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk".
How did anyone get from that, to "Don't eat meat with milk at all"? I've always ...
7
votes
1answer
100 views
Do angels have jealousy?
In a famous Midrash in Shab. 87a-b, the angels object to the Torah being given to humans, until Moshe proves that it is only relevant to humans because of their nature. In one example, he asks ...
7
votes
3answers
153 views
Why can't Moshe hit the water?
As a kid I learned that Moshe wasn't allowed to hit the water because it saved him when he was a child and he had to show hakaras hatov (similar answer for why he couldn't hit the sand that saved him ...
7
votes
1answer
136 views
Published Ladino version of Meam Lo'ez?
The Me'am Lo'ez (מעם לועז), begun by Rabbi Yaakov Culi in 1730, is a commentary to Tanakh written in Ladino. It was subsequently translated to Hebrew and translated from the Hebrew to English in a ...
7
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0answers
151 views
Criteria for the list of Nashim Kesheiros (Medrash Breishis Rabsi)
The Medrash Breishis Rabsi Parshas Chaya Sara 23:1 lists 22* Nashim Kesheiros.
כ"ב נשים כשרות היו בעולם ואלו הן שרה, רבקה, רחל, לאה, סרח בת אשר, יוכבד, מרים, בתיה בת פרעה, דבורה, צללפונית אשת מנוח, ...
6
votes
4answers
176 views
Halachot learned from gematria
The gemara in nazir learns that an unspecified nezirut is 30 days long from the pasuk "kadosh yihyeh" with yihyeh having gematria 30. Can anyone think of other places where halachot are learned from ...
6
votes
3answers
109 views
Ben Noach Stealing less then a Perutah
The Medrash Rabbah בראשית ל''א ס''ק ה says that what the people of the Dor Hamabul did in order not to have to be punished by their courts is to steal less that a Prutah (minimal Monetary Value) which ...
6
votes
1answer
316 views
How were Achiman, Sheshai and Talmai “Sons of Giants”?
In Bamidbar 13:22, the Torah tells us that the spies saw Achiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the sons of Giants. Rashi tells us they were the descendants of Shamchazai and Azael, angels who fell from heaven ...
6
votes
1answer
113 views
Sefer Milhamot Hashem - from Bamidbar 21:14
Does anyone know of any discussion of the the "sefer Milkhamot Hashem" mentioned in Bamidbar 21:14? Someone had asked me about the content of the book and I had no idea of what to answer him.
5
votes
4answers
200 views
God's Pair of Teffilin
How when moshe turns his head not to see God's face, he sees He's got on teffilin? I thought God had no physical form.
5
votes
3answers
222 views
How tall was Adam?
I once read a post on Answering-Islam about the Height of Adam, and it said that the Islamic view of Adam was simple Muhammad copying the Jewish stories/belief's about Adam. As I don't know what ...
5
votes
3answers
82 views
Source of Midrash regarding Yaakov's saying Shema
There is a famous Rashi in Parashat Vayigash (46:29) where Rashi explains that Yaakov didn't cry on Yosef's shoulders because he was reciting Shema. He cryptically quotes this in the name of ...
5
votes
1answer
121 views
How do Rishonim argue on Drashos Chazal?
There is a known rule that Rishonim cannot argue on the Gemara when it comes to "Halachic" drashos. For example, a Rishon will never give a different answer to a question which the Gemara already ...
5
votes
2answers
157 views
Why 1,000 generations of ungiven Torah, not X years?
The Mainz Anonymous reads, in part (in my own translation):
He created the Torah 974 generations before the world was created, then twenty-six generations [passed] from the creation of the world ...
5
votes
1answer
102 views
Rashi's apparent internal confusion over יתרו/רְעוּאֵל
Per Bamidbar 10:29 (see below), חֹבָב בֶּן רְעוּאֵל was the father-in-law of מֹשֶׁה. There, רש"י asks why רְעוּאֵל is referred to in Shemoth 2:18 as the "father" of בנות יתרו, and he answers that ...
5
votes
1answer
74 views
Does p'shat explain everything?
Ways of reading Chumash are commonly divided into four headings: p'shat, simple readings; d'rash, exegeses; remez, hints; and sod, secrets. The g'mara and midr'she halacha are full of d'rash: they ...
5
votes
1answer
61 views
Is there a list of things that have been put away until “l'atid lavo”?
There are many mamarei chazal that discuss things that at one point existed and were hidden or saved for "l'atid lavo" (ex the ohr haganuz) does an extensive list of such things exist?
5
votes
2answers
96 views
Honor of old people vs. honor of parents
Who has precedence in honor: A father or an old person? It seems that the answer would be a father; (*) however, there is a midrash that implies otherwise:
Yalkut Shimoni, end of Bemidbar 752
...
5
votes
2answers
85 views
Non-literal Midrashim [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
does one have to take a Midrash/Aggadah literally?
Sometimes I'll hear a Midrash and sometimes people might say "well, I don't if it meant to be taken literally." When ...
5
votes
3answers
167 views
Who are the tzaddikim in olam ha-ba?
The midrash tells of various things that will happen to the righteous in olam ha-ba, such as feasting on Leviathan. Who are these? Everybody except those who have no share in olam ha-ba per Pirke ...
4
votes
7answers
147 views
Why did Avraham wait to have a bris?
Chazal tells us (Midrash Rabbah Bereishis 64:4 and 95:3; Yoma 28b, based on. Gen. 26:5; Kiddushin 82a) that the Patriarchs observed the mitzvahs before they were given. But Avraham did not circumcize ...
4
votes
1answer
76 views
Midrash on children and the letter shapes?
I've heard about a midrash that discusses a day when little children took over the study hall and, by interpreting the shapes of the Hebrew letters, articulated many of Judaism's most powerful ...
4
votes
3answers
197 views
Why is braiding hair “building”?
The gemarah in niddah (45) says that when the torah says that God "built" Eve out of the bone of Adam what actually happened is that God braided Eve's hair and presented her to Adam as a wife. This is ...
4
votes
2answers
76 views
is there an authoritative list of the ways to expound the torah?
We are all familiar with Rebbi Yishmael's 13 principles for expounding the torah, however there are other systems not included in his list. I remember once hearing a shiur that there are over 40 ways ...
4
votes
2answers
113 views
Is Aggadah the same thing as Midrash?
(Inspired by a comment on this question.)
What characteristics define Aggadah and Midrash, and how are they related?
If the distinction is merely that Aggadah is a more general category of "legend" ...
3
votes
6answers
182 views
What else was in the Ark (Teiva)?
I heard that there is a Medrash that says that besides Noach, his wife, 3 sons, 3 daughters-in-law, animals, birds, and garbage there were others in the Teiva. What else was in the Teiva?
3
votes
5answers
165 views
Why is the test (Nisayon) of Kivshan Haish not mentioned in the Torah?
One of the difficult tests Avraham Avinu faced was when Nimrod threw him into the (Kivshan Haish) fire. It is not mentioned in the Torah at all. Why?
3
votes
5answers
107 views
References for learning Aggada
I often run into aggadic passages in the Talmud, and would like to get a list of references beyond the standard 4 (Ein Yaakov, Maharsha, Benayahu/Ben Yehoyada and the Chiddushei Aggados of the ...
3
votes
2answers
104 views
If Sarah's Death is a “Merit” for Cheshvan, Why Isn't Moshe's Death a “Merit” for Adar?
When I was young(er) I used to listen to to Toravision's Purim Story tape. (Yeah, I know, I'm dating myself.) It's a great tape, and the older I've gotten, the more it's amazed me how close the tape ...
3
votes
4answers
140 views
How did Hashem hide the light from the wicked? What do Chazal mean by this?
Rashi says in Breaishis Chapter 1, Verse 4:
אף בזה אנו צריכים לדברי אגדה ראהו שאינו כדאי להשתמש בו רשעים והבדילו לצדיקים לעתיד לבא.
"Even this requires words of Aggadah, He saw that it was not fit ...
3
votes
2answers
152 views
Kriyas Yam Suf and Naḥshon ben Amminadav
By Kriyas Yam Suf it says that the first one to Jump in was Naḥchshon ben Amminadav. My question is: why didn't Moshe Rabbenu jump in first?
3
votes
2answers
92 views
Midrash is Mikra?
The Shulchan Aruch and Rama (47:2) write: "[You] need to bless [birkas hatorah] whether for mikra (Tanach), whether for mishnah, whether for gemara. Note: (3) Whether for midrash (Tur)."
The Mishnah ...
3
votes
1answer
53 views
Moshe's change of looks on the mountain
When Moshe ascended heaven to receive the commandments there is a tradition that Hashem changed his appearance to that of someone else. Why was he changed and to whom was he changed? Is there a ...
