8 myths
Myths, legends, and mystical writings about Sun from across Jewish tradition.
8 myths on JewishMythology.com retell how Jewish tradition imagines sun, 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.
The sun and moon once shared equal glory, until the moon whispered a false report and the sky was divided into greater and lesser light.
For a week the world never set. Then the first Sabbath ended, the sun drowned in the sea, and a terrified Adam struck two stones in the dark.
The sun refused Joshua's command at Gibeon, insisting it was older than any man. Joshua answered it, and the sun stood still.
Friday runs out and the battle is unfinished. Joshua stops the sun not to win but to keep Israel from crossing into Shabbat with swords still drawn.
When Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, the rabbis said every power he had came from Moses. The moon was still the moon. Its light was borrowed.
The sages read the sleeping Jacob as God's throne-chariot, every thirsting bone leaning up while the sun ran its scored track through heaven's gates.
David tried to keep death outside through Torah and motion, while the sun itself remained restrained by God for the sake of the world.
Two great lights, one crown. When the moon is shrunk to the lesser lamp she storms the court for justice, and heaven ends up owing her a debt.
