Kabbalah (3 page)

While religion is an expression of faith in the words of scripture and revelation, mystics tend to claim that truth lies beyond any possibility of expression by terms derived from sensual experience or logical deduction. Linguistic communication is understood through the sensual and logical messages that language conveys. If mystics see these realms as irrelevant to mystical truth, language cannot serve to communicate supernal truth. Some opaque, imprecise hints at the mysteries of the divine may be conveyed by various methods using words, but these should not be taken literally. In mysticism, language is apophatic, a “language of unsaying,” language that denies its own communicative message. In this way, mysticism and religion are different spiritual phenomena, separated by their opposing conceptions of linguistic communication.

This is a purely negative description, suggesting what the mystics do not believe in rather than what they positively hold to be their unique religious expression. Yet it serves as a basis to explore the particular characteristics of each historical phenomenon that we wish to designate as “mystical.” The universal, 9

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distinctive aspect of mysticism is its denial of the senses, logic, and communicative language as avenues leading to the knowledge and understanding of the divine. The positive aspects are dependent on particular historical, cultural, and spiritual contexts, which give every expression of mysticism its unique character.

When the term “mysticism” was applied to Jewish (and Muslim) spiritual phenomena, many scholars believed that they have discovered a parallel to Christian mysticism: the esoteric, mysterious literature of the kabbalah. It became common to identify the kabbalah with mysticism, as if the term was just a Hebrew word for the familiar Christian phenomenon. In a similar way, the Muslim Sufi literature was designated as “Islamic mysticism.” These generalizations are mostly invalid. Sufism and kabbalah are phenomena that each developed in particular cultural and spiritual circumstances that have very little in common with the emergence of Christian mysticism. The concept of ancient tradition that permeates the kabbalah, and the sack that early Islamic Sufis wore, which probably gave them this appellation, have no parallel in Christian mysticism. Yet it is a fact that when one seeks Jewish candidates for the mantle of “mystic” in an analogical manner, one may find several such examples among the kabbalists. If the tendency to seek a realm of divine truth that is beyond the senses, logic, and language is a universal one to be found among the adherents of every spiritual structure (though the number of such people may be ex-ceedingly small), it is natural that the Jewish representatives of this tendency will be found among the esoteric circles of the kabbalists. This does not mean that all kabbalists are mystics. It means only that people who had such inclinations found a ha-ven among the kabbalists. Many kabbalists were first and foremost exegetes, preachers, theologians, and traditionalists, but among them we can identify some mystics, using the criteria derived from Christian mysticism and applying them, analogically, to the Jewish cultural context.

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2

Ancient Jewish Mysticism and

the Emergence of the Kabbalah

The various schools of the kabbalists, from the late twelfth century to the present, are just one—though undoubtedly a most prominent and influential one—of the manifestations of esotericism and mysticism in Jewish religious culture. At least two major groups of Jewish spiritualists demonstrated very similar attitudes to the kabbalists, though they knew nothing about the kabbalah and its specific terminologies and worldviews.

The beginning of Jewish esotericism can be found in a talmudic statement, in the Mishnah (Hagiga 2:1), originating probably from the first century CE. It declares that it is forbidden to expound two sections in the scriptures in public, and warns of the danger in studying them even in small groups.

The first section is the chapters of the Book of Genesis, describing the creation of the cosmos, which is called in the Talmud
ma’aseh bereshit
(the work of genesis). The second section is the first chapter of the Book of Ezekiel, called the
ma’aseh
merkavah
(the work of the chariot), the description of Ezekiel’s vision of the celestial chariot in Ezekiel 1 and 10. Thus, these chapters and subjects were separated from the body of Jewish traditional expounding and speculation, and relegated to a separate realm, which was regarded as spiritually—and sometimes even physically—dangerous.

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2 The ancient
Sefer Yezira
, the Book of Creation, describes the process of creation mainly by the power of the letters of the alphabet.

(Latin translation, Amsterdam 1642).

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The talmudic sages discuss this prohibition in detail and give examples of the problems and the dangers of these scriptures, often using opaque, mystifying language. One of the best-known parables attached to this prohibition is the story of the four sages who entered a
pardes
—a royal garden. (The word “
pardes
” is derived from Persian, and its Greek form was adopted by European languages as Paradise.) Of these four well-known talmudic figures one died as the result of this experience, the second went out of his mind, the third became a heretic, and only one—Rabbi Akibah ben Joseph—“entered in peace and came out in peace.” The text does not explain what the “entrance to the
pardes
” actually means, but it was understood to represent a profound religious experience of entering the divine realm and suggesting some kind of a meeting with God.

There are numerous discussions of these subjects in rabbinic literature of late antiquity, and these three terms—
ma’aseh bereshit,
ma’aseh merkavah,
and
pardes
—became central in the language of Jewish esoterics, spiritualists, and mystics over the next two millennia.

A small library of about two dozen treatises reached us from the writings of Jewish esoterics in late antiquity dealing with these two subjects, the secret of creation and the secret of the divine realm, the
merkavah
. It is known as the “Hekhalot [celestial palaces or temples] and Merkavah” literature, because several of the treatises have these terms in their titles. This literature deals with four main subjects: the first is that of cosmology and cosmogony, detailed descriptions of the process of creation and the ways in which God directs the universe (including the structure of paradise and hell, and several astro-nomical discussions). The most detailed work in this group is Seder Rabba de-Bereshit (The Extended Description of Genesis). The second main subject in this small library is magic.

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These treatises include the most elaborate ancient Jewish di-rectory for magical formulas—Harba de-Moshe (The Sword of Moses), a list of several hundred magical incantations and procedures, dealing in many subjects from medical remedies to love potions to walking on water. Magic is a prominent subject in several other treatises in this literature, especially in Sefer ha-Razim (The Book of Secrets). The third main subject is expounding the description of the chariot in Ezekiel and other biblical sections describing the abode of God. Thus, for instance, in Reuyot Yehezkel (The Visions of Ezekiel), Ezekiel is described as having envisioned seven chariots reflected in the waters of the river Kvar. These texts include detailed angelologi-cal lists, naming the angels and their functions, as well as presentations of the secret names of God and of the archangels.

The fourth subject—found only in about five of these treatises—is meaningfully different from the others: it describes an active procedure by which a person can ascend to the divine realms and reach the highest level, and even “face God in his glory.” This process of ascension is called in these texts, para-doxically, “descent to the chariot,” and the sages who do it are called
yordey ha-merkavah
(the descenders to the chariot). This practice is attributed in these texts to the two great sages of the early talmudic period, Rabbi Akibah and Rabbi Ishmael. Unlike the vast talmudic-midrashic literature and most of the Hekhalot and Merkavah treatises, these texts do not rely on expounding biblical verses (midrash), but relate direct, personal spiritual experiences. The claim for veracity does not rely on “the verse said,” as is usual in most Hebrew postbiblical literature, but on personal experience—“I saw,” “I heard,” “I envisioned.” They used terminology that is not found anywhere else, such as the term “
hekhalot
” in the plural, indicating the seven palaces or temples that are situated, one above the other and one inside the other in the seventh, highest heaven. The sages who overcome the many dangers on the elaborate way of ascension join with the angels in the celestial rituals of praise to God. Unlike any other ancient texts, these treatises abound with 14

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hymns of praise to God, some of which are recited by angels and others said by the
yordey ha-merkavah
themselves. There are many different definitions of mysticism; I am not aware of one that would not include the descenders to the chariot as an excellent example of mysticism.

One of these treatises, probably connected with the group of
yordey ha-merkavah
but without making use of this term, had particular influence on the history of Jewish esotericism and mysticism. It is called Shiur Komah (The Measurement of the Height). This short work, attributed to Rabbi Akibah and Rabbi Ishmael, seems to be an intensely anthropomorphic description of God. It does not relate a divine experience; its core is a list of God’s limbs, beard, forehead, eyes, and irises (derived mainly from the description of the lover in Song of Songs 5:10– 16), each of which is designated by a series of obscure, strange, unpronounceable names, and each is measured in terms of miles, feet, and fingers. The author defines the measurements he uses, and the basic one is the length of the whole universe (based on Isaiah 40:12); each divine limb is trillions of times longer than this basic measurement. It is possible that this anthropomorphic text is actually a polemic against more radical views that derived from the Song of Songs simplistic human descriptions of God. Be that as it may, for Jewish esoteric tradition, the Shiur Komah defined the standard image of God for the next millennium and a half. Its impact was enormous, and the kabbalistic system of the divine attributes, the
sefirot
, is described in terms from the Shiur Komah.

Sefer Yezira, the Book of Creation
One of the most important sources for medieval kabbalistic terminology is an ancient nonkabbalistic treatise entitled Sefer Yezira (The Book of Creation). It is often regarded, errone-ously, as the earliest work of the kabbalah. In fact, Sefer Yezira is a cosmological, scientific treatise that describes the process of creation mainly by the power of the letters of the alphabet, 15

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and presents an early Jewish conception of grammar. It appeared in Jewish culture in the tenth century, when Jewish rationalistic philosophers and scientists, headed by Rav Saadia Gaon in Babylonia, Dunash Ibn Tamim, and Shabbatai Donolo, wrote commentaries on the text, using it to present their own scientific systems of cosmology, anthropology, and psychology. It is evident that in the tenth century it was regarded as an ancient work, and the multiplicity and complexity of its versions proves that it had developed and was edited for several generations before its appearance. The date of its origin is unknown. Some scholars suggest it is a first century work, written before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, while others maintain that it was written in the ninth century, under the influence of Islamic culture. Most scholars assume that it was written in the third or fourth century, but no definite proof can be presented for any of these possibilities. There are scores of different versions of the work, and the first comprehensive scholarly edition was published recently by the scholar Peter Hayman. The concluding sentences of the treatise describe Abraham as knowing the secrets of this work, and because of this it has traditionally been ascribed to Abraham the Patriarch. Between the tenth and the twelfth centuries it was interpreted by rationalists and scientists, but in the second half of the twelfth century it was adopted by esoterics, mystics, and kabbalists, and has been identified with this aspect of Jewish religious culture since that time.

The work presents a system of cosmogony and cosmology that seems to be deliberately different from the one described in the Book of Genesis and in the detailed interpretations of that narrative in traditional rabbinic sources, including the Talmud and midrash. It cites no authority, and rarely relies on biblical verses. The book does not use the traditional Hebrew term for creation, “
bara”
; the dominant verbs are “hewed” and “crafted” (
haqaq, hazav,
and
yazar
). The universe was hewed, according to the first paragraph, by thirty-two “wondrous paths of wisdom,” and engraved in “three books.” The “paths” are described as ten
sefirot
and the twenty-two letters of the He-16