Midrash in Jewish Mythology

215 myths · Page 5 of 8

Myths, legends, and mystical writings about Midrash from across Jewish tradition.
Myth 7 min

The Eyes Opened and the Angel Filled the World From End to End

The dying open their eyes and the Angel of Death fills the world end to end, then waits at the grave for a name the dead cannot remember.

Angel Of DeathChibut HakeverDeathThe GraveJudgmentMidrash
Myth 6 min

Solomon Turned the Vampire-Spirit Against the Other Demons

Something drank from the boy's thumb every night until he could not lift a chisel. Solomon gave him a ring with God's name cut into it.

SolomonDemonsVampireTempleKing SolomonDivine NameMidrash
Parshat Bereshit 6 min

The Snowball, the Rebel Waters, and the Weeping Trees

A builder on a beam answers how the world was made, and the waters revolt, the trees grow proud, and God tears the deep apart with one finger.

CreationMidrashWatersTreesThrone Of GloryBereshit
Parshat Chayei Sarah 6 min

Geviah Turned Israel's Own Torah Against Four Nations in Court

Four nations sued Israel before Alexander using her own Torah, and one untitled man turned every verse back until they fled in shame.

GeviahAlexander The GreatCourtroomLand Of IsraelMidrashDisputation
Myth 5 min

The Widow Dug Up Her Husband to Save the Watchman From the Rope

A watchman comforts a weeping widow, a corpse vanishes from his gallows, and to save his life she digs up her own husband to hang in its place.

WidowGriefBetrayalGallowsExempla Of The RabbisKiddushinMidrashTalmudDeathParable
Myth 6 min

The Fire That Answered the Angels Who Doubted Man

God burned the angels who doubted man, then folded a pure light beneath His Throne for the Messiah and a star to time the end.

AngelsCreationMessiahHidden LightThrone Of GloryEnd TimesMidrash
Parshat Bereshit 6 min

Two Equal Lights and the Moon That Was Diminished

Two great lights, one crown. When the moon is shrunk to the lesser lamp she storms the court for justice, and heaven ends up owing her a debt.

MoonSunDivine JusticeAtonementNew MoonMidrashTargumCreationSabbathStatutes
Parshat Noach 6 min

The Bargain That Smuggled Falsehood Aboard the Ark

Refused at the ark for having no mate, Falsehood weds Wickedness to sneak aboard, and the flood meant to drown deceit carries the pair through.

NoahThe FloodFalsehoodPersonified ViceMidrashYalkut Shimoni
Parshat Chukat 5 min

Og Carried a Mountain to Crush Israel Until It Dropped Around His Neck

Og measured the camp of Israel with one eye, tore a mountain loose, and balanced it on his head to bury a whole nation under a single stone.

OgGiantsMosesNumbersMidrashBashan
Myth 5 min

Israel's Soldiers Hurled Joab Over the Wall of Kinsari

His own men flung Joab over the enemy wall, his sword snapped against their armor, and the blood of the slain glued the next blade to his hand.

JoabKing DavidKinsariWarBloodMidrash
Parshat Vezot Haberakhah 6 min

The Day You Die Becomes the Day of Your Trial

Angels stood by the bed before the man knew he was dying. His soul came loose at the feet, and his sight got sharper as it rose.

DeathJudgmentSoulAfterlifeAngelsMidrashHillel
Parshat Naso 5 min

Rabbi Meir and the Three Nights of the Lions

A sage lodges with a butcher, the new wife schemes in the dark, and Rabbi Meir walks home to demand the lions pass sentence on him

Rabbi MeirMidrashRepentanceGuiltLionsBitter WatersHospitality
Myth 7 min

Rabbi Shimon Read the Trapped Bird and Purified Tiberias

A trapped bird teaches Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai that Heaven speaks every pardon and every snare, and he walks out to purify Tiberias.

Rabbi Shimon Bar YochaiPesikta De Rav KahanaTiberiasSabbatical YearDivine ProvidenceMidrash
Parshat Chukat 7 min

Og Mocked Baby Isaac at the Weaning Feast and Sealed His Doom

At Isaac's weaning feast the giant Og sneers he could crush the laughing heir with one finger, and Heaven dooms him to fall by that child's seed.

OgIsaacGiantsRephaimMosesWeaning FeastMidrash
Myth 6 min

The Dream Follows the Mouth of the One Who Reads It

A woman brought her dream to one sage and bore a son, then a heretic brought his to another and was read aloud as a confession.

DreamsRabbi EliezerRabbi YishmaelInterpretationTalmudMidrashProphecy
Myth 7 min

The Storm, the Cask, and the Angel Sewing a Gardener's Shirt

Driven into forbidden seas, two sages prove the ocean drinks its own water, then meet an angel stitching light for a gardener no one noticed.

MidrashRabbi EliezerRabbi YehoshuaCharityOceanRewardExempla
Myth 6 min

The Jewels God Left With Beruriah for Safekeeping

Beruriah hides her two dead sons through Shabbat, then asks Rabbi Meir whether a deposit must be returned before she opens the door.

BeruriahRabbi MeirShabbatGriefTalmudic SagesMidrash
Myth 7 min

The Door in the Wall That Opened on Gehinnom

A rich man warns his wife never to open one door. The hand that pulls her through leads into Gehinnom, the afterlife of judgment, and its burning floors.

GehinnomJudgmentRepentanceKaddishMidrashExempla
Myth 5 min

The Angel That Slapped a King for Naming the Fourth a Son of God

Three men stood unburned in the fire, and when the king cried that the fourth looked like a son of God, an angel came down and struck his mouth.

NebuchadnezzarFiery FurnaceAngelsDanielGabrielMidrash
Parshat Shoftim 6 min

The Armpit Voice and the Breath That Climbed to Heaven

A necromancer squeezes a dead man's voice from his armpits while a starving student's breath of Torah climbs past the sky toward Heaven.

NecromancyBaal OvRabbi AkivaRabbi EliezerThe SoulRitual ImpurityMidrash
Myth 6 min

The Angel of the Sabbath Ascends the Throne of Glory

God carried Adam, one day old and still wet from the river of Eden, past every gate to the highest heaven. The first man sang his hymn to the day, not to God.

SabbathThrone Of GloryGarden Of EdenAdamAngelsRewardMidrashPrayerIsrael
Parshat Vayeshev 5 min

The Baker Read His Own Death in Three Stacked Baskets

The cupbearer had just been promised Pharaoh's cup again in three days. So the baker told his own dream, certain three baskets meant three rungs up.

JosephDreamsTalmudBerakhotOmensMidrashEgypt
Myth 7 min

The Old King of Appetite and the Poor Wise Child

No one crowned him. He took the throne in the first wail and the first grasping fist, and held it thirteen years before a barefoot boy came to the gate.

Yetzer HaraYetzer HatovFree WillRepentanceMidrashInner StruggleAngels
Myth 7 min

The Four Roads Even Solomon Could Not Walk

Solomon mapped the sea and spoke with ants, but four roads left no marker he could follow, and he confessed he was once simple.

SolomonWisdomProverbsMidrashHumility
Parshat Miketz 7 min

The Accuser Strikes Only Where the Road Turns Dangerous

Jacob counted it out loud. Joseph gone, Simeon gone, and now Benjamin. His sons waited in the doorway with the grain sacks already roped to the donkeys.

SatanJacobBenjaminJudahAccuserMidrashGenesis
Parshat Shemot 6 min

Gabriel Struck the Maidens at Pharaoh's Daughter's Nile

Pharaoh's daughter reaches for the ark in the reeds, her maidens block her in the name of the decree, and Gabriel strikes them down.

GabrielMosesPharaohs DaughterExodusMidrashNileRescue
Parshat Beshalach 6 min

The Maidservant at the Sea Who Out-Saw Ezekiel and Isaiah

Rabbi Eliezer would not retract it. A nameless slave at the split sea beheld more of God than the greatest prophets ever glimpsed.

Splitting Of The SeaMaidservantRabbi EliezerProphecySong Of The SeaRevelationMidrashExodusSong Of SongsRed SeaIsrael
Myth 6 min

Solomon's Silver Goblet and the Two Hidden Lovers

Solomon hands a builder a silver goblet that fuses his wife's mouth to her lover's, and a robber on the road exposes a second wife's heart.

SolomonMagic ObjectsBetrayalMidrashIneffable NameJudgment
Parshat Balak 6 min

The Seer Who Saddled His Own Hatred for Israel

A gentile seer who could gaze on the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence, shoves past his servants at dawn to saddle his own donkey, hungry to curse Israel.

BalaamPethorShekhinahPharaohDivinationParsha BalakMidrash
Parshat Pekudei 6 min

Hadrian Blasphemed in the Holy of Holies and David Pleaded Against Him

Hadrian strides into the Holy of Holies to revile God to His face, and a king dead a thousand years rises from the psalms to answer him.

HadrianHoly Of HoliesKing DavidBlasphemyRomeSecond TempleMidrash