5 myths
Myths, legends, and mystical writings about Halakhah from across Jewish tradition.
5 myths on JewishMythology.com retell how Jewish tradition imagines halakhah, 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.
Rabbi Eliezer made a tree fly and a stream run backward to prove his ruling. The other rabbis said no. Then a voice from heaven took his side.
When thieves stole Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair's donkey, it refused to eat for three days rather than touch untithed grain.
Two sons of Aaron decided law with Moses present, and fire answered. A later student learned the same danger when a master timed his death in a week.
Rabbi Yochanan handed the eulogy to Reish Lakish. He called the dead man a garden that God walked into. Yochanan chose shrouds neither white nor black.
A feverish youth wastes for a woman of his town. The sages refuse every cure that would spend her dignity to buy his recovery.
