43 myths · Page 2 of 2
Two women claim one living infant before Solomon's throne. He calls for a sword to split the child, and the true mothers cry stops the blade.
The real king wandered from study house to study house saying he had once ruled Israel. People beat him with a reed and set porridge in front of him.
The neck still took numbers, myriads stacked on myriads. Then the head rose, and Rabbi Yishmael's mouth found no word.
God seated the Messiah in garments of light at His right. Abraham stood pale at the left and asked why a grandson had the nearer chair.
Night poured into his eyes on the mountain. Angels moved to kill him. He seized the Throne, and a cloud closed over his back.
Seals for the right and left open the palaces. Guardians seize the climber and hand him to Shebhoriel before the robe of Names.
After the shroud is knotted, a righteous soul slips under the purple-blue Throne of Glory and waits for resurrection in the dark of sapphire.
The mikveh water was still cold when the floor stopped being a floor. Seven palaces waited, and the last one would not let him stand.
A king married off his daughter and could not bear the empty hall, so he cut a window so they could still meet face to face.
A descender to the chariot climbs through gates of fire to the Throne and learns the world was not hammered but poured out of beauty and light.
At the seventh palace his knees gave out. The guardians stood taller than towers, and behind the last door was a roar that turned out to be singing.
One by one the letters climb before the Throne, each boasting of the holy word it carries, and each turned away for the sin its own name also spells.
Rabbi Ishmael went up through the palaces to see a face and found weather instead, wrath rising over the earth and angels who cancel what heaven signed.
