Tree of Souls

by Howard Schwartz

  There is much to learn from this tale about how to read rabbinic tales to discover the psychic truths at the core of them. First, however, it is necessary to learn how to interpret their symbolic language. Identifying the Shekhinah with the anima is the first step toward translating this language into an archetypal framework.

  A similar vision of the Shekhinah is recounted by Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev. See “A Vision of the Bride” in Gabriel’s Palace, pp. 245-246.

  Sources:

  Shivhei ha-Ari in Sefer Toledot ha-Ari, pp. 228-230; Emek ha-Melekh 109b; Kav ha-Yashar Chap 92, p. 124; Or ha-Yashar; Hemdat Yamim 2:4a; Iggerot Eretz Yisrael, pp. 205-206; Iggerot mi-Tzefat, pp. 122-123; Midrash Tehillim on Psalms 11:3; Exodus Rabbah 2:2.

  Studies:

  “The Metamorphosis of Narrative Traditions: Two Stories from Sixteenth Century Safed,” by Aryeh Wineman.

  “The Aspect of the ‘Feminine’ in the Lurianic Kabbalah” by Yoram Jacobson.

  “The Quest for Jerusalem” by Howard Schwartz.

  “Messianic Prayer Vigils in Jerusalem in the Early Sixteenth Century” by Ira Robinson.

  On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism by Gershom Scholem, pp. 152-153.

  The Hebrew Goddess by Raphael Patai, pp. 202-220.

  “The Son of the Messiah: Ishmael Zevi and the Shabbatian Aqedah” by David J. Halperin, pp. 153-156 (re: Midnight Vigil).

  85. GOD MAKES MATCHES

  God created the world in six days, but what has He been doing ever since? He sits and makes matches, assigning this man to that woman and this woman to that man. Indeed, God makes these matches even before a child is conceived. Forty days before the formation of a child, a voice goes forth out of heaven to announce that this one will be wed to that one, and every match is as difficult for God to make as it was to part the waters of the Red Sea. And the angels watch over these matches, and when they go well, they sing out, “God the Creator of the world and the Matchmaker, blessed be He now and forever.”

  This myth answers the question of what God has been doing since He completed the creation of the world—He has been making matches, and each one is a difficult task, as difficult to make as parting the waters of the Red Sea (if any task can be considered difficult for God). This makes God a shadkhan—a matchmaker. This myth also explains the Jewish concept of bashert, in which it is believed that each person has a bashert or destined one, and that the match was made in heaven. Such a belief made it easier to accept the matches that in practice were made by parents, usually with considerations of status and wealth rather than of any romantic factors.

  According to the Zohar, all souls are initially male and female. But when they are born into this world, the male and female parts of the soul go their separate ways, the male soul in a male body and the female soul in a female body. If they are worthy, they will unite in marriage, restoring their original unity. That is why a person’s loved one is called a soulmate, for together they form a single unit in every way, body and soul.

  Sources:

  B. Sota 2a; Genesis Rabbah 68:4; Zohar 3:45b; IFA 13264.

  86. THE RABBIS OVERRULE GOD

  Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was among the sages who were debating a point of the Law. All of the sages, except Rabbi Eliezer, ruled one way, and Rabbi Eliezer continued to insist that they were wrong. He used every possible argument to support it, but the others did not agree. Then he said: “Let this carob tree prove that the Law is as I state it is.” The carob tree then uprooted itself and moved a distance of one hundred ells. But the other sages said: “That doesn’t prove anything.”

  Then Rabbi Eliezer said: “Let the waters of the spring prove that I am right.” Then the waters began to flow backward. But again the sages insisted that this, too, proved nothing.

  Then Rabbi Eliezer spoke again and said: “Let the walls of the house of study prove I am right.” And the walls were about to collapse when Rabbi Yehoshua said to them: “If scholars are discussing a point of the Law, why should you walls interfere?” Thus they did not fall, in deference to Rabbi Yehoshua, but neither did they straighten out, out of respect for Rabbi Eliezer, and they are inclined to this day.

  Rabbi Eliezer then said: “If the Law is as I say, let heaven prove it.” Thereupon a bat kol, a heavenly voice, came forth and said: “Why do you quarrel with Rabbi Eliezer, whose opinion should prevail everywhere?”

  Then Rabbi Yehoshua stood up and said: “It [the Torah] is not in heaven” (Deut. 30:12). “What does this mean?” asked Rabbi Yirmiyahu. “It means that since the Torah was given to us on Mount Sinai, we no longer require a heavenly voice to reach a decision, since it is written in the Torah: Follow after the majority” (Exod. 23:2).

  Later Rabbi Nathan encountered Elijah and asked him how the ruling was accepted on high. And Elijah said: “At this the Holy One, blessed be He, laughed and said, ‘My children have overruled me!’”

  The subject of the disagreement between Rabbi Eliezer and the other rabbis was the ritual purity of a ceramic oven. Rabbi Eliezer insisted it was ritually pure, while all of the other sages said it was impure. It seems ironic that a series of miracles, with crucial implications about the relationship of God to the rabbis, took place because of a such a minor matter.

  This startling legend vividly demonstrates the rabbinic belief that once the Torah had been given on Mount Sinai, it became the possession of the Jews, and the responsibility for interpreting it fell to the rabbis. So extreme is this tale that it suggests that the rabbis were not willing to let any authority—even that of God—overrule them. And as the coda to the tale reveals, God seems to accept their determination to decide the Law as they see fit.

  Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, one of the great talmudic sages, disagrees with his fellow sages, and insists on his interpretation to the extent that he provokes miracles—the moving of the carob tree, the reversal of the waters of the spring, and the imminent collapse of the walls of the House of Study.

  Finally, he calls upon heaven to confirm the correctness of his interpretation—and heaven replies in his favor. None of this, however, deters the other rabbis from their interpretation. Instead, Rabbi Yehoshua virtually tells God to keep out of this matter, since, as he says, “The Law is not in Heaven” (Deut. 30: 12). And, indeed, the full context of this passage does in fact seem to shift the burden of responsibility for the interpretation of the Law from God to man: “Surely, this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, ‘Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who among us can cross to the other side of the sea and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?’ No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it” (Deut. 30:11-14).

  On the other hand, the biblical passage that serves as the basis of the assertion that the rabbis, and not God, must decide the Law, Follow after the majority, from Exodus 23:2, has had its meaning reversed from its original context: You shall not follow a multitude to do evil. This interpretation of the biblical verse is itself a radical example of the rabbinic reinterpretation of the text. It demonstrates the extent of the rabbinic determination to assume all responsibility for the interpretation of the Law. See B. Sanhedrin 2a for a discussion of the verse from Exodus.

  Sources:

  B. Bava Metzia 59b.

  87. GOD DEFERS TO THE EARTHLY COURT

  All the ministering angels had gathered before God. “Master of the Universe,” they asked, “what day is New Year’s Day?”

  God replied: “Why are you asking me? Let us, you and I, ask the earthly court. When the earthly court decrees that ‘Today is Rosh ha-Shanah, the New Year,’ then raise up the podium. Summon the advocates. Summon the clerks. For My children have decreed that today is New Year’s Day, and what is a decree for Israel is an ordinance of the God of Jacob.”

&nb
sp; The preceding entry, “The Rabbis Overrule God,” offers a startling example of rabbinic independence from God in matters of interpreting the Torah. Here God defers to the rabbis, to the great court of the Sanhedrin, out of respect. God demonstrates that in certain matters the opinions of the rabbis take precedence even of God. This is a much more conciliatory approach than that taken by Rabbi Yehoshua in “The Rabbis Overrule God.” Behind this myth is the rabbinic understanding that the Sabbath laws are fixed by God, but other holidays, based on the monthly calendar and sighting of the new moon, are up to the human courts.

  God’s agreement in this matter is deduced from Psalms 81:4-5: Blow the horn on the new moon, on the full moon for our feast day. For it is a law for Israel, a ruling of the God of Jacob. The latter verse about the law and ruling can be understood two ways: the statute and ordinance can be seen as a simple repetition, or a statement that God defers to Israel to such a great extent that God accepts all of Israel’s laws as rulings binding on Himself. It is this latter interpretation that is at the root of this myth.

  Two versions of this myth are found in Midrash Tehillim. One version takes place as a dialogue between God and the angels, as found here, and the other takes the form of an announcement on the part of God. The latter adds a coda on the part of God: If the witnesses of the new moon are delayed, everything required for the heavenly court will have to be stored away, and the New Year will be delayed until the next day. Here God is even ready to defer to human frailty, and to delay the starting of the New Year if necessary.

  Sources:

  Midrash Tehillim 81:6; Y. Rosh ha-Shanah 1:3, 57b.

  BOOK TWO

  MYTHS OF CREATION

  When Adam was first created, he was as tall as the distance from the earth to heaven.

  B. Hagigah 12a

  88. THE FIRST TO EXIST

  As the first to exist, God brought Himself into being.

  Here God is understood to be the First Mover, who brought Himself into being. Somehow God crossed the boundary between nonexistence and existence. This is the original transition from Ein Sof, meaning “Endless,” the unknowable part of God, to Keter, meaning “Crown,” the first of the ten sefirot. These sefirot describe the process of emanation by which the rest of existence came into being.

  Sources:

  Ma’ayan Hokhmah in Otzar Midrashim pp. 306-311; Zohar 1:156.

  Studies:

  The Early Kabbalah, edited by Joseph Dan, pp. 49-53.

  89. BEFORE THE WORLD WAS CREATED

  In the beginning, before the world was created, God rode upon the wings of the wind and upon the flames of storms. Fiery lights of crimson fire blazed around Him. Four great storm-winds swirled around Him. A tempest was His chariot, the storm-wind His seat.

  At that time the world was filled with water on water, wave on wave, gale on gale, tempest within tempest, storm-wind within storm-wind, making a great clamor until the word of God silenced them all.

  Then the sound of praise rose up from the waters, and God said to himself, “If these that have neither mouth nor speech praise me, how much more will I be praised when man is created.” So God gave his consent for the world to be created, as it is said, For He spoke and it came to be (Ps. 33:9).

  This mythic portrait of God riding the storm-winds grows out of the passages: For behold Yahweh will come in fire, and like the storm-wind (Isa. 66:15), and, Fire goes before Him (Ps. 97:3). At the same time, the uncreated world is filled with water, based on the verse The voice of Yahweh was upon the waters (Ps. 29:3). Like a god out of Greek mythology, “God rides upon the skies” (Midrash Tehillim 68:3). God first calms the upheavals of the waters, and the world is said to come about when the waters, now offering God praise, request its creation. The association of God with the storm-winds links the Jewish God with Marduk, also known as Bel, a god of thunderstorms, originally a Sumerian god taken over by the Babylonians, who rose from being a local god to become head of the Babylonian pantheon.

  According to Exodus Rabbah (15:22), there were three pre-existent elements: “Three things preceded the creation of the world—water, wind and fire.” These are the three elements found in this mythic description of God.

  Sources:

  Genesis Rabbah 5:1; Exodus Rabbah 5:14, 15:22; Midrash Tehillim 68:3; Midrash Aleph Bet 1:1-5.

  90. PRIOR WORLDS

  Before the world was created, God alone existed, one and eternal, beyond any boundary, without change or movement, concealed within Himself. When the thought arose in Him to bring the world into being, His glory became visible. He began to trace the foundations of a world before Himself, and in this way God brought a heaven and earth into being. But when God looked at them, they were not pleasing in His sight, so He changed them back into emptiness and void. He split and rent and tore them apart with his two arms, and ruined whole worlds in one moment. One after another, God created a thousand worlds, which preceded this one. And all of them were swept away in the wink of an eye.

  God went on creating worlds and destroying worlds until He created this one and declared, “This one pleases me, those did not.” That is how God created the heaven and the earth as we know it, as it is said, “For, behold! I am creating a new heaven and a new earth” (Isa. 65:17).

  The verse These are the generations of the heaven and the earth when they were created (Gen. 2:4) suggested to the rabbis the creation of prior worlds, while the verse You carry them away as with a flood (Ps. 90:5) was also interpreted to refer to the destruction of these prior worlds. The Zohar (1:262b) suggests that God did not actually build these prior worlds, but only thought about building them.

  That this world was not the first that God created was believed to be indicated by Isaiah 65:17: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembered nor come to mind.” Zohar Hadash identifies the prior worlds as totaling 1,000, as does Or ha-Hayim 1:12, which states that before God created this world, He created a thousand hidden worlds. These hidden worlds were created through the first letter, aleph. That is why the Torah, in the report of the Creation of this world, commences with the second letter, bet. The existence of the 1,000 worlds is linked to the verse You may have the thousand, O Solomon (S. of S. 8:12).

  Other sources, such as Midrash Tehillim 90:13, give the number as 974 worlds, which were said to have been created and destroyed over 2,000 years. Sefer ha-Zikhronot 1:1 suggests that when it entered God’s mind to create the world, He drew the plan of the world, but it would not stand until God created repentance. Thus repentance is the key element that made our world possible.

  Rabbi Yitzhak Eizik Haver (1789-1853) found evidence of prior creations in the fact that the Torah starts with the letter bet, the second letter, rather than with an aleph, the first letter. “The verse begins with the letter bet to hint that Creation was divided into two realms—that God created two beginnings.”

  Although a great many prior worlds are said to have been created and destroyed, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev insisted that “Everything God created exists forever, and never ceases to be.” And in Esh Kadosh, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira identifies the creation and destruction of the prior worlds with the Shattering of the Vessels. Furthermore, he states that God made the present universe out of those broken vessels. See “The Shattering of the Vessels and Gathering the Sparks,” p. 122.

  The belief that God destroyed the prior worlds implies that God’s creations of these worlds was somehow in error. Some Christian apocryphal sources, such as The Gospel of Philip 99a, describe even the present world as an error: “The world came into being through a mistake. For He who created it wished to create it imperishable and immortal. He did not attain his hope.”

  Sources:

  Genesis Rabbah 3:7, 9:2, 28:4, 33:3; Exodus Rabbah 1:2, 30:3; B. Hagigah 13b; Midrash Tehillim 90:13; Midrash Aleph Bet 5:5; Eliyahu Rabbah 2:9; Zohar 1:24, 1:154a, 1:262b, 3:135a-135b, Idra Rabbah; Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 3; Sefer ha-’Iyyun Ms. Hebrew University 8330; Zohar
Hadash; Sefer ha-Zikhronot 1:1; Rashi on Shabbat 88b; No’am Elimelekh, Bo 36b; Kedushat Levi; Or ha-Hayim 1:12; Esh Kadosh; Otzrot Rabbi Yitzhak Eizik Haver, p.1.

  Studies:

  The Holy Fire: The Teachings of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto by Nehemia Polen.

  91. THE PRIMORDIAL ELEMENTS

  God drew upon six elements in creating the world: light, darkness, chaos, void, wind (or spirit), and water. But when were these elements created? Some say these elements preexisted, and that God drew upon them in the Creation. Others say they were created in an earlier creation. Still others say that they too were created on the first day, along with heaven and earth.

  The very existence of pre-existing elements, such as light, darkness, chaos, void, water, wind, and the deep, raise doubts about the singularity of God’s accomplishment. Yet there is no explicit mention of the creation of these elements in the account of Creation.

  To demonstrate that God did indeed create these elements, Rabbi Gamaliel in Genesis Rabbah provides prooftexts to show that all seven were created, such as in Isaiah 45:7, where God says, “I form light and create darkness.” However, this proof raises as many questions as it resolves. The use of the verb “form” (yotzer) for the creation of light and “create” (borei) for the creation of darkness is significant. Something that is formed already exists, while something that is created is brought into being. This seems to hint that light pre-existed.

  Sources:

  Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 3.

  92. GOD CREATED EVERYTHING WITH ITS KNOWLEDGE

  God looked over the entire creation before it existed and prepared everything during the six days of Creation. During those six days the foundations and roots of everything that would be brought into being were created.