12 myths
Each story names the sources it was written from.
The plan came from a Hebrew fugitive. Every soldier had to raise a stork and starve it three days. The birds were loosed on the serpents guarding the city.
Moses shaved him bald as part of a purification rite. Korah walked back through the camp and his own neighbors asked him who he was.
Haman left the queen's first banquet certain he was the only man in Persia she wanted at her table. He had one night left.
The upper waters flew up to the Throne singing. The half left underneath said woe to us and started climbing after them, and the world nearly ended.
Metatron clapped his hands and the stars flew off the Throne on flaming wings. He named every one of them while Rabbi Ishmael watched.
On the second day of creation the sky trembled like fresh milk in a bowl, waiting. One divine word dropped in and the whole expanse seized and stood.
Come, the merchant said, and I will show you where earth and the sky kiss. Rabbah followed him past the last caravan road.
David's overlooked son was born under a cloud of scandal, yet his face silenced the gossips and his piety carried him past death itself.
On the first day the heavens were still soft, like wet clay. On the second day they hardened. A rabbi said the sky was flattened the way gold is hammered thin.
Galgiel took the reins before dawn. The sun had to bathe first. Yesterday's fire was still on it, and the earth could not take that heat twice.
The seat under David was fire forty parasangs high. He sat and sang until Metatron answered, and the fire did not eat him.
God drove the seas down from beside the Throne. They clawed for the height they were leaving. The cry they made still holds the rivers in place.
