Questions tagged [midrash]
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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What happened to Zeresh (Haman's wife)?
Virtually all of the major characters (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 ...
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Does one have to take a Midrash/Aggadah literally?
Does one have to take a Midrash/Aggadah literally?
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Halachot learned from gematria
The Gemara in Nazir 5a learns that an unspecified nezirut is 30 days long from the pasuk "kadosh yihyeh"(Bamidbar 6,5) with יהיה- yihyeh having a gematria (Numerical value) of 30. Can anyone think of ...
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Is belief in Midrashim optional?
The Ramban in Sefer Havikuach (page 32, the bottom of the first column ) asserts with regard to Midrash:
מי שיאמין בו טוב. ומי שלא יאמין בו לא יזיק
Whoever believes in it, good, he who does not ...
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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 ...
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Was the Mishkan Built on Shabbat?
There is a famous midrash that relates the 39 prohibitions of Shabbat to the various types of activities that were required for the mishkan's construction. Implicit within this idea is the notion that ...
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What literally was the mark of Cain?
וַיֹּ֧אמֶר ל֣וֹ יְהוָ֗ה לָכֵן֙ כָּל־הֹרֵ֣ג קַ֔יִן שִׁבְעָתַ֖יִם יֻקָּ֑ם וַיָּ֨שֶׂם יְהוָ֤ה לְקַ֙יִן֙ א֔וֹת לְבִלְתִּ֥י הַכּוֹת־אֹת֖וֹ כָּל־מֹצְאֽוֹ׃
(Genesis 4:15)
What literally was the mark of Cain?...
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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… ...
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Why pray for Y'hoshua and not Kalev?
Rashi to Sh'lach 13:16 notes that Moshe prayed that God save Y'hoshua from the other spies' plot. This is a paraphrase of a g'mara (Sotah 34b) which implies strongly that Moshe did not similarly pray ...
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Did the brothers know about the snakes and scorpions in the pit?
Yosef's brothers took him and threw him into a pit (Bereishis 37:24). Chazal tell us that the pit had snakes and scorpions in it (see Rashi there).
Reuvein seems to think he is saving Yosef by ...
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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"?
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Rabbi Akiva's students died because lack of respect, but he said Veahavta Lireacha Kamocha is Klal Gadol?
שנים עשר אלף זוגים תלמידים היו לו לרבי עקיבא ... וכולן מתו ... מפני שלא נהגו כבוד זה לזה
Rabbi Akiva had twelve thousand pairs of students ... and they all died... because they did not treat each ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Paul being sent as a double agent by the Sanhedrin
I think there's a pretty popular conspiracy theory supposedly based on a censored Midrash that Paul was sent by the Sanhedrin to revolutionize Christianity in order to fully differentiate it from ...
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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 ...
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What did women have to do with the moon's shrinking?
In the Mishna Berurah (426:1) it says (with loose translation):
ונשים פטורות מלקדש הלבנה דהוי מ"ע שהזמן גרמא ואף דכל מ"ע שהזמן גרמא נוהגות הנשים שמקיימות ומברכות עליהן מ"מ מצוה זו אין ...
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Where was Adam created?
The Torah tells us G-d brought Adam into Gan Eden after his creation from earth (Bereishis 2:15). If this is the case where was Adam created?
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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What is meant by the 974 "worlds" that were "created and destroyed"?
Midrash Tehillim 90:13 says that God created and destroyed 974 worlds before this one. What exactly does that mean?
I've heard it used in defense of a modern understanding of evolution and cosmology ...
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Other reasons to start teaching children with Vayikra
The Midrash (Tanchuma Tzav #14, Vayikra Rabbah 7:3) advises one to start teaching their children with parshas Vayikra, since the korbonos are pure, just like children are pure. This is brought by the ...
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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 Maharal)...
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Why did Esther make two parties; why not just one?
What was the purpose of the two parties that Esther made for Haman and Achashverosh (Esther 5:4–8 and chapter 7), if one could have done the job? In other words, what happened that she needed a ...
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Rav S.R. Hirsch and fairy tales
There's a famous criticism Rav Hirsch had about fairy tales- I think he was responding to the Grimm Brothers specifically.
He says that reading such stories are very bad chinuch, since it affects our ...
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What causes a person to remain in this world as a ghost?
A baraita on Berakhot 18b relates a story where a pious man sleeps in a cemetery and hears two spirits talking. One of them suggests they wander the world, and the other says she can't because she ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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What were the 300 plagues of the Exodus?
The הגדה says:
במצרים לקו חמשים מכות, ועל הים לקו חמשים ומאתים מכות
In Egypt, they were struck with 50 plagues, and by the Sea [of Reeds], they were struck with 250 plagues
What were ...
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God's Pair of Teffilin
How is it that 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.
kimbo
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Issachar's Banner in Halacha
Inspired by this answer.
Bamidbar Rabbah 2:7 describes the symbol on Issachar's banner as the sun and the moon.
I have researched the topic of what it is permitted to draw, and it seems that ...
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Did Abraham and Noah know of each other?
Are there any sources that discuss whether Abraham and Noah knew of each other's existence, if there was ever any interactions between the two and/or if they ever met (not sure if their lives actually ...
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What's a good beginner-friendly collection of aggadah in English?
A friend with a secular background is now becoming more connected with Judaism (yay!), and has told me she finds the aggadic stories that fill in the gaps in the torah to be particularly helpful. (...
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How could Yocheved be conceived
Rashi brings the Midrash that Yocheved was born as Yaakov's family arrived in Egypt. They had to migrate due to the devastating famine.
Now, Rashi earlier points out that we learn from Yosef that it'...
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Explanation of the midrash of the Donkey of Moshe
In Shmot 4:20, Rashi explains that the donkey which Moshe took on the way to Egypt was the same donkey which Avraham used for the akeda (Binding of Isaac), and this is the donkey of the Mashiach.
What ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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How to understand the Medrash that Isaac's eyes were weakened by the tears of the angels?
Rashi's second interpretation of Braishis 27 (1) (based on the Medrash Rabbah 65 (10)) is that Isaac's eyes were weakened by the tears of the angels at the Akeidah.
Rashi speaking about the angels ...
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Eliezer's daughter and descendants
Medrash Rabah Parshas Chayai Sara 59:9 says that Eliezer had a daughter and was hoping that she would marry Yitzchak. Avraham told him you are cursed (come from a cursed family) and my son is blessed. ...
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Does anyone draw a parallel between Haman selling himself to Mordechai and Esav selling the birthright to Yaakov?
There’s a famous Yalkut Shimoni (Nach 1056:18, referenced by Rashi in explaining Megillah 15a), which reads as follows:
א"ר חסדא זה בא בפרוזבולי וזה בא בפרוזבוטי, פעם אחת נתן המלך ממון ושגרם בראשי ...
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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 ...
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Canaanite wives of the Bnei Ya'akov (Sefer HaYashar)
Avraham was extremely careful that Yitzchak not marry a Canaanite and as we know, he married Rivkah bas Besuel ben Nachor. Yitzchak was very careful that Ya'akov not marry a Canaanite and as we know ...
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Midrashic sources quoted in halacha
Are there places in halacha where content from a purely midrashic source (like midrash rabbah, pesikta, sifra, sifrei, etc.) find their way into halacha? Anything in the Talmud is excluded for the ...
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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.
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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 ידעו ...
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Does Midrash HaGadol actually say this?
Footnote 35 on page 395 of William Braude's English translation of Pesikta d'Rav Kahana says, "See MhG Gen., p. 880, where an anonymous teaching characterizes all prophecies predicting redemption as ...
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