The Cosmic Tree

And all agree that they were not created on the first day, so that people should not say that Michael was stretching out the south of the firmament and Gabriel the north, while the Holy One, blessed be He, was arranging the middle. Rather, "I am the LORD who makes all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth from Myself, who was with Me" (Isaiah 44:24). "From Myself" is written: It is I who planted this tree so that all the world might delight in it, and I spread out within it the All, and I called its name All, for the All depends upon it and the All issues from it, and all need it, and toward it they gaze and for it they wait, and from there the souls fly forth in joy. Alone was I when I made it, and let no angel exalt himself over it to say, "I came before you," for even at the time when I spread out my earth, in which I planted and rooted this tree, and I rejoiced together, and I rejoiced in them, who was with Me to whom I revealed this secret of Mine? And what is this tree of which you speak? He said to him: The powers of the Holy One, blessed be He, one above the other, and they resemble a tree. Just as this tree, by means of water, brings forth fruit, so too the Holy One, blessed be He, by means of water increases the powers of the tree. And what is the water of the Holy One, blessed be He? It is wisdom; and it is the souls of the righteous, which fly from the spring to the great channel and rise up and cleave to the tree. And by means of what do they fly forth? By means of Israel: when they are righteous and good, the Divine Presence dwells among them and dwells upon their deeds in the bosom of the Holy One, blessed be He, and He makes them fruitful and multiplies them.