11 texts in Apocrypha & Pseudepigrapha
It offers a rather…unique take on the second day of Creation. We all know the story: God creates the rakia, the firmament, on the second day. He separates the waters above from the...
We often picture God directly shaping him from dust, but some fascinating traditions tell a slightly different story, involving heavenly helpers. The story goes that when the time ...
Jewish tradition envisions a future where Jerusalem isn't just a city on a hill, but a city that becomes the hill—elevated, literally, until it reaches the very Throne of Glory. Th...
Jewish tradition has some pretty ideas about it. One vision, described in Tree of Souls, paints a picture so vivid, so intense, it’s hard to ignore. Imagine this: in the very gener...
Thirty years after Babylon burned Jerusalem to the ground, a man named Ezra lay on his bed in the city of his captors and could not sleep. His thoughts boiled. His heart raged. Bec...
Uriel took Ezra back to the beginning. Before the portals of the world were in place. Before the winds blew or thunder sounded. Before the innumerable hosts of angels were gathered...
"Many have been created, but few shall be saved." With those words ringing in his ears, Ezra launched into the most daring prayer in all of Jewish apocalyptic literature — a prayer...
This is one of the most stunning visions in all of Jewish literature. A grieving woman becomes a city of light. And no one — not even Ezra — sees it coming. God had told Ezra to go...
On the second night, Ezra saw something rise from the sea. An eagle. Vast. Monstrous. It had twelve feathered wings and three heads, and when it spread those wings, they covered th...
Seven days of fasting. Then, in the dead of night, Ezra dreamed. A wind rose from the sea and churned all its waves. And from the heart of the sea — not its surface, not its shallo...
On the third day, Ezra sat under an oak tree. A voice came from a bush opposite him. "Ezra, Ezra." He rose to his feet. "Here I am, Lord." The voice from the bush was deliberate. U...
