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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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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Does one have to take a Midrash/Aggadah literally?
Does one have to take a Midrash/Aggadah literally?
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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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Non-literal Midrashim [duplicate]
Sometimes I'll hear a Midrash and sometimes people might say, "Well, I don't know if it's meant to be taken literally."
When do we know when Midrashim are speaking metaphorically or when they are ...
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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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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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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 ...
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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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Why identify personalities in midrash?
As noted previously on this site (quoting Mail-Jewish), there's a general tendency in midrashim to claim two persons in Tanach are the same. This is familiar to anyone who has studied Rashi's ...
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Reshit is Torah or khalla ? Contradiction
In the beginning of midrash rabbah we read from rav Oshaya :
וְאֵין רֵאשִׁית אֶלָּא תּוֹרָה
There is no "Reshit" except Torah
and there, just after :
וְאֵין רֵאשִׁית אֶלָא חַלָּה
There is no "...
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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 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 ...
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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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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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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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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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Is the midrash about the moon and sun being the same size intended literally?
The Rambam in his introduction to perek Chelek discusses midrashic literalist, and classifies different approaches of different groups to midrash. He writes:
You should know that as to [...
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What does 'the New Torah' in these medrashim mean?
The Yalkut Shimoni on Yishaya, remez 429, mentions how Hashem will sit and be doresh a new Torah that he will give by the hand of Moshiach.
This medrash is apparently taken from the Osios diRabi ...
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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 ...
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Were Esav, Yishmael, and Nimrod Evildoers?
This question asserts that Ishmael was an evildoer (rasha). However, based on a simple (p'shat) reading of the relevant texts (in Genesis), neither he nor Esau nor Nimrod appear to do anything "evil."...
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The Fourth Exile, Persia or Rome?
When Avraham experiences a vision of 'fear, darkness, great, descending upon him', (Gen 15:12), the Midrash says that these four words refer to the 4 exiles. Fear is Babylon, darkness is Medea, great ...
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Traditional Approaches to B'midbar Rabba
What do traditional Jewish sources say about B'midbar Rabba regarding its date of redaction and authority vis-à-vis works of Chazal (such as other Midrashim).
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Michoel/Gavriel Wrestling Yaakov
Although Rashi follows Chazal in identifying the angel which wrestled with Yaakov as the Sar (archangel) Shel Esav, the Yalkut Shimoni (132), Zohar Bo (51b), and the Pirkei D'Rav Elazar all identify ...
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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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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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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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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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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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Do we care or do we not care about beauty?
Rashi Breishis 23:1 says that when Sarah was 20 she was beautiful as when she was 7. Mishlei 31:30 says שקר החן והבל היפי אשה יראת ה' היא תתהלל. Why is Rashi saying that Sarah was beautiful if it is ...
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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" ...
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How did Rivka get married when she was three years old?
What does the Medrash mean when it tells us that Rivka was three years old when she married Yitzchok? Is that meant in a literal sense? If so, how is this to be explained in a rational way?
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How many approaches to Torah are there?
Our sages tell us that there are שבעים פנים לתורה (Bamidbar Rabbah). Does this mean that every word, or verse, or some unit, has 70 interpretations, and there are theoretically billions of ...
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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, ...
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Who did the Avos give maaser to?
Rashi in parshas Toldos (25:27) tells us about Esav:
יודע ציד: לצוד ולרמות את אביו בפיו, ושואלו אבא היאך מעשרין את המלח ואת התבן, כסבור אביו שהוא מדקדק במצות׃
who understood hunting: [He knew how] to ...
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Translation/Commentary on Targum
I'm looking for a translation or commentary on Targum Onkelos, especially for the non-literal parts (such as on Birkas Yaakov and Shiras Hayam).
It can be in either Hebrew or English.
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Looking for a drasha on Yerach ben Yomo/Karnei Para [duplicate]
Anyone have any links to any drashos explaining the significance of the Yerach ben Yomo/Karnei Para trop, and why it appears (uniquely in chumash) in the portion about the Levite cities (Numbers 35:5)?...
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Law before a drashah was made
What was the law before a drasha (a law derived from the 13 middos) was made?
Were all the laws given at Sinai, and only their sources derived from the Torah by Chazal, or did Chazal learn new laws ...
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Did HaShem "regret" creating someone/something
I heard once that it says somewhere in Chazal that there were certain things or people that HaShem "regretted" (had "charatah") in creating. Although I don't remember which examples were given or if a ...
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What age were Leah and Rachel when they got married
Do we know what age Leah and Rachel were when yakove married them?
If yes what is it? Source please.
Are there any midrashim on the subject?
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From where do we learn that women did not accept the report of the meragelim?
Rabbi Eliyahu Mansour in his derashah on Parashot Wayaq'hel/Pequdei (@ 19:15-19:56) mentioned that, during Het HaMeragelim, the righteous women of 'Am Yisra'el did not accept the meragelim's bad ...
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How are we supposed to interpret "Derech eretz kadma l'Torah"?
I'm having a lot of trouble understanding how we should interpret the pseudo-midrash "דרך ארץ קדמה לתורה", ~~ "Derech eretz should come before Torah."
The actual text of the ...
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Seemingly weak proof-texts from Tanach
What is the best way to understand how texts from Tanach are brought in the tradition (such as in the Talmud) to add proof or solidity to a point... according to a really unintuitive reading of the ...
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Was Eliezer a tzaddik or a rasha?
Derech Eretz Zuta (1:5) says that Eliezer, the servant of Avraham, was one of the people to have entered Gan Eden alive, while in Pirkei D'Rabbi Eliezer (16:14) we are told Eliezer is the same person ...
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Paskening Shlomo out of Shamayim?
R' Yehudah tells us in the name of Shmuel (Sanhedrin 104b) that the Anshei Kenesses HaGedolah wanted to include Shlomo HaMelech on the list of kings who lost their portion of Olam Haba. An image of ...
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Source Midrash - why the first letter of the Tenach is a Bet
What's the source of the Midrash that talks about the reason why the letter Bet was chosen as the first letter of the Tenach and not the Alef? The reason being given in this Midrash is that it is ...
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Rebbe Akivah's background
I heard from someone that Rabbi Akiva was a shepherd, a laborer, an am ha’aretz – religious in observance, but ignorant of Torah knowledge. At age 40, he didn’t even know how to read the aleph-beis.
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Source for book of Tehillim out of order?
I recall learning a midrash (shochar tov?) that the book of Tehillim is out of order and Rebbi Yehoshua ben Levi wanted to put it back in order but was not allowed to do so. Where is this statement ...
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Grandsons of Keturah
In Sefer HaYashar, Perek 25, it lists the grandsons of Avraham and Keturah. However, in Tanakh (Chayei Sarah and Divrei HaYamim), it specifically choses to only tell us the names of Yokshan and Midian'...
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The Medrash and Gemara about Hoshana Rabbah
I read on shirat devorah the following:
1) The Midrash tells us that G‑d told Abraham: “If atonement is not granted to your children on Rosh Hashanah, I will grant it on Yom Kippur; if they do not ...
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