Tree of Souls Read online

  Read together, these myths reveal a much more complex portrait of God than might be expected, especially of God’s role in Creation and in ruling the world, and of God’s special relationship with the people of Israel. They also reveal how generations of rabbis and mystics strove to define God’s plan in creating the world, and what those intentions revealed of God’s true nature. At the same time, these myths show God in His appearance, in His daily activities, in His joys and sufferings, to be very much like His people. Indeed, the portrait of God that emerges is of a highly sympathetic figure, portrayed with the full range of emotions, dark as well as light, that characterize His human creations.

  2. Myths of Creation

  Many people believe there is one account of Creation in Judaism: the Genesis story of the seven days of Creation. Those familiar with biblical scholarship may recognize two creation myths. The first is Genesis 1:1-2:3. The second begins at Genesis 2:4 with the words: Such is the story of heaven and earth when they were created. This creation myth includes the creation of the first man and woman, the myth of the Garden of Eden and the Fall, and ends at Genesis 3:24 with the expulsion of Adam and Eve: He drove the man out, and stationed east of the garden of Eden the cherubim and the fiery ever-turning sword, to guard the way to the Tree of Life.

  Those intimate with the Hebrew Bible will also have recognized allusions to other creation myths, such as the one summarized in Psalm 104:2—You spread the heavens like a tent cloth…. He established the earth on its foundations, so that it shall never totter. Some readers may read these passages as a summary restatement of the Genesis account, while others will recognize an alternate creation myth, in which God first creates the heavens and then the earth.

  Another very ancient Jewish creation myth is based upon the Babylonian myth of the god Marduk, the sky god, trampling Tiamat, the primeval ocean and divine mother. This myth is alluded to in Isaiah 51:9, Was it not You who cut Rahab in pieces, and wounded the dragon? And the story is told in the Talmud42 in a version that makes the parallel to the Babylonian myth explicit: “When God desired to create the world, he said to Rahab, the Angel of the Sea: ‘Open your mouth and swallow all the waters of the world.’ Rahab replied: ‘Master of the Universe, I already have enough.’ God then kicked Rahab with His foot and killed him. And had not the waters covered him no creature could have stood his foul odor.”

  It is likely that these mythic fragments from Psalms and Isaiah were known by the priestly editors of Genesis, who chose the version of Creation found at the beginning of Genesis that portrays a creation out of spoken words rather than by the actions of God. This is the earliest expression of an impulse in Jewish mythology to present God’s actions in verbal rather than physical terms.

  Even informed readers may be surprised to learn that there are over 100 different creation myths in Judaism. Not only do these offer alternate scenarios about how God created the world, but some of them also raise the question of whether God created the world out of nothing (ex nihilo) or used existing elements. Some even question whether God was assisted in the Creation by others, and, if so, whether these were angels or other divine beings.

  What role did these variant creation myths play in Judaism? They addressed primary theological issues about the nature of God and the Mysteries of Creation that had important implications. For example, if, as stated in Isaiah 45:7: “I form light and create darkness,” does that mean that light pre-existed, and that God merely formed it, rather than created it out of nothing? If light did pre-exist, who created it, and does that imply that there are other divine beings? Is a God who shapes pre-existing elements as all-powerful as a God who creates them out of nothing? In De Somniis Philo identifies God as an artificer and a creator: “When God gave birth to all things, He not only brought them into sight, but also brought into being things that had not existed before. Thus He was not merely an artificer, but also a creator.”43

  It is readily seen that these are issues close to the heart of monotheism. But the proliferation of these myths strongly suggests that there were conflicting views among the various Jewish sects and even among the rabbis who were the authors of the talmudic and midrashic texts. The advent of kabbalah in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries gave a new direction and implication for creation myths. There is a creation myth near the beginning of the Zohar about how the world was created from a cosmic seed.44 This is a far cry from the Genesis myth, suggesting that rather than creating the world through speech, God nourished a cosmic seed in a palace described in terms that strongly suggest a womb. Thus it emphasizes God’s nurturing, feminine qualities. Indeed, one of the primary purposes of kabbalah seems to be a renewal of the feminine in Judaism.

  What was the impact of these far-flung creation myths? In some cases it was profound. The myth created by Rabbi Isaac Luria, known as the Ari, about the Shattering of the Vessels and the Gathering of the Sparks, transformed the way Jews viewed their lives in exile from the Holy Land. The Ari’s myth gave their wanderings in exile a new meaning, in which God had put them in those far-flung places to gather holy sparks, in preparation for the advent of the messianic era.45

  Myths about the creation of the world are, naturally, the primary type of creation myths found in Judaism. However, there is another important type of creation myth, concerning the creation of human beings. Once again, the Genesis accounts of the creation of Adam and Eve serve as the basis for a remarkable permutation of such creation myths. Even Genesis itself contains what the rabbis identified as an alternate scenario, based on the verse Male and female He created them (Gen. 1:27). Since this was understood to describe a simultaneous creation of man and woman, it seemed to conflict with the sequential creation of Adam and Eve. This led the rabbis to conclude that Adam had a first wife, before Eve. This, in turn, initiated a rich cycle of legends about Adam’s first wife, who is sometimes called the First Eve and sometimes identified as Lilith.46 But that very same verse also was used as the basis of a myth that Adam and Eve were created back to back, and that God had to divide them in two and then create backs for each of them.47 The Zohar draws its own conclusions about the pairing of male and female: “God shaped all things in the form of male and female. In another form things cannot exist.”48

  Indeed, a closer reading of these myths about the creation of Adam reveals two separate traditions, one about a heavenly Adam and one about an earthly one. A wide variety of sources, for example, recount myths about a heavenly Adam. The Hellenistic philosopher Philo called this figure “The Heavenly Man.”49 In his view, the heavenly man, born in the pure image of God, is imperishable, and thus a divine figure. Some myths identify this figure as a heavenly Adam. There are also myths about Adam as a giant who reached the heavens, before he ate the forbidden fruit and shrank to human size.50 Adam is also described as God’s confidant, as the heavenly judge who separates the righteous from the sinners, and as a figure of such magnitude that the angels started to wonder if they should bow down before him.51 Later this myth of a heavenly Adam evolved into the complex kabbalistic concept of Adam Kadmon, the primordial man, who is God’s first creation, a kind of divine interface through whom all subsequent creation takes place.

  There are more creation myths in Judaism than any other kind. The Mysteries of Creation served as a powerful attraction to the ancient Jews, and they were explored in depth at every phase of Jewish tradition.

  3. Myths of Heaven

  God makes His home in heaven. We learn of the existence of heaven in the very first verse of the Torah: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1). The Hebrew term, shamayim, means both “skies” and “heavens,” which suggests how the skies came to be identified as the heavens, and God as the first inhabitant of heaven. Yet even in the biblical account of heaven, God is described as sharing the heavenly realm with the angels. We learn this from the story of the Binding of Isaac: just when Abraham raised the knife above his son, Isaac, an angel of the Lord called to him from heaven (Gen. 22:11). T
he Bible also notes other angels, such as Michael, Gabriel, and the Angel of the Lord.

  What is missing in the biblical view of heaven are the souls of the righteous. It is not until the rabbinic period, beginning around the first century, that the biblical concept of heaven was expanded to include them. For the past 2,000 years heaven has been mapped out in great detail in rabbinic, kabbalistic, and hasidic texts, as well as in the texts of the Pseudepigrapha and Jewish folklore. And in all of them heaven includes a multitude of angels and other divine beings, as well as the souls of the righteous.

  There is an abundance of myths about heaven. These include myths that demarcate the map of the seven heavens and detail the celestial temple and the palaces and treasuries of heaven, as well as its fiery rivers and choirs. There are also myths about the interaction of heavenly beings who are similar to those found in Greek myth, except that angels play the roles Greek myth assigns to gods. The myths of heaven include several cycles, such as that about Enoch’s ascent into Paradise and transformation into the angel Metatron. There are also a great many myths about the angels, not only about the well-known archangels Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael, but also about some lesser known but very important angels, such as Lailah, the Angel of Conception; the angel Gallizur, who utters all of God’s evil decrees for Him; and B’ree, the Angel of Rain. When angels, such as Elijah, are sent to this world as messengers, they are clothed in bodies formed from air or fire. In many myths, the angels demonstrate minds of their own and serve as a sounding board for God’s important decisions, such as whether to make human beings. Note that while God consults the angels, He often ignores their counsel.52

  Heaven serves as a multipurpose concept in Judaism. It is not only the home of God and the other inhabitants of heaven, but it is also the Olam ha-Ba, the world to come, where the souls of the righteous are said to go after they take leave of this world. Thus, for the living, heaven serves as a place of longing, and as a strong motivation for people to remain righteous in order to attain their heavenly reward. Finally, heaven serves as the destination for mystics among the rabbis who sought to journey there while still living, using amulets and spells. Their stories are recounted in detail in the Hekhalot texts. For all these reasons, there is an abundance of myths about heaven and its inhabitants. Read together, these myths reveal a well-developed mythology about heaven as God’s home, as well as the home of God’s Bride, and home to the angels, the Messiah, and the souls of the righteous.

  Note that the term for paradise is Gan Eden, literally, the Garden of Eden. This term has a double meaning, in that it is applied to both the earthly Garden of Eden and the heavenly one. The one on earth was the one that was inhabited by Adam and Eve. The other is the heavenly garden, which is a synonym of Paradise. As Nachmanides puts it, commenting on Genesis 3:23, “The physical things that exist on earth also exist in heaven. Likewise, the heavenly Gan Eden with its trees has a counterpart on earth.” The earthly and the heavenly paradise are essentially separate but related mythic realms. Nevertheless, the imagery of one sometimes gets mixed with that of the other, as where streams of the kind that flow in the earthly garden are said to be found in heaven, flowing not with water, but with precious balsam oil.53 Thus we are to understand that heaven also has streams, just like those found on earth. This also finds expression in the mirror image of the earthly city of Jerusalem and the heavenly Jerusalem, and grows out of the principle “as above, so below.”

  4. Myths of Hell

  In the biblical view, all the souls of the dead congregate in a grim place called Sheol. There is neither reward nor punishment. It is not unlike the Greek realm of Hades, and it likely influenced the Christian concept of Limbo. In rabbinic lore, Sheol was replaced by Gehenna, a place of punishment for the souls of sinners, which combines elements of both purgatory and hell. It was the widespread rabbinic belief that only a few souls went directly to Paradise after death. The majority went to Gehenna where they burned in the fires of hell and were punished with fiery lashes by avenging angels for up to one year. In the Zohar these fires of hell are identified as a person’s own burning passions and desires, which consume him.54 These punishments are just as severe as those portrayed in Dante’s Inferno, but—in contrast to the Christian concept of hell—the purified souls are released from Gehenna and permitted to make a slow ascent into Paradise. For this reason it could be argued that Jewish hell is more like the Christian concept of purgatory than hell, and some take the position that the inevitable release from Gehenna means there is no Jewish concept of hell at all, but, instead, a stage of punishment that purifies the soul before it ascends on high. However, the descriptions of the punishments of Gehenna are so extensive,55 and the fear of these punishments among the living was so widespread, that it seems more accurate to simply describe Gehenna as “Jewish hell.”

  Many of the myths of Gehenna simply enumerate the punishments found there. Others attempt to map out the dimensions of Gehenna, and to point out where its entrances can be found. Over time, an elaborate mythology about Gehenna accrued, much as did the mythology about heaven. Many new details emerged, such as the role of Duma, the angel in charge of Gehenna, or the presence of a guard outside Gehenna who only admits those for whom punishment has been decreed. Reports are found about visits to Gehenna by several great rabbis, as well as accounts about how all punishments in Gehenna cease during the Sabbath.56 One learns that there is a whole category of avenging angels who deliver punishments to the sinners in Gehenna. These fearsome angels chase after the souls of newly deceased sinners with fiery rods, and when these angels catch the sinners, they drag them to Gehenna to face their punishments.57

  Thus the role of the punishment of hell in Judaism is a transitional one, part of a larger myth about sin and redemption, in which virtually everyone’s soul is eventually purified enough to escape further punishment. In this it is in stark contrast to the Christian view that the punishments of hell are eternal.58

  5. Myths of the Holy Word

  Judaism is a strongly text-oriented religion. Not only is the primary text, the Torah, studied, but so too are the extensive rabbinic commentaries about it.59 Much of the power attributed to the alphabet and to language grows out of their importance in the Genesis account of Creation, where God’s words brought the world into being. Equally important is the account of the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, where amidst lightning and thunder God’s voice rang out for all the people to hear. So manifest was the voice that All of the people saw the sounds (Exod. 20:15). One myth describes the impact of God’s voice as so great that the souls of the people leapt from their bodies and they all dropped dead, and God had to revive them with the dew of life.60 So too does God’s primary Name, YHVH, known as the Tetragrammaton, have limitless power for the one sage in each generation who knows its true pronunciation. Thus the power of the word, both spoken and written, is undisputed in Judaism.

  Above all, the Torah itself takes on great mythological significance. It becomes far more than a text, even a text whose author is God. It comes to represent the full spectrum of Jewish teachings over the ages. The words of the Torah are believed to contain all truth, and in the rabbinic view it is even possible to interpret one word of the Torah as equivalent to another, as long as the numerical total of the two words is the same.61 One myth describes the Torah as being written on the Arm of God.62 Others personify the Torah as a bride, and Moses as her bridegroom. Still another myth describes the Torah as the wedding contract (ketubah) between God and Israel, binding the two together in a complex covenant.

  There is even the idea that God is incarnated in the Torah. While most discussions about the Torah present it as God’s creation and as the meeting place of human beings and God, the fourteenth century kabbalistic commentator Rabbi Menahem Recanati identified God and the Torah as one and the same thing: “God is incomplete without the Torah. The Torah is not something outside Him, and He is not outside the Torah. Consequently, God is the Torah.”63 This stat
ement is explicitly contradicted by the eighteenth century kabbalist Moshe Hayim Luzzatto: “The Torah is God’s, but He is not His Torah. The Torah is not in itself God, not His essence, but rather His wisdom and His will.”64

  Another view is that the words of the Torah are actually the names of God.65 Therefore, God is called the Torah.66 From these examples it is clear that the statement in the Mishnah that everything is in the Torah is meant seriously: “Turn it and turn it over again, for everything is in it, and contemplate it, and wax gray and grow old over it, and stir not from it, for you cannot have any better rule than this.”67

  Just as the Torah is personified, so too are there several myths in which the letters of the alphabet come forth, one by one, at God’s command, to make their cases as to why they should head the other letters of the alphabet.68 The honor goes to the letter aleph, while the letter bet is rewarded by being the first letter of the first word of the Torah, Bereshit, “in the beginning.” There are also creation myths in which the world is created through the letters of the alphabet.