Tree of Souls (Schwartz)

645 texts · Page 14 of 72

Texts from Howard Schwartz's Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, a landmark anthology gathering myths and legends spanning the full arc of Jewish tradition, from the creation of the world to the coming of the Messiah.

The Cosmic Seed

Tree of Souls

Jewish mysticism, particularly the Kabbalah, grapples with this very question, offering profound and beautiful answers. One of the most evocative images comes from the Zohar, the c...

CreationAdam & EveNoah & FloodMysticism

A Universe Of Water

Tree of Souls

Some traditions say it was all water. Just a vast, unending universe of water. But how did we get from that to the world we know? Well, according to one beautiful myth, God took sn...

CreationHeavenAdam & EveMerkavah

The Three Craftsmen

Tree of Souls

We read in Genesis that God spoke and creation happened. But what if there were… helpers? What if the story is a bit more layered, a bit more collaborative? There's a fascinating m...

CreationAngelsHeavenAdam & Eve

The Pillars Of The World

Tree of Souls

The ancient rabbis certainly did, and they came up with some pretty fascinating ideas. The image of the world resting on pillars is a powerful one, found in creation myths across c...

CreationAdam & EveHoly Land

The Foundation Stone

Tree of Souls

Jewish tradition offers some pretty incredible, mystical answers, and they all center around one key element: the Foundation Stone. This isn't just any old rock. The Foundation Sto...

CreationHeavenAdam & EveNoah & Flood

A Single Utterance

Tree of Souls

That, according to some powerful Jewish mystical traditions, is how the universe came to be. Not a slow burn, not a gradual unfolding, but a single, instantaneous burst of divine e...

CreationHeavenTorahAdam & Eve

The Divided World

Tree of Souls

Some stories tell us it all started with a division. A grand sorting. According to tradition, when God created the world, it wasn't a uniform, homogenous blob. No, no. It was divid...

CreationDemonsTempleExile

The Origin Of Chaos

Tree of Souls

It’s a question that’s haunted mystics and philosophers for millennia, and the answers are, well, delightfully strange. The Bible tells us that in the beginning, the earth was tohu...

CreationAdam & EveNoah & FloodMysticism

The First Sunset

Tree of Souls

The stories we have paint a pretty vivid picture. According to some traditions, on the very day of his creation, Adam saw the sun begin to dip below the horizon. And what was his r...

CreationMosesAdam & EveNoah & Flood