167 myths · Page 2 of 6
God summoned the surrounding hills and commanded them to merge. What had been a hollow in the earth rose to become the axis of the world.
She went out the way a king goes out of a house he will not see again, stopping at the door, putting her mouth to the stone, saying goodbye to the pillars.
Korah forced his way toward the altar and sank, while his sons were brought near the courts he tried to storm.
The Tabernacle was finished on the 25th of Kislev and sat folded for months. God held the dedication for Nisan, Isaac's month, to repay an ancient debt.
God tells Moses he will be gathered as Aaron was gathered. The rabbis heard desire: Moses wanted his brother's peaceful death, not his own.
After the golden calf, God said He would send an angel instead of coming Himself. The people heard it, took off their ornaments, and never put them back on.
Moses built the Tabernacle and would not enter. He stood at the door until God called, because completing a sacred space does not grant ownership.
A foreign widow gleans barley at the edge of a Bethlehem field while the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence, moves through her toward redemption.
The Sanhedrin was marched out of Jerusalem and she stayed. The Temple guard was marched out and she stayed. Then they drove out the children.
When the Temple burned, heaven itself went dark and God withdrew to weep alone, away from every creature who might witness the grief.
When the exiles returned, Nehemiah's priests dug for the sacred altar fire and found only thick water. He ordered them to pour it anyway.
While the Temple stood, the King came down every midnight to the inner room. After it burned, His Bride went out into the road with nothing left to wear.
The Zohar sees Shabbat as a crowned Bride with seventy lights, adorned by commandments, escorted by the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence.
Palace texts and Tikkunei Zohar track each prayer from the mouth through gates of fire to the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence. The poor break every gate.
A Safed mystic rises at midnight to mourn the Temple until Jerusalem's stones open and the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence, speaks her grief aloud.
The first day of the week had the second. The third had the fourth. The fifth had the eve. The seventh counted them off and found itself standing alone.
Sifrei Bamidbar refused the idea that the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence, withdrew when the Temple fell. She goes with Israel even into foreign lands.
Abraham was ninety-nine and still sore from circumcision when three travelers came. He asked God to wait at the tent door until he had fed them.
The Shekhinah, the Divine Presence, loses her resting place while Israel wanders, circling the nations like a dove with nowhere to land.
A king fought seventy nations, and the way to tell who had won was to see whose men still held weapons. Israel holds a lulav (palm branch) and an etrog
Count the joints in one hand. Fourteen, which is the number value of the Hebrew word for hand. Open that hand to a beggar and heaven opens too.
A woman separates challah and repairs what Adam broke. A thief returns the stolen object and the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence, comes home from exile.
The Temple falls by human hands. The Shekhinah, the Divine Presence, argues for the poor, descends into exile, and waits for a house built from above.
The Tikkunei Zohar teaches Jews to wait. The bride is in thorns. The cantillation marks carry secrets. The King Messiah stands just beyond the silence.
The armies in this vision turn out to be lawyers. When Jews rush their prayers, the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence, reaches the gates with empty hands.
When Cain killed Abel, two letters fell out of a divine Name. Every mitzvah, every commandment, since has been putting them back.
A rose stuck in the lung. Shadow-things at the windows of the eye. The Shekhinah, the Divine Presence, hides in the body until Torah pulls her free.
God's throne stood five hundred years above the seventh heaven. He left it all and asked freed slaves for scraps of wool so He could live among them.
Miriam stood watch over her floating brother for an hour. Heaven paid it back at seven days interest, with the entire nation frozen in the desert for her.
Targum Jonathan counts sixty-four faces and 256 wings on the throne. Ezekiel watches the glory move out through the east gate and waits for it to return.
