43 myths · Page 2 of 2
Rabbi Mattia ben Charash arrived with four questions, not one. His throat was dry from the road. He would not drink until Elazar ben Hakappar named the first.
A king struck his wife, and her father demanded to know why. The king sent back five sealed letters. The fifth one named what she had done.
Thirteen years a toothache ruled Judah HaNasi in Sepphoris. Beasts lived. Wombs held. Then a man with Rabbi Hiyya's face touched his jaw.
The boils ran from sole to crown. Wings landed in the raw places. Heaven had not closed the wager, and Job could not lift his hand.
A student lay sick in a corner while the house stepped around him. Akiva walked in, and care returned. At Eliezer's bed he named suffering as a gift that turns.
Tarfon called the dying master more precious than the sun. Elazar called him dearer than father and mother. Akiva spoke next, and the sick man sat up.
A king orders a physician to heal his servant's foot, and the midrash names that order as the shape of love's affliction for Israel.
The room smelled of vinegar cloths and a lamp burned too long. Everyone around Eliezer's bed was weeping. One face in the circle looked almost glad.
Job locked his gate against the Accuser, then sent burnt bread. The servant swapped it. Satan took the threat home to Job's flesh and his wife's hair.
Drums and smoke rose from a courtyard altar that never cooled. In the dark a voice used the name the market had forgotten, and told him to rise.
Heaven lets the Accuser bruise Job from crown to sole, yet seals his soul. Job scrapes ash with a potsherd and will not curse.
Four men were handed the same rod. Abraham was played with until God said enough. Hezekiah pressed his face to the wall and got fifteen years.
She came carrying everything she had watched go wrong and demanded an accounting. The Intellect refused to comfort her and asked about lack.
