144 myths · Page 4 of 5
Rabbi Eliezer made a tree fly and a stream run backward to prove his ruling. The other rabbis said no. Then a voice from heaven took his side.
When thieves stole Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair's donkey, it refused to eat for three days rather than touch untithed grain.
Nakdimon staked his fortune on twelve wells of water returning before sunset, then prayed until the clouds came and the sun turned back.
The first rain was a light drizzle, barely enough to notice. The second came down hard enough to flood Jerusalem, and people ran uphill to escape the water.
Thieves replaced his gift to Rome with dirt, and when the emperor opened the box, Nahum said what he always said: this too is for good.
Joseph spent every coin he had on Shabbat food, and a Gentile neighbor tried to cheat the prophecy that Joseph would inherit his wealth.
Her father was wrapped in a Torah scroll and burned alive. Beruriah did not weep at Rabbi Meir. She told him to take gold and go get her sister.
Hanina's daughter filled the Shabbat lamp with vinegar by mistake and stood there ashamed. Light it, he said. The vinegar burned until three stars appeared.
Three hundred priests washed the curtain. Two of them lowered it by inches onto the Ark so that no part of it would be in sight of the camp.
The lot fell on the man who swept the synagogue and lit the lamps. He had a year to reach the far side of a river that throws stones.
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.
On the seventeenth day of the fast one old man wept harder than the rest. He knew of a boy in Tiberias. Tiberias was six days away.
Jacob left home and the ground shortened under his feet. The sun set early so he would sleep at Bethel. The stones under his head gathered into one.
A drowned man tells Akiva about the bread he once gave away. A snake on a killing errand lets Meir run ahead and stop it.
Moses walked out of the throne room burning. He had just told Pharaoh that the king's own servants would come and beg him to leave.
At Laban's troughs with a knife and three kinds of wood, Jacob turns twenty years of cheated wages into the beginning of Israel's herds.
Six months in the womb, then three months hidden in the house. By the time Egypt came looking for a newborn boy, the child was already a season old.
Moses writes God's Name on poisonous oleander and throws it into bitter water. Weeks later, heaven drops bread stored there since the first week of creation.
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.
Egypt's sorcerers matched Moses blow for blow through the first five plagues. Balaam led them. Then the boils came and they could not stand before Moses.
When the angels rose to sing as the Egyptians drowned, God stopped them with a sentence that cut through triumph and made mercy part of the judgment.
At Rephidim, Israel sees Moses raise the same rod that struck the Nile and demands water, forcing the weapon of judgment to become a source of life.
The same water that opened smooth as glass beneath Israel's feet turns to mud under Egypt, and one cloud becomes both lantern and blindfold at once.
Israel leaves Egypt with half-risen dough bound to their bodies, and the desert sun finishes what Egypt's ovens could not, baking the first bread of freedom.
Two jars of it sat at the door of the Tent of Meeting. If a man swore he had taken no more than his portion, the morning's bread showed whether he lied.
The people said the desert was empty and God had brought them there to die. So the sea split twelve ways, a cloud flattened the road, a rock followed them.
A brick fell off the tower and the whole work line sat down and wept. A man fell the same morning and nobody turned his head.
Fire makes peace with hail, Gabriel holds back at the sea, and Michael waits for dawn to drown Egypt's sorcerers, because destruction must wait for command.
Nachshon ben Amminadav sent his whole household out to gather. A man with nothing went out alone. Their two jars measured out the same.
The court told Pharaoh to move against the Hebrews. He refused, said Egypt owed them everything, and lost his throne for three months.
