49 myths · Page 1 of 2
The marble looked like standing water. Akiva told them not to shout. Heaven does not forgive a lie about what sits in front of the eyes.
The wings thundered like a flood, then folded. Ezekiel, a priest on a Babylonian canal, was the only living man left in that quiet.
Isaiah walked into the Temple the year the king died and found burning ones above the throne, crying holy until the doorposts shook.
Enoch's angelic guides abandon him at the threshold of the tenth heaven. He falls to the ground in terror. Then God calls him to come closer.
They soaked wool against his heart so the fire would last. The letters left the burning scroll and went up while Rabbi Ishmael set a harder rule.
In Babylonian exile, Ezekiel watches the sky tear open. Fire, wheels full of eyes, and four impossible creatures arrive bearing the throne of God.
While the earthly Temple burned, Michael never left the heavenly altar, offering Israel's prayers as the high priest who never rested.
Genesis gives Jacob's ladder vision in one night. The ancient Aramaic translators recorded five miracles that bent the world toward Jacob before he slept.
Vayikra Rabbah says a prophet sees God the way a candle is seen through a window. Abraham got nine clouded panes. Moses got one clear one.
Moses saw God most clearly of all the prophets. Ezekiel saw through nine clouded panes. So why is Ezekiel's vision so much stranger and more detailed?
Radweriel carried a sealed case into the highest court. He broke the seal. Every deed anyone had ever done sat in that book, waiting to be read.
Rabbi Ishmael asked which songs would get a man past seven gates and back alive. At the sixth palace the water was a lie.
Egypt's prince ran four hundred parasangs from the decree. God stripped him and sent him down to keep the dead. Sabbath is their only rest.
Zoharariel approaches the throne on his knees, shaking, while other angels tremble and the measure of his garment exceeds all bounds.
Every dawn a new host of angels is created from fire, sings one song before God, and is gone before the morning has fully opened.
At the gate of the seventh palace, Anaphiel stands crowned with a radiance that fills the seventh heaven, holding the seal that opens the way to the Throne.
Nehunya sat on a bench with his eyes open and nothing behind them. His students needed the names of the two seals before more men died.
Three times a day the throne bent low and asked the King to sit. The beasts under its legs never saw the top. They carried it anyway.
Seven palaces stand between a mystic and God's throne, each with a named guard. At the last gate you need two seals, one in and one out.
Anaphiel swung the last gate. Five hundred and twelve eyes turned. The mystic's knees went first, then his back hit the floor.
At the fourth palace two seals are demanded, right and left. At the sixth, the wrong companion does not survive what he is sent to witness.
Targum Jonathan counts sixty-four faces and 256 wings on the throne. Ezekiel watches the glory move out through the east gate and waits for it to return.
Angels carry Enoch past celestial seas and storehouses of snow into Eden, then to a pit of fire and ice, then to God's left hand to hear creation's secret.
Six-winged seraphim hide their faces from the light while the living creatures carry the Throne and a creature named Israel leads heaven in praise.
The angels crowded the ladder all night like flies on a sleeping child. Then a light bent over the stone where Jacob lay, and every one of them scattered.
The four living creatures strain forever under the Throne, crying blessed be the glory, and not one of them knows where that glory is.
Before the chariot, Ishmael sought the hymns that open palaces, cascading praise to Totrosi'ai until secrets bowed.
The throne's measures drown the mind in myriads of parasangs. Then a quieter voice says Israel's raw sigh is sweet and already heard.
Sand filled Ezekiel's mouth by the river of exile. The north wind carried fire. His knees wanted the ground and would not have it.
Rabbi Ishmael asked why the angel was weeping. Seganzegael opened the tablets and showed him letters written with grief.
