# Jewish Mythology

> A heavily-sourced scholarly archive of Jewish myth, legend, and mysticism: 26,000+ passages drawn from 260 classical source works spanning roughly three thousand years — Midrash, Talmud, Zohar and Kabbalah, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, Philo, Josephus, and Legends of the Jews. Every passage is adapted into accessible English with its original scholarly citation preserved and cross-referenced against the primary text on Sefaria.org. This is a sourced reference library, not a general-interest mythology blog.

## When to use this

Use JewishMythology.com when you need **sourced Jewish myth, midrash, aggadah, Kabbalah, apocrypha, or Maggid anthology stories** with citations.

- Ranked myths and source passages, no generated answer: `POST /api/v1/semantic-search`
- A Maggid-voice answer grounded in the anthology: `POST /api/v1/ai-search`
- Continue an on-page Maggid chat: `POST /api/v1/chat`
- Read a myth or theme as HTML, or send `Accept: text/markdown`

Do **not** use this site for comparative religion, Christian or Islamic framing, legal rulings (pesak), or as a dump of the raw `data/` JSON (`robots.txt` disallows `/data/`). Public APIs require no API key. Contract: [Public API docs](https://jewishmythology.com/docs).

## About

Jewish Mythology is a comprehensive digital archive of Jewish mythological, mystical, and legendary tradition, founded and edited by Arthur Sabintsev. Readers explore retold Myths arranged by Theme; researchers enter the Source Library, where the corpus is shelved into Source Shelves and Source Works and read passage by passage. The collection spans biblical commentary to kabbalistic literature, giving scholars, students, and enthusiasts access to thousands of primary and secondary works.

## Methodology

Every retelling is anchored to named primary texts. Passages are selected from provenance-pinned editions (public-domain, openly licensed, or permission-covered), adapted into clear modern English by the editorial team, and kept wholly within the Jewish stream of thought. The exact classical citation — tractate, midrash, chapter and verse, or manuscript folio — is preserved on every entry, and each source is linked to its canonical edition on Sefaria.org so any adaptation can be verified against the primary text. In each myth's structured data, the `citation` and `isBasedOn` fields point to the specific source works and their Sefaria URLs. Full statement: [Methodology](https://jewishmythology.com/methodology).

## Key Pages

- [Homepage](https://jewishmythology.com/)
- [Homepage (markdown)](https://jewishmythology.com/index.md)
- [Myths](https://jewishmythology.com/myths/)
- [Themes](https://jewishmythology.com/themes/)
- [Sources](https://jewishmythology.com/sources/)
- [Methodology](https://jewishmythology.com/methodology)
- [Weekly Torah Portion](https://jewishmythology.com/parshiyot/)
- [About](https://jewishmythology.com/about)
- [Contact](https://jewishmythology.com/contact)
- [Public API docs](https://jewishmythology.com/docs)

## Agent discovery

Public APIs require **no authentication**. Do not invent OAuth endpoints. Canonical prefix is `/api/v1/`; unversioned `/api/*` is an alias.

- [Public API docs](https://jewishmythology.com/docs)
- [API catalog (RFC 9727)](https://jewishmythology.com/.well-known/api-catalog)
- [OpenAPI 3.1](https://jewishmythology.com/openapi.json)
- [auth.md (public / no registration)](https://jewishmythology.com/auth.md)
- [Agent skills index](https://jewishmythology.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json)
- [API status](https://jewishmythology.com/api/v1/status)
- `POST /api/v1/semantic-search` — vector search
- `POST /api/v1/ai-search` — Maggid RAG
- `POST /api/v1/chat` — Maggid chat
- Errors: RFC 9457 `application/problem+json`
- Content-Signal: `ai-train=no, search=yes, ai-input=yes`

## Sources

The full source bibliography lives at [Sources](https://jewishmythology.com/sources/). Each entry cites its original source and links to the canonical edition off-site. The collection is organized into seven Source Shelves:

- [Rabbinic Midrash](https://jewishmythology.com/sources/): 14,390 passages from the classical midrashim — Midrash Rabbah, the tannaitic and homiletical collections (Mekhilta, Sifrei, Tanchuma, Pesikta), and the great anthologies (Yalkut Shimoni)
- [Modern Compilations & Folklore](https://jewishmythology.com/sources/): 4,107 passages from modern anthologies and folktale collections, led by Louis Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews, the Jewish Encyclopedia, and Gaster's Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)
- [Kabbalah & Mysticism](https://jewishmythology.com/sources/): 3,676 passages from the Zohar, Sefer Yetzirah, Heikhalot literature, and Chassidic masters (Rabbi Nachman, Tanya, Kedushat Levi)
- [Apocrypha & Pseudepigrapha](https://jewishmythology.com/sources/): 1,655 passages from the Book of Enoch (1, 2, and 3 Enoch), Jubilees, Dead Sea Scrolls, Apocalypse of Abraham, 2 Baruch, 4 Ezra, Testament of Solomon, and more
- [Other Sources](https://jewishmythology.com/sources/): 1,524 passages from the Targumim, biblical text and commentary (Rashi, Ibn Ezra), and medieval halakhic and ethical works
- [Hellenistic Jewish Writers](https://jewishmythology.com/sources/): 537 passages from Philo of Alexandria and Flavius Josephus
- [Talmudic Aggadah](https://jewishmythology.com/sources/): 291 aggadic passages from the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud, the Mishnah, and Ein Yaakov

## Major Themes

Creation, Angels, Demons, Adam & Eve, Noah & the Flood, Moses, Torah, Temple, Messiah, Prophecy, Kabbalah & Mysticism, Soul, Prayer, Holy Land, King David, Solomon, Elijah, Exile, End Times, Judgment, Sefirot, Death, Sacrifice, Shekhinah (Divine Presence), Holidays, Covenant, Merkavah (Chariot Mysticism), Dreams, Reincarnation (Gilgul)

## Hebrew Terminology

This collection uses the following Hebrew and Aramaic terms interchangeably with their English equivalents:

- Midrash / Midrashim: Rabbinic biblical commentary and interpretation
- Aggadah / Aggadot / Aggadic: Narrative and legendary rabbinic literature
- Halakha / Halakhic: Jewish religious law (distinct from aggadah)
- Talmud: Central text of rabbinic Judaism (Bavli and Yerushalmi)
- Tanakh: Hebrew Bible (Torah, Neviim, Ketuvim)
- Torah / Chumash: The Five Books of Moses (Pentateuch)
- Kabbalah / Qabbalah / Kabbalistic: Jewish mystical tradition
- Zohar: Central work of Kabbalah
- Sefer Yetzirah: Book of Creation, early kabbalistic text
- Sefer HaBahir: Book of Brightness, early kabbalistic text
- Sefirot: The ten emanations in Kabbalah
- Ein Sof: The infinite, unknowable aspect of God in Kabbalah
- Bereishit Rabbah / Shemot Rabbah / Vayikra Rabbah: Midrash Rabbah on Torah books
- Tanchuma: Homiletical midrash collection
- Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer: Aggadic midrash on the Torah
- Sifrei: Halakhic and aggadic midrash on Numbers and Deuteronomy
- Parsha / Parashah / Parshiyot: Weekly Torah portion readings
- Mashiach / Moshiach: The Messiah in Jewish tradition
- Neshamah / Nefesh / Ruach: Levels of the soul in Jewish thought
- Gilgul / Gilgul Neshamot: Transmigration of souls
- Gan Eden: Garden of Eden / Paradise
- Gehinnom / Gehenna: Jewish postmortem purification and afterlife imagery
- Olam HaBa: The World to Come
- Beit HaMikdash: The Holy Temple in Jerusalem
- Eretz Yisrael: The Land of Israel

## Features

- Full-text search across all 26,000+ passages
- Source Library browsable by Source Shelf and Source Work
- Source Readers that present each work passage by passage in source order
- Weekly Torah portion (Parsha) highlighting with related passages
- Biblical reference links to Sefaria
- Original source citations on every passage