Tree of Souls (Schwartz)

645 texts · Page 17 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 Creator Of The World

Tree of Souls

But Jewish tradition is full of fascinating, sometimes mind-bending, ideas about how creation actually unfolded. And there's this figure...this mysterious being...known as Yotzer B...

CreationHeavenAdam & EveMysticism

The First Created Being

Tree of Souls

We often jump straight to God, the Creator, but Jewish mystical tradition offers a fascinating glimpse at something...more. Something that acted as a bridge between the unknowable ...

CreationMosesAdam & EveMysticism

The Angel Who Created The World

Tree of Souls

We're talking about a figure so powerful that, according to some, it was this angel who brought everything into existence. Think of it: this angel created not just the physical wor...

CreationAngelsHeavenTorah

The Wheel Of Creation

Tree of Souls

Maybe, just maybe, you're part of something much bigger: a cosmic wheel. The idea of a "wheel of creation" isn't some new-age concept. It's a powerful image found in Jewish mystica...

CreationAngelsDemonsHeaven

The Cosmic Tree

Tree of Souls

Jewish tradition offers us just such a vision: the Cosmic Tree. In the beginning, according to some mystical texts, God planted this tree, a being of unimaginable scale stretching ...

CreationAngelsHeavenAdam & Eve

Creation By Broken Vessels

Tree of Souls

Jewish mystical tradition grapples with this very question, offering a powerful, and somewhat unsettling, origin story. It's a story of creation through destruction, a cosmic recyc...

CreationPatriarchsAdam & EveNoah & Flood

The Heavenly Man

Tree of Souls

Some traditions suggest that God didn't just create one Adam, but two. Think of it as a cosmic prototype. According to these accounts, this first Adam wasn't sculpted from earthly ...

CreationHeavenAdam & Eve

Adam The Angel

Tree of Souls

We often think of Adam as simply the first man, made of dust. But some ancient traditions paint a far more…celestial picture. A picture of Adam as an angel. Now, before you picture...

CreationAngelsHeavenPatriarchs

Adam The Golem

Tree of Souls

The mystics imagined it, and what they saw is The story goes that when God decided to create Adam, it wasn't a snap of the fingers. It was a process. A cosmic sculpting project, if...

CreationAngelsDemonsHeaven