Divine Justice in Jewish Mythology

185 myths · Page 6 of 7

How the rabbis wrestled with the problem of suffering, the prosperity of the wicked, and the justice of God.
Parshat Beshalach 5 min

The Omer That Leveled Rich and Poor in the Desert

Nachshon ben Amminadav sent his whole household out to gather. A man with nothing went out alone. Their two jars measured out the same.

Yalkut ShimoniExodusMannaFaithDivine JusticeMiracles
Parshat Noach 4 min

The Penny Thieves Who Brought Down the Flood

The generation of the Flood was not destroyed for murder or war but for stealing less than a coin, theft too small for any court to name.

Yalkut ShimoniGenesisFloodDivine JusticeRobberyCorruptionSin
Myth 4 min

Miriam Watched One Hour and a Nation Waited Seven Days

Miriam stood watch over her floating brother for an hour. Heaven paid it back at seven days interest, with the entire nation frozen in the desert for her.

Yalkut ShimoniMiriamShekhinahSinaiDivine JusticeMosesMeasure For Measure
Myth 5 min

The Hidden Hand Behind Haman's Gallows and Mordecai's Crown

Haman came to the palace at dawn to ask for a hanging. The king spoke first and asked how to honor a favored man, and Haman described a parade for himself.

Legends Of The JewsEstherPurimHamanMordecaiAhasuerusDivine JusticeTemple
Myth 5 min

The Flesh Still in Their Teeth and the Measure of Justice

The quail were still in their mouths when the plague hit. The Mekhilta reads the wilderness to learn how God measures punishment against the size of a sin.

MekhiltaExodusDivine JusticeMiraclesWildernessSinMeasure For Measure
Parshat Bereshit 6 min

Two Equal Lights and the Moon That Was Diminished

Two great lights, one crown. When the moon is shrunk to the lesser lamp she storms the court for justice, and heaven ends up owing her a debt.

MoonSunDivine JusticeAtonementNew MoonMidrashTargumCreationSabbathStatutes
Parshat Vayera 6 min

Sodom Burned Lot's Daughter Plotit for Hiding Bread in Her Water Jug

In a city where feeding a stranger means death by fire, Lot hides two angels and his daughter Plotit smuggles bread to a starving man.

SodomLotPlotitAngelsHospitalityCharityVayeraExileDivine JusticeTorah
Parshat Beshalach 7 min

When the Sea and the Earth Went to War Over the Drowned

God orders Rahab to swallow the waters of creation. He refuses and is slain, and then the sea and the earth quarrel over who must take the dead.

RahabPrince Of The SeaCreationPrimordial WatersSong At The SeaMidrash TanchumaDivine JusticeRahavSeaAngelsWaterExodus
Parshat Terumah 6 min

The King Who Shamed a King and Grazed With the Beasts

Nebuchadnezzar fed a sworn king barley and grazed him before the nations, so God drove the emperor onto all fours in his own field.

NebuchadnezzarZedekiahMidrash TanchumaBabylonDivine JusticeTerumah
Myth 6 min

The Brothers Who Denied a Roman His Furnace Miracle

Trayanos told the two bound brothers to beg God for a rescue like the one in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. They said no. They were not that righteous.

MartyrdomRoman PersecutionFiery FurnaceDefianceDivine JusticeTalmud
Parshat Vaera 7 min

The King Who Let Judah Bow to Him as a God

The boy was hidden in the Holy of Holies and lived. Years later his princes called that proof he was a god, and Joash believed them.

JoashJehoiadaZechariahIdolatryTempleSelf DeificationDivine Justice
Myth 5 min

Jair Burned the Faithful and Fire Answered From Heaven

An idol, a furnace, and seven men who would not bow, until heaven sent the lord over fire to turn the tyrant's flames back on his own servants.

GinzbergIdolatryAngelsFireMartyrdomJudgesDivine Justice
Parshat Ki Tisa 6 min

God Showed Moses the Spring Where Justice Looked Like Cruelty

On Sinai Moses begged to see the law behind the world, and God led him to a spring where one lost purse left a boy rich and an old man dead.

MosesDivine JusticeSinaiMeasure For MeasureTheodicyReward And PunishmentLegends Of The Jews
Myth 6 min

Zeresh Designed the Gallows and Her Sons Hanged on It

Behind Haman stood Zeresh, who closed every escape but the gallows and measured the beam, until the wood she built took her own sons.

EstherHamanZereshPurimDivine JusticeWomen
Parshat Vaera 5 min

Pharaoh Seized at the Nile as a False God

Every dawn Pharaoh slipped alone to the Nile. Moses seized him there and asked if any god must relieve himself.

PharaohMosesNilePlaguesEgyptVaeraDivine JusticeHubris
Parshat Beshalach 5 min

Earth Spits Egypt Back Until God Swears an Oath

After the sea splits, the land and the water fight over Egyptian corpses, each refusing burial until God swears by His right hand.

ExodusRed SeaEgyptEarthOathSong At The SeaBurialKayinTargum Pseudo JonathanPharaohDivine JusticeCourtJudgment
Parshat Shemot 5 min

Moses Named God to Pharaoh and Pharaoh Checked His Book of Angels

A prince walked out of the palace and saw what the brick pits were doing to men. Years later he came back with a Name, and the throne looked it up.

MosesPharaohExodusName Of GodEgyptProphecyDivine JusticeSinaiAaronProphetPriestRedemptionAngelsUzzaPlaguesHeavenly Court
Myth 5 min

The Cellar That Broke What He Refused to Tithe

A harvest lord smashed his own casks rather than give the tithe, while another man buried gold in clay and returned to empty jars.

TitheWealthCharityTorahTheftHungerOilWineTithesDivine JusticeFarmingTempleLevites
Parshat Emor 5 min

The Stolen Lulav That Testified Before the King

A bandit returned a rug to buy a defender and met that defender as his accuser. So a stolen lulav (palm branch) testifies on Sukkot.

RepentanceCommandmentsDivine JusticeSukkot
Myth 6 min

God Marked Cain, and Cain Walked the Road Utterly Alone

After the blood dried, Cain feared every face he might meet, though almost no one lived yet. His real terror was the silence of being cast off by God.

CainAbelExilePhiloKohelet RabbahLonelinessCreationJudgmentGenesisDivine Justice
Myth 6 min

Job Gave the Accuser a Piece of Burnt Bread

Job locked his gate against the Accuser, then sent burnt bread. The servant swapped it. Satan took the threat home to Job's flesh and his wife's hair.

JobHa SatanDemonsDivine JusticeSuffering
Myth 5 min

David Forgot the Law and Uzzah Fell Beside the Ark

David said Torah was as easy as song. Then he set the Ark on a wagon. When the oxen stumbled, Uzzah reached out, and the law David forgot struck home.

DavidArkTempleTorahDivine Justice
Myth 5 min

The Frog Carried the Scorpion Across the River

A frog ferried a scorpion to its kill and back. A shrub saved a man until he stripped it off. In Vayikra Rabbah, every creature keeps a mission.

Divine JusticeAnimalsRabbisRomeImpurity
Myth 6 min

The King Whose Sin Outran Language and the Son Who Kept It

Ahab ruled two hundred and fifty-two kingdoms and denied God on his own gates, yet clutched the Torah. His son Joram kept only the ruin.

AhabJoramKings Of IsraelIdolatryTorahMoabDivine Justice
Parshat Beshalach 6 min

Pharaoh Read Evil in a Star and Fell in the Pit He Dug

Pharaoh read a star named Evil rising to bleed Israel, but God turned the omen into covenant blood and the sea took the man who dug the pit.

PharaohExodusAstrologyCircumcisionRed SeaDivine Justice
Parshat Metzora 6 min

The Stingy Man Whose Walls Tore Open to Spill His Hidden Hoard

A stingy man swore he owned no scythe, no axe, nothing to lend, until a plague tore his walls open and spilled his hidden hoard for all to see.

MiserTzaraatMetzoraStinginessDivine JusticeMidrash Tanchuma
Parshat Shoftim 5 min

The Nations Demanded Their Wages and God Handed Them a Sukkah

At the final reckoning the nations crowd in for Torah's wages, kick apart the one booth God grants them, and the whole account falls to a single line.

Judgment DayNationsSukkahTorahIdolsMidrash TanchumaRewardDivine JusticeProphecyDanielEstherMidrash
Myth 6 min

Sisera's Mother at the Lattice and the Sixth Hour

Thirty-one kings marched to drink Israel's waters and drowned at Kishon, while Sisera's mother counted the hours for a son who would never come home.

SiseraSong Of DeborahMidrashYalkut ShimoniDivine JusticeMothers And Sons
Myth 6 min

The Messiah Whose Name Waited Before the First Light

Before light or sea, the name and spirit of the King Messiah waited among God's treasures, sealed until the age when he judges the poor with righteousness.

MessiahKing DavidCreationDivine JusticeRedemptionWorld To Come
Parshat Haazinu 6 min

Honey From the Rock Until the Wine Turned to Serpent Venom

God fed Israel honey pressed from bare rock and oil from flint. Then the nations poured a cup, and the wine moved in them like a serpent.

MosesDivine JusticeJudgmentExileSerpentDeuteronomy