Lamed Wufnik

The Lamed Wufniks are in Jewish tradition 36 righteous men whose role in life is to justify the purpose of mankind in the eyes of God; their identity is unknown to each other; if a Lamed Wufnik comes to a realisation of his true purpose then he dies and his role is immediately assumed by another person.

These beliefs are articulated in the works of Max Brod, and some believe the concept to have originated in Genesis Chapter XVIII: "And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes." An analogous group of individuals may be discerned within the Islamic tradition of the Kutb[?].