7 myths
Myths, legends, and mystical writings about Refuge from across Jewish tradition.
7 myths on JewishMythology.com retell how Jewish tradition imagines refuge, 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.
Jacob flees east from Esau, sleeps on the bare ground, and finds the place where a ladder connects earth to heaven in his own dream.
A spring at a Levite city gate ran cold enough to hurt the teeth. Rabbi Yose ruled the city's wash beat a stranger's thirst, since dirt breeds scab and fever.
An axe head slipped and a man fell dead. The killer ran for a city of refuge while the goel hadam closed the road behind him.
Because I circumcised my son, the first one said. The next was going to the fire for reading Torah aloud. A third had eaten matzah.
An accidental killer fled before any city of refuge existed. In the wilderness the Levite camp became the only wall between him and the avenger's knife.
Balaam and Jethro had once sat in Pharaoh's council together. From a hilltop above Moab, Balaam finally said what he thought of the man who walked out.
An axe slipped and a neighbor died. The killer ran to refuge and counted years by the High Priest's breath until that death opened the gates.
