An אברך came to רבי אייזל חריף, seeking to receive סמיכה. After testing him and seeing that he lacks תורה and חכמה, the רבי asked him to explain why the גמרא says תנו רבנן, rather than רבנן תנו. The אברך didn't know. "I'll explain it to you," רבי אייזל חריף said. "תנו precedes רבנן because
A survey was conducted among the animals in the West Bank, asking them in the event of peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians where they would choose to live. The chicken answered that it would want to live amongst the Palestinians. When asked why, it explained that amongst Israelis it’s well fed but is
A רב once remarked to his Rebbitzin that she shouldn’t be so proud. “If I weren’t a רב, you wouldn’t be a Rebbitzin,” he said. She replied: “That may be. But I’m capable of being Rebbitzin in a larger and more prestigious קהילה than you can serve as a רב.”
The answer to yesterday's riddle is: the gematria of אחד is 13. In the 20th century, when Russia was carrying out pogroms against Jews, and at the same time proposing to ban kosher שחיטה because of compassion for animals, one man remarked: כתוב מפורש בהושע: זובחי אדם — עגלים ישקון.
A riddle says: עליתי על הר גריזים. ראיתי שלשה עשר גדיים. שחטתי אחד מהם, וראיתי כולם שחוטים. How is it possible that he only did שחיטה on אחד and they were all slaughtered? The answer will appear tomorrow.
A simple Jew, who never studied and learned, considered himself to be a great למדן and would sit in the בית מדרש to “learn” a דף גמרא. One day, after purportedly learning the דף, he got up and began reciting יתגדל ויתקדש שמיה רבא. The people in the בית מדרש were surprised and didn’t know
When רבי לוי יצחק מברדיטשוב was asked why every מסכת begins with דף ב and not with דף א, he said: “It’s to remind you that no matter how much you have learned, you still haven’t gotten to דף ראשון.”
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
