Reb Zemira lived in the times of the Tenaim, a few generations before the Zohar Hakadosh. In those days, donkeys were a common mode of transportation, used for getting from one destination to the next. Reb Zemira, too, owned a donkey, which he rode whenever he needed to travel. On one occasion, Reb Zemira was …
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Grave Retribution
The holy Bach was a very powerful rav who led his community with wisdom and dedication. He did not get scared off by the wealthy or influential activists in the community who tried using him to promote their own agendas, and instead remained true to his convictions. While he was revered by the vast majority …
Saved by Vatranus
This story is from the Midrash.There was Taana in the times of the Gemara named Reb Reuven who was blessed with the ability to overturn heavenly decrees with his tefillos. His powerful prayers, laced with tears and genuine feeling, carried extraordinary weight in Shamayim, and no bitter decree could remain standing in the face of …
The Rav’s Resignation
Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson was a brilliant gaon and a giant in Torah. He was also a tremendous masmid who learned around the clock, eating and sleeping just enough to keep him going. When he was a young man of marriageable age, there was no dearth of shidduch offers that came his way. Everyone, from …
The Tailor’s Reward
The holy Shaagas Aryeh had a shamash who served him devotedly for many years. However, he was an elderly man, and soon the time came for him to depart from the world. When the Shaagas Aryeh was notified that his faithful shamash was on his deathbed, he immediately went to visit him. The shamash, once …
Beehive Booty
Rav Meir’l Premishlan was a famous Chassidic tzaddik who lived in the late eighteenth century. He was so great that he could tell, from looking at a person’s forehead, everything that was going on in his mind. He could see the person’s history of mitzvos and aveiros, and even the gilgulim that the person’s soul …
The Real Gift
Benny was finishing up his final year of high school, and the exciting occasion of his upcoming graduation was nearing. A Jewish American teenager in a yeshiva day school, he was looking forward to the graduation present that his parents would surely grant him. Many of his friends were getting cars as graduation gifts from …
Sin of Silence
The holy Rav Chaim ben Atar, famously known as the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh, was born in the city of Sali, Morocco in the year 5454 (1694 CE). He was a tremendous tzaddik and talmid chacham who authored commentaries on Chumash, Gemara, and Shulchan Aruch. He also possessed ruach hakodesh. The Ohr Hachaim had an interesting …
Shlomo Hamelech and Ashmedai
This story is from the Gemara in Gittin, daf 68a When Shlomo Hamelech wanted to build the Bais Hamikdash, he ran into a problem. The Halacha is that the stones used to build the Bais Hamikdash may not be cut using a metal blade, but it was impossible to build the Bais Hamikdash without cutting …
Courage and Conviction
Rav Chatzel Miletzky (later of Yerushalayim) was sixteen years old when war tore through Europe in a wave of devastation, destruction, and death. Young Chaikel skirted danger and looked fear in the eye, yet he never allowed the fear of human threat overcome his fear of Heaven. Following are three stories, shared with me by …