Tree of Souls Read online

  For readers unfamiliar with rabbinic tradition, one unfamiliar concept may be that of a dual Torah: the Written Torah (Torah she-bikhtav) that God dictated to Moses at Mount Sinai, and the Oral Torah (Torah she-be-al-peh), the explanations of the hidden meanings of the Written Torah, which God explained to Moses rather than put in writing. This Oral Torah is the basis for the imaginative retellings of biblical accounts so commonly found in the rabbinic texts. The radical changes brought to the original narrative are justified on the grounds that they were handed down as part of the Oral Torah.

  Note that the tradition of the Oral Torah and the Written Torah is not the only example of dual Torahs to be found. There is also the concept of the Primordial Torah—the Torah as it exists in Heaven—which is contrasted with the Earthly Torah.69 This myth makes it clear that these two Torahs are not the same. Also, there is an extensive tradition about the first tablets that Moses received at Mount Sinai, which he later smashed when he saw the people worshipping the golden calf. According to this tradition, the first tablets were much different than the second set that Moses received. While the first tablets were completely positive, the second tablets include negative commandments.70

  Another way of viewing the concept of two Torahs is to view it as two ways of interpreting the text of the Torah. For the kabbalists, it was important to distinguish between the literal Torah, with its stories, laws, and commandments, and the eternal Torah through which the world was created. This led them to a search for the inner meaning of the Torah. Thus, the kabbalists were focused on discovering the mystical meaning. The Zohar, the primary text of kabbalah, is a compendium of these mystical interpretations. As the Zohar puts it about the teachings of one rabbi, “For every single word of Torah, he used to expound supernal mysteries.”71

  God’s determination to give the gift of the Torah to Israel is described in blunt terms in one midrash: God picks up Mount Sinai and, while holding the mountain over the heads of the people of Israel, asks them whether they are willing to accept the Torah. Under the circumstances, they agree to accept it.72

  Any discussion of the holy word must consider the importance of prayer. In the rabbinic view, God especially treasures the prayers of Israel and there is even an angel, Sandalphon, who gathers these prayers for God and weaves them into garlands that God wears as a crown of prayers while seated on His Throne of Glory. Faced with a history that resembled a litany of disasters, prayer was often the last recourse for the Jews, for it was believed to be their only hope of restoring God’s faith in them.

  Even today observant Jews spend a good deal of their day fulfilling the obligations set out in the Torah and subsequent texts, and they direct their minds and hearts several times a day through the medium of formal worship and private prayer. God, for His part, upholds the covenant established with Israel. And in all of these cases the means of communication between the human and the divine take the form of holy words, spoken as prayers or as texts inscribed on parchment73, words that carry the reverberations of the eternal in every syllable.

  6. Myths of the Holy Time

  The major Jewish holy days are all closely linked to key Jewish myths. Rosh ha-Shanah is linked to the creation of the world; it is often referred to as “the birthday of the world.” Yom Kippur is the day when God seals the Books of Life and Death. Sukkot remembers the Exodus, Passover, recounts the escape from Egyptian bondage, and Shavuot recalls the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. On Simhat Torah, the cycle of reading the Torah comes to an end and begins again, so that Satan cannot accuse the Jews of having finished with the Torah. Above all, the Sabbath, which recurs weekly, is closely associated with the day God rested after six days of Creation. Certainly, from the perspective of the ritual requirements of these holy days, myth and ritual are inextricably linked. By performing these rituals and reenacting these myths, it becomes possible to enter into a holy realm, where one can participate in an active covenant with God and seek out His mercy.

  One key to the power of these holy days in the lives of the people is that of sacred time. During the Sabbath, for example, a distinct change takes place in the perception of time. There is a shift from the temporal to the eternal, as the focus changes to contemplation of the divine. In this sacred time a sense of holiness pervades the world, and the meaning of every action is magnified. At the same time, a holy presence can be sensed, which is identified as the Sabbath Queen. The kabbalistic principle of “as above, so below” defines all actions, and every ritual, from lighting the Sabbath candles to reciting the blessings over bread and wine, takes on a greater significance. In entering into sacred time, it can also be said that the people enter a mythic realm where the Sabbath Queen, invoked through prayer and song, can be perceived as an actual presence.

  Sacred time is experienced not only during the holy days, but every day, during morning, afternoon, and evening prayers. For every time a minyan (traditionally, a quorum of ten men) gathers and the service begins, the congregation stands as petitioners before God, putting their fates in God’s hands. The confidence that God is listening to their prayers derives from the unusual covenant between God and the people of Israel. This is not only a legal covenant, but a powerful bond between God and the chosen people. This covenant is the central myth at the heart of Judaism. It serves as a framework for all the other myths that grow out of that covenant, and, in particular, it encompasses all of the Myths of the Holy—the holy word, the holy time, the holy people, and the holy land.

  One technique commonly used in the myths of the holy time is allegorical personification. In some of these myths the Torah is personified as a bride. In others the Sabbath is personified as a princess, a bride, or a queen. This grows out of the tradition of the Sabbath Queen, one of the identities of the Shekhinah. The first indications of the link between the Shekhinah and the Sabbath Queen are found in the Talmud, concerning the Sabbath customs of two rabbis: “Rabbi Haninah robed himself and stood at sunset on the eve of the Sabbath and exclaimed, ‘Come and let us go forth to welcome the Sabbath Queen.’ And on Sabbath Eve, Rabbi Yannai would don his robes and exclaim, ‘Come, O Bride, come, O Bride!’”74 Thus the myths of the Sabbath as a princess are simply alluding to the tradition of the Sabbath Queen, which, in turn, refers to the Shekhinah—God’s presence in this world—as a participant of the Sabbath ritual. This holy presence is continually invoked throughout the Sabbath. The hymn Lekhah Dodi, composed by Shlomo Alkabetz in the sixteenth century, is recited in the synagogue to welcome the Sabbath Queen, thus initiating the Sabbath. In a more elaborate form of this ritual, Kabbalat Shabbat, the congregation goes outside to welcome the Sabbath Queen. This ritual might be seen as a kind of goddess worship, since it invokes a mythic feminine presence. Further, every aspect of the Sabbath fulfills a sacred requirement, even the lovemaking between man and wife on Friday night. Such lovemaking is said to take place under the shelter of the Shekhinah. It is required because, as the Zohar puts it, “in a place where male and female are not united, God will not take up His dwelling place, for blessing prevails only in a place where male and female are present.”75 And God’s dwelling place in this world is, by definition, the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence.

  In an interesting variation of this theme of allegorical personification, the Torah also is identified as a ketubah, a wedding contract, written for the wedding of God and Israel, where God represents the Groom and Israel, the bride:76

  On Friday, the sixth of Sivan, the day appointed by the Lord for the revelation of the Torah to His beloved people, God came forth from Mount Sinai. The Groom, the Lord, the King of Hosts, is betrothed to the bride, the community of Israel, arrayed in beauty. The Bridegroom said to the pious and virtuous maiden, Israel, who had won His favor above all others: “Can there be a bridal canopy without a bride? As I live… you shall don them all like jewels, deck yourself with them like a bride (Isa. 49:18). Many days will you be Mine and I will be your Redeemer. Be My mate according to the law of Moses and Israel, and I will
honor, support, and maintain you, and be your shelter and refuge in everlasting mercy. And I will set aside the life-giving Torah for you, by which you and your children will live in health and tranquility. This Covenant shall be valid and binding forever and ever.”

  Thus an eternal Covenant, binding forever, has been established between them, and the Bridegroom and the bride have given their oaths to carry it out. May the Bridegroom rejoice with the bride whom He has taken as His lot, and may the bride rejoice with the Husband of her youth.

  It is the custom to read this allegorical text in Ladino on the holiday of Shavuot, which commemorates the giving of the Torah. It thus serves as a clear statement that the giving of the Torah was a covenant—here described as a wedding—between God and Israel, and underscores their mutual responsibilities, as in any marriage. God, the Groom, takes responsibility for protecting and supporting His bride, Israel, and Israel, in turn, reaffirms her loyalty and devotion to God. This kind of mutuality sums up the purpose of Jewish ritual, in which the people of Israel reach out to God for sustenance of every kind, spiritual as well as physical, and God responds by providing it for them, expecting, in return, their unceasing devotion. This is the essence of the covenant between God and Israel, which is reaffirmed daily, especially during sacred time.

  7. Myths of the Holy People

  The patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are known as the Fathers, and their wives, Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel, as the Mothers. Abraham is addressed as Avraham Avinu, “Our Father Abraham.” Except for Rachel, all of the Fathers and Mothers are said to be buried in the Cave of Machpelah in the city of Hebron. They are held in the greatest reverence, not only as patriarchs and matriarchs, but as beloved members of one’s own family, for since Abraham was deemed the first Jew, all other Jews must be his descendants. Thus the pattern of great patriarchal figures who were looming presences was established, and subsequent figures such as Joseph, Moses, and King David joined this pantheon.

  One major way in which the traditions surrounding these holy people became embellished was through the application of the midrashic process, by which gaps in the biblical narrative were filled in through a unique, imaginative method that tried to read between the lines. Using this method, the childhood of Abraham was constructed out of thin air, using the template provided by the story of the childhood of Moses. So too were many details about the journey of Abraham and Isaac to Mount Moriah, where Isaac was to be sacrificed, added to the biblical account.77 Indeed, the ultimate result of this midrashic method was to substantially enlarge the primary biblical narratives, creating a kind of Book of the Book.

  Most remarkable are the kinds of transformations that came to be attributed to some biblical figures. Enoch, who is barely mentioned in the genealogy that goes from Adam to Noah,78 ascends on high and is transformed into Metatron, chief among the angels. In these commentaries we learn that God, not Abraham, was Isaac’s true father, while his mother was “the virgin Sarah.”79 And we also learn that Sarah was not barren, for although she did not give birth to any children before Isaac, she gave birth to souls.80 Equally astonishing are some of the rabbinic traditions about Jacob. Not only are Jacob’s highly questionable acts toward his brother Esau—buying his birthright and stealing the blessing of the firstborn—justified in rabbinic legend, but Jacob himself is raised to virtually divine heights.81 In some versions Jacob is revealed to be an angel, while in others he is identified as an even higher being. The evidence for these traditions about Enoch and Jacob is substantial, with these figures taking on demiurgic proportions.

  In particular, the lives of the patriarchs and their successors were carefully scrutinized, and served as role models for the people. When the people faced extermination from their enemies, they recalled Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mount Moriah, and they were consoled. When they were sent into exile after the destruction of the Temple in 586 BCE, they identified with Joseph, who was forced into Egyptian exile, and, like him, they vowed to return to the Holy Land at the first opportunity. Certainly the creation of the State of Israel in our time is directly related to the belief that any Jew living outside the Land of Israel is living in galut, in exile.

  So precious were these patriarchal figures that there was even a great reluctance to accept their deaths as final. Instead, there are myths and folktales to be found that clearly assert that Abraham, Jacob, Moses and King David never died. And, in the sense that each remains a powerful presence, this is true.82

  8. Myths of the Holy Land

  One way to view the sacred nature of the Land of Israel is to see it as a continuation of the Garden of Eden, the very archetype of a sacred place. The garden is described as a place of abundance, where every need of Adam and Eve could be met. Once Adam and Eve were exiled from the garden, its location was lost, and the Holy Land can be seen to assume many of its sacred qualities. In this view, Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel, is a holy land singled out by God for an abundance of blessings: It is a land which Yahweh your God looks after, on which Yahweh your God always keeps His eye, from year’s beginning to year’s end (Deut. 11:12).

  Some texts speak of a primordial light created on the first day of Creation that has its source in the Holy Land, at the very place where the Temple in Jerusalem was built. While the windows of most buildings are made to let light in, the windows of the Temple were built to let light out, and that light is said to have been the source of the holiness of the land.83 The Lurianic myth of the Shattering of the Vessels describes how God sent forth vessels of primordial light, which shattered and scattered their sparks everywhere, but especially on the Holy Land.

  For the great commentator Nachmanides, known as Ramban, the Holy Land is more of a spiritual place than a real one: “The Land is not like Egypt, which is irrigated by the Nile like a garden. The Land of Israel is a land of hills and valleys almost exclusively intended to absorb the dew of heaven.”84 For even though the physical Land of Israel exists, its essence is a spiritual matter, a life force coming from God. By entering the Land of Israel, a man becomes part of its sacred nature. And all those who walk as little as four cubits in the Land of Israel are assured of a share in the World to Come, while all who are buried in the Land of Israel—it is as if they were buried beneath the altar of the Temple in Jerusalem.85 Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, one of the most influential hasidic rabbis, asserted that prayers originating in the Land of Israel can bring about miracles and true wonders for the entire world.86 Indeed, the covenant between God and the people of Israel is manifest in the Land of Israel. As Rav Kook, the first chief rabbi of modern Israel, put it, “Love for our Holy Land is the foundation of the Torah.”87

  The city of Jerusalem, a city holy to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, is also portrayed in mythic terms. Not only is there a Jerusalem on earth, but there is a mirror image of Jerusalem in heaven. They are identical, except that the Temple in the heavenly Jerusalem still exists, whereas the one in this world was destroyed. If anyone prays in Jerusalem, it is as though he were praying before the Throne of Glory. For the Gate of Heaven is there, and the door is open for prayer to be heard. It is said that all the trees of Jerusalem were made of cinnamon. When their wood was kindled, their perfume would spread through the Land of Israel. But when the Temple was destroyed, these trees were hidden away. It is also told that because of the fragrance of the incense, brides in Jerusalem did not have to perfume themselves. All of the people of Israel entered Jerusalem three times a year for the festival, yet Jerusalem was never filled. No one ever said, “There is no place for me to lodge in Jerusalem.” Not only that, but it is said that no one was ever attacked by demons in Jerusalem. And while the Temple still stood, no one who remained in Jerusalem overnight remained guilty of sin. The presence of the Temple purified their sins.88

  God’s covenant with Abraham in Genesis 13:14-17 is often referred to as a kind of deed bestowing the right to all of the Land of Israel on the people of Israel: “Raise your eyes and look out
from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west, for I give all the land that you see to you and your offspring forever.” In case there was any doubt about how far Abraham could see, God is said to have raised Abraham up over the Land of Israel and showed him all of the land.89 The intractable conflict in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians derives from this belief in the sanctity of the Holy Land, especially of Jerusalem, shared by Jews and Muslims. This serves as a compelling reminder of the enduring and sometimes destructive power of these myths, which are not always benign.

  Not only are the places of the Holy Land, such as Hebron, Beersheva and, of course, Jerusalem, linked with some of the primary episodes of the Bible, but there is a multitude of postbiblical myths and legends associated with them as well. Above all, Jerusalem is the jewel of the Holy Land, viewed as the navel of the world: Thus said the Lord God: “I set this Jerusalem in the midst of nations, with countries round about her” (Ezek. 5:5). This idea is restated in the Talmud: “The Holy Land was created first, and then the rest of the world.”90 The Temple that was twice built there and twice destroyed was not only regarded as the center of the Holy Land, but it was believed to have been built on the spot of the Foundation Stone that was regarded as the starting point and center of all Creation.91 The Western Wall at the Temple Mount, also known as the Wailing Wall, has become the holiest Jewish site in the world. Those who visit there write a petition to God, known as qvittel, and put it in the cracks of the Wall. According to tradition, that is a certain method of contacting God. So powerful is this folk belief that many Jewish visitors to Israel leave messages to God in one of the cracks of the Wall.

  9. Myths of Exile

  The theme of exile makes its first, indelible appearance in Jewish tradition when God expels Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Ever after, Jewish myth and history are full of examples of those who are uprooted and forced to leave their homes and wander, sometimes for many generations. From the beginning of Genesis, the pattern is clear: after Cain kills his brother, Abel, God turns him into a wanderer and exile, a punishment Cain considers too great to bear (Gen. 4:13).92 Noah and his family are exiled from all of humanity when God brings down a deluge that destroys all other life on earth. The inhabitants of the land of Shinar seek to avoid being scattered, and therefore set out to build a tower, the Tower of Babel, which, in the end, causes God to send them into exile after all. God tells Abraham to leave his home in Haran and set out for the land that God would reveal to him. After stealing his brother’s blessing, Jacob goes into exile in the city of Haran in order to escape his brother’s vengeance. As for Joseph, he was sold into Egyptian bondage, and taken far away from home. And Moses is separated from his family and his people and raised in exile. Later he is further exiled from the house of Pharaoh.