12 myths
Before Israel ever said yes, God walked to Esau, then to Ammon and Moab, holding out the Torah. Each nation asked one question, then turned away.
The pavement under His feet was sapphire, clear as sky. The seventy did not dissolve. Hunger returned, and they answered it with a meal.
A woman went into labor while she was treading mortar for Pharaoh. The child came out into the brick mold, and an angel came down for the mold.
On Sinai an angel gave Moses the heavenly count of days, then showed him the age when one stolen month would drown every festival in chaos.
The Mekhilta forbids reminding a convert of idols and swine, because Israel were strangers too, and harming him trespasses against God.
Hadrian told his nephew to invest in whatever lay lowest, for it rises. Aquila took the advice as prophecy and chose the people of Israel.
Sold in a famine year, a Hebrew girl learns the master must give her food, clothing, and time as he would a free daughter, not a tool in his house.
God offered Moses an angel to lead the way. Moses refused anyone but God. Years later Joshua met the same captain and the angel wept.
Coins appeared under a doorpost for years. Then the poor man opened the door, and the giver ran toward a furnace still hot from the day's fire.
The first cohort came for chains. They sat at his table and never marched home. Rome sent a second company anyway.
On his deathbed Rabbi Ammi cried while disciples praised his learning. He feared Heaven's bill for every case he would not hear.
Each night a man's soul is handed to God like a pledged cloak and faithfully returned at dawn, yet it still answers for every sin the body commits by mistake.
