A רב once observed that people in his town don't have שנאת חינם. Surprised, one man responded: "רבינו, but don't you know that there are many מחלקות and שנאה because of money." "It's as I said," the רב said with a smile, "We don't have שנאת חינם. All the שנאה is because of money."
When רבי אייזל חריף served as the רב of the מתנגדים in Slonim, חסידים of ר׳ אברהם וינברג, the רב of the חסידים, said to רבי אייזל: “Look at the difference between the רב of the חסידים and the רב of the מתנגדים. You’re not a בעל מופת, but our רבי is מוחזק בעל מופת.”
Several generations ago, when relations between Jews and Muslims in Turkey were relatively friendly, a Jew borrowed 10,000 lira from his Muslim neighbor and signed a note agreeing to repay the loan within three months. The following day, the Muslim mentioned the loan to his imam. The imam told him "You're in trouble. The Jews
An עני complained to רבי אברהם-אבלי, the רב of Vilna, that he can't put food on the table and now has two daughters to marry off. His only recourse was to go begging from door to door and would like to get a letter of recommendation from the רבי. The רבי gave him the letter,
When the קהילה of a town heard that the two daughters of their רב were not conducting themselves as בנות ישראל, they began to murmur against the רב. As שבת approached, his detractors argued that he shouldn’t be given the honor of being called up for שישי. A תלמיד חכם, however, argued that they were
When a pauper asked a wealthy man for a נדבה, he responded by saying: “Leave me alone. I have enough דאגות of my own.” The pauper replied: “It’s said מרבה נכסים מרבה דאגה. Give me some of your נכס and some of your דאגות will be lessened.”
A בדחן once observed that we’re lucky that משה רבינו was כבד פה. Otherwise, we might have wound up with an additional 613 מצוות.
Long before the establishment of the State of Israel, ר’ מרדכי חיים מסלונים asked why we say רשעים ביד צדיקים גבורים ביד חלשים, when we say על הניסים on חנוכה. “I understand that גבורים ביד חלשים is a נס,” he said. “But what’s the נס in רשעים ביד צדיקים? Of course, the wicked are given
The חיד״א observed that there is a רמז מן התורה that in גימטריה a shortage of one is not מעכב. The תורה quotes יעקב אבינו saying “אפרים ומנשה” will be to him like “ראובן ושמעון.” The גימטריה of אפרים ומנשה is ראובן ושמעון, less one. This demonstrates that one is not מעכב.
When the מלאכים came to אברהם אבינו, they told him כעת חיה והנה בן לשרה. Rashi explains that כעת חיה means כעת הזאת לשנה הבאה, like this time next year. But no matter how you twist it or turn it, חיה does not mean next year. What then were the מלאכים saying? If you follow
