6 myths
Myths, legends, and mystical writings about Holy Spirit from across Jewish tradition.
6 myths on JewishMythology.com retell how Jewish tradition imagines holy spirit, 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.
Jacob kept the wells of Haran flowing for twenty years. Three days after he set his face toward Gilead, Laban's well went dry.
After Isaac blessed Jacob with stolen goatskins, Rebekah laid her hands on Jacob and spoke a second blessing. The holy spirit finished it for her.
Jacob held both boys against him and waited for the spirit that had never once failed him. Nothing came. Joseph took his sons out of the room.
When God came to Balaam wherever Balaam stood, the rabbis said this was not an honor. It was the parable of a king and a beggar at the door.
Gerar's king had taken Sarah, and every womb in his house shut. Abraham asked God to let them multiply instead. Abimelech's barren wife bore a child.
The room smelled of age and oil. Joseph steered his two boys under a dying man's hands, the same hands that once gripped a brother's heel.
