Of God’s Blessings and Doing Charitable Deeds: Selections from the Genesis Rabbah, Part 2 of 2

“The very punishments with which God visits His erring children are often turned into blessings. When the deluge was sent on a sinning world all the fountains of the great deep were opened (Genesis 7:11), but when the deluge ceased not all the fountains were stopped. Those containing the mineral waters with their healing properties were left open for the great benefit of man. […]

The pure of heart are God’s friends.

Lot enjoyed four great benefits in accompanying Abraham. He became rich, became the possessor of property, was rescued from 36 kings who pursued him, and was saved with his family at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. […]

Once a man, twice a child. Nations in Abraham’s time desired to proclaim Him their prince and their king, […] but He indignantly declined, and took that very opportunity to point out to them that there is but one Great King, one Great God. […]

The feeble prayer which a sick person can offer himself is infinitely better than all the prayers offered for him by others. Everyone is morally blind until his eyes are opened for him from above. […]

Have no compunction to admonish where admonition is called for; it will produce not animosity, but eventually love and peace. […]

Rabbi Meier came to a place where he found a family (a people) remarkable for dying young. They asked him to pray for them, but he advised them to be of a charitable disposition in order to prolong life. […]”

“Just as two knives are both sharpened by being rubbed one against the other, so scholars improve and increase in knowledge when in touch with one another. The portion of the temple called the Drawing-court was so called because the people drew thence the Holy Spirit. […]

[…] Frequently does David, in his prayers, use the phrase: ‘Arise, O God.’ […] When he uses this prayer in connection with oppression of the poor, the answer he receives is, ‘Now I will arise, said the Lord’ (Psalms 12:5). […]

Man in distress pledges himself to good deeds; man in prosperity forgets his good resolutions. […]”

“Slander is compared to an arrow, not to any other handy weapon, such as a sword, etc., because like an arrow it kills at a distance. It can be uttered in Rome and have its baneful effect in Syria. […]”