4 myths
The boundaries of belief in Jewish tradition: Elisha ben Abuya's apostasy, the minim, and what it means to leave the fold.
4 myths on JewishMythology.com retell how Jewish tradition imagines heresy, 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.
Four sages entered the Pardes. One came out and kept talking about two divine powers. The Talmud stopped using his name and called him Aher, the Other.
An angel held the chisel at creation, said a sect hidden in caves, and the rabbis who hunted the doctrine fought to bury it forever.
Elisha ben Abuya entered heaven and saw an angel seated on a throne. In heaven, no one sits. His mind drew one conclusion, and it cost him everything.
Four rabbis entered the mystical orchard. Three were destroyed. Rabbi Akiva alone came out whole, and a later text asks why he was the only one who survived.
