The 36 People That Sustain the Whole World Work

Neil Gaiman is a talented writer who has brought some truly extraordinary literary works to life in the world. Although I have been much more of a non-fiction reader over the last couple of decades, I would strongly recommend The Graveyard Book and his Lucifer graphic novels (more on those here) to you.

Recently, I started digging into his Sandman graphic novels (So far, so good!), and in passing, it mentioned the story of the 36 Tzaddikim:

They say that the world rests on the backs of 36 living saints – 36 unselfish men and women. Because of them, the world continues to exist.

I was fascinated by that concept, so I looked it up to see if it was a real thing. As it turns out, it was.

It’s from the Jewish Talmud, although there is apparently debate among Jews about whether it’s meant to be figurative or literal.

Here’s the ChatGPT explanation of the concept:

In Jewish tradition, the “36 hidden righteous” are 36 unknown, humble people whose goodness helps sustain the world.

The idea is that ci…