18 myths
Myths, legends, and mystical writings about Moon from across Jewish tradition.
18 myths on JewishMythology.com retell how Jewish tradition imagines moon, drawn from the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, Talmud, Kabbalah, and later Jewish literature. Each story below synthesizes primary sources into a single narrative; follow any myth to read it, and from there into the source passages behind it.
Most people know how the flood ended. Almost no one knows what Noah did next, he drew lots to divide the entire world among his three sons and wrote it down.
She went up to complain about sharing the sky and came back down smaller. Every month since, Israel burns a goat for a sin God says is His.
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.
Every creature in the garden drew into a ring around the first man and went down on its knees. He had been alive for less than a day.
Solomon made the shields of gold. Rehoboam replaced them with bronze. The kings kept shrinking until Zedekiah, whose eyes were put out.
Sun and moon climb to Zebul and refuse to shine until God judges Korach, while smoke from the chasm still answers travelers.
A vast soul is told to diminish like the moon before it can wear a body. Closed inside cloudy flesh, it climbs back by deeds alone.
Before the first wave rose, the sun and moon already stood as witnesses that God had bound Himself to tear the sea for Israel.
Friday dusk peeled black shells from the moon's face. An extra soul entered the house, and a throne of mercy was built from fringes and straps.
Joshua ordered sun and moon to stand, and the midrash says the righteous rule the lights, holding day open until Israel's battle was done.
The moon goes dark after speaking out of turn, bargains hard with God for her stolen brightness, and will not rest until stars walk beside her.
The moon takes the smaller realm of night and receives a glittering retinue, while great tailors fail to sew a coat for a light that will not hold still.
Heaven set up the New Year court only after Israel's sages named the day, and Jacob took the moon while Esau took the sun.
Moses could not find the new moon over Egypt. It had been born too late in the day for any eye. A finger came out of the dark and pointed at it.
Each dawn the sun and moon enter trembling. God's light blinds them until arrows clear a path, and they rise against their will.
In Eden a tree stood a five-hundred-year climb tall, beasts ate only green herbs, and the moon slipped monthly from double cloud like a horn.
Once sun and moon shone equal; after the moon was lessened, each Rosh Chodesh a sin-offering goat answered God's own regret.
On Sukkot nights Rabbi Shimon ben Gamaliel spun eight torches without a clash, then bowed on two thumbs until his lips met Temple stone.
