Tree of Souls
Page 15
The doorposts would shake at the sound of the one who called, and the House kept filling with smoke. I cried, “Woe is me; I am lost! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my own eyes have beheld the King Lord of Hosts.”
Then one of the seraphs flew over to me with a live coal, which he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched it to my lips and declared, “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt shall depart and your sin be purged away.”
Then I heard the voice of my Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me.”
This biblical vision of Isaiah is extremely important in forming elementary concepts about the nature of God, of heaven, and of the role of the angels. Here God is envisioned as a king whose dwelling place is not a palace, but a temple. Which temple is this? The presence of the angels, whose function is to glorify God, strongly suggests it is the heavenly temple. Just this one passage, then, establishes the existence of heaven as a place on high inhabited by God and the angels, with His home in the heavenly Temple. This vision of Isaiah thus serves as a blueprint for subsequent myths about God and heaven. Details about the geography of heaven, about the names and roles of the angels, and, above all, about God’s role on high, are embellished in rabbinic texts and in the Pseudepigrapha, the noncanonical books of the Bible, especially in the books of Enoch. Later the heavenly geography is further developed in the kabbalistic and Hasidic literature. For an example of a rabbinic elaboration, see “God’s Throne of Glory,” p. 4.
Isaiah’s own role in this vision—in which a seraph touches his mouth with a glowing stone that takes away guilt from his “unclean lips”—also establishes a pattern of interaction between humans and the divine realm, as well as the motif of a healing stone. This motif is also found in the Talmud in the myth of a glowing stone that the patriarch Abraham was said to have worn around his neck. Anyone who peered into the stone was healed (B. Bava Batra 16b). See “The Tzohar,” p. 85.
A close variant of Isaiah’s vision, in which God is also portrayed as seated upon a heavenly throne, is found in Daniel 7:9-10. See “Daniel’s Night Vision,” following.
Sources:
Isaiah 6:1-8
2. DANIEL’S NIGHT VISION
As I looked on, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took His seat. His garment was like white snow, and the hair of His head was like lamb’s wool. His throne was tongues of flame; its wheels were blazing fire. A river of fire streamed forth before Him; thousands upon thousands served Him; myriads upon myriads attended Him; the court sat and the books were opened.
As I looked on, in the night vision, one like a human being came with the clouds of heaven; he reached the Ancient of Days and was presented to Him. Dominion, glory, and kingship were given to him; all peoples and nations of every language must serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship, one that shall not be destroyed.
One way of reading this crucial dream vision of Daniel is to see it as the enthronement of two divine manifestations. In one God is identified as the Ancient of Days (Atik Yomaya); in the other, as a human being. In this interpretation God can be manifested as a young man or as an old man. Some rabbinic texts, such as Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, ba-Hodesh 5:20-30, discuss how God can sometimes appear as an old man and sometimes as a young man. See “God’s Disguises,” p. 16.
This myth also can be read in a completely different way, where the human figure is enthroned as a second divinity, as is found in Jewish Gnosticism. Read this way, this myth serves as the template for a series of enthronement myths. See “The Enthronement of Adam,” p. 131, “The Metamorphosis and Enthronement of Enoch,” p. 156, “Jacob the Divine,” p. 366, “The Enthronement of Moses,” and “King David is Crowned in Heaven,” p. 395.
Here the Ancient of Days—one of the names of God—is seated upon His throne, while the younger figure is given “everlasting dominion,” which appears to be an enthronement. This pattern of the enthronement of a second divine figure in Judaism, while surprising because of the expectations of monotheism, is repeated many times in subsequent Jewish literature, where enthronement accounts are found for Adam, Jacob, Moses, and David, as well as for Enoch, who is transformed into the angel Metatron. These texts establish a pattern of Jewish Gnosticism in which a demiurgic figure is invested with divine powers. See “The Enthronement of Adam,” p. 131, “Jacob the Divine,” p. 366, “The Enthronement of Moses,” p. 388, and “King David is Crowned in Heaven,” p. 395. See also “The Metamorphosis and Enthronement of Enoch,” p. 156.
Sources:
Daniel 7:9-10, 7:13-14.
Studies:
Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition by Gershom Scholem.
Two Powers in Heaven by Alan Segal.
Four Powers in Heaven: The Interpretation of Daniel 7 in the Testament of Abraham by Phillip B. Munoa.
3. GOD’S THRONE OF GLORY
God sits in the center of a high and exalted throne, exceedingly majestic, suspended in the highest heaven, Aravot. Some say that one-half of the throne is made of fire, and the other half of snow. Others say that the entire throne consists of fire. A resplendent crown of glory rests upon God’s head, and upon His forehead are written the four letters of His Name, YHVH.
God’s eyes overlook all of the earth; on His right is life, on His left, death. In His hand is a scepter of fire. Fire surrounds the Throne of Glory, and beneath it sapphires glow. The throne stands upon four legs, with four holy creatures attached to it. On each side are four faces and four wings. Clouds of glory surround the throne, filled with six-winged seraphim singing praises to the Lord.
God’s Throne of Glory is fused with a chariot of fire. It has never set foot on the floor of the seventh heaven, but hovers like a bird there. Each day the Throne of Glory sings a hymn before God, and thrice daily the throne prostrates itself before God, saying, “God of Israel, sit upon me in glory, for Your burden is most dear to me and does not weigh me down.”
Rivers issue forth from under the Throne of Glory: rivers of joy, rivers of rejoicing, rivers of jubilation, rivers of love, rivers of friendship. They strengthen themselves and pass through the gates of the seventh heaven.
While God sits upon His throne, high and exalted, and looks down upon the earth, the wheels of the chariot roll through the heavens, causing lightning and thunder, as well as earthquakes. The chariot is led through the heavens by a swift cherub, who flies upon wings of the wind.
This is one of many rabbinic myths that elaborates on Isaiah’s vision of God seated on a heavenly throne (Isa. 6:1-8). Here the description of the throne adds four holy creatures (hayyot) attached to it. The throne itself is said to be moving through the heavens as if it were some kind of fiery chariot. This image is one of the central paradoxes of Jewish mysticism—that God’s throne is also such a Merkavah, a fiery chariot, both fixed in place in the highest heaven and also traveling through heaven like a comet at the same time. This comes directly from the vision of Ezekiel (Ezek. 1:1-28).
God is described in elemental terms, seated on a throne half fire, half snow. According to one version, the snow beneath the Throne of Glory was used by God to create the Foundation Stone; according to another version, it was used to create the whole earth. See the note to “The Work of Creation” p. 90.
In Masekhet Hekhalot, one of the Hekhalot texts describing heavenly journeys, the size of the throne is given in physical terms: “Its length is 800,000 myriads of parasangs, and its width is 500,000 myriads of parasangs, and its height is 300,000 parasangs, and it reaches from one end of the world to the other.”
In the hymns of Hekhalot Rabbati, one of the most important of the Hekhalot texts, God’s Throne of Glory is personified, singing a creation hymn before God and prostrating itself before God three times a day.
Sources:
Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 3, 6; Sefer ha-Zikhronot 1:1
1, 1:6; Midrash Tehillim 4:12; Hekhalot Rabbati 8, 10; Masekhet Hekhalot in Beit ha-Midrash 2:40-47; Midrash Konen in Beit ha-Midrash 2:25; Sefer ha-Komah, Oxford Ms. 1791, ff. 55-70.
Studies:
The Faces of the Chariot by David J. Halperin.
4. THE DESCENT OF GOD’S THRONE
In the future God will let his throne descend to the middle of the firmament, and will reveal His glory to all who walk on earth.
Then God will set the place of the righteous closer to his throne than the place of the ministering angels.
There are many scenarios for what will take place in the messianic era. Here God’s throne is envisioned descending to the middle of the firmament. From there, it would be visible to everyone on earth, so that they would be able to see God’s glory. The myth also stresses the ultimate importance of the righteous to God, who will be closer to His throne than will the angels. Other themes of heavenly descent are also to be found in “The Descent of the Heavenly Jerusalem,” p. 418, and “The Descent of the Heavenly Temple,” p. 512.
Sources:
Y. Shabbat 6:9.
5. THE CROWN OF GOD
God wears a crown on His head. All the letters of the Hebrew alphabet adorn that crown. That crown has two staves, and between them is a precious stone, with the words “Israel, My people; Israel My people is mine” engraved on it. For the name of that crown is Israel. So too are inscribed the words, My beloved is clear skinned and ruddy, preeminent among ten thousand. His head is finest gold, his locks are curled and black as a raven. His eyes are like doves by watercourses bathed in milk, set by a brimming pool (S. of S. 5:10-12).
Rabbi Akiba defended the inclusion of the Song of Songs in the Bible, saying “The whole world existed for the day on which The Song of Songs was given to it. For all the Writings are holy, but this is the holy of holies” (Song of Songs Rabbah 1:11). That words from the Song of Songs are engraved on God’s crown confirms Rabbi Akiba’s assertion about the exceptional holiness of that book.
The letters of the Hebrew alphabet are engraved in the crown, and this serves to explain the primal power of the letters, which, tradition holds, were used in the creation of the world. See “The Letters of the Alphabet,” p. 250.
The size of God’s crown is given in the Sefer ha-Komah as 500,000 by 500,000 parasangs. By contrast, the circumference of God’s head is given in the same text as 3,003,033 parasangs.
A similar crown is described as being worn by Metatron, the supreme angel, in 3 Enoch 13.
Sources:
B. Berakhot 55a; Sefer ha-Komah, Oxford Ms. 1791, ff. 58-70; Alpha Beta de-Rabbi Akiva in Battei Midrashot 2:396.
Studies:
Keter: The Crown of God in Early Jewish Mysticism by Arthur Green.
The Shi’ur Qomah: Liturgy and Theurgy in Pre-Kabbalistic Jewish Mysticism, edited by Martin Samuel Cohen.
6. GOD’S CROWN OF PRAYERS
Three times each day the prayers of Israel ascend on high. When all of Israel has finished praying, what happens to their prayers? They thread their way to Paradise, to the highest heaven, where they are gathered by the angel Sandalphon, the angel appointed over prayers. Sandalphon collects all the prayers that have been offered in all the synagogues, and weaves them into garlands of prayer that he places upon the head of God, to wear on His Throne of Glory. That is why it is said that God is crowned with the prayers of Israel.
The idea that God wears a crown is a natural development from the concept of God as king. Since kings were the highest, most powerful human figures, God was viewed as the ultimate king. So too does God have a throne, the Throne of Glory, and a crown. The notion of God wearing a crown is also reinforced by the biblical verse: and a splendid crown upon Your head (Ezek. 16:12).
Here, though, the crown is formed in a wonderful way. The angel Sandalphon, charged with gathering the prayers of Israel, first collects the prayers and then weaves them into crowns of prayer. In some versions the angel puts the crown directly on God. In others, the angel pronounces an adjuration that causes the crown to rise on its own and settle on God’s head.
Sources:
B. Hagigah 12a, 13b; Exodus Rabbah 21:4; Pesikta Rabbati 19:7; Beit ha-Midrash 1:58-61; Midrash Konen in Beit ha-Midrash 2:26; Sefer ha-Komah; Seder Tkhines u-Vakoshes 3.
Studies:
Keter: The Crown of God in Early Jewish Mysticism by Arthur Green.
7. THE THIRTY-TWO PATHS OF WISDOM
There are thirty-two paths of wisdom, consisting of the ten sefirot and the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. By numbers, letters, and sounds, God engraved His Name on those paths.
The Sefer Yetzirah, The Book of Creation (or Formation), views the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the ten sefirot as the essential building blocks of the universe. Together they constitute the thirty-two paths of wisdom.
Sources:
Sefer Yetzirah 1:1.
Studies:
Sefer Yetzirah translated by Aryeh Kaplan.
8. THE TEN SEFIROT
Ten is the number of the ineffable sefirot, ten and not nine, ten and not eleven. Each of the sefirot has the appearance of a flash of lightning. Their origin is beyond human sight, their unfolding to the end of time.
Each sefirah has its own name, and this name can invoke angels and draw down the word of God. As they rush forth and return, they bear the divine word with them as a messenger carries a message.
Each sefirah reaches up to the Source of being and down to the created world. Each has vast regions bound to it, boundless and neverending, an abyss of good and evil. From His throne, God eternally rules over them. They are great mysteries of God, as it is said, The secret things belong to Yahweh (Deut. 29:28), and in them God conceals Himself from human beings. Through them God rules secret worlds that have not been revealed, as well as worlds that have been revealed. He binds the sefirot together and unites them. He has prepared garments for them, from which souls fly into human beings.
The sefirot are the channels through which God rules and interacts with all universes—those accessible to the human eye and those beyond human understanding, even beyond prophecy. God is hidden within the sefirot. From them comes all existence—through them, from the highest sphere, manifests the human being.
God is the mystery of mysteries. No thought can grasp God at all. In God there is no likeness or image of anything within or without. But since God is in the sefirot, whoever separates any one of these ten from the others, it is as if he had made a division in God.
The ten sefirot emanated from the ultimate, unknowable God, known as Ein Sof (the Infinite One), at the moment of Creation. They pour down energy, level after level, at last manifesting into a state of being, a container that receives the divine life flowing into it from the other sefirot. The function of the sefirot is a holographic reality, repeated endlessly, macro and microcosmically. But generically, that container is the tenth sefirah, Malkhut, which is also known as Shekhinah and Knesset Yisrael, the soul root Israel (which manifests in the form of the Jewish people).
All ten sefirot function as a unit to channel the divine energy. They are the conduits for ultimate good; yet paradoxically intimated within the very nature of the sefirot is the first hint of constriction that ultimately manifests as evil. Therefore, any attempt to manipulate these forces is considered tampering with divinity itself, and obstructing the flow of divinity through all the worlds. In more classical terminology, whoever separates any one of these ten from the others is considered as though he had made a division within the Divine.
The sefirot, representing the transition from super-being to being, are, in descending order: (1) Keter, Crown, the power that comes from the Transcendent (2) Hokhmah, Wisdom emerging from the ineffable, (3) Binah, the Understanding that develops, (4) Hesed, the generous Lovingkindness that flows downward, (5) Gevurah, the necessary Power that holds back and channels that Lovingkindness, (6) Tiferet, the Harmonious Beauty that blends Lovingkindness and Might, (7) Netzah, Vanquish
ment, the giving of Lovingkindness in a dominant fashion, (8) Hod, Glory, the holding back of Might in a more passive fashion, (9) Yesod, the Foundation into which all these energies pour, where they are all blended into a more accessible form, and (10) Malkhut, Regency, the actualized guidance and rule of the Infinite One. Malkhut also represents the Shekhinah, the feminine aspect of God.
The term “sefirah” seems to have been first used in the ancient kabbalistic text, the Sefer Yetzirah, the Book of Formation. Later kabbalistic teachings go into great detail describing the interactions of the ten sefirot, and the sefirot are one of the primary topics of kabbalah, particularly in the Zohar (which usually alludes to them in a veiled, symbolic fashion). The Second Introduction to Tikkunei ha-Zohar contains a brief mystical essay attributed to the prophet Elijah that describes the nature of each sefirah. This selection is still recited by devout Jews at the beginning of the daily prayers.
See the diagram of the ten sefirot, p. 529.
Sources:
Sefer Yetzirah 1:4-6; Pardes Rimmonim 1; “The Prayer of Elijah” in Tikkunei ha-Zohar, Second Introduction.
Studies:
Sefer Yetzirah translated by Aryeh Kaplan.
Inner Space by Aryeh Kaplan.
Jewish Ethics, Philosophy and Mysticism by Louis Jacobs, pp. 115-120.
The Sefirot by Yaacov David Shulman.
9. THE TWENTY-TWO LETTERS