5 myths
Simchah, the commandment to rejoice: the dancing at the Temple, the joy of Shabbat, and the happiness that draws the divine presence.
5 myths on JewishMythology.com retell how Jewish tradition imagines joy, 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.
Jethro the Midianite lays burnt offerings on the fire while Aaron and the elders come to eat bread, and Moses stands and serves them all.
Every day ten oxen, a hundred sheep, and a bird from Barbary carrying itself to the kitchen. The world came to Solomon unbidden. Then it stopped coming.
The rabbis heard pain inside the Persian king's name, because one ruler held Israel's mourning and celebration in the same mouth.
In the fourth palace of heaven, thousands of angels gather at Sabbath tables. An angelic overseer watches to see who rejoices and who does not.
The Tikkunei Zohar warns that sadness gives Lilith a position near the Shekhinah's doorway, and only joy can keep her from displacing the divine presence.
