199 myths · Page 7 of 7
The last bull of seventy went up in smoke. The booths were coming down. Israel still stood in the courtyard and would not go home.
After civil war, Israel cursed any father who gave a daughter to Benjamin. On the fifteenth of Av the vow loosened and a tribe lived.
Israel came out of the sea calling herself a queen, the daughter of kings. Forty days later Moses climbed the mountain to keep her from being erased.
Beit Shammai built the throne first. Beit Hillel laid the floor first. Rabbi Shimon said they rose together like pot and lid.
Before a stone of the world was set, God stood before His angels and argued that creation itself was a sketch drawn for Israel alone.
Thirst and graves turned the camp against the road out of Egypt. God answered that the desert had been a palace, not a wasteland.
The soldier laughed when the outer course gave way. Jeremiah heard a roar above the dust. Heaven had spoken worlds, then labored over this house.
Earlier generations got no written date when God raised or removed them. Israel the orphan bride receives week, year, month, and place.
On the lashed decks men raised walls and a roof. The bars between the hulls held. Then they snapped, and the house went into the water.
God sends Israel from the land like a king sending a wife home, and orders her to keep the mitzvot, the commandments, on so return will not feel strange.
A king finds his orchard choked with thorns and lifts the axe, then smells one rose. For Israel's pledge at Sinai the whole ruined world is left standing.
Empty-handed before the throne, Israel names God's righteousness alone as the case for rescue, while David waits on hope that has no other coin left.
Seated by the kennel at a king's feast, Israel watches nations chew the world's peace, then learns joy from the dogs' portion and waits for Messiah's sun.
The last heel left the sea path. A chariot wheel hit the mud. Then heaven shut its windows, and the arrows started.
Before the marriage scribe, an orphan freezes when asked her father's name, then points to the guardian who raised her, not the man who only begot her.
Sinai becomes a wine house of love. Israel stands between the yetzer hara, the evil inclination, and Torah while heaven argues life against death.
The boy would not step past the gate. Robbers waited in the hills, pirates on the water. His father sealed an amulet in a stick and pressed it into his palm.
At Sinai the camp demanded to hear and see the King, not a messenger. God said yes. The voice then drove them the full length of their camp.
At the end of days the nations are tried beside their idols, and when the carved gods fly out of the flame, angels go up after them with chains.
