10 myths
Each story names the sources it was written from.
Haman told the king that God was asleep. That same night every tree in creation stepped forward, arguing over who would hang him.
A builder on a beam answers how the world was made, and the waters revolt, the trees grow proud, and God tears the deep apart with one finger.
The soil inside had answered without sweat. Outside, the dust remembered it had once been him, and it would not yield easy bread.
He set figs and dates on a white cloth in Shevat. The trees still looked dead. He asked that the worm find no seam in the fruit.
Three kings ran out of water and found Elisha. He promised a dry valley full of pools, then told them to fell every good tree in Moab without mercy.
On Tu Bishvat the table fills with fruit and praise. A man saved gleanings so he would not answer for what he never tasted.
Dread fell between the split animals when Abraham was seventy. Four hundred and thirty years of exile already had a starting hour.
When Canaan heard Israel was coming, axes rose against every orchard. God turned the people into the desert and let the land relearn how to grow.
The forests had been standing for a few hours when iron came up out of the same ground. Every tree in the world started to shake at once.
A king finds his orchard choked with thorns and lifts the axe, then smells one rose. For Israel's pledge at Sinai the whole ruined world is left standing.
