7 myths
The origins and nature of good and evil in Jewish thought, from the two inclinations to the cosmic struggle between light and darkness.
7 myths on JewishMythology.com retell how Jewish tradition imagines good and evil, drawn from the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, Talmud, Kabbalah, and later Jewish literature. Each story below synthesizes primary sources into a single narrative; follow any myth to read it, and from there into the source passages behind it.
Laban chased Jacob to Gilead to wipe out his house, and the same hunter rose again as Balaam, the Devourer of Nations, mouth open over Israel.
When Haman fell onto Esther's couch, an unseen archangel had pushed him, and ten angels in the king's garden were felling trees to time it.
Two sisters argued in a field in Haran over a handful of apples. The price they settled on was one night with their husband, and the child was Issachar.
When Benjamin went to Egypt, Joseph pulled him aside and asked what their brothers had told Jacob. The answer revealed a mercy his brothers never knew about.
When God formed Adam and commanded the angels to honor him, Ha-Satan, the Accuser, refused. Formed from fire, he would not bow before dust.
The first murderer walked out of his sentencing in a good mood. His father, who had only eaten fruit, never got out from under his own.
Asher was a hundred and twenty-five and still strong when he called his sons in. He told them a man can hurt someone in order to heal him.
