Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism by Howard Schwartz, illustratedby Caren Loebel-Fried (Oxford University Press, 618 pp., paperback $29.95)
Is there a Jewish mythology? If myth refers to “a people’s sacred stories about origins, deities, ancestors, and heroes,” the answer is yes—and now we have access to it, thanks to Judaism’s own answer to Joseph Campbell. With this unique anthology, Howard Schwartz, the preeminent reteller of Jewish stories, has created a genre.