Judaism
Rabbi Akiva said, "Laughter and levity lead a man to lewdness; but tradition is a fence to the law, tithes are a fence to riches, vows are a fence to abstinence, while the fence of wisdom is silence."
Know thou that Cain's essential soul passed into Jethro, but his spirit into Korah, and his animal soul into the Egyptian. This is what Scripture saith, "Cain shall be avenged s...
6. xxxvii. 13), "When I have opened your graves, and brought you up out ofA disciple of the wise who makes light of the washing of hands is contemptible; but more contemptible is he who begins to eat before his guest; more contemptible is that guest w...
7. cii. 14) stooped and kissed the stone floor, supporting himself upon hisLevi once in the presence of Rabbi (the Holy) conjured with eight knives. Samuel in the presence of Shavur the king (of Persia, Sapor I, 240-273) performed the same feat with ei...
21. ii. 17), "And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day;" and again(Ps. xcii. 1), "A psalm or song for the Sabbath day," which means a long Sabbatic period; and again (Ps. xc. 4), "For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as the day of yesterd...
10. xlviii. 10), "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully,The Rabbis have taught that a small salt fish will cause death if partaken of after seven, seventeen, or twenty-seven days; some say after twenty-three days. This is said with r...
3. lxxxiv. 1), "They go from strength to strength; every one ofRabbi Yossi says, "The Shechinah never came down here below, nor did Moses and Elijah ever ascend on high, because it is written (Ps. cxv. 16), 'The heaven, even the heavens, ar...
18. cxl. 8), 'Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked; further not hiswicked device, lest they exalt themselves. Selah?'" It is the prayer of Jacob to the Lord of the universe that He would not grant to Esau, "the wicked, the desires of his heart....
16. cxvi. 13), 'I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon thename of the Lord.'" P'sachim, fol. 119, col. 2. This cup, as we are told above, will contain two hundred and twenty-one logs (which the Rabbis tell us, is the twenty-fourth part...
1. iv. 6), "And she sent and called Barak," whereas she ought to have goneRabbi Akiva said, "Laughter and levity lead a man to lewdness; but tradition is a fence to the law, tithes are a fence to riches, vows are a fence to abstinence, while the fence...
22. iii. 14), the serpent replied, "Lord of the universe! if this be Thywill, then I shall be as a fish of the sea without feet." But when God said to him, "And dust shalt thou eat," he replied, "If fish eat dust, then I also will eat it." Then God...
13. vii. 19), "My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel,and make confession unto him," etc. "And Achan answered Joshua and said, Indeed I have sinned." But where are we taught that his confession was his atonement? Where it is said (...
23. li. 11); "The redeemed of the Lord shall return;" not the redeemed of"Her children are gone into captivity before the enemy" (Lam. i. 5). Rabbi Isaac saith, "Come and see how greatly beloved are the children!" The Sanhedrin were exiled, but the S...
9. cxv. 16), 'The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's, but the earthhath He given to the children of men.' I said, 'Son, how hast thou come to deserve all this?' 'I was,' replied he, 'a butcher by trade, and I always set apart for the Sabbath th...
19. lxviii. 18), "Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast captured spoil, thouNine hundred and seventy-four generations before the world was created the law was written and deposited in the bosom of the Holy One--blessed be He!--and sang praises with the...
8. iii. 2, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth;therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." "Ye say you are God's friends, but when one has a friend does he pour out his wrath upon him?" To this Rav Saphra make no r...
5. xvi. 30, "For on that day shall he make an atonement for you, to cleanse"And it came to pass that when Abram was come into Egypt" (Gen. xii. 14). And where was Sarah? He confined her in a chest, into which he locked her, lest any one should gaze on...
2. xii. I, "I will praise Thee, O Lord, because Thou wast angry with me:Thine anger will depart and Thou wilt comfort me." "The text applies," he says, "to two men who were going abroad on a mercantile enterprise, one of whom, having had a thorn run...
14. iii. 18, 'Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous andthe wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not'? Does the righteous here mean him that serveth God, and the wicked him that serveth Him not? Why this repe...
4. xxiv. 1), "And to Abraham a beard came when he was well stricken inHere the word which the translators of the English version render "was old," is taken in another of its cognate meanings as a beard. The Midrash is a trifle more modest in this...
12. iii. 7, 8), "Behold the bed of Solomon (the judgment-seat of God),threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel. They all hold swords, being expert in war (with injustice). Every one has his sword upon his thigh, for fear of th...
20. xii. 3), "Behold, here I am; witness against me before the Lord, andbefore His anointed, whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken?" Of Amos, as it is written (Amos vii. 14), "I was an herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit," i.e., I a...
15. v. 3), "And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat in his ownThere is a tradition that there was once a disciple in Yabneh who gave a hundred and fifty reasons to prove a reptile to be clean (which the Scripture regards as unclean.--Compa...
17. xxxiii. 11), 'His servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departednot out of the Tabernacle?'" As a punishment for this pert reply, which must have distressed and confounded his master, Joshua's power of brain was immediately weakened, so that...
11. lxxxii. 1), "God standeth in the assembly of God, and judgeth with theA judge who does not judge justly causeth the Shechinah to depart from Israel; for it is said (Ps. xii. 5), "For the oppression of the poor, the sighing of the needy, now will I...