200. THE TREASURY OF SOULS
Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism > 200. THE TREASURY OF SOULS
The souls of all those who have not yet been born are kept in the Guf, the Treasury of
Souls, also known as the Chamber of Creation. There each soul waits its turn to be born.
When the time comes for it to descend into this world, an angel is issued along with it,
who accompanies it. It is said that sparrows can see the souls descend, and that is the
source of their song. As soon as the soul leaves the Guf, it divests itself of its heavenly
garment, and is clothed in a garment of flesh and blood.
Where is the Treasury of Souls? In the highest heaven, known as Aravot, where there
are many treasuries, each of them guarded by angels, including the Treasury of Rain, the
Treasury of Ice and Snow, the Treasury of Clouds, the Treasury of Peace, the Treasury of
Blessing, and the Treasury of the Dew with which God will revive the dead. The Guf is
found near the Throne of Glory, and a dazzling brilliant light emanates from the many
souls in repose there. Those souls are in their pristine state, untainted by existence in this
world. Some of them flicker like a small candle and some shine like a torch, and there are
some whose radiance rivals the sun.
When the time comes for the soul to leave this world, the Angel of Death strips off the
worldly garment, and at the same instant the soul is clothed in the holy garment that was
stripped away when it descended to this world. Then the soul delights in having been
stripped of its worldly body and in having its original garment restored. And the souls
who have departed from their earthly bodies return to that same treasury, and fly before
the Throne of Glory in the presence of God. And when the time comes for a human to be
born, the angel Gabriel puts his hand into the Treasury of Souls and takes out the first
soul that comes into his hand. If the person is fortunate, a great soul comes into Gabriel’s
hand; if not a spark of a soul inhabits the body.
It is said about the soul of the Ba’al Shem Tov that its radiance shone from one end of
the universe to the other. Each time the angel Gabriel sought to bring this soul down to
this world, Satan would storm into heaven and protest. In this way, the brightest of souls
remained in heaven for thousands of years, but at last it descended and the Ba’al Shem
Tov was born.

There are those who say that the Guf contains an infinite number of souls, while others
insist there is only a finite number of souls in it, and that the Messiah will not come until
theGuf has been emptied of every soul. Others say that from the day the Temple was
destroyed, no more souls entered the Guf, and when it has been emptied of all the re-
maining souls, the Messiah will come.
And when the last soul has descended and the Guf is empty, the first infant to be born
without a soul, born dead as such an infant must be, will herald the death of the world
and so is called the final sign. Then all of the sparrows will grow silent, and the world, as
we know it, will end, and the End of Days will begin.

There is general agreement in rabbinic lore that the souls of the unborn are kept in
a storehouse or Treasury of Souls. In B. Avodah Zarah 5a, Resh Lakish, an important
talmudic sage, is quoted as saying, “The Messiah will only come when all the souls
destined to inhabit earthly bodies have been exhausted.” Rashi, commenting on this,
says that “There is a treasure house called the Guf, and at the time of Creation all souls
destined to be born were formed and placed there.” This treasure house is said to
contain souls created since the six days of Creation, which are being saved for bodies
yet to be created. It is also described in B. Yevamot 63b as located behind the heavenly
curtain known as the Pargod, where “there are spirits and souls created since the six
days of Creation that are intended for bodies yet to be created.”

A linkage is also made between the depletion of souls in this treasury and the End
of Days. The Talmud (B. Yev. 62a) states, “The Son of David will not come before all
the souls in the Guf have been disposed of, as it is said, “For the spirit that unwraps itself
is from Meand the souls that I have made” (Isa 57:16). Guf literally means a “body,” thus
the storehouse of souls is literally “a body of souls.” This enigmatic verse grew into
the myth of the Guf, a treasury that provided souls for those still to be born. The myth
describes the events that will take place when the treasury runs out of souls. In 3
Enoch43 Rabbi Ishmael expands on this verse. He concludes that the first part of the
verse“For the spirit that unwraps itself is from Me” refers to the souls of the righteous
that have already been created in the Guf and have returned to the presence of God.
The second part of the verse, “and the souls that I have made,” refers to the souls of the
righteous that have not yet been created.
In addition to the myth of the Guf, the concept of such a treasury is found in other
forms in Jewish tradition. An alternate version of the origin of souls is found in Zohar
Hadash,Bereshit 10b-10c, in which it is stated that God hewed from His Throne all
souls that would be born, and stored them in the storehouse of souls. There is also
said to be another storehouse of the souls of the righteous who have died. As long as
a person is alive, his soul is entrusted to his Creator, as it is said, O keep my soul and
deliver me (Ps. 25:20).Once a righteous person dies, his soul is placed in this other
treasury, as it is said, The soul of my Lord will be bound up in the bundle of life in the care of
the Lord (1 Sam. 25:29).
A third explanation of the origin of souls is found in Nishmat Hayim 2:7, where holy
souls are said to spring forth from God. In contrast, in Torat Moshe, Rabbi Moshe
Alshekh describes the soul as a spiritual light that emanates from the Shekhinah. Thus
in one version the soul comes forth from the male aspect of God; in the other, it shines
forth from God’s Bride.
There are alternate myths about other places where the souls of the unborn are kept.
Some say that the highest abode of the soul is the pure place under the Throne of Glory,
where all the souls of the unborn are kept close to their Creator. According to Ben Ish
Hai in Derushim Bereshit, both the Torah and the souls of Israel come from the Throne of
Glory, which he identifies with the World of Creation (Beriah), one of the four Kabbalistic
“worlds.” Still other sources, including Sefer ha-Bahir and the Zohar,identify the Shekhinah
with the soul, calling the Shekhinah the dwelling place of the soul. This teaches that the
soul had its origin on high, and that the Shekhinahis the soul that dwells in everyone.
This identification of Shekhinah with soul is also found in the myth of the neshamah yeterah,
thesecond soul that arrives on the Sabbath at the same instant as the Shekhinah in the
form of the Sabbath Queen. See “The Second Soul,” p. 310 and “ThePargod, p. 186.
The Seventh Sign (1988), a popular film in the apocalyptic genre, is based on the
theme of the Guf. Its plot takes place when the first infant without a soul is about to be
born, a sign that the world is about to end. This is an accurate account of the prophecy
about a child born after the last soul departs from the Guf, except that the film tries to
turn a Jewish apocalyptic myth into a Christian one.
For the related myth of the origin of souls, see “Tree of Souls,” p. 164. See also “The
Creation of Souls,” p. 163.