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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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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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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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 ...
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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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Midrashim concerning Balaam?
Where can I find Midrashim about Balaam the Gentile Prophet, who appears in this week's Torah Portion?
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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
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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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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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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 ...
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Midrashim That Contain Elements That are Against Nature [closed]
I a compiling a list of midrashim that contain elements that go against the laws of nature (e.g. Og's picking up a mountain the size of the camping of Bnei Yisrael). Can anyone help me?
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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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Can the word "eitz" mean "a thought" in the Torah?
Is there support in the Talmud or later rabbinical literature to interpreting the Torah term "eitz," commonly translated as "tree," to also mean "thought". This of course, is a common usage in Yiddish,...
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Why does M'nachos 61:2 have only three of six kal vachomer arguments?
Bavli, M'nachos 61:2, quotes the tana Rabbi Shim'on (in my own loose translation):
Three types [of offering] have three commands to them [all told]: each has two, but not the third. They are ...
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When was the Sifre redacted?
When was the redaction of the Sifre (midrash halakha on Bamidbar and Devarim)? I would like to know in context with Mishna, Tosefta, and other Tannaitic literature. Please source your answers.
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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 ...
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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 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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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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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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How could Haman see Gd's face and live?
Continuing the series:
The Megillah writes:
יד וְהַקָּרֹב אֵלָיו, כַּרְשְׁנָא שֵׁתָר אַדְמָתָא תַרְשִׁישׁ, מֶרֶס
מַרְסְנָא, מְמוּכָן--שִׁבְעַת שָׂרֵי פָּרַס וּמָדַי, רֹאֵי פְּנֵי
הַמֶּלֶךְ, ...
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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?
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What is the date ending the 700 years mentioned in these midrashim?
Based on this answer I was able to have some extra fun reading over Shabbat.
First, I would like to say, that I was amazed as to how much of the material I was allready familiar with, mostly from ...
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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 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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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 ...
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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 ...
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Is there a set of "foundational" midrashic/symbolic numbers and what are they?
I've always wanted to do an analyses of the Torah based on the numbers given and their midrashic meanings. Specifically, I'm looking for symbolic, midrashic numbers: that is, which are symbolically ...
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Dolphins in the Sea
I have heard that there is a Midrash which says that Dolphins swam on either side of the dry land when the sea was split for Moshe to warn the fish not to swim out onto dry land. Why are there ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Wasn't Yishmael already sent away from Avraham's house?
In Bereshit 22:3, Rashi tells us that when Avraham went to sacrifice Yitzchok, the two lads he took with him were Yishmael and Eliezer.
Wasn't Yishmael already gone from Avraham's house? In Bereshit ...
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Why was Akeidas Yitzchok a bigger test (Nisayon) for Avraham than for Yitzchok?
Akeidas Yitzchok was the hardest test that Hashem gave to Avraham. Yet Yitzchok knew and also agreed to go along with it. Then why is it considered a bigger test for Avraham than for Yitzchok?
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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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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 ...
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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 ...
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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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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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Shmuel Yosef Agnon's Nobel Prize Speech Audio?
Does anyone know where I can find a recording of Shmuel Yosef Agnon's speech for winning the Nobel Prize?
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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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"Vaz Chatasee".........
The Medresh says that Moshe said to Hashem "Vaz Chatasee" with the word Az I have sinned and with the word Az I will say Shirah to you. What does the Medresh means when it says Moshe said with the ...
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Pharoh's privacy at the Nile
How did Pharaoh prevent people from seeing him use the Bathroom at the Nile?
We know he went early morning, but what prevented others from seeing him?
A source for this information would be ...
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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 ...
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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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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?
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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?
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