203 myths · Page 2 of 7
Aaron entered the Mishkan's first public morning with ten crowns on the day, while seven hidden days of mourning closed around his house.
Titus stabbed the Temple curtain and the blade came out bloody, and he walked out of the chamber alive. Nadab and Abihu entered to serve and burned.
Israel did not believe because Aaron made signs in Egypt. They believed when his mouth carried the phrase Joseph had buried in memory.
Aaron's priesthood was bracketed by two catastrophes, the Golden Calf and Korah's rebellion. Both threatened him. Both failed to destroy him.
Gad pulled a lamb out of a bear's mouth and had to put it down. Joseph went home and told their father the handmaids' sons were eating the herd.
Moses anointed Aaron as High Priest and then told him he could not serve for seven days. He sat at the door of the Tabernacle and watched.
After Phinehas stopped the plague, his enemies attacked his mother's lineage. God answered by publicly establishing his priestly identity through Moses.
Moses had set the incense test for morning. Korah spent that night building a coalition larger than Moses had ever faced before.
After Korah's rebellion, twelve tribal rods lay in the Tabernacle overnight. By morning one had burst into almond blossoms and ripe fruit.
A generation raised under divine clouds had never seen direct sunlight. The day Aaron died on Mount Hor, every cloud dissolved at once.
At the Golden Calf the Levites would come forward with swords. Judah's banner would lead every march. Neither had happened yet when Moses' arms went up.
A crying child in a basket on the Nile became the redeemer of Israel. The rabbis followed the water from Pharaoh's river to Miriam's well to the desert clouds.
A sister speaks against Moses and the cloud withdraws. The whole nation waits seven days in the wilderness until shame finishes its work and Miriam can return.
God tells Moses he will be gathered as Aaron was gathered. The rabbis heard desire: Moses wanted his brother's peaceful death, not his own.
Moses prays 515 times at the Jordan's edge, draws a circle in the dust, and prays until heaven trembles. God finally says: enough, do not continue.
Under his feet was something like a pavement of sapphire, clear as the sky. The men who stood there did not die of it. They sat down and had a meal.
Moses refused to bring the plagues of blood, frogs, and lice himself. The river had once carried his basket, and he would not repay it with a rod.
Every Israelite could stand at the door of the Tent and watch. On went the robe, then the oil, then blood on Aaron's ear, thumb, and toe.
After Korah's rebellion, Aaron ran into the plague with altar fire and incense. He stopped the Angel of Death at the boundary between the living and the dead.
When Aaron's staff swallowed the staffs of Pharaoh's magicians, the rabbis said the real miracle was not the serpents. It was dead wood consuming dead wood.
Moses asked his brother to step into a cave with him. Inside was a made bed, a burning lamp, a table set with food, and angels standing in attendance.
Aaron's first offering as High Priest was a tenth of an ephah of flour. Vayikra Rabbah found in that small measure the whole architecture of divine mercy.
God lifts Abraham above the stars to count them, then the census of the wilderness counts Israel as love made visible in numbers.
Twelve princes each believed the priesthood should have been his. Moses cut all twelve staffs out of one beam so nobody could argue afterward.
Shifra and Puah refuse Pharaoh at the birth room; Moses resists God for seven days at the burning bush; and children at the sea recognize God first.
God calls Moses through his father's voice at the burning bush so the first prophet will not be shattered. Moses hides his face. Awe arrives before the mission.
Akilas the convert asked the rabbis what God actually promised a stranger. Bread and clothing, said the verse. The rabbi told him to read it again.
Moses the younger walked in front of Aaron the elder. A shepherd's staff outranked a scepter. God spent the Exodus tearing up every rule of rank.
Egypt's sorcerers matched Moses blow for blow through the first five plagues. Balaam led them. Then the boils came and they could not stand before Moses.
God made Moses install Aaron before witnesses. The robes were barely on before two sons burned. A half-Egyptian man then cursed God and was held for judgment.
