6 myths
The righteous one in Jewish tradition: the 36 hidden saints who sustain the world, the tzaddik as the foundation of creation.
6 myths on JewishMythology.com retell how Jewish tradition imagines tzaddik, drawn from the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, Talmud, Kabbalah, and later Jewish literature. Each story below synthesizes primary sources into a single narrative; follow any myth to read it, and from there into the source passages behind it.
Joseph told Pharaoh the famine would last seven years, but Jacob's arrival canceled it after two. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak explains what Joseph knew when he spoke.
Granted one final wish by Heaven, Joshua ben Levi asked to see his place in Eden, then took the angel's knife and leaped over the wall alive.
Chagigah maps what holds creation up: pillars, water, mountains, wind, storm, and finally the arm of God beneath a righteous person's feet.
A scorpion poisons worshippers until a barefoot pauper sets his heel on its hole, and the venom dies in him while a dying boy is pulled back.
The rabbis feared Leviathan. Its scales flash like fire and the ocean boils in its wake. The Tikkunei Zohar called it the righteous pillar.
A single righteous person stands between the upper waters and the lower, holding them apart at the width of one hair.
