89 myths · Page 2 of 3
One dawn the taskmaster led a Hebrew out early, then slipped back to the man's house. Shelomith thought it was her husband who had returned.
An axe head flew from its haft and a man ran for the city of refuge while the blood avenger pursued with a heart boiling from grief and rage.
An axe head slipped and a man fell dead. The killer ran for a city of refuge while the goel hadam closed the road behind him.
Even a killer mid-service at the Tamid was pulled out to die, while the high priest's tunic atoned daily for innocent blood.
A man lied to the High Priest to hide a deliberate sin, and the false word turned back to strike his own children with leprosy.
From dawn to dusk the line never broke until Jethro warned Moses he would droop like a stripped fig, and thousands of judges rose to share the beam.
Two men stood in court and pointed at an innocent life, until later mouths proved they had never been where they claimed to stand.
A boy's parents brought him to the elders at the gate, calling him a drunk and a thief. The rabbis then added so many conditions that no boy could be stoned.
A day laborer finishes a wall as light fails and waits for coin that does not come. Night falls twice when wages stay in a rich man's bag.
A thief stole the carpenter's savings and died on the road. The purse spent years inside a hollow tree, then floated back to the man it belonged to.
Haman pressed the king's ring into hot wax and sent riders out with a date for killing every Jew. God had not said it. The plot came back on his own head.
Shimon ben Shetach sends one scheming witness to the sword, and Yehudah ben Tabbai swears the court itself has spilled innocent blood.
An Egyptian steals a night from an Israelite house, then raises his whip. Moses turns, judges the man, and buries him in sand before Egypt wakes.
After the Flood, fruit fed and barren wood warmed. Then Nimrod rose, a hunter who turned strength against heaven and against human blood.
The ox had been quiet for months. Then it lowered its head in the lane and a man went down. Its owner left court owing nothing and slept badly.
An accidental killer fled before any city of refuge existed. In the wilderness the Levite camp became the only wall between him and the avenger's knife.
On the Mount of Olives David climbs barefoot, tears on his face, a psalm in his mouth. Absalom takes the city, and measure for measure walks with the king.
Twenty-two thousand Levites cover Israel's firstborn, but two hundred seventy-three sons still owe five coins. Moses fills an urn so no father can cry foul.
A tyrant lists what he will do to the king's son. God hears every word. At the sea a single breath of wind closes the water over his army and his boasts.
Water mixed into wine. Poppy oil into olive oil. A scale beam long on one side and short on the other. Students wrote while their stomachs turned.
A man left gold with a neighbor who prayed like a righteous person. The neighbor denied it until Elijah put a secret feast on the wife's tongue.
Two lepers came to the healer's door, and neither knew her. She asked each man to name the sin behind his disease before she would touch him.
A traveler hid in a mountain cave and watched three strangers cycle through a pool until a purse, a theft, and a killing demanded a dream.
A king forgave a province's taxes in stages as crowds met him on the road, mapping Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur so Sukkot could open as a true first day.
King Yannai sat in gold while his servant's murder case waited, and Shimon ben Shatach alone ordered the king to rise when the other judges froze.
After a Shabbat beating, a fox led a wolf to a well, called the moon a cheese, and rode the rising bucket while the wolf sank for a meal of light.
Rabbi Elazar sentenced a man for an insult, then soaked sixty cloths a night until his pride dried into hard clarity.
Hired to block Israel's path, Sihon gathered for war while the Torah still required a first word of peace at the gate.
A man locked his neighbor's silver in a chest and swore it was stolen. Confess first and he repays a fifth more. Wait for witnesses and he pays double.
A father's will leaves everything to his slave and one choice to his son. In court the son names the slave himself, and the whole estate follows.
