They tell the story about Shmuel’s father, that people used to deposit orphans’ money in his place as a trust.

Why there? Because Shmuel’s father used to hide that money in the inner space of a millstone.

One sunny day Shmuel asked his father: “Father, father, where do you hide the orphans’s money?”

And the father answered: “In the inner space of the millstone: the upper and the lower money bundles are ours, and the middle ones belongs to the orphans, so that if the money will be stolen, it will be stolen from us, and if the ground will get wet, our money will get wet, and the orphans’ money will be safe.”

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source: Talmud, Blessing Gate, page 18:

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When Israel came out of Egypt,  what did they resemble?

They resembled a dove that escaped from the hawk and went into a cranny and found there a nesting snake. The dove couldn’t get in –  for the snake was still there and it couldn’t return  - for the hawk was behind it.

So what did the dove do?

It started screaming and fluffing its wings, that the dovecote owner will hear it, and will come to save it.

This is how Israel looked at the (red) sea: To the water they couldn’t come in – for the the sea was not split for them yet.

To go back where they came from they couldn’t, because Pharaoh was approaching.

What did they do? “They were afraid and cried for God” (Exodus 14:10)

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source: Shir hashirim Rabbah, portion B, my dove in the cranny rock, b

Once David, before crowned as king, was sitting in the garden and watched a wasp paralyzing a spider. Amazed by the scene, David who was in a constant dialogue with God asked his creator why he created these useless creatures. The wasp doesn’t produce honey, but can dispose of bees, and the spider weaves day and night, but it doesn’t manage to weave a garment. God’s reply was simple : “A day will come, and you shall learn to appreciate those creatures”.

After a while King Sha-ul began to envy David’s military success and chased him to arrest him. David escaped to Yehuda’s plain and hid in a cave. A spider found the cave’s entrance and weaved its web in it. Sha-ul arrived to the entrance, noticed the spider web and said in his heart : “If a person would enter the cave, he would probably tear the web”.

David when out from the cave, and was rescued this time. After King Sha’ul left the cave, David thanked the spider.

In the next biblical episode David goes to the King’s Sha’ul’s camp in the desert to show him that his defenses can be cracked. David approached to take the King’s water canteen and the King’s army minster moved his heavy feet on David, and prevented him from leaving the tent. But then a wasp appeared and stung the King’s army minister and he moved his foot and David was rescued from danger. David thanked the wasp in his heart, turned to God and said: “I shall never doubt your deeds”.

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source : Midrash Alfa-Bieta Ben Sirah

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Rabban Gamli-el’s daughter got married. She came to him and asked for blessings: “Father, father, please pray for me and bless me!” she weeped.

Rabban Gamli-el looked at her raising his right eyebrow and said: “I hope and pray that you will not come back here”.

The following year his daughter gave birth to a son, she came to him embracing the little child in her arms and asking: “Father, father, please pray for me and bless me!”

Rabban Gamli-el smoothed his right hand on his beard and said: “I hope and pray that you will not stop saying ‘Oy!’“.

The poor daughter immediately started crying: “Father, father, two happy events happened in my life and you curse me?”

Rabban Gamli-el looked with his blue eyes to infinity and answered calmly: ”Both are blessings, my child, as a consequence from peace in your home you shall not return here, and from the fact that your son will exist, you will not stop saying ‘Oy!‘; “Oy! that my son didn’t eat!’, ‘Oy!’  that my son didn’t drink’, ‘Oy! that my son didn’t go to school’”.

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Sourse : Genesis Rabbah portion 26

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Ya-chin יכין

Today, when I was passing through the supermarket, I noticed a yellow canned corn and a Hebrew title below that caught my eye,”אמונה גדולה יכין” meaning, ‘great belief Yachin’.

When I saw this title I was so happy, thinking that the supermarket offers its customers belief as a slogan: furthermore; the temple in Jerusalem stood on two pillars, each one had a name: The right pillar named Yachin (meaning, he shall prepare) and the left pillar named Bo’az (meaning, in him there is a bravery)[Kings 1, 7:21] Knowing this fact about the right pillar, yachin, and combing this with the fact that great belief is the right foundation(column) in life; I thought that the company was very creative in installing such a slogan on the shelf, simply because it makes sense and also has historical background.

I had a great joy and was deeply impressed from the title, that I continued to stand in front of the shelf and read the slogan time after time, when suddenly one of the letters looked a bit different, it was פ and not מ as I saw before: Now a new word appeared: “אפונה” meaning pea, and not “אמונה” belief: At that moment it made sense cause Yachin is a factory which makes canned food.

And though it was an error of the eye(I), in those moments that everything comes together, you simply feel happy.

A fig tree

Adarianus Caesar used to walk in Tiberias alleys, when suddenly he noticed an old man digging in the ground making pits to plant trees.

Adrianus was highly impressed and said:”Grandpa, grandpa, if you woke up in your youth, you probably would not have to work when you are old”.

The grandpa answered:”I woke up early and worked late, and what is good for the Lord in Heavens I do”.

Adrianus asked the old man:”How old are you today, grandpa?”

The man said:”I am one hundred years old”.

“You are one hundred years old and you dig in the ground to make pits for planting trees? Does it seem to you that you will live long enough to eat their fruits?”

The old man answered: “If I’ll make it, I shall eat from them and if not – as my parents made effort for me, so I make efforts for my sons!”

Adrianus was impressed from the old man and said:”If you live to eat from these trees, inform me.”

After a while the trees that the old man planted bore figs.

The old man thought in his heart:”This is the time to inform the Caesar, as he asked.”

What did he do? He filled a basket with figs and walked and stood at the palace door of Adrianus.

The guards asked him: “What do you do here?”

And the old man said: “Let me in to the king,” and the guards let him in.

When he entered Adrianus asked him:”What are you doing here?”

The old man replied calmly, “I am the old man that you met when I dug pits to plant trees, and you told me:”If you shall live to eat from them, inform me, and here, I had the privilege and I ate from them, and here are some figs from their fruits”.

Andrianus told his servants:”I order you to bring a seat made out of gold and put the old man on it, and I order you to empty the old man’s basket from fruits and fill it with golden coins.”

The servants asked:”All this respect you pay for this Jewish man?!”

And Adrianus replied:”His Lord respected him and prolonged his life, and I would not respect him?”

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Leviticus Rabbah portion 25, sign 5

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The stories were collected and gathered from the ancient Hebrew sources and translated to simple English, to give the English reader a sense of a long inner tradition.

Hence, the sources are spreading out in many books, libraries and old handwritings; this collection contains only a few drops of the Jewish essence.

We hope that this ebook will open a gate for many more to come, because the sources are rich and we believe that such stories deserve to be exposed digital readers of today.

you can get the book here.

Thank You!

When Sara died in the city of Hevron חֶבְרוֹן, Avraham, her husband, wanted to bury her. Since the Hittites בְּנֵי-חֵת were the landlords, Avraham bought from them the field that had in its corner a cave that later became known as Cave of the Patriarchs מְעָרַת הַמַּכְפֵּלָה Me’arat Ha-mach-pelah (The double cave). There he buried his wife, Sara.

In Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer we find a legend that shows us why Avraham chose this specific cave to bury Sara, and why this cave turned out to be the cave of the Patriarchs.

“When Avraham made a feast to the angels and wanted to take a tender calf (Genesis 18:7)  -  the tender calf ran away from him and entered The Double Cave,  מְעָרַת הַמַּכְפֵּלָה Me’arat Ha-mach-pelah. Avraham ran after it there, and there he found Adam and Cha’va laying on the beds and sleeping; candles were illuminated above them, and a good scent surrounded them like a sweet savour. Therefore Avraham wanted the cave as a possession of a buryingplace”.

Furthermore, another legend says that Adam and Cha’va are buried in the entrance of the Garden of Eden. Those two legends might explain the source of attraction to the place.

The tradition which starts with Adam and Cha’va continues with three more additional couples; Avraham and Sara, Itzchak and Rivka, Ya’akov and Leah:

A little summary shows that four couples are buried in the cave, and also clarifies why Hebron חֶבְרוֹן is also called Kiryat-Arba קִרְיַת אַרְבַּע (the village of four [couples]) as appeared in Genesis 23:2. “And Sara died in Kiryat-Arba; that is Hevron, in the land of Canaan”.

Regarding the question, why Hevron becomes so important, and is considered to be one of the four holy cities in Israel, we can also learn from its name. The name Hevron חֶבְרוֹן comes from the root ח.ב.ר meaning to connect. That is to say that in the city of Hevron חֶבְרוֹן there is an existing connection with the founding couples of humanity.

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Source : Midrash De’Rabbi Eliezer chaper 36

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While looking for sources that support a an assumption to the name Yarden ירדן Jordan River, I found a charming book called “תבואות הארץ” (grains of the land [Israel]) that was written by ByRabbi Joseph Schwarz, 1850. It was translated to English under the title,“Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine”.

The book that originally was written in Hebrew, gives an accurately geographical description of the land and connects the names and the places to their biblical sources, or other historians as Flavius Josephus, Joseph ben Matityahu .

The written Hebrew is flowing, warm and kindhearted: the feeling that we get as readers, is of a constant dialogue with the writer. The words and the descriptions are so accurate that one might think that that he sees everything through a digital lens: hence, Rabbi Yehosef supports each name with a concrete evidence from the Bible, the Talmud, and diverse commentator before him. If we follow the description we feel timeless, everything is happening here and now:

What deeply engaged me today is the fact that a person that was born in Bohemia and educated on the knees of a German culture, expresses himself sharply in Hebrew, researches the reincarnation of names in different languages and exposse for the reader a wide colorful map of the land through a time tunnel.

Enjoy your reading!

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img: from the book by By Rabbi Joseph Schwarz.

We started the Hebrew Learnoutlive blog one year ago as a little hobby, that gives a scent of the Hebrew language. During this year the blog got its own life and developed to a Hebrew culture blog, which unfolds stories from the Hebrew tradition and culture (We’ll soon publish a little compilation of these stories, myths and legends on Amazon via learnoutlive.)

Since this blog developed away from dealing with Hebrew language study per se, we created a new site that offers learning materials from daily life (subscribe to get free updates) to give the current flow of the language, worksheets and more; we have also recently launched a set of Hebrew flash cards.This e-publication is a collection of essential words and phrases from the Bible, optimized for learning quickly and having fun at the same time!

For extensive learning we have cartoon videos, so let’s roll.

Shabat Shalom to all.

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