159 myths · Page 3 of 6
A rock shaped like a sieve traveled with Israel for forty years, climbing every mountain, filling every camp, and stopping the day Miriam died.
Two men followed Moses with opposition from Egypt to the edge of the grave. They are the first to resist in Exodus and the last to resist in Numbers.
The well that followed Israel through the wilderness did more than quench thirst. It filled the camp with rivers, orchards, fragrant herbs, and healing water.
In the desert, manna appeared at every door each morning except Shabbat. The taste changed with each bite to match what you desired, unless you were wicked.
Moses raised his staff and commanded the sea to part. It refused. Someone had to walk in first, past his neck, before the water moved.
A sword sharp beyond compare came down on Moses's neck ten times and could not cut it. Then an angel climbed the scaffold dressed as the executioner.
A three-year-old lifts Pharaoh's crown onto his own head, and an angel hidden among the wise men proposes a coal to decide whether the child lives or dies.
An Israelite walks up to an Egyptian door and names exactly where each hidden treasure is kept. The Egyptian checks. It is there every time.
The sea did not split for the crying people at the water's edge. It split because of one word God spoke at Beth-el, long before.
Bread fell from heaven and Israel gorged like horses, but the manna left nothing behind. It vanished into their limbs and became them.
Pharaoh demanded signs, but Moses could not strike the Nile that saved him. Aaron had to carry the staff into judgment instead.
Twelve men brought back a report from Canaan. Ten of them described the truth and condemned their entire nation to wander until they died.
Moses parted the sea, drew water from rock, and fed a nation on bread from the sky. The people ran out of faith again within days of each miracle.
At the Red Sea, Israel received twelve roads, glasslike walls, dry ground, drinkable water, and gifts no nation could steal.
A survivor keeps one danger in his mouth until a greater one arrives, and Rabbi Shimon guards law with the same precision.
Pharaoh's court wanted baby Moses dead. Gabriel entered as an advisor, moved one small hand, and made the wound that saved him.
Torah records one cloud over the Tabernacle. Rabbi Meir read the same verse and found two. The debate expanded into seven clouds surrounding the entire camp.
When Aaron's staff swallowed the staffs of Pharaoh's magicians, the rabbis said the real miracle was not the serpents. It was dead wood consuming dead wood.
Before Moses was conceived, an Egyptian sorcerer read his fate in a book of signs and told Pharaoh exactly what was coming. The decree followed immediately.
The rod Moses carried was carved from the sapphire Throne of Glory, engraved with the Name, and became a basilisk before the king of Egypt.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan draws a border no beast will cross around Goshen, and the livestock of Egypt and Israel are sorted to prove who truly rules.
The cattle that died in the plague stood back up and walked out. The water that judged idolaters had earlier exposed adulterers. One hand did both jobs.
Pharaoh laughed at the staff that swallowed his magicians' sticks, then ash traveled forty days' distance, and boils arrived that no physician could drain.
The east wind God sent to split the Red Sea was the same wind that had killed every rebellious generation before Egypt. Then every water on earth tore open.
Israel bred faster than scorpions and filled every corner of Egypt. Then at the sea a single pillar of cloud held two armies a hand's breadth apart all night.
Egypt's sorcerers could copy blood and frogs but failed at lice. From that single admitted finger the rabbis traced the whole open hand of Israel's rescue.
Pharaoh thought he was chasing slaves. He was carrying Israel's treasury to them on the backs of his horses, and the sea knew it.
A flame from heaven lodged on Moses's altar and stayed four hundred years. In the same Tabernacle, gold was plated in one place no human eye would ever find it.
The quail were still in their mouths when the plague hit. The Mekhilta reads the wilderness to learn how God measures punishment against the size of a sin.
Ten plagues struck Egypt. Then the rabbis did the arithmetic on the sea and the number kept climbing, fifty, two hundred, two hundred and fifty.
