42 myths · Page 2 of 2
Rabbi Yochanan handed the eulogy to Reish Lakish. He called the dead man a garden that God walked into. Yochanan chose shrouds neither white nor black.
On the Ninth of Av, dew beads on the Kotel's stones like tears, wayfarers clap over ruined Jerusalem, and a mourner teaches that silence can be Torah.
Rabbi Elazar kissed his dying father's hands in the Idra, named three pillars becoming one, and the companions lost the tree that fed them all.
In Kavul a father sent his son for wine mid-feast. The attic held a snake. Guests finished the meal, then changed wedding blessings into burial.
Og ate at Abraham's table and left no name in the joy. Jobs three friends came to a house of ash, kept their names, and Gehinnom (afterlife of judgment) lost.
When the fast day closed like a burial ended, Zion still sat counting years, sure she was forgotten until God answered like a nursing mother.
A corpse between two cities brought blemished priests, a broken-necked heifer, and the memory that God mourns and fathers cover their children.
Under threat of ban, Rav Sheshet hunted one obscure word. The answer named a house of mourning God Himself would not enter.
Days after the burial, Joshua still would not rise from the dust. God spoke into it. Moses died for Me too, He said, and Joshua lifted his head.
Tzippori banned anyone from saying the Rabbi had died. Bar Kappara tore his clothes at a window and spoke of angels snatching Tablets until the city understood.
For seven days after death the soul refuses to leave, climbing from the grave to the doorway and back while the mourners sit below on the floor.
Feeling death draw near, Jacob binds Joseph by oath to carry him home to Canaan, and armed kings who came to raid his funeral leave their crowns on his coffin.
