86 myths · Page 3 of 3
Doeg the Edomite told King Saul nothing but true things about the priest at Nob. Eighty five priests died for it, and so did Saul, and so did Doeg.
The camp called them thorns, the same as their father. When the fire came they named themselves lilies, and the ground left them a ledge.
The small sanctuaries were chopped to kindling. No prophet could say how long. The prayer that was left accused heaven of doing nothing.
For forty days the giant counted his taunt aloud, until the ground clamped his feet and heaven chained all 248 of his limbs so David could not miss.
The worlds would have kept expanding forever. God said dai, enough, and the sages heard that word sitting inside the name Shaddai.
Disciples slept near the threshold and woke to the scrape of the king's feet. No herald, no procession. They lit lamps and read until the morning star.
A guide who would not give his name asked the soul what it had loved most. It answered with one week: a coin given quietly, a page learned while tired.
At midnight the north wind played the harp above David's bed. Ten melodies began with Ashrei, and even a frog claimed to out-sing the king.
Twenty years under Laban leave Jacob burned by drought and bitten by frost. He absorbs every loss and sings through sleepless nights.
David went out with his men one more time and his strength gave out in the middle of the fighting. Afterward they made him swear never to come again.
On the Mount of Olives David climbs barefoot, tears on his face, a psalm in his mouth. Absalom takes the city, and measure for measure walks with the king.
Hooligans bait Rabbi Meir until he prays for their deaths. Beruria stops his mouth mid-curse, flips one word in a psalm, and forces mercy to finish the verse.
A man went through the towns shouting that he had the drug of life for sale. Rabbi Yannai's daughter heard him from the house and ran to her father.
From the ends of the earth David turned his whole body into praise, while Israel waited for a light no borrowed lamp could keep lit.
He loosed the arrow and the camp heard a king who could shoot. David heard a ledger of names standing behind the shot.
A lion ordered a dog to kill a spider. The spider went to the lion for help, and the lion took its side. Akiva stood in the road and watched it happen.
At midnight on Shavuot the heavens split for a breath. David set five books of song against five of Torah while his feet sought the study house.
King David asked God to plead his cause against oppressors while admitting his own faults. Strength came when judgment, not flattery, answered him.
His heel found sand. Behind him the last Egyptian horse pushed into the corridor. The water still stood, waiting on a count.
The soul arrived without the body it had argued with for years. Its guides did not explain. They pointed at the half that burned and the half pelting ice.
In Tevet the lamps went up while field hands were still bent over the last rows. Rabbi Yochanan counted the light out of the sky.
Two sit and speak of the Holy One in awe. Presence arrives, and heaven's storehouses open for those who ask for Torah.
Morning thunder shook the earth until nations fled to Balaam. He said it was Torah, not flood, while Sinai's shofar (a ram's horn) grew louder and Moses.
Empty-handed before the throne, Israel names God's righteousness alone as the case for rescue, while David waits on hope that has no other coin left.
The harp still hummed when God asked who the enemy was. David had meant a crowd. Heaven answered with Saul's name.
David sang that God's humility crowned him. The rabbis found the same stooping God waiting on naked Adam and beating Ezekiel to the plain.
