Tree of Souls Read online

  656. A Magical Tree in Jerusalem

  The Pleading of the Fathers

  657. The Pleading of the Fathers

  658. Waking the Fathers

  659. The Fathers Address the Messiah

  660. The Two Messiahs

  661. The Messiah Petitions God

  662. The Coming of the Messiah

  663. The Messiah’s Yeshivah

  664. The Dual Messiah

  The Ingathering of the Exiles

  665. The Ingathering of the Exiles

  666. The Birth of Armilus

  667. Satan and the Messiah

  The Wars of Gog and Magog

  668. The Arrival of the Messiah

  669. God Reprimands the Universe

  670. A New Torah

  Appendix A: A Note on the Sources

  Appendix B: The Primary Biblical Myths

  Appendix C: Diagram of the Ten Sefirot

  Glossary

  Bibliography of Original Sources

  Selected English Bibliography

  Index of Biblical Verses

  General Index

  ABBREVIATIONS

  BOOKS OF THE BIBLE

  Gen.

  Genesis

  Exod.

  Exodus

  Lev.

  Leviticus

  Num.

  Numbers

  Deut.

  Deuteronomy

  Josh.

  Joshua

  Judg.

  Judges

  1 Sam.

  1 Samuel

  2 Sam.

  2 Samuel

  1 Kings

  1 Kings

  2 Kings

  2 Kings

  Isa.

  Isaiah

  Jer.

  Jeremiah

  Ezek.

  Ezekiel

  Hos.

  Hosea

  Joel

  Joel

  Amos

  Amos

  Obad.

  Obadiah

  Jonah

  Jonah

  Micah

  Micah

  Nah.

  Nahum

  Hab.

  Habakkuk

  Zeph.

  Zephaniah

  Hag.

  Haggai

  Zech.

  Zechariah

  Mal.

  Malachi

  Ps.

  Psalms

  Prov.

  Proverbs

  Job

  Job

  S. of S.

  The Song of Songs

  Ruth

  Ruth

  Lam.

  Lamentations

  Eccles.

  Ecclesiastes

  Esther

  Esther

  Dan.

  Daniel

  Ezra

  Ezra

  Neh.

  Nehemiah

  1 Chron.

  1 Chronicles

  2 Chron.

  2 Chronicles

  TRACTATES OF THE TALMUD

  The Babylonian Talmud is identified as B. and the Palestinian Talmud (or Jerusalem Talmud) as Y. (for Yerushalmi ).

  Ar.

  Arakhin

  Avot

  Avot

  AZ

  Avodah Zarah

  BB

  Bava Batra

  Bekh.

  Bekhorot

  Ber.

  Berakhot

  Betz.

  Betzah

  Bik.

  Bikkurim

  BK

  Bava Kama

  BM

  Bava Metzia

  De.

  Demai

  Ed.

  Eduyyot

  Er.

  Eruvin

  Git.

  Gittin

  Hag.

  Hagigah

  Hal.

  Hallah

  Hor.

  Horayot

  Hul.

  Hullin

  Kel.

  Kelim

  Ker.

  Keritot

  Ket.

  Ketubot

  Kid.

  Kiddushin

  Kil.

  Kilayim

  Kin.

  Kinnim

  Maas.

  Ma’aserot

  Mak.

  Makkot

  Makh.

  Makhshirin

  Me.

  Me’ilah

  Meg.

  Megillah

  Men.

  Menahot

  Mid.

  Middot

  Mik.

  Mikva’ot

  MK

  Mo’ed Katan

  MS

  Ma’aser Sheni

  Naz.

  Nazir

  Ned.

  Nedarim

  Neg.

  Nega’im

  Nid.

  Niddah

  Oh.

  Oholot

  Or.

  Orlah

  Par.

  Parah

  Pe.

  Pe’ah

  Per.

  Perek ha-Shalom

  Pes.

  Pesahim

  RH

  Rosh ha-Shanah

  Sanh.

  Sanhedrin

  Shab.

  Shabbat

  Shek.

  Shekalim

  Shev.

  Shevi’it

  Shavu.

  Shavuot

  Sot.

  Sota

  Suk.

  Sukkah

  Tan.

  Ta’anit

  Tam.

  Tamid

  Tem.

  Temurah

  Ter.

  Terumot

  Toh.

  Tohorot

  TY

  Tevul Yom

  Tz.

  Tzitzit

  Uk.

  Uktzin

  Yad.

  Yadayim

  Yev.

  Yevamot

  Yoma

  Yoma

  Zev.

  Zevahim

  RABBIS IDENTIFIED BY ACRONYMS

  Ari = Isaac Luria.

  Ba’al Shem Tov (also known as Besht) = Israel ben Eliezer.

  Ben Ish Hai = Yosef Hayim of Baghdad.

  Maharal = Judah Loew ben Bezalel.

  Maharsha = Samuel Eliezer Edels.

  Maimonides (also known as Rambam) = Moses ben Maimon.

  Nachmanides (also known as Ramban) = Moses ben Nachman.

  *Or ha-Hayim = Hayim ben Attar.

  Ramak = Moshe Cordovero.

  Rashbam = Samuel ben Meir.

  Rashi = Solomon ben Isaac of Troyes.

  Ribash = Isaac ben Sheshet Parfat.

  *Or ha-Hayim (“The Light of Life”) is the title of the famous biblical commentary written by Rabbi Hayim ben Attar. It is not an acronym; rather, he became identified by the title of his book.

  TRANSLITERATION KEY1

  alef = not transliterated

  lamed = l

  bet = b, v

  mem = m

  gimmel = g

  nun = n

  dalet = d

  samekh = s

  heh = h

  ayin = ’, not always transliterated

  vav = v

  peh = p, f, ph

  zayin = z

  tzaddi = tz

  het = h

  kuf = k

  tet = t

  resh = r

  yod = y – when vowel, at end of word – i

  shin = s, sh

  kaf = k, kh

  tav = t

  PREFACE

  A largely unrecognized but quite extensive mythology1 is embedded throughout Jewish literature. The primary myths portrayed in the Bible, especially those in Genesis, became the focus of mythic elaboration. The biblical text packs a maximum amount of meaning into a minimum number of words, thereby compelling interpretation. An ancient rabbinic method of exegesis called midrash,2 which sought out and inevitably found the solution to problems
perceived in the biblical text, resulted in the creation of an abundant mythology that eventually took on a life of its own. Often the transformation that takes place between the early periods of Jewish myth and their later evolution is considerable, almost constituting a new set of myths based on the old ones. The sum of all of these generations of reimagining the Bible is a Jewish mythology as rich as that of other great ancient cultures. These myths may appear either in fully developed form or as widely scattered fragments. Often, when these fragments are collected from the extant sources and pieced back together, they reveal extensive elaborations of the original myths, often in unexpected directions.

  It has been my intention to draw Jewish myths from the full range of Jewish literature. This tradition extends from biblical times until the present, and includes texts from inside and outside normative Jewish tradition. For details about the texts included, see “A Note on the Sources” on p. 525.

  Because of the considerable differences between the myths deriving from various periods, it is difficult to speak of a single or definitive Jewish mythology. Yet it is also clear that the seeds of all the major myths are found in the earlier texts, where they are often the subject of a profound evolutionary process, a dialectic that alternates between the tendency to mythologize Judaism and the inclination to resist such impulses. An attentive reader should find the permutations of these myths fascinating. I have chosen to regard these as organic developments, possessing life of their own, and I have attempted to draw together the threads of these fragmentary myths into coherent ones, where possible. Where contradictory explanations are found, this has also been noted using the formula “Some say” and “Others say.” This is intended to indicate the existence of multiple versions of the same myth. Some myths derive from a single text, but most have multiple sources, reflecting the continuing fascination with specific themes as well as the desire of subsequent generations to reinterpret them and make them relevant to their own lives.

  This book has been structured around what I regard as the ten primary categories of Jewish mythology: Myths of God, Myths of Creation, Myths of Heaven, Myths of Hell, Myths of the Holy Word, Myths of the Holy Time, Myths of the Holy People, Myths of the Holy Land, Myths of Exile, and Myths of the Messia h. Each entry includes the myth, usually drawn from multiple sources, as well a commentary and its sources. The purpose of the commentary is to put the myth in the proper context, provide the biblical verses that inspired or explain it, note related myths, and to untangle, as much as possible, the mythic threads it consists of, as well as parallels to other mythic traditions.

  Several key modern scholars have considered the question of whether there can be said to be a Jewish mythology, and, if so, what its characteristics would be. These include Gershom Scholem, Isaiah Tishby, Alexander Altmann, Raphael Patai, Joseph Dan, Moshe Idel, Yehuda Liebes, Arthur Green, Michael Fishbane, David J. Halperin, Michael Stone, Peter Schäfer, Elliot Wolfson, Rachel Elior, Pinchas Giller, Tikva Frymer-Kensky, and Elliot K. Ginsburg. I am grateful for their perspectives and insights. In addition, scores of articles have been written about various aspects of virtually all of the myths included here. I have noted especially important and relevant articles following the commentaries to the myths, under the category of “Studies.”

  I am grateful to the following people who supported and assisted me during this long project. Thanks, above all, to my editor, Cynthia Read, who has the patience of Penelope. Special thanks to my son, Nati, who lent a helping hand at a crucial time, and to my wife, Tsila, whose support has been essential. Many thanks to Caren Loebel-Fried for her beautiful prints, which have added immeasurably to this book. I am especially grateful to Elliot K. Ginsburg, David J. Halperin, Byron Sherwin, and Gershon Winkler for their valuable suggestions and comments. I am also grateful to Henry Shapiro for his astute suggestions, conveyed over many a lunch. Thanks are also due to Marc Bregman, Paula Cooper, Bonnie Fetterman, Rabbi Steve Gutow, Barbara Rush, Marc Saperstein, Peninnah Schram, Joseph Schultz, Cherie Karo Schwartz, Laya Firestone Seghi, and Diane Wolkstein, for their suggestions and insights. Thanks as well to Daniel Breslauer, Theo Calderara, Michael Castro, Joseph Dan, Amy Debrecht, Rabbi Bruce Diamond, Yael Even, Pinchas Giller, Rabbi James Stone Goodman, Stuart Gordon, Arthur Green, Edna Hechal of the Israel Folktale Archives, Ruth and Jim Hinds, Lynn Holden, Catherine Humphries, Glenn Irwin, Andrea Jackson, Eve Jones, Rodger Kamenetz, Edward Londe, the late Rabbi Abraham Ezra Millgram, Dov Noy, Marie S. Nuchols, Peter Brigaitis, Anne Holmes, Mary Ann Zissimos, Adelia Parker, Muriel and David Pascoe, Rebecca Pastor, the late Raphael Patai, Simcha Raphael, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the late Gershom Scholem, Maury Schwartz, Miriam Schwartz, Shira Schwartz, Alan Segal, Dan Sharon, Yaacov David Shulman, Rabbi Lane Steinger, Steve Stern, Rabbi Jeffrey Stiffman, Michael Swartz, Rabbi Susan Talve, Benyamim Tsedaka, Meg Weaver and Eli Yassif. I also want to thank the students of my class on Jewish mythology at Spertus College. I am also grateful to the University of Missouri-St. Louis for grants that made it possible to pursue the research for this book.

  Readers who wish to register comments, suggestions, corrections, praise, or dissent may contact me at [email protected].

  Howard Schwartz

  St. Louis

  Notes

  1See p. xliv of the Introduction for a definition of “myth” and “mythology” as it is used in this book. The conventional meaning of “myth” as something that is not true is not intended here.

  2For a discussion of this method of rabbinic exegesis, see p. lxxii of the Introduction.

  FOREWORD

  The Resonances and Registers of Jewish Myth

  by Elliot K. Ginsburg

  To enter this book is to enter a world thick with meaning, olam u-melo’o, “a world and the fullness thereof.”1 In its pages, one can encounter the astonishing range of the Jewish mythic imagination: texts and countertexts, brief epigrams and extended chain midrashim, exclamations and sober disquisitions: they are all in there. For Tree of Souls is the product of a man, Howard Schwartz, who wears many hats: he is at once a literary artist and master editor, who is simultaneously immersed in (and sharpened by) the world of scholarship. The resulting work is a gift of the scholarly and literary imagination, and it is a joy to read.

  Jewish mythology and its many voices. One of the most impressive features of this work is its capacious understanding of what is authentically Jewish. In consort with most contemporary scholars, Schwartz departs from those great Judaic scholars of the 19th century who sought to reduce Judaism—in its evolving, plural, oft messy vitality—to an idealized set of unchanging beliefs or practices, articulated by a central cast of characters. Schwartz listens rather more widely: he exhibits an inclusive, demotic willingness to combine different registers and a wide range of provenances. Obscure manuscripts and well-known texts reside cheek-by-jowl; so too, polished literary works and oral narratives. Texts written in Rabbinic Hebrew and Aramaic sit alongside passages from Yiddish, German and Middle-Eastern vernacular. The multi-streamed Rabbinic tradition is represented not only by a stunning array of talmudic and midrashic texts, but also by later kabbalistic myths with gnostic and sometimes rapturous undertones, hasidic mayses (tales) and ethical tracts. The global meets the local as talmudic understandings of soul enter into dialogue with an Afghani Jewish tale from an oral archive—the Great Tradition imbricated with the so-called “Little Tradition.” So too, the philosopher-legalist Maimonides resonates with early modern mystic Hayyim ben Attar, and the Zohar with the author of Yiddish vernacular prayers, Shifra bas Joseph, wife of Ephraim Epstein. Rabbinic Judaism2, in these pages, speaks in many voices.

  Elliot K. Ginsburg is Associate Professor of Jewish Thought in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is the author of The Sabbath in the Classical Kabbalah and translator (with a critical commentary) of Sod ha-Shabbat: The Mystery of the Sabbath by Rabbi Meir ibn Gabbai.

  If the Biblical-Rabbinic arc has a cert
ain pride of place here, the book stretches to encompass non-Rabbanite currents as well. These include (1) Jewish streams that dried up in late antiquity or which subsequently flowed into other traditions; and (2) other mythic currents that left only the faintest residue in the Hebrew Bible, but which re-emerged with singular potency later. Of the former case, think of Philo or various Apocryphal works, preserved largely in Christianity; of the latter, those submerged texts, think of ancient Mesopotamian myths of cosmic battle, of the personified waters of chaos or the Great Sea-Dragon battling YHWH—accounts that are virtually effaced in the Hebrew Bible, but which surface fullblown in the Babylonian talmudic setting.3 Schwartz also visits the contested borderlands of Rabbinic Judaism, on occasion citing Karaite teachings or the Sabbatean-tinged Hemdat Yamim, a work which enjoyed currency in Sephardic and Hasidic circles, despite its suspect provenance.

  Finally, Schwartz expands the mythic canvas to include twentieth century figures, the Piasetzner Rebbe (d. 1943, Warsaw), Reb Zalman Shachter-Shalomi, the visionary of Jewish Renewal, and the Prague master Franz Kafka, to name three. All told, most of the dialects of Judaism, from major to minor, find a home here. Schwartz finds that elusive balance point between richness and focus. As one colleague put it: “Howard Schwartz is inclusive, but with good taste.”