When the Jews left מצרים after hundreds of years of slavery, it was a tremendous miracle. This was followed by the awesome miracle of השם splitting the sea and the Jews entering the dry land between the columns of water. What was the first thing that they did? They complained. "It's hot. We're thirsty. There's
When יתרו came to משה רבינו after יציאת מצרים and קריעת ים סוף, he said to him: אני חותנך יתרו בא אליך ואשתך ושני בניה עמה." Why was he so specific, enumerating those who came? Apparently, he was indicating to משה, don't worry; your mother in law didn't come.
A רב once encountered a group of אפיקורסים mocking the belief of ביאת המשיח. He turned to them and said let me tell you a story. There was once a fox who called to the bird sitting on top of the tree, “come down to me.” The bird refused and said "you are surely hungry,
A man listening to a גמרא שיעור heard that רבינו הקדוש gave food to an עם הארץ in a year of famine and later regretted it. "He shouldn't have regretted it," said the man. "Why we see from the תורה that יוסף הצדיק was משביר לכל עם הארץ."
R’ אברהם מרדכי מגור once met a fellow רב, who inquired about the health of a חסיד who had died several days earlier. The רב didn't want to be the bearer of bad tidings, so he said הוא זקוק לרחמים רבים. Immediately after parting ways, the other רב learned that the חסיד had actually died
The קהילה in Brisk decided to fire their long serving שמש. But no one had the courage to be the one to tell him. So they decided to have רבי יוסי בר, the אב בית דין, carry out the unpleasant task. However, the רב refused. "In the פרשת העקידה," he explained, "it states that it
A דיין named ברוך was known to be corrupt. On one occasion when he ruled against the evidence, the losing party told him that only after he dies will people be able to say about him ברוך דיין אמת.
A רב who traveled to a distant town saw that the local Rabbi was judging by himself cases which require three דיינים. When asked about this, the Rabbi responded: "We are three. There is the גמרא, the חושן משפט and me." The רב replied: "Yes. Yes. But חז״ל prohibited a person from sitting in דין
Rav שלמה קלוגר was asked why the תורה commands לא תגנוב in the singular, while in פרשת קדושים it states לא תגנבו, which is לשון רבים. The רב explained: the singular לא תגנוב is for a סתם גנב. The plural is for בני תורה who steal חדושי תורה from others and say them in their
A מגיד once came to ר׳ דוד מטאלנא and said he has a difficult question, which is asked in פרשת בהר. The פסוק asks וכי תאמרו מה נאכל. Smiling, ר׳ דוד gave him a ruble. The following day, the מגיד came back to the רבי with the same question. “Didn’t you receive an answer to
