11 myths
Myths, legends, and mystical writings about Issachar from across Jewish tradition.
11 myths on JewishMythology.com retell how Jewish tradition imagines issachar, 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.
David was warrior, king, and poet. The later tradition adds a fourth role: student of Torah. What he found there surprised him, and he wrote it down in Psalms.
Jacob blessed Issachar by calling him a donkey. The bones of a donkey show through its skin, and so did Issachar's learning.
Reuben tied his father's donkey to a mandrake root and walked off. He came back to find the plant torn out of the ground and the donkey dead beside it.
Zebulun is the forgotten tribe. No miracles, no prophets, no famous kings. Just trade routes and a coastline. The rabbis say that coastline built the Torah.
The wise men who ruled on Vashti were the tribe of Issachar, who kept the calendar. Later the king warned Haman that Egypt had tried this and lost.
While Laban counted wool, Jacob told Leah and Rachel of God's dream. They rose with him, crossed the river, and left the house of wages behind.
Reuben came in from the fields with flowers he had not tasted. His mother traded them away that same evening for one night with her own husband.
While Korah marched two hundred and fifty princes, On's wife poured wine, unbound her hair, and blocked the door until the earth closed.
A priest spared his skin with silk gloves at the altar, then lost both hands after mocking a king's question about lamb and kid.
Six painted wagons roll to the Tent while Moses freezes, sure the Spirit has left him for the chieftains and that desert roads will shatter the gift.
His brothers got vineyards and grain while he got mountains and a raw shore. So Zebulun went up and told God he had been shortchanged.
