Language, Eros, Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and Poetic Imagination

CONTENTS

Preface

xi

Prologue: Timeswerue/Hermeneutic Reversibility

xv

1

Showing the Saying: Laying Interpretative Ground

i

2

Differentiating (In)Difference: Heresy, Gender, and Kabbalah Study

46

3

Phallomorphic Exposure: Concealing Soteric Esotericism

iii

4

Male Androgyne: Engendering E/Masculation

142

5

Flesh Become Word: Textual Embodiment and Poetic Incarnation

190

6

Envisioning Eros: Poiesis and Heeding Silence

261

7

Eunuchs Who Keep Sabbath: Erotic Asceticism / Ascetic Eroticism

296

8

Coming-to-Head, Retuming-to-Womb: (E)Soteric Gnosis and Overcoming Gender Dimorphism

333

Epilogue

372

Notes

391

Bibliography

599

Index of Names and Book Titles

715

Index of Subjects and Terms

729

PREFACE

In taking the poets as testimony for things unknown, they are cidng authorities that cannot be trusted. —Heraclitus n the conclusion of his remarks upon receiving the 1977 Biahk Prize, Gershom Scholem commented: The discovery of the tremendous poetic potential within Kabbalah, in its own language no less than in its poetry proper, which has also come down to us with great richness—all these constitute a realm which has hardly been examined and which holds the promise of great discoveries. . . . the tools have not yet been created for understanding the lyric plane within language of the KabbaHsts and the Hasidim. Without creating these tools, this question cannot be fully encompassed. My own secret longing to do so has not been fulfilled and remains unsatisfied. Thus, at the conclusion of my remarks, allow me to express the wish that we may look forward to someone who will remove the dust hiding the true face of such books as Sefer ha-Temunah, Berit Menuhah, or Hemdat Yamim, to reveal the poetic depths in their imagery and that of many similar books.' When I happened upon the study of Jewish mysticism over two decades ago, of course, I could not have had any idea that the words of Scholem would serve as the guideword on my path, an evocation at the beginning, challenging and leading me on the way to crafting a poetics of kabbalah. It is futile to wonder if Scholem would have approved my attempts to heed the poetic assonance reverberating in the intricate imaginary worlds described in kabbalistic lore, but that matters httle in accepting the responsibihty of relating my work to him and expressing thereby gratitude of the highest order for a scholar, the thanking of thinking in the footsteps ofthe other.^ My first major gesture in this direction was Through a Speculum That Shines: Vision and Imagination in Medieval Judaism, published in 1994. In that w^ork, I set out to lay the

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groundwork for theorizing a poetics of kabbalah by investigating the phenomenological contours of the contemplative envisioning of the divine in the history of Jewish mysticism, highlighting especially the configuration of God's luminous forms in the shape of an anthropos within the imagination. In consonance with the teachings of mystic visionaries in various traditions, kabbahsts assent to the view that the primary task ofthe imaginative faculty is to depict imaginally what is without image, to embody that which is not a body, to give form to the formless.^ The imagination is not, as Hobbes put it, a ''decaying sense,"'' but it is, rather, in Henry Corbin's telling phrase, the "psychospiritual" faculty, usually identified in medieval sources as the heart, the "intermediate plane" of the "Imaginative Presence," the coincidentia oppositorum ofthe hidden and manifest.^ A terse but far-reaching articulation of the phenomenological import of prophetic visualization may be detected in j Enoch, the Hebrew Apocalypse of Enoch, also transmitted as Sefer Heikhalot or Pirqei Rabbi Yishmdel, a text whose date and provenance is uncertain though it is has been conservatively traced to the fifth or sixth centuries.^ A rehable terminus a quo is difficult to determine for, as Phihp S. Alexander judiciously put it, the work is "not the total product of a single author at a particular point in time, but the deposit of a 'school tradition' which incorporates elements from widely different periods."^ A reasonable terminus ad quem, however, can be estabhshed in the tenth century, since at this historical juncture the influence ofthe text is discernible. The traditions preserved within the contours of this textual accretion indicate a conflation of Palestinian and Babylonian sources. The historiographical qualms notwithstanding, what is crucial for my philosophical standpoint is the technical expression that appears near the beginning of the text to denote the contemplative vision. Metatron, whose identity as Enoch has not yet been revealed, beckons the ascending R. Ishmael, "Come in peace into the presence ofthe high and exalted King to behold the Hkeness ofthe chariot."* R. Ishmael will achieve the chmax ofthe otherworldly journey when he enters in peace before the divine glory— the yeridah la-merkavah according to my interpretation^—in order to behold the likeness of the chariot, lehistakkel bi-demut ha-merkavah. I would render this richly nuanced idiom "to envision the image of the chariot," that is, to conjure through contemplation the enthronement of the celestial king, the glorification of the divine—the mythopoeic underpinning of the figurative representation in anthropomorphic form—envisioned in gender terms as the masculine glory uniting with the feminine throne. The predicate lehistakkel is literally to gaze, but in this context it has the more specific connotation to contemplate by forming a mental image. Demut, similarly, is an expression with deep poetic assonance, and particularly important is the appearance of this term in Ezekiel's vision of the chariot in conjunction with various entities that constitute the architecture ofthe imaginal realm ofthe merkavah. We would do well, therefore, to render demut as verbal image, word-picture in the Wittgensteinian sense, a term that bespeaks the convergence of showing and saying, a theme that will be exposed in chapter one. To contemplate the image of the chariot is to envision the glory on the throne, a gazing that is possible only to the extent that the one gazing is circumscribed within the field of what is gazed upon; the conventional epistemological distinction between subject and object xii

PREFACE

no longer pertains, as the seeing ofthe image ofthe chariot presupposes that one has been incorporated into the very image that is seen. In the aforementioned monograph, I identified as a principal, if not exclusive, textual basis for the phenomenological affirmation of absence and presence with respect to God the prophecy of Ezekiel, the exiled priest who had visions of God's glory within the spatial boundaries of Babylonia. It is difficult to offer a definition of mysticism that would adequately cover all of the phases and stages of Jewish history, but a recurrent theme in Jewish mystical texts has been the desire to experience what prophets of yore experienced, envisioning the presence, the glory of the Lord, kevod yhwh, in forms forbidden for priests and other Israelites to worship iconically, though seemingly permissible for poets to depict imaginally. That is, ancient Israelite culture was distinguished from its neighboring societies by the explicit injunction against worshipping an idol of God— even though both textual and archaeological evidence indicate that the deuteronomisticpriestly sanction was not always observed by the populace—but this did not stop poetic souls, whose words are preserved in works of prophecy, from depicting God in very graphic form. Like the prophets of old, albeit in fundamentally different historical circumstances, medieval kabbahsts cultivated simultaneously a rich iconography and a vigorous iconoclasm—an unyielding and aggressive rejection ofthe physical representation of God, on the one hand, and an amplification of bold mythical imagery to depict God, on the other.'" It is precisely the aniconism—the prohibition of representing God in pictorial forms—that fostered a remarkable imaginative representation of the nonrepresentable in ancient IsraeUte/Judean prophecy and its mystical aftermath through the centuries, where specific meditational practices were cultivated for the stated aim of attaining a vision of the invisible. The locus of that gnosis was typically situated in the heart/imagination of the visionary, the site where the routine division between inside and outside is dissolved in the theophanic play of double mirroring, the heart mirroring the image that mirrors the image of the heart. From that vantage point we can speak accurately of kabbalah as speculative theosophy, that is, a wisdom of God that is discerned in the mirror (speculum) of the enhghtened mind/heart that reflects the immanence of the divine hght refracted in the world of discriminate beings as well as the transcendent power of the true divine being, which is without form or image." A distinctive feature of the kabbahst visionary tradition, based on older sources, revolves about the specular entwining of anthropomorphism and theomorphism: envisioning the divine as human mirrors envisioning the human as divine. The mirror imaging is expressed even more precisely in Jewish esoteric gnosis in terms ofthe correlation of anthropomorphic imagery and letter symbohsm. The human form by which the divine is visually contemplated is equated with the letters of the name, an idea expressed by the numerical equivalence ofadam and the letters ofthe Tetragrammaton when spelled out in full, ywd he waw he. To see the glorious hght is to contemplate the name, which is identified, moreover, as Torah, the root word whence the other letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the matrix language of creation, sprout forth. By confironting the imaginary

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configuration ofthe divine, we took the initial step on the way to articulating philosophically the poiesis propelhng the elaborate symbol-making in the physiognomy of kabbalah. With this volume. Language, Eros, Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and Poetic Imagination,

I offer a second attempt to disentangle the threads of the inaugurating vision with an eye to elucidating the ascetic underpinnings of the imaginal inscription of the divine body/ name in overtly erotic terms. As I assume there is no form—sentient or imagined—that is not embodied, even the form of the formless, and there is no embodiment that is not engendered, even the invisible astral body, corpus sidereum, it is incumbent on me to delve deeper into the question of gender signification in the symbolic lifeworld of kabbalah. Building on previous studies, I make a case once more for the monolithic nature of gender symbohsm in kabbalistic literature, showing how the feminine has been viewed as ontically derivative ofthe mascuhne, an idea, I hasten to add, hardly unique to the androcentrism of traditional kabbalah.'^ The emphasis on the ascetic tum ofthe erotic imagination will, I hope, bring my earher work on phallomorphism and homoeroticism into clearer focus. Let me conclude these prefatory remarks by noting that I am mindful, all too diminutively, that there is no one definitive way to illumine the theme of this analysis. Ultimately, as Heidegger reminded us with respect to Holderin's poetry, every way is errant.'^ The undertaking of this book, accordingly, may swirl its way to being undermined, as it will inevitably lead, if faithful to the trace of its own calling, to speaking what cannot be spoken in unspeaking what has been spoken. In that reticence radiates the epiphany of not-showing encountered repeatedly in and on the course of reading.

PROLOGUE: TIMESWERVE/HERMENEUTIC REVERSIBILITY

Ring them bells, ye heathen From the city that dreams. Ring them bells from the sanctuaries Cross the valleys and streams. For they're deep and they're wide And the world's on its side And time is running backwards And so is the bride. —Bob Dylan, "Ring Them Bells" W he figures I shall discuss in chapter one are philosophers whoforyears have J accompanied me on the path of an often relentless attempt to elucidate hermeneutical assumptions in the hope of illumining the mystery of the imaginative faculty and ars^poetica.Thefieldof my vision, so to speak, has been leveled, to the degree that is possible, by a focus on kabbalistic sources ranging from the twelfth to the twenty-first centuries, a large temporal swath by anyone's account. The use of German and French philosophers primarily from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to interpret texts of traditional kabbalah, whose ideas may be ancient but whose incipient articulation in a Hebrew idiom is to be traced to a rich creative period from the twelfth to fourteenth century, demands a defense against the obvious charge of anachronism.

Telling of Time in Time of Telling I begin by stating unequivocally that I seek not to validate my account on historical grounds. Whether or not any of the thinkers to be discussed in chapter one has had direct or indirect connection with kabbalah is not a necessary condition to justify the employment of their insights in decoding this singularly complex expression of the Jewish religious imagination. Nonetheless, one cannot by any means rule out such links. On this score, it is of interest to ponder the possibility that Western esoteric speculation, which is

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greatly indebted to kabbalistic tradition, has had an impact on the history of linguistics, especially evident in the period of Romanticism and its aftermath, including Heidegger, well versed in the theosophy of Bohme' and its reverberations in the idealist philosophy of Schelling. 2 Let me reiterate that in spite of the possibihty and even likeUhood of textual influence, my argument rests on a different foundation. Without ignoring or even rejecting the tacit assumption of classical philology that the competent scholar can reconstruct historicalhterary settings, I am not certain this approach should be granted hegemony in the pursuit of hermeneutic discernment. To discredit philology would be to discard one of the most important tools in the effort to discern authorial intent, but this is not the only matter relevant to the construal of meaning and truth. To think otherwise would be to lapse uncritically into the lair of positivism. The issue is expressed with unusual clarity by Dan Lusthaus in the preface to his impressive phenomenological study of the Yogacara tradition of Buddhism in India and China: The move from philology to philosophy does not entail a rejection of philology. On the contrary, philology is one of the necessary foundations on which philosophical investigations into systems remote in time and language stand. Without carefully establishing realistic and judicious limits through meticulous philological and historical work on the range of hermeneutic possibilities offered by a bare text, philosophical speculation can easily lead itself astray. Nonetheless, it is also necessary to eventually go beyond merely doing philology, in order to explore what a text means rather than merely collating it with materials related to it, or assigning it an historical spot, or detailing its social significance and context.^ As a methodological axiom, therefore, it is valid to assert that hermeneutical beliefs cannot to be separated from suppositions regarding temporality.'' In Heideggerian terms, the historiographical project, the writing of history, is bolstered by a chronological conjecture with respect to speaking/thinking of time; but to speak or to think of time is to be caught in an extenuating circularity: my telling of time cannot be disentangled from my time of telling. It is important to note here a shift from the Husserlian project of dissociating time from the inner sense of intemal time-consciousness to the project of thinking chronos, the "spacing of time,"^ not, however, in the sense that Bergson criticized—calculating the stream of time in measurable points on a chronometer—but in the poeticized manner of being open to being that is open, cracking the time Une at its seam, as it were, to expand the horizon beyond the limit of limitlessness that perforce limits the limitlessness of hmit.*^ For most, I suppose, chronology—and the historical narrative we construct on its basis—extends orderly, even if impenetrably, from beginning to end, but for some doubtless it proceeds from end to beginning, and for still others, probably fewer, it rebounds like a boomerang from middle to middle, starting and finishing always in between. The philologist's privileging of historical proximity in determining lexicography is predicated on the assumption regarding the linear character of time—the quadrant of the circle is partitioned by imaginary time lines—just as the cartographer assumes a linear grid

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in charting spatial dimensions even though scientific evidence indicates that the geometric character of space is cylindrical. The sequential model, however, is only one possible explanation—reinforced by a pervasive pragmatism that presumes the forward motion of time's arrow and the chain of causal efficiency that serves as foundation for our sense of predictable patterns of behavior in nature—but it is by no means the view uniformly affirmed by physicists, astrologists, cosmologists, mathematicians, or philosophers of science. Without delving into the thicket of theoretic grappling that this subject demands, I pose the rhetorical question: What would be the consequences if a historian were to take seriously the conclusion reached on the basis of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity that spacetime—the "mathematical structure" that "serves as a unifying causal background for phenomena"'—is to be regarded as a curve?^ Does this does not at least entail the possibihty that the past is as much determined by the present as the present by the past? Spacetime and the Looping of the Line The theoretical impHcations of Einstein's insights relative to the issue at hand were drawn explicitly by Hermann Weyl, who noted that in a spacetime with a specific gravitational arrangement, a person's "world line"—that is, one's trajectory in the fourth dimension— might loop back and intersect with itself. The possibihty of future connecting with past, of time moving backwards, "arises because a gravitational field impUes that spacetime is curved, and the curvature might be great enough and extended enough to join a spacetime to itself in novel ways.'"' In the temporal continuum, which presents itself in intuition as "a fluid whole rather than a set of discrete elements,"'^ the individual time-point exists only as a "transition point."" When the movement is considered mathematically, "the continuum of path-points spreads oyer the continuum of time-points in a continuous monotone manner."*^ From an alternative perspective, however, the continuousflow^of phenomenal time exemplifies a "connectivity arising from the non-independence of the individual points,"'^ and hence it follows that the trajectory of the curve, "the path of a moving point," which is "spread out over both space and time,"'"* makes possible the retum to the point of departure and departure from the point of arrival, a closed loop figuratively depicting the object/subject becoming its own past. Time reversal, therefore, does not, theoretically, imply a mechanical retracing of previous moments but circumambulating the curve, going back to the future and arriving at the past.'^ Alternatively expressed, to posit the legitimate possibility of time reversal rests on the presumption regarding the relativity of simultaneity, which in tum renders the distinction between past, present, and future, as Einstein put it when receiving news of the death of his friend Michele Besso, "a stubbornly persistent illusion.""^ In order to prevent potential misinterpretation on the part of my readers, let me state unequivocally that the reversibihty of time that I wish to affirm is not a reiteration of the myth of cosmic revenal articulated by Plato, a version of the doctrine of the etemal recurrence of the same predicated on the assumption that as the cosmos rotates in one direction due to the agency of the transcendent cause, it stores up the energy to revolve in the

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opposite direction of its own accord,'^ a notion that can be properly criticized on grounds that it denies the indetemiinacy of future eventuaHties. Here it is apposite to recall Alfred North Whitehead's claim that time exhibits the quality of "irreversibility." In a move intending to escape binary oppositions, Whitehead insists that this irreversibility is dependent on the "cumulative character of time,"'^ which arises, in tum, from the "concrescence" of "actual entities" or "actual occasions"'' through a process of prehension that affects the "passage of the cause into the effect" such that the "past has an objective existence in the present which lies in the future beyond itself . . . Cut away the future, and the present collapses, emptied of its proper content. Immediate existence requires the insertion of the future in the crannies of the present. "2° Reversibihty, on this account, entails the presentational immediacy of a temporal atomicity,^' the novel recurrence and spontaneous reenactment of a moment that has never been, and consequently the past is no more determinate of the future than the future is of the past, both living on and through the indeterminate present.^^ Moreover, the link I discem between the curvature of time and the symbohc imagination does not depend, as it does in the case of Corbin's phenomenology of the mundus imaginalis, on discarding "causal historical filiation" in favor of the "continuity of'hierophanic time,' "^^ "a discontinuous, qualitative, pure, psychic time" that is distinguished categorically from "quantitative physical time . . . measured according to homogeneous, uniform units of time and chronology regulated by the movements of the stars. "^'^ I agree with Corbin that a deeper temporal experience entails an intensity that measures time "in which the past remains present to the future, in which the future is already present to the past, just as the notes of a musical phrase, though played successively, nevertheless persist all together in the present and thus form a phrase." Yet I cannot accept the binary opposition he draws (in part indebted to Eliade's dichotomy of the sacred/eternal and profane/ historical) by ascribing cycHcal time to a "transhistoric truth" and linear time to "material historic truth."^^ My argument rests on taking seriously an aitemative understanding of time as a reversible swerve, a scientific perspective that conflicts with the commonsensical view of time's irreversible Hnearity. Let me refer briefly to a leamed summation of the subject by the philosopher Barry Dainton in the elucidation of the phenomenon of "time in reverse." Dainton proposes a thought experiment that rests on the hypothesis that we live in a "Gold universe," so named after the physicist Thomas Gold, who raised the profile of the model of a symmetrical universe in the 1960s, that is, a universe whose time line is extended proportionately between two end points.^^ The symmetry of the imaginary termini is explicable on the hypothesis that if there is enough mass in the universe, then at some point in the future, gravitational forces w^iU cause the universe to fall back on itself—even if we assume, as current astrophysicists suggest on the basis of examining telescopic images from the outermost reaches of intergalactic space, that the universe is expanding and hence exhibits a negadve energy, an energy that would challenge the intractability of the laws of gravitation, an antigravity, as it is commonly called. If the end point we call the "beginning" is envisioned as the "big bang," the end point that is the end relative to that beginning be the "big crunch." xviii

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There are, how^ever, two ways to explain the symmetry. According to one, entropy is low at the beginning and progressively expands until the end; and according to the other, entropy increases until the contraction sets in and then it begins to diminish. The logical projectile of the second possibility leads to positing a perfectly symmetrical universe balanced by a "singularity" at either end of the space-time spectrum—a "dimensionless point of infinite density." If we assume this to be the case, it follows that the sequence of events would run a parallel but inverse course from each singularity to the midpoint. Contrary to the widespread conviction of the irreversibility of time, Dainton reminds the reader that there are many scientists who "believe that the laws of fundamental physics are time-reversible, in which case any physical process can run in reverse. But in addition we must take care not to assume that our way of looking at things is in any way privileged. "^^ To be sure, as Dainton also notes, not all interpreters of quantum theory accept the proposition that the laws of nature are fuUy time-reversible, arguing that there is an asymmetry between past and future—past and present may be fixed, but future is indeterminate.^' For the purpose of this discussion, I will ignore the latter and consider only the impUcations of the former for the very prospect that nature's laws—the laws by which we impute a nature to the coalescence of imagined reaHties, even when we lapse and say there is no nature—exhibit this quality of time reversibility, the temporal swerve. This possibility pushes the hermeneutical issue in question to the surface. Imagining reversibility undermines absolute certainty in ascribing the term "beginning" to one end point and "end" to the other, since there is no way of falsifying the claim that what appears as end to us might appear as beginning to an observer surveying the sequence in reverse order.^' In a perfectly symmetrical universe, we cannot dispose of the possibility of a sentient being seeing straightforwardly what we see invertedly. If this is so, and seemingly there is no reason to doubt that it is so, then what we imagine as the end must logically be the beginning for one looking from the other end of a particular curve. On the grander, cosmological scale, if from our vantage point the cosmos manifests "inflationary expansion," for one on the other end that property would be regarded as "gravitational implosion." Time's Other: Coincidentia Oppositorum I would propose that the scientific premise briefly outlined above confirms a hermeneutical criterion of truth that has been often associated with mystical consciousness, an archaic logic—decidedly non-Aristotelian—that paradoxically affirms the identity of opposites in virtue of their difference, an orientation that gained special prominence through the promulgation of the doctrine o{ coincidentia oppositorum by Nicholas Cusanus in fifteenthcentury Italy.^° According to Aristotle's excluded middle, the structure of grammatical syntax leads one necessarily to the logically sanctioned subject that bears opposite quahties—simultaneously, however, and not concurrently—that is, for instance, the face is black or white, black then white, or white then black, but not white and black at the same time and in the same relation. Cusanus, by contrast, posits that both polarities subsist

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at the same moment, thus leading to his signature notion of a coincidence of opposites. The validity of this surmise can be gainsaid by the simple observation that if what we consider to be "first" can be considered at the same time "last"—a conclusion discussed above—then the thing so considered must be both first and last at the same time and in the same relation, itself and its other. From this thought experiment we can deduce that there is no necessary correlation between causal sequence and the direction of time, the "causal arrow" and "world arrow," since we can reasonably imagine—and the epistemic criterion here is simply to be able to imagine, for the hypothetical is sufficient to make the theoretical point whose vahdity is not dependent on empirical verification^'—time-reversed counterparts existing in a situation where the world arrow would point in the opposite direction to the causal arrow. Even more perplexing is the realization that there is no final certainty about the directional vicissitude of our own standpoint, our angle of vision. If we start from the premise that laws of physics (according to mechanics and electrodynamics) are timesymmetrical, a reasonable if not demonstrable premise, there is no way out of the logical conundrum that what appears to us as cause may itself be effect or, perhaps better expressed, is both cause and effect contemporaneously. The time line, accordingly, would have to be measured independently of empirical pattems of change and variation, and, properly speaking, this computation would undermine any claim to ultimate, exclusive, or even privileged validity of the so-called "transmission model of causality"^^ and its implicit linear and hierarchical structuring of experience.•'•' The critique of time as absolute simultaneity sets into sharp relief a genetic fallacy of historical positivism and opens the way to brood over the reversibility of the temporal flow; the past may not, after all, extend monodirectionally into the present, which was its future, but rather may swerve its way curvilinearly, future awaiting its past, past becoming its future. We could, then, think of time's motion as comprising two movements—procession and retum—following exactly the same pattern of development in different directions.^"* Would the relativization of knowledge implied by the historicist premise not have to be adjusted, or the very least defended, by a more careful taxonomy if one were to accept (not just on poetic grounds but scientifically) that the way forward is the way back; the way back, the way forward?^^ One might respond that a distinction is still in order between the microscopic and macroscopic perspectives, and since the former is more germane to our empirical reahty, the claim that time unfolds linearly is methodologically cogent to yield knowledge of the past about which we feel confident enough to judge regarding its accuracy, legitimacy, and veracity.^^ I would counter that this distinction is valid to a point, but beyond that point to continue to affirm it would be to beg the question. If it is acknowledged that at the macrolevel, time ideationally displays the trait of reversibility, one cannot rest easy with the conclusion that at the microlevel, time is irreversible. Utilizing basic geometric principles, which in some measure still prevail as providing the framework within which quantitative analyses of physical occurrences are proffered, we would say that micro and macro can be related in one of three ways: as skewed, intersecting, or parallel.^' If the first option, then the two would have to be considered utterly distinct, as the very term

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"skewed" technically denotes lying on different and unrelated planes, but, if that is the case, then the two time axes would have to be interpreted anisotropically, that is, one would have to assume the possibility that events on the two planes transpire in distinct temporal directions, presumably exemplifying random sequences in relation to one another, a proposition that would make it impossible to determine the direction of the time flow in either one of the planes, since the prospective aitemative frame of reference (what we may call the hyperplane) has been rendered irrelevant;'* if the second option, then at some axial point the two crisscross; and if the third option, then the two spheres are to be conceived as coplanar lines that at every point on the axis would have to demonstrate symmetry demanded by the mathematical requirement that at every point two parallel hnes are equidistant from one another.^' From this it follows, if not empirically then at least theoretically, that the apparent irreversibihty of time in the intersubjective sphere must be squared away with the reversibility of time manifest in the plane of "irreality" where explanatory models evolve and hit the "ground" running, so to speak, in accord with a calibration that may not readily suit the calculating conquest of time to which we seem so beholden. Time Reversibility/Telescopically Envisioned A similar appeal to the reversibiUty of time and the implicit objection to a principle of successive causality—the serial constitution in and through a threefold continuum measured by the retentional, impressional, and protentional nodes of consciousness—can be ehcited from an entirely different intellectual base, the ontological phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty, a sphere of thinking more congruent with my own philosophic disposition and training."*" In comparison with the scientific account explored above, I shall labor a bit more on the pathways of Merleau-Ponty's thinking, as in his thought Ifindan affinity with the understanding I have derived from the study of kabbalistic hterature and consequently feel it is legitimate to use his jargon to formulate hermeneutical and phenomenological suppositions in reading these sources. In spite of the incongruity between my treatment of Merleau-Ponty and quantum physics, it is significant that the engagement with the former has been set in dialogue with the latter. Methodologically, the appeal is to apply a natural scientific model of time to the humanist effort to understand historical experience. As a way into the topic in Merleau-Ponty's writings, we might say that the phenomenon of time reversibility, for him, is contemplated from w^ithin the frame of the reversibility of seeing/being seen, that is, a doubling of vision—the inherent reflexivity of the perceptual—that maintains identity of difference in difference of identity."" Reversibility, in short, is a basic feature of time and perception, two poles of Merleau-Ponty's ontology of alterity."*^ Time and perception, in tum, are entwisted in the tangle of language, the bridge that (dis)joins world and consciousness, a theme that I will explore in more depth in the following chapter. Particularly relevant to the discussion here is Merleau-Ponty's response to Saussure's distinction between "synchronic linguistics of speech," une linguistique synchronique de la xxi

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parole, and "diachronic linguistics of a language," une linguistique diachronique de la langue.*^

In Merleau-Ponty's opinion, we are to conceive synchrony and diachrony as enveloping rather than opposing one another. By undercutting this polarity, one can entertain the possibihty that a linguistic system "never exists wholly in act but always involves latent or incubating changes. It is never composed of absolutely univocal meanings which can be made completely explicit beneath the gaze of transparent constituting consciousness."'*'' Language is uncertain—of this we can be certain; words are not blocks cemented in place but rather stones drifting this way, floating that way, synchronically, diachronically, two equal measures of time, retuming forward, advancing backward. We have already, perhaps too abruptly, put our finger on the thread that ties together language and time in Merleau-Ponty's thinking (a theme that will be especially relevant in the ensuing analyses)—the quality of openness, indeterminacy, or, in technical philosophical parlance, transcendence. The resistance to ontological finality and the polyvalence implied thereby hes at the heart of Merleau-Ponty's philosophie de I'ambigutte.^^ Hence, in the context of remarking on the "sexual atmosphere" of intersubjective interplay in Phenomenologie de la perception, Merleau-Ponty noted that "ambiguity is of the essence of human existence, and everything we live or think has always several meanings.'""^ The insistence on ambiguity has to be seen as a response to the "structuralist attitude," which he tellingly describes as the "intent to circumscribe the act of speaking where it is formed . . . the intent to retum to the originating, to the Ursprung . . . the intent to grasp the cohesion of the synchronic-diachronic whole within speech, the monumental speech, therefore, mythical, if one likes." This concise but incisive account of stmcturalism is immediately followed by what may be one of Merleau-Ponty's most profound, albeit cryptic, articulations of the hermeneutical basis of his phenomenological ontology: "Ambiguity of the constitutive act of science: the exclusive attention to the verbal chain, to phonics and semantics intertwined, is: i", the exigency to grasp the Ursprung Entdeckung of the Ursprung. 2"*, the reduction to the Gegenstand, i.e. Verdeckung of the Ursprung.'"^''

In this comment, if we are attentively attuned, we may discem the ground in which Merleau-Ponty's affirmation of temporal reversibility is anchored, a ground that will serve as my own springboard. To articulate a synchronic-diachronic whole within speech—that would surely constitute "monumental," even "mythical," speech, as Merleau-Ponty suggests. Attaining such a whole, however, is not possible from our perceptual standpoint. Relying on the opinion of the linguists of his day, Merleau-Ponty contends that: univocal signification is but one part of the signification of the word, that beyond it there is always a halo of signification that manifests itself in new and unexpected modes of use, that there is an operation of language upon language which, even without other incitements, would launch language back into a new history, and makes of the word-meaning itself an enigma. Far from harboring the secret of the being of the world, language is itself a world, itself a being—a world and a being to the second power, since it does not speak in a vacuum, since it speaks of being and of the world and therefore redoubles their enigma instead of dissipating it."*^

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Indeed, as Merleau-Ponty insists, tbe dynamics of perception and tbe syntax of language are botb cbiasmic; just as no word can render meaning so transparent tbat tbe need for interpretation is eradicated, so tbe gap tbat abides between seer and seen assures one tbat what one is seeing will never be the wbole of it.''' In line witb Nietzscbe's perspectivism, Merleau-Ponty remarks tbat tbe sensible tbing "is not really observable: tbere is always a skipping over in every observation, one is never at tbe tbing itself"^" Merleau-Ponty concurs witb tbose wbo would argue tbat to see is to have "sometbing" (etwas), but tbat sometbing is always subject to "infmite analysis,"'' and bence one can never say that "sometbing" bas been seen. Rejecting tbe identification of substance as a "spatiotemporaUy individuated tbis," an idea well entrencbed in Western pbilosopby and science, Merleau-Ponty wrote, il n'y a que des rayonnements d'essences (verbales), il n'y pas d'insecables spatio-temporels. La chose sensible elk-meme est portee par une transcendance ("tbere

are only radiations of (verbal) essences, tbere are no spatio-temporal indivisibles. Tbe sensible tbing itself is bome by a transcendency").'^ Sensible beings, or wbat we perceive to be sucb, are "radiations of verbal essences"—a notion that resonates witb a central imaginal modality of Jewisb esotericism, as will be discussed on many occasions in tbis monograpb. In a passage penned near tbe end of bis "working notes," wbicb extended from January 1959 to Marcb 1961, Merleau-Ponty remarked, somewhat playfully, "vision is television, transcendence, crystallization of tbe impossible."" Insofar as visible objects can never be seen in tbeir entirety, all vision must be considered "tele-vision," literally, seeing-afar, tbe very impossibility tbat renders vision possible. Tbat wbicb I see, I see because wbat I see cannot be seen but as tbat wbicb is not seen, transcendency, the notbing it is perceived (not) to be. I sbaU return to tbe confluence of tbe visible and invisible in Merleau-Ponty's pbenomenology later in my analysis, but wbat is worthy to add at tbis juncture is that tbe imperceptibility of perception results from wbat Merleau-Ponty calls tbe "reconquest ofthe Lebenswelt" tbat is, tbe "reconquest of a dimension, in wbicb tbe objectifications of science themselves retain a meaning and are to be understood as true . . . tbe pre-scientific is only an invitation to comprehend the meta-scientific and tbis last is not non-science."''' The metascientific, as the prescientific, is not to be confused with nonscience, for it does not necessitate tbe dissolution of scientific objectification and matbematical calculation. Yet it is clearly beyond tbe scientific, for tbe Lebenswelt, in Merleau-Ponty's judgment, is tbe "universal Being" that is "nontbematized."" In tbe reconquest of tbe lifeworld, we thus discern tbe mutuality of ostensibly conflicting impulses: tbe urge to uncover, on the one band, and tbe discovery tbat every uncovering is a covering over, on tbe other. As it happens, in English, the word "recover" uncovers the paradox, for it means botb "to expose" and "to conceal." For Merleau-Ponty, synchrony and diacbrony are harnessed togetber in a "specular image" seen tbrougb tbe double mirror of body and world in tbe "perceptual lived experience" {vecu perceptif)^^ of tbe Lebenswelt,^^ but be questioned tbe assumption that they form a coherent wbole; on tbe contrary, tbe pairing of tbe two suggests fragmentation, breaking open tbe verbal/visual chain to a Unk beyond tbe phonic and optic, "to tbe absolute, to tbe transcendental field, to tbe wild and 'vertical' being" {letre sauvage et "vertical"), the passage to wbicb is "by definition progressive, incomplete."^^ If we are to use

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the language of totality, Gestalt, it is precisely in tbe sense of positing "transcendence, being at a distance . . . inflated witb non-being or witb the possible, tbat it is not only what it is {gonfie de non-etre ou de possible, o p e n n e s s {Elle est ouuerture)."^^

q u ' i l n'est pas ce qu'il

est seulement).

. . . I t is

Perception presupposes a Gestalt, yet tbe latter does not entail "imposition of an essence, a vor-stellen,"^° but ratber "openness," tbe "non-expUcated horizon,"''' "wild or brute Being" {I'Etre sauvage ou brut),^^ tbe "common tissue of wbicb we are made."" Tbe intricate connection of time, language, and perception is made explicit in tbe following passage: Understand tbat tbe Gestalt is already transcendence: it makes me understand tbat a line is a vector, that a point is a center of forces—Tbere are neither absolute Unes nor points nor colors in tbe tbings. . . . We bave to pass from tbe tbing (spatial or temporal) as identity, to the tbing (spatial or temporal) as difference, i.e. as transcendence, i.e. as always "behind," beyond, far-off. . . the present itself is not an absolute coincidence witbout transcendence . . . the present, also, is ungraspable from close-up, in tbe forceps of attention, it is an encompassing.*'' Tbe unraveling of this complex philosophical matter requires a sustained reflection on time consciousness and historical intentionality, a task tbat clearly lies beyond tbe scope of this prologue.*^^ Suffice it to say, bowever, that if linearity is not the determinative characteristic of time, common sense and pragmatic concem notwithstanding, then there is no compelling reason to privilege a hermeneutical approach based on a serialized conception of history as the only or even tbe best way to narrate tbe historical account. On the contrary, as Merleau-Ponty counseled the reader, "we must recognize that tbe present diffuses into the past to tbe extent tbat the past bas been present. History is tbe history of successive synchronies, and tbe contingency of the linguistic past invades even tbe synchronic system."*'' The plausibility of past invading the present rests on the ascription of reversibility to tbe timeline. Charted geometrically, time is a serial of tbree points, past, present, and future, but beyond tbem tbere is a fourtb dimension, in Merleau-Ponty's language, tbe specter of transcendence tbat cannot be reified as an idealized essence or even as tbe "primal impression" of transcendental subjectivity, which Husserl envisioned as tbe "source-point" in consciousness whence temporal objects endure. The fourth dimension is tbe element of time tbat escapes the purview of reflective intentionality, a dimension beheld singularly by tbe double take, tuming back to see ahead, the visibility ofthe invisible rendered invisible in its visibility, tbe moment tbat endures as wbat passes and passes as wbat endures—le temps du desir^^—perpetually retrieving an irretrievable perpetuity** in tbe extenuated point encircling tbe past that is not yet tbe future that is no more tban tbe present expecting tbe past and recollecting tbe future.*' For Merleau-Ponty, time embraces an inescapable contradiction, for on tbe one hand it "must constitute itself," but on the otber, it must "be always seen from tbe point of view of someone wbo /5 of it." Time is at all times configured from the vantage point of one already situated in tbe time to be configured. The contradiction can be "lifted" but "only

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if the new present is itself a transcendent," a term that implies that "it is not there, that it was just there," that is, this "new present" is the moment with which one never coincides inasmuch as it recurringly returns as what has never been.'° We must say of the "new present"—I would prefer avoiding the term "present" as it might conjure images of presence and thus suggest the possibility of representation—that it is "not a segment of time with defmed contours that would come and set itself in place," but a "cycle defmed by a central and dominant region and with indecisive contours—a swelling or bulb of time {un gonflement ou une ampoule du temps)."''^ Time "must be understood as a

system that embraces everything—Although it is graspable only for him who is there, is at a present." Time's panorama is scoped microscopically from the opening of the moment, the "impressional consciousness" ofthe present, the Urerlebnis, primal experience, "in reality not a term effectively untraversable (temporal knob), but a transcendent, an optimum, an etwas. . . . And the 'to be conscious' of this Urerlebnis is not coincidence, fusion with . . . it is separation (ecart) . . . which is the foundation of space and of time."'^ The now of time, which cannot be separated from the here of space, though it be neither temporal nor spatial, in Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological architectonic''^ points the way to the transcendence embodied in the triadic immanence of being, temporality, and subjectivity.'"* It is here that I have found a competing argument to respond to the alleged challenge of anachronism, a notion of transcendence that opens the time line not by appeal to either an eternity beyond time or an "eternal now" {nunc stans), the timelessness ofthe fuUness of time,^' but rather by heeding the moment that enduringly abides in passing

Perceptual Faith and the Paradox of Temporal Beholding Given the significance of this point to the hermeneutical enterprise in general and to the path I am undertaking in particular, I think it worthwhile to dwell a bit longer on Merleau-Ponty's account of time, keeping our focus on disclosing the intertwining of temporalities in the field of reversible traction, an ontophenomenological assumption that poses a serious challenge to the serial conception of time. To make sense of this assertion, it will be helpful to recall that in the chapter on temporahty in Phenomenologie de la perception, Merleau-Ponty begins by opposing the widespread metaphorical depiction of time as that which passes or flows by, that which runs its "course," images that imply a sequence with each point determined by a dual causal connectedness, stretching bidirectionaUy. "If time is similar to a river, it flows from the past towards the present and the future. The present is the consequence ofthe past, and the future ofthe present."^^ Merleau-Ponty argues that this proposition involves an inherent inconsistency—in a sense, a reiteration of Xeno's paradox—for to conceive time as a flowing "succession of instances of nou^ . . . destroys the very notion of'now,' and that of succession."''* If "now," by definition, is that which comes to be in passing, for in passing it comes to be, it cannot be the same "now" that passes in coming to be, but if "now" does not persist

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as that which passes in coming to be, it cannot be the same "now" that comes to be in passing. How, then, are we to speak of succession? On the basis of this calculation, Merleau-Ponty concludes that we are obliged to distinguish the "ideal nature of time" {I'idealite du temps) and the mundane conception of "constituted time" {le temps qu'elle constitue).^'^ The distinction is implied in his quip Le temps suppose une vue sur le temps, "Time presupposes a view of time."^° What in the nature of time would lead one to imagine a view of time presupposed by time? How can we avoid treating such a statement as anything but a rhetorical redundancy that may strike the ear with poetic intrigue but little, if any, philosophical merit? It is, however, precisely by attending the superfluity of a time before time that we wiU begin to grasp MerleauPonty's insights regarding the reversibility of time and the temporal nature of embodied subjectivity. The dual facet of time, "time" and "time before time"—the phenomenological binary that replaces the metaphysical antinomy of eternity and time—is further explained in the literary depiction of temporal events as "shapes cut out*' by a finite observer firom the spatio-temporal totality ofthe objective world." Merleau-Ponty locates temporality, which is inseparably linked with spatiality, in the "objective world" whence events are cut hke slabs of material by finite observers. Elsewhere, in a tone that strikes me as mystical, Merleau-Ponty writes, "if I consider the world itself, there is simply one indivisible and changeless being in it," il n'y a qu'un seul etre indivisible et qui ne change pas.^^ This

ontological supposition is the eidetic premise for the imperceptible, epistemological foundation that Merleau-Ponty calls "perceptual faith" (Joi perceptive), the belief that "includes everything that is given to the natural man in the original in an experiencesource, with the force of what is inaugural and present in person, according to a view that for him is ultimate and could not conceivably be more perfect or closer."*^ The presence of which he speaks is not to be construed as Husserl's depiction ofthe Prdsenfeld as "immanent consciousness" in opposition to "transcendent consciousness," that is, "being at a distance" {etre a distance). Merleau-Ponty insists that temporality— which he identifies further as "time ofthe body, taximeter time ofthe corporeal schema" {temps du corps, temps-taximetre du schema corporet)—discloses the essential properties of sub-

ject and object in one gesture without reducing one to the other.*'' Body and consciousness are compounded, therefore, by the grammar of the perceptual faith that is both spatial and temporal. Temporal Chiasm/Crossing Field of Presence In this time before time, there is no "event" of which to speak, no occasion to mark, because there is no change, and in the absence of change there can be no variation in perspective and consequently, no possibility that something eventful might eventuate. In the uneventfulness of time, sequential causaHty and the implied inferential logic have no ultimate standing."^ To chart the fluidity of time as a "series of possible relations before and after," that is, as a chronological sequence with defined vectors of action-reaction, is simpatico with the temporal sensibility that haunts our ego-centered narratives. In a man-

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ner reminiscent of Bergson,^* Merleau-Ponty writes that we can think of "time that is constituted" as the "ultimate recording of time, the result of its passage, which objective thinking always presupposes yet never manages to fasten on to." The spatialization ofthe temporal implied thereby is not, however, illustrative of ideal time, what we may call "pre-noetic time,"^' "the other time that is tme" {un autre temps, le vrat), whence one can truly discern the "nature of flux and transience itself" {le passage ou le transit lui-meme).^^ In contrast to Husserl's prd-phenomenal Zeitlichkeit, the immanent sense of "pre-phenomenal temporality, "* In the Jewish context, the metaphor is not to be understood metaphorically but hyperHteraHy, that is, Torah, the prototype of aU books, the hypertext, if you wiH, informs us about the semantic character of nature; altematively expressed, Torah was thought to impart cosmological and anthropological knowledge because the substance of the world and of the human self consists of the letters that constitute the building blocks of the revealed word. Medieval kabbaHstic authors understood the rabbinic idealization of Torah in this manner, and there is at least enough ambiguity in dicta attributed to rabbis of the early period to entertain seriously the possibiHty that kabbaHstic sources open a way to ascertain older forms of a mystical specularity predicated on the promotion of viewing the book as a speculum of nature and nature as a speculum of the book.'*^ Franz Rosenzweig, a thinker who is on occasion critical of a mystical approach, correctly perceived that Jewish mysticism bridged the gap between God and Torah on precisely these grounds. Although no specific mention is made of the kabbalah, careful attention to Rosenzweig's words make it abundantly clear that he is formulating matters in accord with kabbaHstic gnosis: The plain wording of the law conceals a hidden meaning which expresses nothing so much as the essence ofthe world. For the Jew, the book ofthe law can thus, as it were, replace the book of nature or even the starry heavens firom which the men

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of yore once thought they could interpret terrestrial matters by intelHgible omens. That is the basic idea of countless legends with which Judaism expands the apparently constricted world of its law into the whole world, and on the other hand, precisely because it finds this world presaged in its law, already sees the world-tocome in it.*-' Judah Halevi, the twelfth-century Andalusian poet and reHgious thinker with a discernible mystical propensity shaped in part by Sufi terminology,*'' provided a theoretical fi-amework for this beHef that was readily appropriated by kabbalists, given its resonance with semiotic notions expressed in older esoteric sources. In an extensive section from Sefer ha-Kuzari that deals with Sefer Yesirah, Halevi remarks that Hebrew is the "divine language" (ha-lashon ha-elohit) that God taught Adam and by which he assigned a name to every living creature (Gen. 2:19).*' In an eadier part ofthe work, Halevi had already noted that according to tradition, Hebrew, the "noblest of languages," was spoken by God to Adam and Eve, as weH as by Abraham, even though he came from Ur of the Chaldeans, where the indigenous language was Aramaic, which is the "mundane language" {leshon hoi) in comparison to Hebrew, the "holy language" {leshon ha-qodesh).^^ To be sure, in that context Halevi acknowledges the semantic kinship between Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic, but he still argues that the former is superior to the others.*' Hebrew is the "most perfect of aH languages" because only in this language is there an intrinsic relationship between letters and the objects they signify. Hebrew is thus the "natural language," the original language spoken by God, angels,** and the first human couple, whereas aH other languages are considered a matter of contrivance and convention.*' Strictly speaking, the truth of this claim rests not in rational demonstration but in faith and commitment to tradition.'" Just as there is, for Halevi, an ontic chasm separating angehc Israel and the rational human being, the special prophetic status of the Jews Hnked to the metarational divine matter {amr ilahi; inyan elohi) that belongs uniquely to them, so there is an unbridgeable and inexplicable linguistic gap distinguishing Hebrew from other languages. A similar oudook is affirmed by kabbalists in the second half of the thirteenth century (and countless others in the subsequent centuries who have added Httle substance to the early formulations), including, to name but a few saHent examples, Joseph Gikatilla," Joseph ben Shalom Ashkenazi,'^ and even Abraham Abulafia, whose views on language (not to mention many other topics) were largely dependent on Maimonides.'^ While it is tme that Abulafia speaks about the containment of aH seventy languages in Hebrew,''' the linguistic assumption that justifies the use of other languages in the meditational practice, it is nonetheless clear fi-om his writings that Hebrew is always singled out as the "natural" language, as opposed to other languages, which are conventional. A particular interesting formulation is offered by Abulafia in Imrei Shefer. The world in its entirety was created by means of our letters and our language, and the rest of the letters, languages, and nations are aH of them set images [dimyonot nisdarot] to be comparable to us, just as an ape performs actions that he sees in the actions of man, in his desire to be like him, and just as the shadow-image [sel] of a 203

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man appean to a man in a mirror that is in his hand, and he begins to do actions like him, neither adding nor subtracting. But these are without substance and everything is an act of reflection. Thus is the secret of aH magic." I concur with Idel's observation that for Abulafia, the "holy language," which comprises aH the other languages, "is not Hebrew in its semantic aspect but rather Hebrew in its more fundamental aspects, namely the consonants and vowels and the principle of the combination of letters, which is one of the major sources for the diversification of languages.""" I cannot, however, accept the additional contention that "Abulafia emphasizes the natural dimension of human language not to prove that it was revealed by God but to underHne that it is an integral part of human nature. It is because it is natural that it is also divine; the two concepts overlap in Abulafia's view." On this basis Idel concludes "the ecstatic kabbaHst is much closer to the AristoteHan naturaHstic position, a fact that clearly distinguishes this kind of Kabbalah from the two other kabbaHstic models."" My own reading of kabbalistic sources renders such a distinction gratuitous. Abulafia and Moses de Leon, taken respectively as paradigmatic proponents of the two main types of kabbalah, prophetic-ecstatic and theosophic-theurgic,'* would agree that Hebrew is the essential or natural language, the language by means of which the stmcture of natural entities may be decoded." For both, moreover, the ontic character of the natural language is not to be sought in its semantic morphemes, that is, particular cultural configurations of the language, but in the phonemic and graphemic potentiaHty contained in Hebrew as a conceptual grid to chart the character of language more generaUy. Consider the foHowing zoharic passage elucidating the immediately preceding assertion that Israel is distinguished among the Gentile nations {goyim) for only they can lay claim to possessing language that is veritable in its written and oral form {ketav we-lashon). "Through each letter they can envision the image [diyoqna] and form [siyyura] as is appropriate. In the idolatrous nations, however, this mystery is not considered for they do not have a script [ketav] or speech [lashon]."^°° I propose that this comment can be interpreted in a manner that is perfectly consistent with Abulafia's understanding of Hebrew as the cosmic language. The semantic essentialism, moreover, affords the Jew a distinctive opportunity to emulate God, for whom there is no schism between word and reality since the Hnguistic gesticulation (whether spoken or written) is an actuahzation of divine volition.'°' Halevi adduces the latter point from the opening paragraph of Sefer Yesirah, where mention is made of three books, sefarim, by which God created the world. The three books, which are dehneated as sefar, sippur, and sefer, aHude to the congmence of thought, speech, and writing. From the anthropocentric perspective, the three are experienced Hnearly as an evolution fi-om the idea/image that is thought mentaHy without verbal expression, to words that are orally inflected, to the grapheme, the letter-marks, that are handwritten; whether thought, spoken, or inscripted, words at best are "signs" or "symbols" that point to the things they name but not to their essence. From a theocentric perspective, words in aH three modaHties constitute the essence of things they name, whence derives the creative potency of language. Yet Jews are distinguished linguistically from other ethno204

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cultural identities because they possess the "holy language," the cant of prophecy that bestows upon them an angelic status and allows them to be guardians of the cosmic language.102

The kabbalistic ethnocentrism notwithstanding, a precise analogue to the perspective I have oudined in this section is found in Islamic mysticism; indeed, with respect to this matter, the notional proximity between Islam and Judaism is far more conspicuous than between Christianity and either Judaism or Islam. As with so much of Islamic occultism, the starting point is an expression in the Qur'an in a section that delineates various signs {dydt) ofthe divine in the world, which serve as part ofthe Hturgical glorification of AHah in the evening and morning (30:17-27). The signs consist ofthe creation of man from dust and the creation of his spouse, the helpmate, with whom man can settle down and Hve harmoniously (20-22), the creation ofthe heavens and earth, and the diversity of ethnic and racial identities (22), the creation of pattems of human behavior and natural phenomena (23-24), and, finaHy, the fact that aH things in the heavens and earth arise by the command, or will, of Allah (25). Everything that is in the cosmos, therefore, may be viewed as a sign marking the way to one that is both within and outside the cosmos. These signs, we leam from another surah, should not be worshipped, for prayer is to be directed exclusively to AHah, the aH-hearing and aH-knowing (41:37-38). At the end ofthe surah, after a sustained chastisement ofthe "unbeHevers," "AHah's enemies" (2628), which unquestionably refers in this context to thejews, who rejected the claims of the prophet and the authority of the Qur'an, the new book of revelation, there appears the foHowing remark: "We shaH show them our signs in the distant regions and in their own souls, until it becomes clear to them that it is the Tmth" (53). The Jews wiH be shown the signs in the "horizons," that is, the created universe, and in "human souls," until they finaHy discem the tmth. The word "sign," dya, denotes the presence ofthe deity concealed in the manifestations of natural and psychological phenomena, signa naturalia and signa data in Augustinian terms.'"^ The significance ofthe sign is that it points beyond itself to the reahty for which there is no sign; the pluraHty of signs reveal the transcendent one by veiling it in the multiplicity of forms by which it is revealed. Each letter ofthe revealed text is a sign—at once aurally and visuaHy manifest—that comprises an infinity of meaning, inasmuch as the text is the incarnation of the divine form; hermeneuticaHy, the matter of infinity is manifest in the potentiaHy endless expHcations ofthe text eHcited by countless readers, links in the cumulative chain of interpreters that stretches across the divide of time. Here it would be opportune to recaH the contemporary notion of "infinite semiosis," as expressed in Robert Corrington's summation of Umberto Eco:'"'' "AH semiosis is prospectively infinite, because any given sign wiH have its own plentitude of dimensions and its own movement outward into uncountable radii of involvement."'°^ From the standpoint of medieval Sufis and kabbaHsts, the innumerable transmutations of meaning stem from the fact that each sign/letter is a component of the textual corpus that constitutes the name of the nameless, the veil that renders the invisible visible and the visible invisible. Moreover, the occult wisdom in both traditions proffered a view ofthe cosmos in similar terms: Everything is a sign, a discrete indivisible, that guides one to the in/significant beyond the 205

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universe, devoid of aH forms and images, the oneness of being {wahdat al-wujud) present in aH things by virtue of being absent fi-om aH things. The world may accordingly be viewed as the book in which one cHscems (de)scripted forms that lead from the visible to invisible or, better, from the visible invisibility to invisible visibiHty, fi-om faces manifestly hidden to faces hiddenly manifest.'°'' The fuH implication of the Islamic notion of nature as the book in which the divine will is exposed and the paradoxes that pertain to the presumption that the natural and psychological phenomena are signs by which one discems the unseen is drawn by the esoteric interpreters of the Qur'an, the inscripted text of revelation, the "roHed-out parchment," whose words are considered to be signs of divine intention, Hnked especially to the eschatological day ofjudgment, comparable to entities in nature such as the mountain and the sea (Q 512:1-8). The esoteric reading elevates the book itself to a supreme position, embellishing the tradition that assigned the qur'anic expression umm al-kitdb, HteraHy, "mother ofthe book" (Q 3:7, 13:39, 43:4), to the Qur'an itself, the "weH-preserved tablet," al-lawh al-mahfuz (Q 85:21-22), the Urschrift, fore/script, that comprises the forms of all that exists. Read esotericaHy, the Arabic letters—bones, tissue, and sinews ofthe qur'anic body— are signs that point to the unseen and thereby reveal the Hght by concealing it. The attitude of Sufis articulated by Annemarie Schimmel presents a perfect analogue to the perspective affirmed by kabbaHsts with respect to Hebrew: "Leaming the Arabic letters is incumbent upon everybody who embraces Islam, for they are the vessels of revelation; the divine names and attributes can be expressed only by means of these letters—and yet, the letters constitute something different from God; they are a veil of otherness that the mystic must penetrate.""" The metaphor ofthe veil is instmctive, as the fimction ofthe veil is to disclose but at the same time to hide, indeed it discloses by hiding, hides by disclosing. In a similar vein, the letters ofthe matrix text, Torah for kabbalist, Qur'an for Sufi, reveal and conceal the divine essence, the face beyond all veils, the pre/face, devoid of form, the pre/text, devoid of letter.'™ KabbaHst and Sufi would agree that if one remains bound to the letters of the scriptural text, then one is fettered by an idolatry of the book, mistaking the image for the imageless, the figurative for the prefigurative, but both would also insist that the way beyond letters (scripted and/or voiced) is by way of letters, visual-auditory signs, semiotic ciphers at once visible and audible—seen as heard, heard as seen—signs that communicate the incommunicable not through an equational model of symboHc logic but through an impHcational model of poetic aHusion."" The proximity to the kabbaHstic orientation becomes even more pronounced when we consider the embellishment of these motifs in the theosophic gnosis of Ibn 'Arabi, a teaching that has many affinities to kabbalistic wisdom. Just as the Qur'an is the book that manifests the invisible deity through verbal images, so the cosmos is a book that unveils the divine presence through veils of phenomenal existence. In Ibn 'Arabl's own words, "God dictates to the hearts through inspiration everything that the cosmos inscribes in wujud, for the cosmos is a divine book inscribed.""^ Two qur'anic motifs are combined here: the identification of cosmic phenomena as signs pointing to the unicity of all being. 206

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and the idea of the heavenly book, primordial scripture, inscribed by the divine pen, qalam (Q 68:i). In another passage, the hypostatic dimension is foregrounded as Ibn 'Arabi offers the MusHm corrective to the Christological trinity: "The Christians supposed that the Father was the Spirit {al-Ruh), the Mother Mary, and the Son Jesus; then they said 'God is the Third of Three,' not knowing that 'the Father' signifies the Name Allah, and that 'the Mother' signifies the Ummu 'l-Kitab . . . i.e., the ground ofthe Essence, and that 'the Son' signifies the Book, which is Absolute Being because it is a derivative and product of the aforesaid ground."'" The common thread that ties together the triad of potencies is the behef in the ontological reahty ofthe Arabic letters; the first manifestation, envisioned as father, is the most sacred of names, AHah; the second manifestation, envisioned as mother, corresponds to umm al-kitdb, the primordial text or the ground ofthe Essence; and finaHy, the third manifestation, envisioned as son, is the book, the absolute being that derives from the ground. There is much more to say about Ibn 'Arabi and the different layers of the Islamic esoteric tradition, but what is most critical for our purposes is to underscore the hypostatic personification of the qur'anic text as the tablet that contains aH cosmic forms that serve as the veils through which God is manifest and the concomitant figural representation of the cosmos as the book that comprises aU semiotic signs that point to the tmth that cannot be signified. Envisioning YHWH/Eradicating Root Word The unique contribution of medieval kabbaHsts—and on this point I do not see any appreciable difference between the two major trends according to the taxonomy that has dominated contemporary scholarship—centers around viewing YHWH, the most sacred of divine names, as comprising aH the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the one language considered natural and not conventional, essential and not contingent."^ I cite here a representative formulation of this assumption from Shdar ha-Niqqud, a treatise on the meaning ofthe vowels composed by GikatiHa. The relevant remark weaves together the rabbinic tradition that the world-to-come and this world were created respectively by yod and he, the first two letters ofthe Tetragrammaton,"^ and the system laid out in the second part oi Sefer Yesirah in which the letters are presented both as the means by which aH things are created and their substance: AH the worlds are dependent on the twenty-two letters, and the one who contemplates the secret of the permutation of the alphabet wiH comprehend the secret of the rotation of aH entities in their ascent and descent by means of the secret of the property of the letters. The one who merits comprehending this wiH understand several mysteries and several levels that are hidden from the eyes of creatures, and he wiH comprehend and know the greatness of God, blessed be he, and how everything is made from the tmth of his great name and how aH is dependent on his name."'' In Shdarei Orah, a more extensive deHneation of the different symboHc names associated with each of the ten emanations progressing firom the bottom to the top, GikatiHa 207

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offers a succinct account ofthe Hnguistic theory that informed the thinking of kabbaHsts in his time and beyond to the present. The twenty-two letters are depicted as branches stemming from a tree whose tmnk is inscribed with YHWH, the root word that is the origin of aH language, the mystical essence of Torah."' Accordingly, aH that exists may be perceived as a garment that both hides and reveals the name. Consider the formulation of this matter in the commentary on Sefer Yesirah, which records the teachings of Isaac the BHnd, on the words "Thus every creature and every word goes forth in one name":'"^ "In one name""'—their root is in one name, for the letters are branches that appear as flickering flames, within which there is movement, that are bound to the coal, and they are Hke twigs of a tree, its branches, and boughs, whose root is in the tree. Thus the weighing is from the hewing, the permutation firom the weighing, and from the permutation is the form. AH things [devarim] are made into a form, and aH forms come forth from one name Hke a branch that comes forth from the root. It foHows that everything is in the root, which is the one name, and thus it says at the end "one name.""^ The "one name" from which aH being comes forth is YHWH, the name that comprises within itself aH letters of the Hebrew alphabet. From this vantage point, being is constmed semioticaHy, that is, the letters constitute the nature of what is real, a point that is conveyed philologically by the expression devarim, which has the double connotation "things" and "words," though it is likely that in the above passage the term denotes more specificaHy the sefirotic entities, which are contained in the one name that comprises aH the letters."^ In the words of Azriel of Gerona: Thus the blessed holy One made everything inscribed [rashum], engraved [haquq], hewn [hasuv], and sealed [hatum] in his name and its letters so that there wiH be in them the power to exist and to carry out their activities in his seal in which they are sealed, for they constantly receive from his weH that is prepared to irrigate those in need. He and his name preceded it, and through his name he created everything, as it is written, "aH that is caHed in my name" (Isa. 43:7), and he is the fount of Hfe to sustain aH living beings.'^" That the human being plays a particularly important role in unifying the different realms through language is expressed in another passage fi-om the commentary on Sefer Yesirah that preserves the teachings of R. Isaac:'2' "Man [adam] himself is constmcted by the letters, and when that edifice was constructed the supernal spirit that guides him guides everything, and thus everything is joined together in the supernal and lower beings. "'22 Just as the anthropomorphic shape above, primal Adam, is composed ofthe letters comprised in the name, so Adam below is made in the image of the name, the Torah in human garb, and thus the ideal body is composed of letters.'^^ The Hnguistic conception of corporeaHty taken hyperHterally, that is, the letters constitute the material substance whence the body is constmcted, is affirmed by Azriel in his commentary on the depiction ofthe covenant ofthe foreskin in Sefer Yesirah: "it produces an offspring 208

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that is formed by means of the twenty-two letters, and therefore one must contemplate from the revealed to the hidden."'^'' In the earliest kabbalistic documents, moreover, which remain the only tenable way for the contemporary scholar to uncover what the tradition may have been, even if it was, as kabbalists themselves insist, in part or whole transmitted oraHy, it is presumed that the potencies of God are correlated with the limbs of a human body, a theosophical claim Hnked exegeticaHy to the anthropological assumption that Adam is created in the image and Hkeness of God (according to the account recorded by a priestly scribe) as weH as the prophetic presumption (expressed perhaps most boldly by Ezekiel) that the divine glory appears in the likeness of a human form.'^s In subsequent generations, the anthropomorphism was embeHished, or at least articulated more overtly,'^f' but from its very inception, kabbaHstic ontology rests on the supposition that the anthropos, to be identified more specificaHy as the circumcised Jewish male,'^^ serves as the conduit connecting the divine and mundane realms. The role of mediating agent is realized primarily through contemplative prayer and Torah study, as these ritual activities are dependent on the utiHzation and manipulation ofthe Hebrew alphabet, the constitutive element of aH that exists. The goal for the kabbalist—indeed what justifies his being called a kabbalist'^**—is to receive the secret ofthe name, that is, to cleave to YHWH, the Deuteronomistic injunction interpreted in a manner very close to twelfth-century Neoplatonically influenced philosopher-poets, primarily of an Andalusian cultural background, as conjunction of thought {devequt hamahshavah). Isaac and his disciples claim that this conjunction is the tme mystical intent {kawwanah) of Hturgical worship and study, an ideal achieved by few but with ramifications for aH.'^' In another cmcial way, the ideal promulgated by kabbalists betrays affinity with the view enunciated in Islamic andjewish philosophical sources. The kabbalists ofthe twelfth and thirteenth centuries, not to mention later generations, understood this conjunction, which comprised both an intellective and imaginal component, as an expression of prophecy, though in their case the contemplative ascent is more emphaticaHy a personal experience of unio mystica, a more deeply expressed existential awareness that the fragmented soul can attain a sense of wholeness by being reincorporated into the Godhead.'^" Union with the divine name is occasioned by psychic transport—which is consequent to clearing mundane matters from the mind'^'—that in tum faciHtates the theurgical unification ofthe divine potencies signified by letters ofthe name. Though I have just spoken ofthe mystical conjunction faciHtating the theurgical task, I think it better to imagine a core experience of ecstasy with two facets: reintegration of the soul in the divine, and fusion of the sefirotic potencies into harmonious unity. "^ Applying a Hnear logic, one might be tempted to treat these as two phases aHgned in causal sequence, the former occasioning the latter. While there is cogency and heuristic value to this angle, it is not the only way the geometry ofthe matter may be diagrammed. When viewed morphologically as opposed to typologicaHy, that is, under the semblance of form rather than type,'^^ ecstasy and theurgy can be seen as two manifestations ofthe same phenomenon. The consonance of these two elements, which have been too sharply 209

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bifurcated by the prevaiHng slant in the critical study ofJewish mysticism, is necessitated by the ontological conviction regarding the divine/angelic status of the Jewish soul, an idea whose roots He in the beHef that the righteous or holy ones of Israel have been endowed with an angelomorphic nature, a conception that evolved in eamest in lateSecond Temple Judaism, though likely based on a stiH older ancient near-Eastem mythological understanding of kingship.'''' In the inteHectual miHeu inhabited by medieval kabbalists, it is presumed that God and Israel are circumscribed within a monopsychic unity that levels out the ontic difference between cause and effect, and hence mystical union and theurgic unification are concurrent processes that have been artificially separated for extraneous taxonomic concems by contemporary scholars of kabbalah. A key text in which the contemplative ideal is laid out is the explanation ofthe vision ofthe sefirot mentioned in another passage from Sefer Yesirah r:8: "Ten intangible sefirot: their vision [sefiyyatan] is like the appearance of lightning [ke-mar'eh ha-bazaq], and their limit [takhlitan] has no end, his speech is in them like that which flees, and they pursue his utterance Hke the storm, and before his throne they bow down." The "vision" {sefiyyah) is constmed in the commentary attributed to Isaac as mystical comprehension designated on the basis of rabbinic elocution as "contemplation of one thing from another" {hitbonenut davar mi-tokh davar).^^^ The phenomenological contours of this state are elucidated by the verse "And I wait to see what he wiH speak to me," wa-asappeh lir'ot mah yedabber bi (Hab. 2:1), which Isaac (or the anonymous hand aHegedly recording his teaching for posterity) glosses as "for the word appeared to him" {she-hayah ha-dibbur nir'eh elav). From this one can deduce that contemplative visuaHzation, which relates to the activity of both the emanations and the kabbaHst, is a seeing ofthe word, an experience of synesthesia wherein image and sound, optic and verbal, coincide, to see what is spoken as the text coming to be written.'•"' But to what does the "word" {dibbur) precisely refer? And how is it seen? In the continuation of the commentary, the scope of the matter is further deHneated through the image of the chain of being that extends from the lowest demarcation, middah, to the highest, ne'elemet, fi-om the measurable and thus more fuHy exposed attribute to what is hidden, the secret beyond spatial demarcation even in the imaginal realm: The vision relates to the fact that each and every cause [sibbah] receives from the cause above it, for the attribute [middah] draws forth from the attribute that is hewn [hasuvah], and that which is hewn fi-om the engraved [haquqah], and that which is engraved from the marked [reshumah], and that which is marked from the hidden [ha-ne'elemet], everything is such that this is within that and that within this, everything is bound so that this is in that and that is in this."^ How do they receive? The way of their receiving—something subtle and an essence [davar daq we-hawayah]. "Like the appearance" [ke-mar'eh], contemplation that has no substance [hitbonenut she-ein bo mammash], and "the appearance" is the pure and translucent splendor ofthe apprehension of one who receives [zohar daqut zakkut hassagat ha-mitqabbel]. "The appearance of Hghtning" [ke-mar'eh ha-bazaq], this is the purity and translucency of the apprehension of one who receives [daqut zakkut hassagat ha-mitqabbel]. "Their

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Hmit" [takhlitan] is not like their measure [middatan], for the measure [ha-middah] is a matter received by differentiated beings [davar ha-mitqabbel la-nifradim],^^^ for the prophets saw the attributes [middot] in accord with their comprehension and by means of receiving their potencies they would expand their minds [marhivin mahshavtan] more than other human beings, and on account of this they had an expansion of soul to extend infinitely in the details [rahav ha-nefesh lehitpashet bi-feratim be-ein sof]. . . . "For the Lord is one," now the measure [middah] in the infinite alludes that is has no limit on any side. "From contemplating" the matters hidden from thought lest one get lost, for from what one comprehends one can discern what one cannot comprehend, and thus the measures [middot] arose, for language can comprehend only that which comes out from it, since a man cannot comprehend the measure of speech and the letters [middat ha-dibbur we-ha-otiyyot] but only the measure itself [middatah be-asmah], and there is no measure outside the letters. All the subHme measures are given to be meditated upon [lehitbonen], for each measure receives fi-om the measure above it, and they are given to Israel to contemplate from the measure seen in the heart, to contemplate infinitely.'^' On a previous occasion I had the opportunity to discuss some of the details of this richly nuanced and intricate account of the contemplative praxis. Here I wiH focus on the contribution this text makes to the theme of textual embodiment and poetic incamation. The form contemplatively envisioned is the word of God as it is diffused through the chain of being that extends from what is concealed {ha-ne'elemet) to the exposed measure {middah). The hidden source is revealed in four links on the chain designated in descending order as "marked," "hewn," "engraved," and "measured," terms that relay the deHmiting of the limitless light as it passes sequentiaHy through the sefirotic filters. Significantly, the materialization of spirit is portrayed as the concretization of thought into letters whence speech—in both written and oral form''"'—is constmcted, the articulation ofthe inaudible name in the consteHation ofthe invisible image.'"" The prophets, who are cast typologicaHy as protokabbaHsts—the reinterpretation of classical prophecy is so basic to the kabbaHstic worldview that ancient prophets are portrayed as having access to the secret wisdom of kabbalah and contemporary kabbalists, the "enhghtened of Israel" {maskilei yisra'el),^'^^ as having experiences of a prophetic nature—are distinguished by their capacity to expand their thought Hmidessly beyond the Hmit of thought. By thought thinking what Hes beyond the parameters of thought to think, the mind ofthe kabbalist envisions complex infinity from infinite complexity. The visualization is thus expressed as an ascent through various gradations, from the measurable attribute on the bottom to what is hidden on top, from the comprehensible to the incomprehensible. The spiritual ehte of Israel are set apart by their capability of contemplating from the measure as it is seen in the heart to the infinite {lehitbonen mi-tokh hamiddah ha-nifeit ha-lev lehitbonen ad ein sof); hence the mystical state is referred to as "contemplation that has no substance" {hitbonenut she-ein bo mammash)—what is visualized contemplatively is "aH that which the comprehension of thought comprehends to the infinite" {kol mah she-hassagat ha-mahshavah masseget ad ein sof),^'*^ the trail of thought

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winding its way not to that which is not thought but to that which is thought as what cannot be thought, the unthought, beyond the polarity of being and not being. Mystical iHumination ensues firom "contemplation that has no substance," that is, contemplation of what cannot be reified as an object of knowledge or subject of predication, the one that is lacking substance precisely because of the fuHness of its insubstantiaHty. The "way of contemplation" {derekh hitbonenut) is thus compared figuratively to "sucking" {yeniqah) as opposed to "knowing" {yedi'ah)"*'* to convey the idea that meditation yields and is generated by an intimate and direct gnosis of divinity rather than discursive knowledge, a unified intuition of many in one rather than a composite inference of one firom many.'''5 Seeing No-Thing: In/Sight Blinding Vision To appreciate the phenomenological and ontological contours ofthe contemplative ideal, it would be beneficial to frame the discussion in Hght of certain assumptions in Neoplatonic Hterature and especially in Plotinus, who exerted in one way or another a profound influence on medieval philosophical and mystical accounts of psychic conjunction in the three monotheistic faiths. The limitations of space obviously prevent me from treating the Plotinian worldview adequately, let alone developments in Neoplatonic thought subsequent to Plotinus and particularly those that evolved in medieval Islamic centers of speculative learning in the tenth and eleventh centuries. According to Plotinus, for the human mind to contemplate the first principle, the unknowable, nameless One,'"^ a tenet traceable to Plato's description ofthe Good as that which is "beyond being,"'"' it must become like the One. The logic underlying this assumption rests on the ancient HeHenic wisdom espoused in the adage of Anaxagoras that things of similar nature are attracted to one another, or, in the related formulation of Empedocles, wisdom consists of "like by like," since it is "either identical with or closely akin to perception."'''^ Even more pertinent for understanding Plotinus is his utiHzation ofthe Aristotehan formula, which is based on the aforementioned pre-Socratic principle, that the knower must be Hke the thing that is known.''•' One passage in particular that is worthy of citation is fi-om a relatively early treatise in the Plotinian corpus, indeed the one Hsted first in Porphyry's chronological order, in which Plotinus sets out to explain the "inner sight" by which one can apprehend the tme form ofthe "inconceivable beauty," a way of seeing that is awakened when the eyes are shut.'5° If the mind is sufficiently purified of corporeal matters, then in turning inward, which is also depicted as an ascent to the intelHgible realm'^'—a theme reiterated by many a mystic visionary, as Blake, for instance, put it in his epic poem femsalem: The Emanation ofthe Great Albion, "What is Above is Within, for every-thing in Etemity is translucent"'"—it wiH see the "tme Hght" that cannot be measured by metric dimensions; in the speculum of inner vision, the mind's eye sees what is without within and what is within without, and hence spectator and spectacle can no longer be differentiated: "For one must come to the sight with a seeing power made akin to and Hke what is seen. No eye ever saw the sun without becoming sun-Hke, nor can a soul see beauty without

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becoming beautiful. You must become first aU godHke and aH beautiful if you intend to see God and beauty. "'^^ In the continuation of the passage, Plotinus distinguishes the vision of the InteHect, the place of forms or ideas, which are characterized as the inteHigible beauty, and the vision ofthe Good, the "primary beauty," the origin that is beyond the "screen" of beauty.'^" If, however, the One is utterly unique, it can be like no other thing; in its absolute simplicity,'^= the One can have no form or substance, and hence the only way to become "Hke" the One is to be assimilated into the One. However, to be assimilated into what is "beyond being"—a designation, Plotinus reminds us, that makes no positive statement about the One but only impHes that it is "not this," that is, it is not a particular something and thus cannot be compared to anything'^'^—the mind must transcend the specificity of its own being by disposing the filters of inteHection. [I]t would be absurd to seek to comprehend that boundless nature . . . but just as he who wishes to see the inteHigible nature wiH contemplate what is beyond the perceptible if he has no mental image ofthe perceptible, so he who wishes to contemplate what is beyond the inteHigible wiH contemplate it when he has let aH the intelHgible go. . . . But we in our travail do not know what we ought to say, and are speaking of what cannot be spoken, and give it a name because we want to indicate it to ourselves the best we can.'" An iconoclastic breaking of aH form occasions contemplative envisioning of the formless.'^^ For Plotinus, there are three stages to the Hfe of mind that correspond to the three hypostases, a correspondence that is predicated on the correlation of being and experience, the phenomenological and ontological, a critical feature of medieval kabbalah, as I have argued elsewhere:'^' what is real is real as experienced and what is experienced is experienced as real.""" The ascent of mind can be seen as a progressive attempt to apprehend beauty,'" to rise from discursive knowledge appropriate for the sensible world, that is, reasoning from premise to conclusion and transitioning from one object of thought to another, to an inner vision of inteHect and the world of ideal forms wherein the distinction between subject and object is transcended, andfinaHyto seeing the formless, the Good that is the source of ultimate beauty, radiant darkness beyond inteHect and description. Plotinus conceives the ascent in accord with a major impulse in the Platonic understanding ofthe philosophical life, as a way to attain knowledge of self, "to face death before we die."'*^ But contained herein is a fundamental paradox, for the higher one ascends on the ladder of self-knowledge, climbing from the multiplicity ofthe sensible to the complexity of the inteHigible and beyond to the simplicity of the One, the more one loses awareness of self, the more one gains knowledge of self;'" at the summit of knowledge—the inteHect contemplating naught but inteHect, a mirror turned inward to mirror the mirror turned outward, the mirror mirroring the mirror mirrored in the mirror—is what Dionysius the Areopagite referred to as the source of aH being, which is 213

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"before be-ing""*'' and hence neither is nor is not, known "through unknowing" {agno5ia).">5 The path of contemplation is a process of purification, emptying the mind of images, concepts, and words,"^ 112115, 158-159. 33. Corrington, Ecstatic Naturalism, pp. 67-115. 34. Cassirer, Essay on Man, p. 25. The identification of symbol-making as the unique trait of human consciousness is further developed by S. Langer, Mind, pp. 265-355. 35. Cassirer, Language and Myth, p. 7. 36. Heidegger, Being and Time, p. 30; German edition: Sein und Zeit, p. 34. See also the passage from Heidegger's Nachlafi, "Uber das Prinzip 'Zu den Sachen selbst,'" pp. 5-8, and the analysis by Sallis, "Identities of the Things Themselves," pp. 113-126. 37. Ihde, Sense and Significance, pp. 119-120 (emphasis in original). 38. Walton, "World-experience," pp. 1-20, esp. pp. 12-14. 39. Sallis, "Image and Phenomenon," pp. 61-75. 40. Some of the affinities and disparities between Cassirer and Schelling were noted by Heidegger, "Das mythische Denken von Cassirer," pp. 1000-1012; English version in Piety of Thinking, pp. 32-45- For discussion of Cassirer's view and Heidegger's critique, see Doherty, Sein, Mensch und Symbol, pp. 15-59; Krois, "Cassirer's Unpublished Critique," pp. 147-159. 41. Cassirer, Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, vol. i, p. 178; vol. 2, pp. 20, 23, 99. On Cassirer's approach to 401

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myth as symbolic form, see Baeten, Magic Mirror, pp. 41-93; Lofts, Cassirer, pp. 35-59; Bayer, Cassirer's Metaphysics, pp. 56-68, 85-86. 42. For an attempt to distinguish myth and symbol in kabbalistic literature, see Liebes, "Myth vs. Symbol," pp. 213-242. The author's distinction is anticipated in some of his earher studies. For example, consider the contrast between "symboHc level" and "total identity" in Liebes, Studies in the Zohar, pp. 19 and 179 n. 116 (see below, n. 340). My own thinking is indebted to Paul Ricoeur, for whom myth and symbol are not easily distinguishable, surely inseparable. See Ricoeur, Symbolism of Evil, p. 18; idem. Conflict of Interpretations, pp. 28, 293; Kearney, "Paul Ricoeur and the Hermeneutic Imagination," pp. 1-31; Champagne, Structuralists on Myth, pp. 13, 46-47, 75; E. Deutsch, "Truth and Mythology," pp. 46-47. 43. Cassirer, Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, vol. 4, pp. 78-79. 44. Sallis, Delimitations, p. 66. 45. See Burckhardt, Alchemy, pp. 196-197; Coudert, Alchemy, pp. 27-28; G. Roberts, Mirror of Alchemy, pp. 68-70. 46. Read, Prelude to Chemistry, p. 54. 47. Quispei, "Gnosis and Alchemy," pp. 304-333. 48. De Somniis I, 187-188, in Philo, vol. 5, pp. 395-397. 49. Bohme, Signature of All Things, p. 12. See Stoudt, facob Boehme, p. 141; Weeks, Boehme, pp. 4, 34, 76, 119, 188-190; Bianchi, "Visible and the Invisible," p. 28 and other references cited on pp. 46-47 n. 70. 50. D. Biale, "Gershom Scholem's Ten Unhistorical Aphorisms," p. 113. Also relevant are the passages explicating the immanence of Ein Sof in Abraham Herrera, Tiqqunei Zohar, and Moses Cordovero that are cited and analyzed by Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, pp. 40-42. Although kabbalists attempt to preserve the ontological difference of the infinite by maintaining its transcendence, the fact is that once the immanence is affirmed, the ontic independence of the cosmos is seriously challenged, and one is led invariably into a pantheistic or panentheistic posture. 51. Scholem, Origins, p. 448. 52. Zohary.i2oii. 53. Zohar 3:291b [Idra Zuta). For an alternative translation and expHcation of this passage, see Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, p. 246. 54. Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, pp. 295-298. 55. Zohar y.i^cih {Idra Rabba). 56. An expression used by Nietzsche in Birth of Tragedy, sec. 4, to characterize a dream and a work of art. See Nietzsche, Basic Writings of Nietzsche, p. 45. 57. Scholem, On the Possibility offewish Mysticism, p. 140. For further references in Scholem's oeuvre in which he characterizes the symbol as the communication of the incommunicable, see below, n. 88. Idel, Absorbing Perfections, pp. 274-275, is critical of the "pansymbohc school that Scholem estabhshed" based on an "overemphasis on the radical transcendence of the referent to which the symbols point." For a variant formulation of this critique, see Idel, "Hieroglyphs, Keys, Enigmas," pp. 232-233. Idel's sweeping claim that this perspective is "hardly sustained even by the Kabbalistic texts alone" {Absorbing Perfections, p. 275) is not supported by any documentation, and even if it were, I do not think it is a fair presentation of Scholem's view; on the contrary, the symbol, by Scholem's account, always points to what cannot be declaimed and therefore must be polychromatic. Finally, and perhaps most important, I see no evidence from either Idel's work or from my independent study of kabbalistic texts that undermines the philosophical claim regarding the inherently symbolic nature of language as the expression of the inexpressible. The Tetragrammaton, according to the theosophic, ecstatic, and magical streams of kabbalah, according to Idel's own taxonomy, conveys this point. The term "noetic insufficiency," which Idel dubs a "Neokantian approach," presumably based on Kant's insistence that we can know only phenomena, the appearances of things, and not noumena, the things in themselves, is not entirely accurate as it fails to capture the paradoxical nature of the mystical claim regarding language leading through itself to its own surpassing, a theme I explore in chapter 6. Idel presents his critique in other terms as well, for example, the distinction between "negativity" and "plentitude" (see Absorbing Perfections, pp. 423-427). This binary, however, is problematic inasmuch as kabbalists 402

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conceive of ultimate truth as the coincidentia oppositorum, and consequently negativity and plentitude, absence and presence, are not separable. For discussion of the paradoxical identification of the vacuum and plenum, absolute emptiness and absolute fullness, in mystical experience, see Stace, Mysticism and Philosophy, pp. 161178. 58. Scholem, Origirts, p. 408. 59. For fuller discussion of this motif, see E. Wolfson, "Mirror of Nature," pp. 305-331, esp. pp. 306316. 60. See, for instance, the categorical assertion of Ajzenstat, Driven Back to the Text, p. 140, that many (!) kabbalists "take up what Levinas calls the skeptical attitude towards ontology." An inquiry into the relationship of Levinas to kabbalistic esotericism remains a scholarly desideratum, and it is my hope to return to this challenge at a later date. For another account of the thought of Levinas and Jewish mysticism, including kabbalistic and Hasidic sources, related to the themes of the trace, divine absence, temporahty, eschatology, and righteousness, see Chalier, Trace de I'infini, pp. 77-106, 156-158, 189-201, 208-231. 61. The apophatic depiction is articulated in the anonymous commentary on the seflrot that has been falsely attributed to a number of kabbalists; see Scholem, "Traditions of R.Jacob," pp. 174-175. The long recension was published in Liqqutei Shikhehah u-Fe'ah, 2ia-22a, and then again in the short and long recensions by Scholem, "Traditions of R.Jacob," pp. 227-230. The expanded version has been recently reprinted in Sha'ar ha-Qabbalah we-Sidrah. I here translate the text extant in MS London, British Museum 1087, published in Scholem, "Traditions of R.Jacob," p. 227; "The beginning of every matter, which is first and prior to everything, is hidden from all, and it is called the 'cause of causes' [illat ha-illot], and concerning it one does not say either something [yesh] or nothing [ayin], for it is concealed." To predicate neither something nor nothing is to occupy a middle ground between polar opposites in a manner that is reminiscent of the middle way (Madhyamika) philosophy cultivated by Nagarjuna, the third-century Indian Brahmin who became a Buddhist monk, the door of nonduality through which one attains (the) nothing there is to attain, neither something nor nothing, the form that exists, does not exist, and does not not exist. Needless to say, many studies have been written on this figure and the main tenets and repercussions of his thought. See, e.g., Kalupahana, Nagarjuna. On the question of the appropriateness of speaking about a "Buddhist ontology," see Nagao, Madhyamika and Yogacara, pp. 155-187. The conclusion reached by Nagao may be apphed profitably to the question of kabbalah and ontology: "It would seem, therefore, that if an ontology of a Buddhist kind is to be considered seriously, then it would have to be based, not on an ontology of 'being'—that is, not in an ontic sense, but on transcending both existence and non-existence—that is, in the movement toward sunyata" (p. 187). Sanyata, which is to be translated as "emptiness," is the technical term not for the absence of being, but for the discernment that neither being nor nonbeing is real, that is, the middle ground that transcends both existence and nonexistence. While I have clearly incorporated the logic of Madhyamika to elucidate kabbalistic texts, I am not prepared to understand Ein Sofas a cognate to sunyata, for, in my understanding, the former term functions in kabbalistic literature as a marker for the ultimate ground of being, albeit a ground that is innately inaccessible to human comprehension, whereas the latter term is precisely a rejection of such a metaphysical construct. On this score, see the comment of Lusthaus, Buddhist Phenomenology, p. 375 n. 16: "SUnyata is not a via negativa for revealing or uncovering the 'True Ground of Being' or any other such fantasy; nor is sunyata itself that ground. The term signifies the activity of'emptying out' such notions, not merely as concepts, but in terms of the festering inner compulsions which lead one to posit such things in the first place. Emptiness is not an ontological ground, but a methodological tool to be discarded, i.e., 'emptied,' when its task is completed." The kabbalistic notion is closer in spirit to the apophatic logic displayed by Dionysius the Areopagite. See, for instance. Divine Names, chap, i, 588B, in Divine Names and Mystical Theology, pp. 108-109: "The indefiniteness beyond being lies beyond beings [linepKElTai TCOV gy pp Oliaiffiv fj fj iiJtepoiJOlOS cause iiJtepoiJOlOS otJieipia] otJieipia] . . . being be-ing according according to to no no being being [Kaxct [Kaxct \ir\bzv \ir\bzv T TW WV VO OV VT TC CO OV V O'uoa] O'uoa], cause of being to all; but itself: non-be-ing, as it is beyond every being [aiiTO 68 nf) 6v (bg naox\c, 01)015 enEKEtva]." And in Divine Names, chap. 5, 817D, p. 165: "God neither was, nor will be, nor has come to be, nor is come to be, nor will come to be, nor, indeed, is not." See the concluding litany of negative attributions of the "cause of all things" in Mystical Tluology, chap. 5, 1048A, p. 222: "not something among 403

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what is not [ovbi. Tl TCOV OIIK ovTCOv], not something among what is [ovbi U TC&v oVTCOV eoTlv]. There is neither logos, name, or knowledge of it. It is not dark nor light, not error, and not truth. There is universally neither position [GeaEig] nor denial [d(t)aipEa6l5 ] of it." The Greek is supplied on the basis of the critical texts pubhshed in the Corpus Dionysiacum I, p. 109, and Corpus Dionysiacum II, p. 150. 62. Marion, "In the Name," pp. 20-53, and a shghtly revised version in idem. In Excess, pp. 128-162. See also idem, "Saturated Phenomenon," pp. 176-216; and idem, "Introduction," pp. 1-7. A constructive theological application of this phenomenological orientation is found in Marion, Cod without Being. A discussion of Dionysius along these hnes is also found in idem, T?!e Idol and Distance, pp. 139-195. For a suggestive discussion of the kataphatic and apophatic elements in the writings of Dionysius in terms of a convergence between "Hebrew and Greek allegory," see D. Turner, Darkness of Cod, pp. 19-49; and GoHtzin, "Suddenly Christ," pp. 8-37. Although the middle ground staked by Dionysius resonates with the logic of Madhyamika expounded by Nagarjuna, there are also subtle and important differences; see note 61. 63. The Cospel of Truth provides an extraordinary lens by which to refocus our thinking about later kabbalistic wisdom. I explore this in more detail in chap. 5. 64. Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, p. 274, notes that the two most common images in Zohar used to depict the emanation were the shining of hght and flowing of water. To do justice to the kabbalistic sources it is necessary to include the third prism as well, the vocalization of the ineffable name. 65. I have borrowed these formulations from the analysis of Husserl's idea of prototemporalization in Bruzina, "Aporia of Time-Analysis," p. 106. The author's immediate concern was clarification of Husserl's internal-time consciousness. I have applied the terms, and what they imply, to account for the nature of the excess-of-being that is the prototemporal, protospatial source of all beings. 66. See Froment-Meurice, That Is To Say. 67. For a discussion of language in the new thinking of Rosenzweig with particular sensitivity to the poetic, see GaUi, Franz Rosenzweig andjehuda Halevi, pp. 360-398. 68. For discussions of the place of poetry in Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, see Misgeld, "Poetry, Dialogue, and Negotiation." pp, 161-181 (the convergence of Gadamer's insight with regard to the survival of hope through confronting the hopeless with the radical thought of Heidegger and Benjamin is noted on p. 180 n. 42); Schmidt, "Poetry and the PoHtical," pp. 209-228; Bruns, "The Remembrance of Language," pp. 1-51; Risser, Hermeneutics and the Voice of the Other, pp. 185-208. 69. E. Wolfson, "Occultation of the Feminine." One might protest that kabbalists do affirm the independent existence of Ein Sof, which would be appropriately delineated as the being divested of all garments. Such a characterization, based on Hebraic sources, is found, for instance, in Reuchhn, On the Art of the Kabbalah, pp. 248, where Ein Sof is described as deitas ipsa sine indumento, the "deity without vestment." Reuchiin has correctly understood the tradition, but even in this case it could be argued that there is no "naked truth" to behold, for the Ein Sof, divested of all garments, cannot be seen in any form or image and cannot be spoken of in any manner. Properly speaking, or perhaps I should say "unspeaking," with regard to Ein Sof—the one beyond affirmation and denial—there can only be "negation of imagery," which would have to include even "negative images," for the latter, though they be negative, are no less imagistic than the affirmative images they negate. On this important philosophical insight into apophatic discourse, see Turner, Darkness of Cod, p. 35. 70. See E. Wolfson, Through a Speculum, p. 62, and references to philosophic sources given in n. 45. On the confluence of speech and perception, language and experience, in human consciousness, see Ihde, Sense and Significance, pp. 155-161. On the essentially hnguistic nature of imagination, related especially to the function of constructing metaphors, see Madison, Hermeneutics of Postmodernity, pp. 183-191. For an analysis of the rhetoric of the image, see Barthes, Imag^Music—Text, pp. 32-51. The notion of myth as a semiological system is also emphasized in the thought of Barthes. See Baeten, Magic Mirror, pp. 95-117. On the semiotic understanding of myth as the symboUc displacement and reanimation of cultural values of signification, see Liszka, Semiotic Myth. I am aware of the fact that in contemporary linguistics a more expansive and comprehensive use of "language" is employed to include animal communication; indeed, the "birth" of language is traced by some to the stage of the evolutionary process wherein the need for the preservation of the species 404

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necessitated forms of communication to facilitate procreation. For a lucid account of this hypothesis, see Fischer, History of Language, pp. 11-34. Nevertheless, I am using "language" in the more restricted sense to encompass the linguistic abihties, verbal and graphic, distinctive to Homo sapiens, though these may be traced to the earhest stage of hominid language development marked by the appearance of Homo erectus in the chain of evolution. See Fischer, History of Language, pp. 35-59, and especially his comment on p. 56: "There was never an Ursprache, a 'primeval language.' Still, a capacity for language of some kind was present among the earhest hominids. Humans evolved from creatures without language and for this reason brain areas with other functions, such as gesturing, were called upon for the new task of speech. . . . Language was superimposed and elaborated on top of these more primitive cerebral systems and, in addition, appears to be parasitic to them." From this vantage point it seems even scientifically plausible to distinguish qualitatively nonhuman and human forms of communication, and perhaps the word "language" should be apphed only to the latter. 71. Cited in Dastur, Telling Time, p. 96 n. 3. 72. Husserl, Logical Investigations vol. i, p. 250 (emphasis in the original). 73. Agamben, Potentialities, pp. 39-47, esp. p. 45: "Thus we finally find ourselves alone with our words; for the first time we are truly alone with language, abandoned without any final foundation. This is the Copemican revolution that the thought of our time inherits fi-om nihilism: we are the first human beings who have become completely conscious of language." See ibid., p. 68: "The pure existence . . . that constitutes the sole object of philosophy is something to which philosophy has no access other than through reflection on the factum loquendi and the construction of an experience in which this factum is thematically at issue. Only the experience of the pure experience of language allows thought to consider the pure existence of the world"

(emphasis in original). A similar hypothesis is presented within an entirely different theoretical framework by Grace, Linguistic Construction of Reality. See also Hottois, L'Inflation du langage; and the comment by Murti, Studies in Indian Thought, p. 358: "What is amply borne upon us by hnguistic philosophers and others is that the philosophy of language is not one aspect or branch of philosophy, but is all philosophy. . . . Philosophy may be re-defined as Critique of Language. . . . Language is not an accidental, dispensable garb which could be put on and put off. It grows with thought, or rather thought grows with it. In the ultimate analysis they may be identical." The presentation of the contemporary philosophic predicament accords well with the semiotic orientation in kabbalistic ontology. 74. The essay arose as a response of Benjamin to a letter from Scholem in which the latter raised some philosophical questions regarding the nature of language. See Benjamin, Correspondence, no. 46, p. 81. On Scholem's enthusiastic reaction to Benjamin's letter, see the comment from his diary cited in Scholem, Cershom Scholem, p. 19, and also Scholem's letter from 3 August 1917 to Werner Kraft, p. 51, in which he acknowledges that his own reflections on the philosophy of language "went in the very same direction as Benjamin's" and that he translated large sections of the latter's essay into Hebrew in order to discern better its "immanent relation to Judaism." See also Scholem, Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship, p. 38, where Scholem acknowledges that he attempted to translate into Hebrew portions of Benjamin's study on language, which was "very close" to his heart. Scholem's plan was to offer the translation to Walter and Dora as a wedding gift (the date of their ceremony was 16 April 1917). Benjamin insisted that Scholem read the first pages of the translation "so that he might hear how his sentences sounded in the Ursprache, as he put it halfjokingly." For recent discussion of the impact of Benjamin's essay on Scholem, see E. Jacobson, Metaphysics of the Profane, pp. 123-153. On pp. 124-125 Jacobson reproduces pages from the Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem, in Scholem's own hand of the two attempted translations of Benjamin. 75. Benjamin, Reflections, p. 316. The essay is reprinted in Benjamin, Selected Writings, Volume 1, pp. 62-74. 76. Benjamin, Reflections, p. 316 (emphasis in original). 77. Ibid. 78. Ibid., p. 324. It would seem that this remark indicates unequivocally that Benjamin would have rejected the identification of ontology and language that has informed the kabbalistic worldview (I note parenthetically that with regard to this matter there is no substantial difference between the so-called theosophic and ecstatic kabbahsts). In spite of this unequivocal remark, Wolin, Walter Benjamin, pp. 39-41. has 405

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raised the possibility that Benjamin's philosophy of language from the early period was indebted to the kabbalistic conception of language as the "divine substance of reahty." In particular, Wolin focuses on the influence of Abulafia's conception of language, correctly reminding the reader (p. 281 n. 26) that Scholem, Walter Benjamin: Die Ceshichte einer Freundschaft, pp. 118-119, reports "having discussed Abulafia's philosophy of language with Benjamin in connection with the hnguistico-philosophical interests of his planned Habilitationsschnfl on Trauerspiel." For the English version, see Scholem, Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship, p. 92. See also Handelman, Fragments of Redemption, pp. 17-18; Alter, Necessary Angels, pp. 45-46, 63; Moses, Der Engel der Ceschichte, pp. 87-111, 215-234; Idel, "A. Abulafia, G. Scholem, and W. Benjamin on Language," pp. 130-138. On the suspected impact of kabbahstic linguistic theory on Benjamin's notion of the original, pure language, see also Steiner, After Babel, pp. 66-67; Eco, Experiences in Translation, p. 10. On the more specific surmise that Benjamin was influenced by Christian kabbalah as transmitted by Franz Joseph Mohtor, see E. Jacobson, Metaphysics of the Profane, pp. 114-122. For a different approach, see Gasche, "Saturnine Vision," p. 87, and the more recent discussion in Agamben, Potentialities, pp. 57-58. According to Agamben, the supremacy accorded the orthographic form in the kabbalistic conception of language is at odds with Benjamin's notion of a universal language based on pure speech, the definitive utterance of the divine name, and the cancellation of any written representation. Agamben's view can be challenged, however, on the basis that in Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels, Benjamin, following in the footsteps of Johann Wilhelm Ritter, considered the written word to be the universal intelligible image that requires no translation. Moreover, in that context music is upheld as the source whence word and script emerge. See Benjamin, Origin of Cerman Tragic Drama, p. 214. For another critique of viewing Benjamin's theory of language in mystical or kabbalistic terms related primarily to the notion of language as the potential for communicabihty, which estabhshes a sense of difference or otherness, see Gasche, Of Minimal Things, pp. 61-82. 79. Benjamin, Reflections, p. 323. See idem. Origin of Cerman Tragic Drama, p. 214, where Benjamin cites the following words of Ritter: "In reahty the whole of creation is language, and so is hterally created by the word, the created and creating word itself." 80. Benjamin, Reflections, p. 321: "The incomparable feature of human language is that its magical community with things is immaterial and purely mental, and the symbol of this is sound. The Bible expresses this symbolic fact when it says that God breathes his breath into man: this is at once life and mind and language." 81. Ibid., pp. 325-326. 82. Benjamin, Origin of Cerman Tragic Drama, p. 32. 83. Ibid., p. 36. 84. Ibid., p. 37. On the subordination of philosophy to poetry, and the romantic sacrahzation of the latter, in the poetologicai thinking of Novalis and Schlegel, see Schaeffer, Art of the Modem Age, pp. 72-90, 94-95, tO4-io6. 85. Benjamin, Reflections, pp. 318-319. It strikes me that there are interesting parallels between Benjamin and Wittgenstein's notion of the language game according to which the power of language resides not in its descriptive modality but in its constitutive role in determining the ways human beings respond in the world. See Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, p. 21, sees. 4.021-4.023, p. 47, sees. 5.471-5.4711 (for the onginal I consulted idem, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, German text; all German references to the Tractatus are from this volume); idem. Philosophical Investigations, vol. I, p. 9, sec. 19, p. 11, sec. 23, p. 88, sec. 241, p. 146, sec. 546, p. 167, sec. 654; idem. Philosophical Crammar, p. 42. On the competing interpretations of the relationship between life-forms and language games, particularly in Wittgenstein's later philosophy, see Gier, Wittgenstein and Phenomenology, pp. 17-32. An in-depth examination of Wittgenstein's elucidation of language as the projection of reality is offered by Hunnings, World and Language. For a richly nuanced discussion of language and ontology in Wittgenstein, see Stokhof, World and Life as One, pp. 104-185; Wabel, "Die Hineinnahme der Sprachgrenzen," pp. 85-106. Also worthy of consideration are the monographs by Staten, Wittgenstein and Derrida, and Garver and Lee, Derrida and Wittgenstein. The authors explore the common elements in Wittgenstein and Derrida, emphasizing in particular that both men affirm language as the key to understanding philosophy and the quest to understand the nature of being, without, however, reverting to a totalizing ontology or metaphysic. For an imphcit critique of the Derridean notion of the play of signification 406

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based on Wittgenstein's conception of the grammatical form of language, see Guetti, Wittgenstein and the Crammar of Literary Experience. On the comparison between Wittgenstein and Heidegger, see below, nn. 127-129. 86. On the notion of "pure language" and the task of translation, see the essay "The Task of the Translator," in Benjamin, Illuminations, pp. 69-82, esp. pp. 74-75; and see Fynsk, Language and Relation, pp. 177210; Jacobs, In the Language of Walter Benjamin, pp. 75-90. The disentanglement of the idea of a natural language, that is, the notion of primordial language to which all other languages may be traced but that is not identifiable with any specific language, including Hebrew,firoma theological basis was already entertained by Leibniz, in part in dialogue with older esoteric themes. See Rutherford, "Philosophy and Language in Leibniz," pp. 224-269, esp. pp. 240-248. 87. Benjamin, Reflections, p. 331. See Cacciari, "Problem of Representation," pp. 155-165; E. Jacobson, Metaphysics of the Profane, pp. 85-106. 88. See Scholem, Major Trends, p. 27; idem, "Name of God," pp. 61-65; idem. On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, pp. 8-11, 22-23, 35-36. Scholem's understanding of the symbohc valence of language has been well discussed in scholarly hterature, and here I offer a modest samphng of the relevant studies: D. Biale, Scholem, pp. 89-92; Schweid, fudaism and Mysticism, pp. 43-44> 126-127; Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp.

231-232; Handelman, Fragments of Redemption, pp. 104-109. See also reference to Idel above, n. 57. On the centrality of naming in Scholem's conception of language, see Derrida, Acts of Religion, p. 197, based on Scholem's own remarks in a letter to Rosenzweig dated December 26, 1926, cited on p. 227: "Language is Name [Sprache ist Namen]. In the names, the power of language is enclosed; in them, its abyss is sealed." For a comparison of the respective theories of language in Scholem and Benjamin, see D. Biale, Scholem, pp. 80-81, 103-108; Kilcher, Sprachtheorie der Kabbala, p. 46 n. 59; Weigel, "Scholems Gedichte," pp. 24-28; Bouretz, "Gershom Scholem und das Schreiben," pp. 108-115, esp. p. 109 n. 34. 89. On the proximity of Heidegger and Benjamin with regard to the question of truth and the inner form revealed in the act of creation, particularly the poem, see Bowie, From Romanticism to Critical Theory, pp. 194-195. See also Adorno's comment in a letter of 17 April 1963 to Scholem in Scholem, Cershom Scholem, p. 392, on the "astounding, mostly hnguistic, similarities between Benjamin and Heidegger" with respect to the matter of poetics. For a nuanced analysis of the thinking of Benjamin and Heidegger centered around the hnguisticahty of experience, see Ziarek, Historicity of Experience, pp. 42-71, and see below, n. 189. 90. Gadamer, "Text and Interpretation," p. 28. See idem. Truth and Method, pp. 397-447, where Gadamer analyzed in detail the Hnguistic nature of human experience of the world under the rubric of "language as horizon of a hermeneutic ontology." See, in particular, p. 432: "Being that can be understood is language. The hermeneutical phenomenon here draws into its own universality the nature of what is understood, by determining it in a universal sense as language, and its own relation to beings, as interpretation." Gadamer comments on this passage in "Text and Interpretation," p. 25. The resemblance of Gadamer's notion of the inseparabihty of being and language to the view expressed by Schelling, which in turn may have affinity with the attitude of kabbalists, has been noted by Bowie, Schelling and Modern European Philosophy, p. 117.

91. Gadamer, Truth and Method, p. 423. In that context, Gadamer acknowledges that the hermeneutical dialectic, which is conceived from the "centre of language," and the metaphysical dialectic of Plato and Hegel, which privileges the form of the philosophical proposition based on the attribution of a predicate to a subject, both share in the "speculative element." This element relates more specifically to the presumption that meaning is hnked to the image reflected through language like a visual image in a mirror. On the one hand, mirroring, it would seem, is dependent on the substitution of one thing for another, for the mirror image is merely the appearance and not the thing itself. On the other hand, precisely this appearance makes possible the proper vision of the thing in relation to an observer. Gadamer thus speaks of the "actual mystery" of reflection, which entails the "intangibihty of the picture, the unreal quahty of sheer reproduction." See Wachterhauser, "Gadamer's ReaUsm," pp. 148-171. In this matter, Gadamer follows the lead of Heidegger, Being and Time, pp. 29-30: "But everything depends on staying clear of any concept of truth construed in the sense of'correspondence' or 'accordance' [Ubereinstimmung]. This idea is by no means the primary one 407

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in the concept oi aletheia. The 'being true' o£ logos as aletheuein means: to take beings that are being talked about in legein as apophainesthai out of their concealment; to let them be seen as something unconcealed {alethes); to discover them. . . . What no longer takes the form of a pure letting be seen, but rather in its indicating always has recourse to something else and so always lets something be seen as something, acquires with this structure of synthesis the possibihty of covering u p " (emphasis in original). For a brief but insightful discussion of the difference between aletheia and the correspondence theory of truth, see Levin, Opening of Vision, pp. 419-424. 92. For an analysis of Heidegger and Gadamer, see Riedel, Horen aufdie Sprache, pp. 96-130; Bemasconi, Heidegger in Question, pp. 170-189; Coltman, Language of Hermeneutics; Lafont, Linguistic Turn in Hermeneutic Philosophy, pp. 55-116. 93. Heidegger, Early Creek Thinking, p. 37. 94. Heidegger, Basic Writings, p. 193. See also idem. On the Way to Language, p. 63. Heidegger's words resonate with the following remark of the fourteenth-century Persian poet Hafiz firom The Cift, p. 281: "What / W e speak /Becomes the house we hve in." 95. Heidegger, Introduction to Metaphysics, p. 15; German edition: Einfiihrung in die Metaphysik, p. 11. Heidegger's thought, as several scholars have noted (see below, n. 182), resonates with several streams of Chinese philosophy. Particularly relevant to Heidegger's notion of language as the matrix within which things come into being is the statement of the Zhuangzi, cited in the introduction of Ames and Hall, Focusing the Familiar, p. 31: "The way is forged in the walking; things and events become so in the saying." See Tzu, Complete Works ofChuang Tzu, p. 40: "A road is made by people walking on it; things are so because they are called so. What makes them so? Making them so makes them so. What makes them not so? Making them not so makes them not so." The thought is captured succinctly in the dictum, technically known 3.^ jakugo, translated in Hori, Zen Sand, p. 125: "To think ofit—is it." 96. Heidegger, Contributions to Philosophy, p. 350 (emphasis in the original). The theme is repeated in many of Heidegger's later writings; see, e.g.. Poetry, Language, Thought, p. 73: "language alone brings what is, as something that is, into the Open for the first time. Where there is no language . . . there is also no openness of what is, and consequently no openness either of that which is not and of the empty. Language, by naming beings for the first time, first brings beings to word and appearance." See Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Tliought, pp. 189-210. 97. Heidegger, Contributions, p. 324; German edition: Beitrdge zur Philosophie, p. 460. On "enthinking" being and language, see Heidegger, Contributions, p. 54. 98. Heidegger, Beitrdge, p. 497. 99. Heidegger, Introduction to Metaphysics, p. 7; Einfiihrung in die Metaphysik, p. 5. 100. Heidegger, Contributions, p. 39; Beitrdge, p. 56. For discussion of the theme of "inceptual thinking," see Vallega, "'Beyng-Historical Thinking,'" pp. 48-65, esp. pp. 54-59. 101. Heidegger, Contributions, p. 39; Beitrdge, p. 56. 102. Heidegger, Contributions, p. 119. 103. For clarification of these critical terms in Heidegger's thinking, see Zarader, Heidegger et les paroles de I'origine, pp. 17-30; Schurmann, Heidegger On Being and Acting, pp. 120-151. The underlying political imphcations of the Heideggerian distinction are drawn clearly byjanicaud. Shadow of That Thought, pp. 57-58. 104. Heidegger and Fink, Heraciitus Seminar, p. 17: "Philosophy can only speak and say, but it cannot paint pictures. . . . There is an old Chinese proverb that runs, 'Once pointed out is better than a hundred times said.' To the contrary, philosophy is obhgated to point out precisely through the saying." 105. Heidegger, Contributions, p. 40; Beitrdge, p. 57. 106. Heidegger, Contributions, p. 41; Beitrdge, p. 58. 107. Heidegger, Contributions, p. 39. 108. Heidegger, Contributions, p. 45; Beitrdge, p. 64. 109. Heidegger, Contributions, p. 216. 110. O n the distinction between speaking and saying, see D. A. White, Heidegger and the Language of Poetry, PP- 35-52-

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111. Roth, Poetics of Resistance, pp. 57-124. The influence of Heidegger is discernible in the comments by Ricoeur, Conflict of Interpretations, p. 91: "It would appear then that the sign is not only that which is lacking to things, it is not simply absent from things and other than them; it is what wishes to be applied, in order to express, grasp, apprehend, and finally to show, to manifest. That is why a philosophy of language need not be limited to the conditions of possibility of a semiology: to account for the absence of the sign fi-om things, the reduction of relations of nature and their mutation into signifying relations suffices. It is necessary in addition to satisfy conditions of possibility of discourse insofar as it is an endeavor, renewed ceaselessly, to express integrally the thinkable and the sayable in our experience. Reduction—or any act comparable to it by reason of its negativity—no longer suffices. Reduction is only the inverse, the negative side, of a wantingto-say which aspires to become a wanting-to-show" (emphasis in original). 112. Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 123. Reference to the original German is taken from Unterwegs zur Sprache, p. 254. 113. Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 76; Unterwegs, p. 181. 114. Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 96. 115. Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 94; Unterwegs, p. 200. t i 6 . Heidegger, Zollikon Seminars, p. 185. 117. Birth of Tragedy, in Nietzsche, Basic Writings, sec. 4, p. 45.

It8. See Birth of Tragedy, in Nietzsche, Basic Writings, sec. i, p. 34: "The beautiful semblance [I have modified Kaufhiann's translation of Schein as 'illusion'] of the dream worlds, in the creation of which every man is truly an artist, is the prerequisite of all plastic art, and, as we shall see, of an important part of poetry also. In our dreams we dehght in the immediate understanding of figures; all forms speak to us; there is nothing unimportant or superfluous. But even when this dream reality is most intense, we still have, glimmering through it, the sensation that it is mere appearance: at least this is my experience, and for its frequency—indeed, normality—I could adduce many proofs, including the sayings of the poets." Compare the brief but brimming fragment of Benjamin entitled "On Semblance" in which he explicates Nietzsche's definition of Schein, translated in Benjamin, Selected Writings, vol. i, pp. 223-225. And consider the measured statement of Buchler, Nature and Judgment, p. 127: "Philosophically, the intrinsic, fixed distinction between appearance and reality or shadow and substance is inexcusable, reflecting an indulgent bias for one form of reahty as against every other form. If, as has sometimes been suggested, this bias is the symptom of one kind of valuational preference in opposition to another, there is still no reason for conceptually ordering the cosmos in accordance with such a preference." Also relevant is Lacoste, "Work and Complement of Appearing," pp. 68-93. 119. Nietzsche, Will to Power, p. 433, sec. 817. See below, n. 379. 120. Heidegger, Nietzsche, Volume I, pp. 118-119; Nietzsche, Erster Band, pp. 118-119. 121. Ibid., p. 119. 122. Ibid., p. 215. 123. See Proimos, "Martin Heidegger on Mimesis," pp. 153-163. Also relevant is the discussion on the phenomenon of the simulacrum and Heidegger's refutation of the metaphysical conception of appearance in Pemiola, Ritual Thinking, pp. 175-193. On the "deep structure of the controversy" between "mimesis and meaning," see Menke-Eggers, Sovereignty of Art, pp. 87-105. While the blurring of the hne separating imagined and real is not without epistemological and ontological consequences, it seems to me far more sophisticated than the continued analytic struggle to differentiate the imaginary and real, fictional and nonfictional narratives. For a recent example of this kind of study, see Sutrop, "Imagination and the Act of FictionMaking," pp. 332-344. 124. The passage of Nietzsche is cited by Heidegger from the Crossoktavausgabe, XIII, 50. Nietzsche articulates the obhteration of the opposition between appearance and reality in the aphorism "How the 'Real World' at last Became a Myth" in Twilight of the Idols, pp. 40-41: "The 'real world'—an idea no longer of any use, not even a duty any longer—an idea grown useless, superfluous, consequently a refuted idea: let us abolish it! . . . We have abohshed the real world: what world is left? the apparent world perhaps? . . . But no! with the real world we have also abolished the apparent worldV (emphasis in the original). O n Heidegger's reading 409

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of this passage and the imphed "inversion" {Umdrehung) of the hierarchy of Platonic metaphysics, see Derrida, Spurs, pp. 80-81. For a discussion of different interpretations of Nietzsche's comment, see M. Clark, Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy, pp. 95-125- On the relationship of art and truth in Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, see Taminiaux, Poetics, Speculation, and Judgment, pp. 111-126. 125. Heidegger, Nietzsche, Volume I, p. 215. For discussion and critique of Heidegger's interpretation of Nietzsche's perspectivism, see Hough, Nietzsche's Noontide Friend, pp. 32-34. 126. Nietzsche, Cay Science, p. 70, sec. 58. 127. Johnstone, Rationalized Epistemology, pp. 99-104. Inter alia, the author notes the "remarkable" similarity of Heidegger to Wittgenstein on this issue. 128. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Remarks, p. 51. For discussion of the phenomenological dimensions of Wittgenstein's thought in conversation with Heidegger, see Guest, "Phenomenologie de Wittgenstein," pp. 53-74. See the analysis of Wittgenstein's "phenomenological reduction" in Ihde, Sense and Signiflcance, pp. 142-154, esp. p. 149: "The 'reductions' employed by Wittgenstein invert the emphasis of Husserlian phenomenology. Where Husserl reduced things to transcendental experience, Wittgenstein reduces things to hnguistic usages—the meaning is the use. What must be seen here is that this 'reduction' is one which wants to get back to the structures of language" (emphasis in original). See also Bermes, "Wittgensteins Phanomenologie," pp. 5-21 and other references cited on pp. 12-13 "- 21- On the question of truth and language games in Wittgenstein, see Martin, From Nietzsche to Wittgenstein, pp. 257-289. 129. Still useful is the observation of Ihde, Sense and Significance, p. 155, that the "methodological bases of phenomenology and hnguistic analysis begin with inverse weightings of an essentially paired phenomenon, language-experience. The methodological drift of phenomenology is to begin with experience and attempt to deal with language from a description of experience in its movement toward expression. The methodological drift of hnguistic analysis is, to begin with, a description of language and its structure from which experience is to be understood" (emphasis in the original). Mandel, "Heidegger and Wittgenstein," pp. 259-270. For a sampling of studies exploring the thought of Heidegger and Wittgenstein, in addition to the study by Guest cited in n. 128, see Rentsch, Heidegger und Wittgenstein; Fay, "Ontological Difference," pp. 319-328; Standish. Beyond the Self, Rorty, "Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and the Reification of Language," pp. 337-357; Apel, "Wittgenstein and Heidegger," pp. 241-274; Furuta, Wittgenstein und Heidegger, D. G. Stem, "Heidegger and Wittgenstein," pp. 245-259. A more recent analysis of Heidegger's thought from the perspective of analytic philosophy is found in Lafont, Heidegger, Language, and World-Disclosure. The hypothesis that the hmit of language and logic is a shared feature in the ostensibly disparate philosophical approaches of Heidegger and analytic thought is argued as well by Witherspoon, "Logic and the Inexpressible," pp. 89-113. See below, n. 206. On the genealogical analysis of language and reality in Nietzsche's own thought,fi-amedwithin the larger question of the epistemology of nihilism, see Strong, Friedrich Nietzsche, pp. 55-78; a comparative analysis of Nietzsche and Wittgenstein is offered, op. cit., pp. 78-86. 130. Paraphrasing the remark of Herachtus, "Nature loves to hide," in Kahn, Art and Thought of Heraciitus, P-33131. On the nexus of suspicion, deception, and concealment as the basis for philosophical esotericism, see S. Rosen, Metaphysics in Ordinary Language, pp. 1-14. 132. Derrida, Margins of Philosophy, p. 132, notes that Heidegger's privileging the "phenomenological metaphor" of Lichtung and the consequent emphasis on presence as self-presence are in consonance with the priority accorded to speech over writing. There is surely vahdity to this claim, as Heidegger's writings are saturated with phonocentric claims such as we find, for instance, in On the Way to Language, p. 120: "The point is to approach more closely language's own pecuhar character. Here, too, language shows itselffirstas our way of speaking." In spite of the evidence that supports Derrida's critique, a case may be made for an alternative reading of Heidegger that would problematize the label of phonocentrism. The essential feature of language is in the saying in virtue of which beings show themselves. This saying, however, is not necessarily hmited to verbal speech, as writing itself is a form of showing. On the nonphonic dimension of saying, see the remark of Heidegger cited above at n. 116. One must bear in mind, moreover, that for Heidegger the priority accorded saying is challenged by positing silence as the source of language, and hence the meta410

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physical is undermined not by affirming the graphic over the phonic but by subverting all forms of language in the unspoken. A defense of Heidegger along these lines is offered by Bemasconi, "Transformation of Language," pp. 1-23. On the theme of presence in Heidegger, see also Schuback, "Perplexite de la presence," pp. 257-279. 133. Heidegger, Holderin's Hymn "The Ister," p. 21; see p. 26: "naming first elevates and poetizes what is named into its essence." 134. I borrow this expression from W. Wimsatt, Verbal Icon. On the conflation of the verbal and visual, see also the description of poetry in Jung, Spirit in Man, pp. 75-76, as "a language pregnant with meanings, and images that are true symbols because they are the best possible expressions for something unknown— bridges thrown out towards an unseen shore." 135. In several of his writings, Heidegger employs the locution of poetic dwelling based on Holderin's image "poetically man dwells." For instance, see Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Tiiought, pp. 213-229; idem. Elucidations, pp. 172, 187; Pierson, "Sur l'habitation poetique," pp. 107-113; Coltman, Language of Hermeneutics, pp. 88-94. 136. Heidegger specifies the meaning of this term in On the Way to Language, p. 92: "The country offers ways only because it is country. It gives way, moves us. We hear the words 'give way' in this sense: to be the original giver and founder of ways." The poetic motion of the original German is virtually impossible to capture adequately in translation: Die Cegend ergibt als Cegend erst Wege. Sie be-wegt. Wir horen das Wort Bewegung im Sinne von: Wege allererst ergeben und stiften {Unterwegs, pp. 197-198). 137. Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 77; Unterwegs, p. 181. On the belonging-together of poetizing and thinking, see idem, Holderin's Hymn "The Ister," pp. 111-115. Various scholars have discussed this dimension of Heidegger's thought. For instance, see Biemel, "Poetry and Language in Heidegger," pp. 6 5 105, esp. pp. 82-93; D. A. White, Heidegger and the Language of Poetry, pp. 143-167; Bemasconi, Question of Language, pp. 49-64; Bruns, Heidegger's Estrangements, pp. 99-122; Ziarek, Inflected Language, pp. 21-42; Botet, Langue, langage, et strategies linguistiques, pp. 71-80; Fynsk, Language and Relation, pp. 39-85. In some measure, Heidegger's poetizing of thought brings him close to the romantic ideal of the poet-thinker {dichtender Denker), embodied for him by Holderin. See Schaeffer, Art of the Modem Age, pp. 237-238, 259-265. 138. Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 86; Unterwegs, p. 191. 139. Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 82; Unterwegs, p. 187. MacLeish, Poetry and Experience, p. 9, commenting on the words of the Chinese poet Lu Chi (d. 303), "We poets stmggle with Non-Being to force it to yield to Being /We knock upon silence for an answering music," writes: "The poet's labor is to stmggle with the meaninglessness and silence of the world until he can force it to mean: until he can make the silence answer and the non-Being be." It is worthwhile noting as well the comment of Sri Aurobindo recorded in Gokak, Integral View of Poetry, p. i, that poetry is the "mantra of the Real—a rhythmic revelation of Reality in language." Or, again, in something of a poetic flourish, the author writes: "Poetry is mantra. It is incamation. In it is revealed the closest possible union of music and meaning, of thought and image, of sense and suggestion, of imagination and intuition . . . poetry is a mantra of the Real, an interpretative incarnation of some aspect of Reality." Lest one attribute naive essentialism to this author based on the remarks conceming reality, consider the following comment: "There are as many interpretations and representations of Reality as there are poets. The poet ascends into the world of pure vision on the wings of an attitude or attitudes" (p. 2). This comment attests unequivocally that the presupposed notion of the real is a multifaceted and ever-changing phantasmagoria of images, not a monohthic and reified constellation of fixed forms. 140. Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 155; Unterwegs, p. 237 (I have modified the translation shghtly in accord with the original). 141. Heidegger, OM the Way to Language, p. 90. 142. Ricoeur, Conflict of Interpretations, p. 266. On the circularity of interpretation, see chap. 3, n. 6. 143. Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 107. 144. See my prehminary remarks in E. Wolfson, Abraham Abulafia, pp. 28-29. On revealing and concealing in Heidegger's thought, see Vail, Heidegger and Ontological Differetue, pp. 25-46. The mystical implications of Heidegger's treatment of this theme are noted by K. Hart, Trespass of the Sign, pp. 237-252. 411

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145. Heidegger, Zollikon Seminars, p. 171. 146. Heidegger, Early Creek Thinking, p. 77. 147. Ibid., p. 60. 148. See the citations from Heidegger, Holderin's Hymn "The Ister" below at nn. 164-165. On the shift fi-om proposition to saying in Heidegger's thinking about language, see the nuanced discussion in VaUegaNeu, "Poietic Saying," pp. 66-80. 149. Heidegger, What Is Called Thinking'? pp. 198-199. 150. Ibid., pp. 206-207. 151. Heidegger, Early Creek Thinking, p. 37 (emphasis in original). Original German in Holzwege, p. 350. 152. Heidegger, Early Creek Thinking, pp. 41-42; Holzwege, pp. 354-355. On the paradox of belonging and withdrawal, see Taminiaux, The Thracian Maid and the Professional Thinker, pp. 122-139. 153. Heidegger, Early Creek Thinking, p. 43; Holzwege, p. 356. 154. Heidegger, Early Creek Thinking, p. 77. 155. On this critical Heideggerian term, see Amoroso, Lichtung. Magee, Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition, p. 229 n. 12, remarks that there are "striking analogies between Luria's tsimtsum, the 'clearing' in which beings come to be, and Heidegger's notion of the Lichtung, the clearing in which Being itself comes to presence." In my own thinking, I have considered this resemblance as well, which is enhanced by the recognition that in both Lurianic kabbalah and Heideggerian thought the clearing manifests by concealing, that is, what comes to presence does so in virtue of being absent. For a detailed exploration of this theme, see E. Wolfson, "Divine Suffering," pp. 107-117, and the comparison of Lurianic kabbalah and Heidegger offered on p. 154 n. 112. 156. Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Thought, p. 53 (emphasis in the original). Reference to the German taken from Holzwege, p. 40. 157. Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Thought, p. 178: "Thinging, the thing stays the united four, earth and sky, divinities and mortals, in the simple onefold of their self-unified fourfold." On the fourfold, see below, n. 188. 158. Ibid., p. 179. 159. On the thematic link between saying and showing in Heidegger's thought, see Kockelmans, "Language, Meaning, and Ek-sistence," pp. 3-32, esp. pp. 24-28. On the understanding of speaking as a kind of seeing in the phenomenological philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, see Dufrenne, In the Presence of the Sensuous, p. 70. 160. Heidegger, Piety of Thinking, p. 132. 161. Sugirman, Rancor against Time, pp. 120-128; Roth, Poetics of Resistance, pp. 87-108. It stands to reason that the dialectic of absence and presence in Heidegger's notion of Lichtung and the (un)concealedness of tmth reflects, in part, the phenomenology of Husserl. For an apphcation of this dimension of Husserhan phenomenology that is particularly relevant to the theme of this chapter, see Sokolowski, Presence and Absence. 162. Heidegger, Early Creek Thinking, p. 34. 163. Ibid., pp. 35-36. 164. Heidegger, HoWeriM'5 Wymw "The Ister," pp. 119-120. 165. Ibid., p. 19. 166. Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 160. For the fuller context of the Heideggerian notion of the "single poetic statement," see chap. 3, n. 97. 167. Heidegger, Holderin's Hymn "The Ister," p. 165. Heidegger's view is captured succinctly and incisively by Levinas, Collected Philosophical Papers, p. 83: "And in Heidegger being is revealed out of the hiddenness and mystery of the unsaid which the poets and philosophers bring to speech, without ever saying everything." On the interface of the verbal and ocular, see Stankiewicz, "Poetics and Verbal Art," pp. 54-76. 168. Heidegger, Pathways, pp. 136-154. See idem. What Is Called Thinking! p. 153: "But language is not a tool. Language is not this and that, is not also something else besides itself Language is language." On the trace of mimesis in Heidegger's notion of tmth as opening, see Sallis, Echoes, p. 174: "I shall propose a certain reinscription of mimesis, a reinscription that wiU follow the lines of a trace of mimesis discemible in those 412

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turns in Heidegger's text. Mimesis, thus reinscribed, will serve to name the connection where Heidegger thinks, perhaps most rigorously, the necessity of the doubhng retumfi-omthe tmth of Being back to beings." See Salhs, Echoes, pp. 173, 178, 185. 169. Consider Heidegger's remark that "Language is the clearing-concealing advent of Being itself" cited in Sallis, Echoes, p. 195. See also Heidegger, Identity and Difference, p. 65: "The difference of Being and beings, as the differentiation of overwhelming and arrival, is the perdurance of the two in unconcealing keeping in concealment [entbergend-bergender Austrag]. Within this perdurance there prevails a clearing of what veils and closes itself off—and this its prevalence bestows the being apart, and the being toward each other, of overwhelming and arrival" (emphasis in original). 170. Heidegger, Early Creek Thinking, p. 39. 171. Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Thought, p. 54; original German, Holzwege, p. 41. 172. Ibid. On the exposure of the double concealment, see Protevi, "Stilling of the Aufhebung," pp. 67-83, esp. pp. 79-80. 173. Heidegger, Contributions to Philosophy, pp. 245, 249. Heidegger returns to the nexus between untruth, the concealedness of beings as a whole, and the disclosure or letting-be of beings, in his essay "On the Essence of Tmth"; see Heidegger, Pathways, pp. 147-150. The seed of the convergence of tmth and untmth in Heidegger's later thought is already planted in Being and Time, pp. 204-205: "Tmth (discoveredness) must always first be wrested from beings. Beings are torn from concealment. . . . Is it a matter of chance that the Greeks express themselves about the essence of tmth with si privative expression [a-letheia]'! Does not a primordial understanding of its own being make itself known in such an expression—the understanding . . . that being-in-untruth constitutes an essential determination of being-in-the-world? The fact that the goddess of truth who leads Parmenides places him before two paths, that of discovering and that of concealment, signifies nothing other than the fact that Da-sein is always already both in the tmth and the untmth." For an extended discussion of Heidegger's statement that "the essence of tmth is un-tmth," see Sallis, "Interrupting Tmth," pp. 19-30, and the analysis in Biemel, "Marginal Notes on Sallis's Peculiar Interpretation," pp. 221239. See also Derrida, "Silkworm of One's Own," p. 39. On double concealment, the concealment of concealing, imphed in Heidegger's notion of truth as aletheia, see Bemasconi, Question of Language, pp. 15-27; Tugendhat, "Heidegger's Idea of Tmth," pp. 83-97. For discussion of the epistemological aspects of Heidegger's notion of tmth, see J. Anderson, "Tmth, Process, and Creature," pp. 28-61. Let me say briefly that understanding the belonging-together of truth and untmth in Heidegger's thought is the apt response to the thesis of Edwards, Authority of Language, which rests on the presumed contrast between the "hnguistic fascism" of Heidegger that "elevates the Logos to the status of a god" and the "decentrahzed account of hnguistic authority" offered by Wittgenstein in his depiction of the "scene for our language-game" (p. 3), the necessary and sufficient conditions that make intersubjective communication possible. Edwards fails to take into consideration that Heidegger identifies infinite transcendence with finitude and temporality, that is, the power of the infinite transcendence bestows upon human finitude its temporal comportment, rendering possible openness to the ecstatic horizon of temporahty. My formulation here is indebted to the analysis of Horosz, Search without Idols, pp. 308-309. On the openness to being and the temporal comportment of Dasein in Heidegger, see also Rapaport, "Time's Cinders," pp. 218-233; and G. Rose, Mourning Becomes the Law, p. 55. Insofar as Heidegger located the work of infinite transcendence in the domain of finitude, he is not subject to the critique of totahtarian logocentrism offered by Edwards. See the discussion on totahzing thinking and totalitarianism in Boeder, Seditions, pp. 241-254. The view that Heidegger could not escape the ontotheological assumptions he sought to expose was also expressed by Derrida, Margins of Philosophy, pp. 130-131. On the "scandalous" implications of Heidegger's essentialism and the "mythologic ofbeing," see Caputo, Demythologizing Heidegger, pp. 118-147. For a more nuanced discussion of the relationship between thinking and the foundation in Heidegger's later thought, with some emphasis paid to the relationship between Heidegger and Wittgenstein, see Vattimo, Adventure of Difference, pp. 110-136. A provocative account of the Heideggerian notion of the abyss as the ground of thought is offered by Cristin, Heidegger and Leibniz. See also McCumber, "Essence and Subversion," pp. 13-29; and the discussion of Heidegger's critique of metaphysical presence in Chanter, Time, Death, and the Feminine, pp. 123-139. 413

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t74. Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Thought, p. 54 (emphasis in original); Holzwege, p. 41. 175. Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Thought, p. 60. The conflation of tmth and untmth on the part of Heidegger, which signifies the necessary concealment of all that is revealed, is to be distinguished from the confounding of truth and lies, connected especially to the promotion of pohtical ideology on the part of the German fascists, discussed by Adorno, Minima Moralia, pp. 108-109. See also the interpretation of the ancient philosophical maxim veritas patefacit se ipsam etfaisum in Agamben, Coming Community, p. 13: "Tmth cannot be shown except by showing the false, which is not, however, cut off and cast aside somewhere else. On the contrary, according to the etymology of the verb patefacere, which means 'to open' and is hnked to spatium, tmth is revealed only by giving space or giving place to non-tmth—that is, as a taking-place of the false, as an exposure of its own innermost impropriety." 176. Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Thought, p. 218. 177. Heidegger, Early Creek Thinking, p. 107. 178. Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 122: "To say and to speak are not identical. A man may speak, speak endlessly, and all the time say nothing. Another man may remain silent, not speak at all and yet, without speaking, say a great deal. . . . What is unspoken is not merely something that lacks voice, it is what remains unsaid, what is not yet shown, what has not yet reached its appearance." In Heraciitus Seminar, p. 52, Heidegger comments: "But how about thinking and saying? We will also have to say for Heraciitus that there is a saying to which the unsaid belongs, but not the unsayable. The unsaid, however, is no lack and no barrier for saying." 179. Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 59. 180. Ibid., p. 81. 181. Similarly, Gadamer, Truth and Method, p. 416, writes: "Thus every word, in its momentariness, carries with it the unsaid, to which it is related by responding and indicating. . . . AU human speaking is finite in such a way that there is within it an infinity of meaning to be elaborated and interpreted. That is why the hermeneutical phenomenon also can be illuminated only in the hght of this fundamental finitude of being, which is wholly hnguistic in character." Gadamer, "Text and Interpretation," p. 24, acknowledges his indebtedness to Heidegger: "Thus, I tried to hold fast to the inexhaustibihty of the experience of meaning by developing the imphcations for hermeneutics of the Heideggerian insight into the central significance of finitude." A trace of Heidegger can also be discerned in the account of the unique quality of philosophical discourse, with special emphasis placed on the mode of interrogation, in Merleau-Ponty, Visible and the Invisible, p. 102: "if philosophy can speak, it is because language is not only the depository of fixed and acquired significations, because its cumulative power itself results from a power of anticipation or of prepossession, because one speaks not only of what one knows, so as to set out a display ofit—but also of what one does not know, in order to know it—and because language in forming itself expresses, at least laterally, an ontogenesis of which it is a part. But from this it follows that the words most charged with philosophy are not necessarily those that contain what they say, but rather those that most energetically open upon Being, because they more closely convey the hfe of the whole and make our habitual evidences vibrate until they disjoin." Merleau-Ponty's claim regarding philosophical speech as speaking that which one does not know is related to his idea of the dialectic of the negative and positive, the invisible and visible: in the openness of being, what is rendered visible remains for the most part hidden, and thus just as we speak of invisibility as the depth of the visible, so silence is the fount of speech. See Merleau-Ponty, Prose of the World, p. 37: "Things perceived would not be evident for us and present in flesh and blood if they were not inexhaustible, never entirely given. . . . In the same way, expression is never absolutely expression, what is expressed is never completely expressed." See also pp. 45-46: "Speech does choose only one sign for one already defined signification. . . . And if we want to grasp speech in its most authentic operation . . . we must evoke all those words that could have come in its place that have been omitted. . . . In brief, we should consider speech before it has been pronounced, against the ground of the silence which precedes it, which never ceases to accompany it, and without which it would say nothing. Moreover, we should be sensitive to the thread of silence from which the tissue of speech is woven." Just as the body is the vehicle by which we apprehend the beings in the world that transcend the body, so speech is the vehicle by which we move toward the tmth 414

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that surpasses speech (p. 129). For fuller discussion of indirect language and voices of silence, see idem. Signs, pp. 39-83. Significantly, Merleau-Ponty compares the writer and the painter in his effort to explain the interplay between speech and silence. The point is epitomized in the statement, "In short, language speaks, and the voices of painting are the voices of silence" {Signs, p. 81). On the invisible and the logos, see Low, Merleau-Ponty's Last Vision, pp. 71-112. For an intentional analysis of silence based in great measure on Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger, see Dauenhauer, Silence. 182. Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 120. For analysis of this Heideggerian motif, see W. Richardson, Heidegger through Phenomenology, pp. 21-22, 221-223, 609-610, 638; D. A. White, Heidegger and the Language of Poetry, pp. 43-49, 70-71. See also the study of Bemasconi cited above, n. 137. It is plausible that the "unspoken" in Heidegger's thinking reflects the influence of Taoist philosophy. See R. May, Heidegger's Hidden Sources, pp. 21-34. See also Poggeler, "West-East Dialogue," pp. 48-50, 59, 61-62; Stambaugh, "Heidegger, Taoism, and the Question of Metaphysics," pp. 79-91; Parkes, "Thoughts on the Way," pp. 120-124, 131; Nishitani, "Reflections on Two Addresses," pp. 145-153; Zhang, "Heidegger and Taoism," pp. 307-320; and consider the repeated references to Heidegger offered by Chung-yuan, Tao. For a comparison of Heidegger to other elements of Chinese thought, see, for instance, Cheng, "Confucius, Heidegger, and the Philosophy of the I-Ching," pp. 51-70. Heidegger has also been placed in dialogue with Zen Buddhism (especially the thirteenth-century figure Dogen) by a number of scholars. See Steffney, "Transmetaphysical Thinking in Heidegger and Zen Buddhism," pp. 323-336; idem, "Man and Being in Heidegger and Zen Buddhism," pp. 46-54; C. Olson, "Leap of Thinking," pp. 55-62; Heine, Existential and Ontological Dimensions; Abe, Zen and Western Thought, pp. 47, 67, 119, 134; idem, A Study of Dogen, pp. 55-57, 74-76, 107-144; Kotoh, "Language and Silence," pp. 201-211; Carter, "Zen and Ontotheology via Heidegger," pp. 167-182; Stambaugh, Impermanenee Is Buddha-Nature; Dalhnayr, The Other Heidegger, pp. 200-226; Maraldo, "Rethinking God," pp. 31-49. Murti, Studies in Indian Thought, p. 360, remarks that Heidegger's characterization of language as the house ofbeing "comes very close to the Indian conception of language." On the latter, see Aklujkar, "The Word Is the World," pp. 452-473. The analogies between Heidegger and ancient Indian and Asian thought, on the one hand, and the resemblance of the latter to the Jewish esoteric gnosis, on the other, may prove to be another important avenue to pursue in the attempt to explain the methodological rationale for using Heidegger as an interpretative lens to illumine the paths of kabbalah. On Taoism and kabbalah, see discussion in chap. 2, nn. 416-419. 183. See Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 93: "Neighborhood means: dwelling in neamess. Poetry and thinking are modes of saying. The neamess that brings poetry and thinking together into neighborhood we call Saying." See also pp. 103-104. 184. Surely my characterization of Heidegger demands explanation, but to pursue this matter responsibly would take me too far afield. As a prehminary observation, however, I note that Heidegger's thought after the self-proclaimed turn demands a new method for staying on the path, a method that strikes me as congruent in some respects with the midrashic mentahty, a playfulness of language that rests on the assumption that heeding the word gives one access to being. (Needless to say, I am well aware that I am relating to only one of the connotations of the term "midrashic") See, e.g., Heidegger's formulation in What Is Called Thinking'? p. 119: "Is it playing with words when we attempt to give heed to this game of language and to hear what language really says when it speaks? If we succeed in hearing that, then it may happen—provided we proceed carefully—that we get more truly to the matter that is expressed in any telhng and asking." In this context, it is of interest to recall the denunciation of Heidegger as a "German talmudist" offered by Erich Jaensch, a professor at Marburg, in a letter to Ernst Krieck. It is, wrote Jaensch, "typical that the Avocassiero-talmudic thought of the Jews is felt to be so close to Heidegger's philosophy. In fact he owes his fame to Jewish propaganda. . . . It is a scandal that Jewish doctors themselves bastardize medicine by using Heidegger's terminology. But in fact the language is in total harmony with the rabbinic way of thinking, which would want to make natural science a kind of Tahnudic exegesis." The passage is cited in Farias, Heidegger and Nazism, p. 167; and see discussion in Lyotard, Heidegger and "the jews," pp. 59-60. The comments ofJaensch were obviously written in a spirit of condemnation in a chmate where exaggeration and anti-Semitism were far from exceptional and hence they must be taken with the proverbial grain of salt. See, e.g., the distorted 415

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characterization of Einstein's theory of relativity as a "Jewish physics" promoted by Bruno Thuring and Hans Alfred Grunsky, discussed by Jammer, Einstein and Religion, pp. 59-61. Nevertheless, I would contend that the comments ofJaensch betray insight into the tenor and texture of Heidegger's philosophical thought and willy-nilly point to the uncanny resemblance between it and rabbinic modes of midrashic interpretation. The matter is explored in detail by Zarader, La dette impensee. 185. Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 108; Unterwegs, p. 216. 186. Ibid. 187. Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Thought, p. 173. 188. Ibid., p. 178. Original Gennan in Heidegger, Vortrdge und Aufsdtze, II, p. 50. On the notion of the fourfold, see Kockelmans, On the Truth of Being, pp. 94-121; Bruns, Heidegger's Estrangements, pp. 77-Ss; Roth, Poetics of Resistance, pp. 113-122; and especially the richly nuanced analysis in Levin, The Philosopher's Caze, pp. 116-169. In particular. Levin discusses Cestalt, Cestell, and Ceviert, the three words in Heidegger's poetic thinking that elucidate the way of the hghting. At one point, he offers the following account of the three terms, which is well worth citing in full: "If Cestalt refers to a gathering for a while of the hghting, of the visible and the invisible, into a practical structure, Cestell names a gathering of the lighting, of the visible and the invisible, into the nihilism of a phantasmagoric reification, and Ceviert attempts to think the historically new possibility of a gathering of the hghting into a configuration of the most dynamic openness. Ceviert would thus be the name of a certain dream, the vision of another beginning, a time coming after the overcoming of the Cestell, when perception, assuming a radically different Cestalt configuration, would take place as a hermeneutical Xeyeiv, a gathering of earth and sky, mortals and gods, a gathering outside our present order of time and history, a gathering in which, because of our response-ability, our Wahr-nehmung, our care for the hermeneutics of truth as beings gifted with sight, it might somehow become possible for each of the four to become a realm of inconceivable disclosure, opening beyond the reach of representation into the depths of the invisible" (pp. 159—160). 189. Heidegger, Elucidations, p. 109. The notion of origin, for Heidegger, does not connote the temporal beginning of something but its essence, which is not, however, a reified nature but the taking-hold of thinking, the appropriation, the enowning {Ereignis) through which something becomes the being that it is, always in the form of what is to come as what has been. See Heidegger, Poetry, Language, and Thought, p. 17, and detailed discussion of the terms Ursprung, Anfang, and Beginn in Schurmann, Heidegger on Being and Acting, pp.

120-151. The point is made succinctly by Marx, Reason and World, p. 80: "For Heidegger the traditional concept of essence is one of those determinations which must be overcome because they derive from metaphysics. Accordingly, he is convinced that 'thinking' is also something which, unlike a ti or quid, cannot be defined in its 'what' by determining its essence {Wesensbestimmung)." On the paradox of origin in Heidegger's thinking, see Marrati-Guenoun, La genese et la trace, pp. 126-132. It is of interest to compare Heidegger's notion of Ursprung with the comments by Benjamin in the Origin of Cerman Tragic Drama, pp. 45-46 regarding the "dialectic which is inherent in origin": "Origin [Ursprung], although an entirely historical category, has, nevertheless, nothing to with genesis [Entstehung]. The term origin is not intended to describe the process by which the existent came into being, but rather to describe that which emerges from the process of becoming and disappearance. . . . That which is original is never revealed in the named and manifest existence of the factual; its rhythm is apparent only to a dual insight. On the one hand it needs to be recognized as a process of restoration and reestabhshment, but, on the other hand, and precisely because of this, as something imperfect and incomplete. There takes place in every original phenomenon a determination of the form in which an idea will constantly confront the historical world, until it is revealed fulfilled, in the totality of its history. Origin is not, therefore, discovered by the examination of actual findings, but it is related to their history and their subsequent development." For an illuminating discussion of the affmities between Benjamin and Heidegger, in spite of Benjamin's sense of irreconcilable differences separating the two, see Levin, Philosopher's Caze, pp. 343-374, esp. pp. 356-357, where the author discusses the topic of origin in conjunction with the aforecited passage firom the Trauerspiel. See above, n. 78. On Benjamin's concerns for origin and his suspicion of claims to novelty, see Frisby, "Walter Benjamin's Prehistory of Modernity," pp. 15-32. 416

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190. Heidegger, HoWenn's Hymn "The Ister," p. 151. 191. Ibid., pp. 28-30. 192. Heidegger, Concept of Time, p. 13; see p. 15: "Running ahead seizes the past as the authentic possibility of every moment of insight, as what is now certain. Being futural, as a possibihty of Dasein as specific, gives time, because it is time itself"; and pp. 19-20: "The past remains closed off from any present so long as such a present, Dasein, is not itself historical. Dasein, however, is in itself historical insofar as it is its possibihty. In being futural Dasein is its past. . . . The past—experienced as authentic historicity—is anything but what is past. It is something to which I can retum again and again. . . . The possibility of history is grounded in the possibility according to which any specific present understands how to be futural. This is the first principle of all

hermeneutics. It says something about the being of Dasein, which is historicity itself" (emphasis in original). For a comprehensive analysis of the role of historical thinking in Heidegger's intellectual biography, see Barash, Martin Heidegger and the Problem of Historical Meaning,. On the intricate relationship between phenomenology and history, see studies cited in the Prologue, n. 65. 193. Heidegger, Holderin's Hymn "The Ister," p. 29. 194. Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Thought, pp. 173-174. 195. Particularly relevant is Heidegger's preface to the lecture "Holderhn's Earth and Heaven," delivered in Stuttgart on 14 July 1959, included in Heidegger, Elucidations, p. 176: "Our reflection is concerned solely with Holderin's poem. It is an attempt to transform our accustomed way of representing things into an unaccustomed, because simple, thinking experience. (The transformation into the thinking experience of the center of the infinite relation—out of the collected framework [Ce-stell\ as the self-dissimulating event [Ereignis] of the fourfold.)" 196. Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Thought, p. 179. 197. Ibid. See the brief but incisive comments on this Heideggerian motif in Abe, Study of Dogen, pp. 109-110.

198. Heidegger, Early Creek Thinking, p. 43. 199. Kudszus, Poetic Process, p. 33, ends the chapter on Heidegger's poetics with the observation that "pain marks the joys of hghtness with the cleavage of language tom apart and cast into silence." Dilthey, p. 227, depicts the hved experience of the poet in terms of the "great capacity for suffering. He becomes engrossed in this suffering and fashions it into a lasting mood. Precisely because of this he is able to hberate others by allowing suffering to be resolved in tranquihty." For a sustained analysis of the economy of pain and suffering in Heidegger's notion of poetizing {Dichten), albeit with a decidedly different valence firom my own, see Caputo, Demythologizing Heidegger, pp. 148-168. 200. Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 82. I note that on this point Heidegger was not always consistent. In some passages, he seems to emphasize the identity of poetizing {Dichten) and thinking {Denken), whereas in other passages he insists that their very proximity imphes difference. See idem. What Is Called Thinking'? p. 134: "The essential closeness of poesy and thinking is so farfiromexcluding their difference that, on the contrary, it estabhshes that difference in an abysmal manner. . . . But precisely because thinking does not make poetry, but is a primal telling and speaking of language, it must stay close to poesy." See also idem. Principle of Reason, p. 35. Commenting on the remark by Angelus Silesius in The Cherubic Wanderer that the "rose is without why," which ostensibly conflicts with the Leibnizian principle of reason, iVi7»7 sine ratione, "Nothing is without reason," Heidegger wrote: "But one might immediately point out that this source is indeed mystical and poetic. The one as well as the other belong equally httle in thinking. Certainly not in thinking, but perhaps before thinking." On the essential link between philosophical reflection and poetry, consider the remark by Wittgenstein, Culture and Value, p. 24: "I think I summed up my attitude to philosophy when I said: philosophy ought really to be written only as a poetic composition." 201. Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 84. 202. Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Thought, p. 218; original in Vortrdge und Aufsdtze, p. 187. 203. Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 85. 204. Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Thought, p. 74. 205. Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 59. 417

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206. See Heidegger, Elucidations, p. 186: "Art, as the pointing that allows the appearance of what is invisible, is the highest kind of showing. The ground and the summit of such showing again unfold themselves in saying as poetic song." The demarcation of the task of the poet and the thinker "to make sense of the enigmatic, unfathomable face of life" is made by Dilthey, Poetry and Experience, p. 222. On the depiction of poetry as the disclosure of what must be concealed, see N. Brown, Apocalypse and/or Metamorphosis, pp. 3-4. The paradox of disclosure as concealment is also characteristic of the poetic sensibility of Edmond Jabes. See Derrida, Writing and Difference, pp. 67-69. On visible representation of the invisible in the writings ofJabes, see Hawkins, Reluctant Theologians, pp. 220-224. On the characterization of the abyss—the music box— whence the song of poetry emerges as concomitantly invisible and inaudible, consider the poem "In den Gerauschen," in Celan, Fathomsuns and Benighted, p. 63: "In the sounds, as our beginning / in the abyss, / where you feel to me, / I wind it up again, the/ music box—^you / know: the invisible, / the / inaudible." 207. The matter can be expressed in terms of the radical empiricism of William James: language can be considered the "house" of pure experience insofar as language makes pure experience available—in the evolutionary scheme, human consciousness as it is cannot be disentangled from language, and in that respect we cannot get out &om under Kant's emphasis on the constructed nature of the phenomenal realm—what we experience as world—but language cannot describe the pure experience adequately, as the purity of that experience does not lend itself to discursive or analytic classification. See Stevens, fames and Husserl, pp. 33-34. 136; and, more recently, Gavin, William James and the Reinstatement of the Vague, pp. 78-95. Gavin distinguishes two positions regarding language in James: a negative one (in line with Romanticism) that emphasizes the insufficiency of language to depict the concreteness and immediacy of life experience (pp. 47-50) and a more positive one based on the intentional and contextual aspects of language as the mode by which reality is constructed in individual consciousness (pp. 69-76). Language is not an objective copy of reahty but a way of molding the world. The positive view of language is central to the pragmatism ofjames, even though in the end he would maintain that human consciousness experiences more than the mind could conceptualize or describe linguistically (pp. 95, 170-172). For an elaboration of this point, see Kress, "Contesting Metaphors," pp. 263-283, esp. pp. 264-266. On the insufficiency of language to capture the concrete texture of "pure experience" or the "thickness of reality" in the philosophy ofjames, see also Taylor, William fames on Consciousness] pp. 82-96; Lamberth, William James and the Metaphysics of Experience, pp. 213-214. O n

the aversion of idealism to language and the affirmation of logic independent of grammar, see the insightful comments of Rosenzweig, Star of Redemption, pp. 140-141. 208. Heidegger, Identity and Difference, p. 142; Stambaugh renders the German on p. 73, sagenden Nichtsagen, as "a telling silence." I have followed the translation offered by Bernasconi, Question of Language, p. 77. Heidegger's view of the poetic is captured in the Zen teaching cited in Hori, Zen Sand, p. 440: "On the road, if you meet an expert in the Way,/ Do not greet him with either words or silence." What hes between words and silence but the "saying not-saying," the unspoken that is spoken in speaking the unspoken? This seems to be the message implied in another adage in Hori, Zen Sand, p. 126: "Speech silenced." The simple reading would be that one's speaking is followed by silence, but a deeper understanding would cut through the duality such that speaking itself conveys silence. See also p. 187: "Close your mouth and say one word." 209. Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Tliought, p. 11. 210. Raschke, Fire and Roses, pp. 4-5; Muldoon, "Silence Revisited," pp. 275-298, esp. pp. 289-292. For an interesting comparative discussion of the deconstructive tendency of language to transcend itself in its enunciation, see Loy, "Language against Its Own Mystifications," pp. 245-260. For discussion of the "poetics of the possible" in Heidegger's thought in relation to Kant's analysis of imagination, time, and the transcendental horizon of experience, see Kearney, Poetics of Modernity, pp. 14-17, 35-49. 211. See Heidegger, History of the Concept of Time, p. 267: "Just as hearing is constituitive of discourse, so also is silence. Only an entity whose being is defined by the ability to discourse can also be silent." For an instructive treatment of the role of silence in human discourse as the horizon of sound, which is influenced by Heidegger, see Ihde, Sense and Significance, pp. 61-68, 75-76; and Fiumara, Other Side of Language. In some measure, Heidegger's notion of silence as the condition for authentic language bespeaks the influence of the apophatic tradition in medieval Christian mysticism and especially the thought of Meister Eckhart. See, for 418

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instance, Eckhart, Sermons and Treatises, vol. I, pp. 20—21: "Accordingly a master says: 'To achieve an interior act, a man must collect all his powers as if into a corner of his soul where, hiding away from all images and forms, he can get to work.' Here, he must come to a forgetting and an unknowing. There must be a stillness and a silence for this Word to make itself heard. We cannot serve this Word better than in stillness and in silence: there we can hear it, and there too we will understand it aright—in the unknowing. To him who knows nothing it appears and reveals itself" (emphasis in original). The influence is noted but qualified by Caputo, Mystical Element, pp. 224—225. According to Caputo, Heidegger pursued the renewal of language, the bringing of language into language, rather than the discovery of the primal word that is spoken eternally in its absolute silence which characterizes the mystical yearning of Eckhart. With respect to this matter, as Caputo also notes (p. 216), Eckhart is closer to the spirit of enlightenment in Zen Buddhism. For comparative analysis of Eckhart and Zen Buddhism, see Suzuki, Mysticism, pp. 3-35; and the remarks by Schurmann, "Trois penseurs du delaissement," pp. 56-60, Enghsh version in Wandering Joy, pp. 217-222. On the influence of Eckhart on Heidegger, see Helting, Heidegger und Meister Eckehart; and further references cited in chap. 3, n. 6. The primary emphasis placed on language as the house of being situates Heidegger's thinking in close proximity to the kabbalistic presumption regarding the effabihty of the ineffable and the linguistic articulation of mystical silence, saying the unsayable. Finally, it is worthwhile considering the Heideggerian perspective in conjunction with the statements of Wittgenstein cited and briefly discussed in chap. 6, nn. 162, 163, 165, 166, 168, 169, 171. 212. Heidegger, Contributions, p. 26. 213. Ibid., pp. 54-55. 214. Heidegger, Parmenides, p. 12. 215. Heidegger, Identity and Difference, p. 57. 216. Heidegger, Being and Time, p. 142. 217. Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Tlwught, p. 92. 218. Heidegger, Contributions, pp. 214, 228-229, 314-320. 219. Sallis, Echoes, pp. 98-100. 220. Heidegger, On Time and Being, pp. 4-5: "Time—a matter, presumably the matter of thinking, if indeed something hke time speaks in Being as presence. Being and time, time and Being, name the relation of both issues, the matter at stake which holds both issues toward each other and endures their relation. To reflect upon this situation is the task of thinking, assuming that thinking remains intent on persisting in its matter. . . . Being, by which all beings as such are marked, means presencing. Thought with regard to what presences, presencing shows itself as letting-presence. . . . Letting shows its character in bringing into unconcealment. To let presence means: to unconceal, to bring to openness. In unconceahng prevails a giving, the giving that gives presencing, that is. Being, in letting-presence." See also pp. 12-14: "Presence means: the constant abiding that approaches man, reaches him, is extended to him. . . . With this presencing, there opens up what we call time-space. But with the word 'time' we no longer mean the succession of a sequence of nows. Accordingly, time-space no longer means merely the distance between two now-points of calculated time . . . . Time-space now is the name for the openness which opens up in the mutual self-extending of fiitural approach, past and present. This openness exclusively and primarily provides the space in which space as we usually know it can unfold." 221. Heidegger, Contributions, pp. 230-231, 259-271. 222. Sallis, Echoes, p. 172. 223. Merleau-Ponty, Prase of the World, pp. 5-6. I have also utihzed the French edition Prose du monde. For a succinct but nuanced discussion of Merleau-Ponty's theory of language, see Ihde, Sense and Significance, pp. 162-178, and the more detailed analysis in Bucher, Zwischen Phdnomenologie und Sprachwissenschaft. 224. Merleau-Ponty, Prose of the World, p. 14 (French ed., p. 22). 225. Merleau-Ponty, Signs, pp. 88-89. 226. Merleau-Ponty, Visible and Invisible, p. 52. 227. Ibid., p. 178 (French ed., p. 232). For a comparative study on the relationship of embodiment, language, and prehnguistic meaning in the writings of Merleau-Ponty and Wittgenstein, see Poppe, "Monde vku and Lebensform." 419

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228. Merleau-Ponty, Visible and Invisible, p. ;is. 229. Ibid., p. 52 (French ed., p. 78). I have modified the translation "capacity for receiving the plentitude etc." by striking the word "receiving." It is worthwhile comparing Merleau-Ponty's notion of a prereflective consciousness that is "without inhabitant," the "nothing" or the "void," with eastern meditation techniques aimed at overcoming the dualism of subject and object by divesting the mind of all forms including the form of emptiness. For an interesting study along these lines, see Morley, "Inspiration and Expiration," pp. 73-82. Also worthy of consideration is Nagatomo, Attunement through the Body, index, s.v. Merleau-Ponty, and reference to study of Olson cited in Prologue, n. 69. It is of interest to note in this connection the observation of Kojima, Monad and Thou, pp. 141-143, that Merleau-Ponty's view of body has close affinity to his own conception of the somatic ego that inhabits the lifeworld, a perspective shaped in part by the legacy ofJapanese philosophy. See also Guenther, Teachings of Padmasambhava, p. 166 n. 100. 230. Merleau-Ponty, Visible and Invisible, p. 185. It would be of interest to compare Merleau-Ponty's view to the depiction of epistemological phenomenahsm given by Weyl, Open World, pp. 26-27: "The beginning of all philosophical thought is the realization that the perceptual world is but an image, a vision, a phenomenon of our consciousness; our consciousness does not directly grasp a transcendental real world as it appears. . . . The postulation of the real ego, of the thou and of the world, is a metaphysical matter, not judgment, but an act of acknowledgment and behef But this behef after all is the soul of all knowledge. It was an error of idealism to assume that the phenomena of consciousness guarantee the reahty of the ego in an essentially different and somehow more certain manner than the reahty of the external world; in the transition from consciousness to reality the ego, the thou and the world rise into existence indissolubly connected and, as it were, at one stroke." 231. Merleau-Ponty, Visible and Invisible, p. 174. 232. For discussion of this critical term, see Kwant, From Phenomenology to Metaphysics, pp. 63-70. 233. On language as gesture, see GiU, Merleau-Ponty and Metaphor, pp. 82-104. 234. Merleau-Ponty, Visible and Invisible, pp. 130-155; on the distinction between "speech" and "language," see p. 175. On Merleau-Ponty's notion of intertwining whereby every object becomes a mirror for all other objects, see Levin, Opening of Vision, pp. 163. 235. Dastur, "World, Flesh, Vision," pp. 23-49; idem. Chair et langage, pp. 69-107. 236. Merleau-Ponty, Visible and Invisible, p. 2^$. 237. Many have written about the interface of body and language in Merleau-Ponty's writings. I offer a modest samphng of what is available: Kwant, Phenomenological Philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, pp. 46-62; idem. From Phenomenology to Metaphysics, pp. 54-63; Edie, Merleau-Ponty's Philosophy of Language; Dillon, Merleau-

Ponty's Ontology, pp. 178-223; idem, "The Unconscious," pp. 67-83; Sato, "Incarnation of Consciousness," pp. 3-15; Maldiney, "Flesh and Verb," pp. 51-76. For a detailed study of the chiasm and speech, see Herkert, Das Chiasma. 238. Merleau-Ponty, Visible and Invisible, p. 171. 239. Ibid., p. 176 (French ed., p. 230). On the play of language and silence in Merleau-Ponty, see Kwant, From Phenomenology to Metaphysics, pp. 184—190. 240. Merleau-Ponty, Visible and Invisible, p. 179. See Waldenfels, "Paradox of Expression," pp. 89-102. With respect to the issue of the inherent ineffability of language, which is correlated with the invisibility at the heart of aU that is visible, Merleau-Ponty anticipates a central concern of Derrida's deconstruction. See Margohs, "Philosophical Extravagance," pp. 112-132, esp. pp. 125-127. 241. I am not unaware of the many comphcated issues raised by a scholar ofJewish mysticism utilizing a Heideggerian poetics to illumine the kabbalistic tradition, which, for the most part, crystallized in the Middle Ages. To do justice to these issues, however, would require a separate study. Perhaps one day my path shall lead me there, but suffice it here to say that I do not naively assume that Heidegger's thought can be entirely divorced fi:om its historical context nor do I condone him for his moral failings. At the same time, I would not subscribe to the view that his thought can be reduced simply to his pohtical engagement with Nazism. Here the turn of my thinking accords with the words uttered by Cornelius Castoriadis, a distinguished 420

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French philosopher, pohtical activist, and psychoanalyst, in Critical Sense, p. 8: "I don't think you can draw directly from philosophy, as such, political conclusions." This is not to deny the intricate links between the two but only to avoid setting up a simphstic causal relationship. See also the sage comments of Barash, Heidegger and the Problem of Historical Meaning, p. 225: "As reprehensible as Heidegger's pohtical attitude and activity in 1933—34 rnight be, it in no way justifies explaining away the significance of his thought. Indeed, the attitude that would dismiss Heidegger's thought at a distance through labels such as the 'irrationalism of the times' and a 'destruction of reason' (Lukacs) is vulnerable to the very accusations it makes—not only because Heidegger clearly came to appreciate the bankruptcy of Nazism, but, more fundamentally, because of the unwillingness of such an attitude to comprehend the seriousness of Heidegger's questioning of Western rationahty and of Western intellectual traditions in general." From my perspective what is striking is that, repeatedly, Heidegger's thinking has provided useful language for philosophical discourse about kabbalistic esotericism. It is plausible that he was indeed influenced by this stream of thought, probably through an intermediary channel such as Bohme or Schelling (see Prologue, n. 2), but even that is not the central point as far as I am concerned. For representative studies that deal with the question of Heidegger's involvement with National Socialism, see Farias, Heidegger and Nazism; Bourdieu, Political Ontology of Martin Heidegger; Rockmore, On Heidegger's Nazism and Philosophy; Rockmore and Margolis, Heidegger Case; Lowith, Martin Heidegger and European Nihilism; Lang, Heidegger's Silence; Beistegui, Heidegger and the Political; Rickey, Revolu-

tionary Saints. Also pertinent is the essay by Gibbs, "Reading Heidegger," pp. 157-172. For what appears to me to be a balanced approach that neither ignores the historical context of Heidegger's thought nor adopts a reductionist posture that subsumes the entirety of the philosophical project under the guise of the ideological, see Kovacs, "Being Truth, and the Pohtical," pp. 31-48. The question of Heidegger's anti-Semitism has to be engaged in a broader conversation about attitudes toward Jews and Judaism expressed in German philosophy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For an illuminating study, see Mack, Cerman Idealism and the Jew. See also Brumhk, Deutscher Ceist undfudenhafl. 242. See Ouaknin, Mysteries of the Kabbalah, pp. 97—98: "For the kabbalah, the essence of the world is poetic. When speaking of the Kabbalah, one needs to find a language that offers an opening onto infmity. The great texts of the Kabbalah, especially the texts of the literature of the Palaces and later the Zohar, used poetic language. . . . Language and our understanding of the world begin in this prehminary region in which a set of complex correspondences echo each other and succeed in enabhng us to experience the most infinite subtleties of our presence in the world. . . . Of course, the Kabbalah cannot be reduced merely to a piece of poetry, but its first language is that of poetry." 243. Interestingly, in his brief but incisive account of the "kabbalistic drift" of language, largely based on Scholem, Eco, Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language, p. 154, writes: "Language can be the place where things come authentically to begin: in Heidegger's hermeneutics the word is not 'sign' {Zeichen) but 'to show' {Zeigen), and what is shown is the true voice of Being." For this reference I am indebted to Idel, "Reification of Language in Jewish Mysticism," p. 50, who cites the comment of Eco in support of his presentation of the prominence of the visual dimension of letters as the image of God in theosophic kabbalah. 244. Thus, for instance, Knysh, Islamic Mysticism, pp. 150-151, discusses affinities between poetic expression and mystical experience as an introduction to an analysis of Sufi poetry. Inter alia, Knysh notes that poetry is often deemed the preferred vehicle to express mystical experience inasmuch as the "open-endedness" and "elasticity" of poetic language can suitably communicate the ineffable. For discussion of revelation and poetry, see Chittick, Imaginal Worlds, pp. 67—82. Scholem's distinguishing kabbalists on this score does not appear to me to be materially justifiable. Consider as well the intricate analysis of the shared "linguistic skepticism" of philosopher, mystic, and poet, which fosters an assault on language through language, in Zhang, Tao and the Logos, pp. 37-70. 245. Scholem, "Name of God," p. 194. For discussion of this passage, see Weigel, "Scholems Gedichte," pp. 21-23. See also the discussion of poiesis or ars poetica in Liebes, "Zohar and Eros," pp. 78-79. Other scholars who have focused on the poetical dimensions of kabbalah include Meged, "Kabbalah as Poetry," pp. 558—564; Grozinger, "Tradition and Innovation," pp. 347—355; Levy-Valensi, Poetique du Zohar, Anidjar, "Our Place in al-Andalus," pp. 166-245. See reference to Ouaknin above, n. 242. Also relevant here is the 421

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argument proffered by Yates, Oault Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age, to the effect that English poetry was influenced by kabbalistic thought mediated through Renaissance Hermeticism and, in particular, the intriguing suggestion that the belief in the coincidence of darkness and Hght in the Godhead may lay behind the theme of the conjunction of Jerusalem and Albion. Beyond the significance of this conjecture for the diachronic charting of the history of ideas, the linkage of the poetic sensibihty to the paradoxical identification of opposites provides a critical element in discerning the poiesis of kabbalah. On this score, it is worthwhile mentioning the view affirmed by Isaac ben Hayyim ha-Kohen of Sativa, Es Hayyim, pp. 14-17, that music, which is identified in this treatise with poetry, has the abihty to arouse in its listeners opposite emotional and psychological responses, to wit, joy and trepidation, strength and weakness. To the extent that this is case, one can speak of music as a coincidence of opposites. Consider also the following comment by Karel Sabina, "true poetry—the more original and alive its world, the more contradictory the contrasts in which the secret kinship occurs," cited in Jakobson, Language in Literature, p. 368. 246. Such an argument is advanced by Liebes, "Zohar and Eros," pp. 71—72. 247. Buber, Ecstatic Confessions, p. 10, noted that poet and mystic share the "impossible task" of "saying the unsayable." For an attempt to construct a theory of comparative mystical experience centered around this theme, which is presented as a way to explain the historical manifestation of mysticism amongst Muslims, Jews, and Christians in Spain from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, see McGaha, "Naming the Nameless," pp. 37-52. The effort of McGaha to highlight the possibihty of a greater influence of Sufism on Spanish kabbalists, who in turn influenced Christian mystics, many of whom descended from Jewish converts, is laudable but, in my opinion, flawed, which is not to deny the importance of examining in more detail the influence and affinity between Islamic and Jewish esotericism in the Middle Ages (see my own discussion on the image of the veil below in chap. 5). This is a matter that lies beyond the scope of this study, and hence I shall refrain from commenting at length. Another attempt, also problematic in my judgment, to consider the two traditions is presented by Mir, "Kabbalah and Sufism," pp. 165-179. What is of interest to the discussion here is the fact that in McGaha's working taxonomy of mysticism he focused on the paradoxical naming of the nameless and numbering the infinite, traits (especially the former) that Scholem incorrectly marked as distinctive to kabbahsts. For a comparative analysis of the use of silence in poetic and mystical discourse, see Longxi, Tao and Logos, pp. 73-129. Also consider the discussion of language, ontology, the doctrine of emptiness, ineffabihty, and silence in Cabezon, Buddhism and Language, pp. 153-187. For an incisive analysis of the import of words in medieval Buddhist thought, see Mookerjee, Buddhist Philosophy of Universal Flux, pp. 107-139. Though the author focuses on one school, he contends that the theory of Apoha he expounds, which denies that words possess a factual meaning either subjectively or objectively, apphes universally to all Buddhist thinkers (pp. 112-113, 134). Language is a "convenient instrument for communication of concepts, which however are fictitious representatives of reahty" (p. 139). 248. The orientation I am ascribing to medieval kabbalists bears a notable affinity to the following attempt of Dionysius the Areopagite to explain the Christological doctrine of incamation in Neoplatonic emanationist terms, in the third letter addressed to Gaius, included in Divine Names, p. 226, 1069B: "I beheve the theology has declared this in reference to the love of man in Christ: the beyond being [lureepoiioiov] had proceeded from hiddenness into a manifest taking on ofbeing in a human way. It is hidden after the manifestation; or, to speak more divinely, it is hidden in the manifestation. For this remains hidden about Jesus: the mystery in him is not brought forward by any logos or intellect, rather it remains ineffable in being spoken, and unknown in being thought [alia Kal X.EY6nevov dppr|TOV (XEVEl KOl VOOIJUEVOV dYVOJOTOv]." A similar paradox related to the Incamation is affirmed by Maximus the Confessor; see Balthasar, Cosmic Liturgy, pp. 96-97. 249. The postmodern logic, as it is formulated in the body of this chapter, resonates with the Madhyamika philosophy cultivated by Nagarjuna (see above, n. 61) whereby one discems that identity and nonidentity are equally empty of meaningful significance, let alone ontic status. 250. For a fuller exposition of these themes, see E. Wolfson, "Divine Suffering." 251. For discussion of this principle of kabbahstic ontology and hermeneutics, see Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, pp. 37-44; idem, "Name of God," pp. 78-80, 178-180, 193-194; Idel, "Concept of Torah," pp. 23-84, esp. pp. 49-58; Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, pp. 1079-1082. 422

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252. Particularly pertinent is the brilliant analysis in Sandywell, Rejiexivity and the Crisis of Western Reason. 253. The expression, which is perfectly appropriate to describe the medieval kabbalistic conception of Ein Sof, is derived firom the exphcation of the apophatic theology of Dionysius the Areopagite offered by Nicholas of Cusa, De Venatione Sapientiae, 30, in Complete Philosophical and Theological Treatises, p. 1334. 254. Consider the remark of Plotinus, Enneads VI. 1.9: "And some are what they are called by the same form, but others by opposed forms: for the double comes to one thing and the half to another simultaneously, and largeness comes to one thing at the same time as smallness to the other. Or both are in each thing, both hkeness and unlikeness and, in a general sense, sameness and otherness." 255. An interesting example of this principle is offered by the Zen master Keizan (1268-1325), Transmission of Light, p. 81: "So you do not stay in the realm of nondiscrimination, you are not confined to the sphere of inconceivabihty. It is not permanent, not impermanent; it is not that the original mind has ignorance, nor is it that it is pure. When you arrive at the realm of pure clear complete illumination . . . everything conditioned and unconditioned is all ended and is hke a dream, an illusion. Though you try to grasp, your hand is empty; though you try to see, nothing catches the eye." 256. Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, p. 275. 257. Abraham Abulafia, Sitrei Torah, MS Paris, BibUotheque Nationale 774, fol. 149a (printed ed., p. 118). For further discussion of Abulafia's paradoxical approach to the problem of eternity versus creation, see chap. 2, n. 288. On the esoteric method of the concurrent concealment and disclosure of the secret in Abulafia, see E. Wolfson, Abraham Abulafia, pp. 81—88. 258. Sack, Kabbalah of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, p. 57 n. 2. At the final stages of preparing this monograph, I received a copy of Fine, Physician of the Soul. Fine eloquently notes that the "vitaUty of Lurianic mysticism," at the level of "mythic imagination and ritual performance," is grounded in the dialectical tension between the messianic urge to disclose the secrets of Torah as a source of "hfe-giving nourishment" in the process of tiqqun (rectification), on one hand, and the recognition of the imphcit lethal danger of revealing the esoteric meaning to the unworthy, on the other (p. 356). This is surely an important anthropological element that should be considered in addition to the mythopoeic hermeneutic that I have espoused; I see the approaches as comphmentary and not contradictory. 259. For citation and discussion of some relevant sources, see E. Wolfson, "Divine Suffering," pp. i i o 115. Scholem, Messianic Idea in Judaism, p. 293, duly noted, "those secret signatures {rishumim) that God had placed upon things are as much concealments of His revelation as revelation of His concealment." On the possible source for Scholem's term rishumim in Bohme's conception of signatura rerum, see Idel, "Hieroglyphs," p. 231. 260. For a richly nuanced study of this theme, see Chittick, "Paradox of the Veil in Sufism," pp. 59—85. See also idem, Sufi Path of Knowledge, pp. 230—231; idem, Self-Disclosure of Cod, pp. 104—108, 120—163; snd the discussion in chap. 5 in the section entitled "Unveiling the Veil/Veihng the Unveiled." 261. Ibn Rushd, Averroes' Tahafut al-Tahafut, vol. i, p. 281. 262. Wensinck, Pensee de Chazali, p. 9, cited in Fakhry, History of Islamic Philosophy, p. 251. 263. Corbin, Paradoxe du monotheisme, pp. 7-18. It is relevant here to recall the comments of Mopsik, "Body of Engendennent," pp. 50—51; "There has been too marked a tendency to make a radical distinction between monotheism and polytheism, whether archaic or still practiced today. . . . At least where Judaism in concerned, we are able, thanks to the so-called esoteric literature it has produced, to undertake a radical critique of the so-called monotheistic spht, a critique that serves the interests of religious reasoning through the theological power of the deepest aspirations of homo rehgiosus, perhaps the highest form of homo sapiens." See p. 60, where Mopsik refers exphcitly to the expression "metaphysical idol of orthodox monotheism" used by Corbin in Paradoxe du monotheisme. 264. Corbin, History of Islamic Philosophy, p. 295. 265. For an extensive discussion of this concept, especially as it evolved in Iranian philosophy, see Izutsu, Concept and Reality of Existence, pp. 35—55. See also Chittick, Imaginal Worlds, pp. 15—29; idem, "RumI and wahdat al-wujud," pp. 70-111. 266. Ibn al 'Arabi, Meccan Revelations, p. 182. 423

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267. Ibid., p. 183. O n the expression " H e / n o t H e " {huwa Id huwa), see Chittick, Self-Disclosure, pp. xxvixxvii, 29, 58. 268. Corbin, History of Islamic Philosophy, p. 307. 269. Scholem, Origins, p. 438 n. 170. 270. Chittick, Sufi Path of Knowledge, p. 364. For a more detailed discussion of this theme, see the elaborate treatment by Meier, "Problem of Nature," pp. 149-203. 271. Nasafl, "Kashf ul-haqa'iq," cited by Meier, "Problem of Nature," p. 176. 272. Nasafl, "Tanzll ul-arwah," cited by Meier, "Problem of Nature," p. 175. See the articulation of this point by Suhrawardi, Book of Radiance, pp. 41-42: "And, since the Necessary Being is unique. It has no equal or opposite. The multitude mean by 'opposite' that which is either contrary to something or equal to it in terms of power. Since all things are caused by the Necessary of Being, nothing is Its opposite." 273. Corbin, Creative Imagination, p. 21$. 274. Ibid. 275. A number of writers have pointed to the central role of paradox in mystical expression, but a particularly relevant discussion is found in Stace, Mysticism and Philosophy, pp. 161-178. Stace's comment that this paradox is not found in Islamic mysticism (p. 177) cannot be upheld as even the brief discussion of the matter in this chapter proves beyond any shadow of doubt. 276. Izutsu, Concept and Reality, p. 17. 277. Ibid., p. 14. 278. Cupitt, Mysticism after Modernity, p. 58. 279. Jasper Hopkins, On Learned Ignorance, III:i-2, pp. 125-130; McGinn, "Maximum Contractum et Absolutum," pp. 151—175; idem, "Unitrinum Seu Triunum," pp. 90—117, esp. pp. 96—98. Needless to say, for Cusanus, a committed Christian, Jesus as the Verbum incamatum, both divine and human, is the embodiment of the coincidentia oppositorum of the "absolute maximum" and the "contracted maximum," the "contracted maximum individual." See On Learned Ignorance, 111:4, PP- 133-135. 280. De Visione Dei, in Jasper Hopkins, Nicholas of Cusa's Dialectical Mysticism, chap. 3, p. 123. See also Nicholas of Cusa, On Learned Ignorance, 11:3, PP- 93-96; L)e Quaerendo Deum 1:31, in Jasper Hopkins, A Miscellany on Nicholas of Cusa, p. 147: "the Beginning from which things flow forth, the Middle in which we are moved, and the End unto which things flow back." 281. De Venatione Sapientae 29, in Nicholas of Cusa, Complete Philosophical and Theological Treatises, p. 1332. 282. De Visione Dei, in Jasper Hopkins, Nicholas of Cusa's Dialectical Mysticism, chap. 5, p. 133 and chap. 12, p. 175. O n the gaze of Jesus in which "human vision," a vision limited by a bodily organ, and the "absolute and infinite" vision are combined, see ibid., chap. 22, pp. 237-247; and the analysis by Bond, " 'Icon' and the 'Iconic Text,'" pp. 177-197. 283. Jasper Hopkins, Nicholas of Cusa's Dialectical Mysticism, chap. 2, p. 121. 284. De Dato Patris Luminum, 4, translated in Jasper Hopkins, Nicholas of Cusa's Metaphysic of Contraction, p. 126. 285. Harries, Infinity and Perspective, pp. 260-261. 286. See, for instance, De Deo Abscondito, 9, in Jasper Hopkins, Miscellany, p. 134. 287. Nicholas of Cusa, On Learned Ignorance, 1:16, p. 68. 288. Ibid., 11:2, pp. 92-93. 289. Stace, Mysticism and Philosophy, p. 212, refers to the "proposition that the world is both identical with, and diflerent from, God" as the "pantheistic paradox." I do not see any substantial diflerence between this view and the one I have articulated, but for semantic reasons I have preferred "panenhenic" to "pantheistic." See below, n. 325. 290. Babylonian Talmud, Pesahim 50a. The influence of this dictum is evident in Zohar 3:143a {Idra Rabba), as noted in Scholem, Cershom Scholem's Annotated Zohar, vol. 3, p. 1475. 291. Z o W 2:100b. 292. To ofler another formulation, in some of the manuscript versions of Sha'arei Sedeq, a treatise composed in the latter part of the thirteenth or early part of fourteenth century by a disciple of Abraham Abulafia 424

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(Idel, Le Porte delta Ciustizia, pp. 47-51, identifies the author as Natan ben Sa'adyah Har'ar), we find the following comment on the letters alef mem, shin, the three "mothers" according to the threefold division of the twenty-two Hebrew letters in the second part of Sefer Yesirah, three mothers {immot), seven doubles {kefulot), and twelve singles {peshutot): "Alef, mem, shin, for the supernal fire [ha-esh ha-elyon] acts upon the lower [ha-po'el ba-tahton], and his wiU is above and below, for when the two are conjoined [be-hidabbequt] the supernal rests on the lower," translated from Sha'arei Sedeq: Be'ur Sefer Yesirah, p. 40. 293. On the image of mirroring as a creative redoubling and reflecting in the artistic process of imitation, see Burwick, "Reflections in the Mirror," pp. 122-140. Burwick's thesis is a response to M. Abrams, Mirror and the Lamp. 294. My formulation is indebted to the insightful comments by M. Roberts, Poetry and the Cult of the Martyrs, p. 194 n. 11, which are based in tum on the definition of metaphor oflered by Eco, Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language, pp. 87-129, esp. pp. 104-106. An interesting exception is found in Azriel of Gerona's exegetical gloss on the warning in Sefer Yesirah to impede the heart from contemplating the sefirot (1:5), "not to compare the hidden to the revealed" {she-lo ledammot ha-nistar la-gilluy), in Kitvei Ramban, 2:458. It is fair to say that no kabbalist, including Azriel, heeded this warning faithfully, for if that were the case, there would be no depiction of the concealed reality, and, consequently, there would be no written or verbal account of the divine realm, whether allusive or discursive. Indeed, in several passages in the very same treatise, Azriel recommends that one must contemplate the concealed from the revealed. See citation in chap. 5, n. 58. 295. Based on the suggestive language used to describe the journey of Moses in Qur'an 18: 60. For a rich analysis of this motif, see Sviri, Taste of Hidden Things, pp. 77-101. 296. Bahya ben Asher, Rabbenu Bahya, 3:472 (ad Lev. 12:2). 297. See, for instance, Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Yesodei ha-Torah 1:10, 4:8—9. For discussion of the legacy of Platonic logocentrism in Jewish philosophical speculation, see Jospe, "Superiority of Oral over Written Communication," pp. 127-156. 298. E. Wolfson, "Ontology, Alterity, and Ethics," pp. 129-155. See chap. 5, n. 127. 299. This is not to deny the anthropocentric tendency of kabbalistic symbohsm, which accords a special status to the human being (understood as referring ideally to the Jewish male) in the sublunar world. See, for instance, Moses de Leon, Sefer ha-Mishkal, p. 39. Nevertheless, the same kabbalists aflirm a more monistic or panentheistic approach, viewing all beings as an expression of the one divine substance. In the mystical expression of Islam, one finds a similar identification of God, human, and world. See Fakhry, History of Islamic Philosophy, p. 249. 300. A typical account is oflered by Azriel of Gerona, Commentary on Talmudic Aggadoth, pp. 32-33: "Each and every person has a root {shoresh) in the divine, and in accord with the level of his attributes he is rooted in him, and he is conjoined to his hohness, for the soul {neshamah) emanates from the holy spirit, and it is the form of the body, bestowing upon it the power to carry out its deeds, and if it were not so, man would not have the power to do good or evil or to fulfill his desire." 301. Jacob ben Sheshet, Sefer Meshiv Devarim Nekhohim, p. 74. 302. See Scholem, Major Trends, pp. 216-217 (in that context, Scholem advances the interesting argument that the identification of the development of "God's personahty" with human experience prevented kabbalists from focusing on divine immanence and depersonahzing God, which he considers "one of the main pitfalls of pantheism"); idem. On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, pp. 127-128; and the wide-ranging essay by Altmann, Studies in Religious Philosophy, pp. 1-40, esp. pp. 14-28. I detect the influence of Altmann's approach in the comments by Daniel Matt in the introduction to his edition of David ben Yehudah heHasid, Book of Mirrors, pp. 21—22, a revised version of the doctorate written under Altmann's supervision: "In tracing the reality of each sefirah, the mystic uncovers layers ofbeing within himself and throughout the cosmos." See also the evocative but underdeveloped insight of Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, p. 271, that the sefirot "are seen as spiritual forces, as attributes of the soul, or as means of activity within the Godhead, that is to say, as revelations of the hidden God, both to Himself and to that which is other than He. The flmdamental element in this revelation is His emergence from the depths of limitless infinity." 303. The term is borrowed from Panikkar, Cosmotheandric Experience. 425

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304. Kitvei Ramban, 2.29$. 305. On the use of the word dugma to denote the sefirotic "archetype," see the passage from Menahem Recanati cited by Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, p. 124. In zoharic texts and in the Hebrew writings of Moses de Leon, dugma denotes the mundane instantiation of the sefirotic archetype. See, e.g., Zohar 1:59b; Moses de Leon, Shushan Edut, pp. 350 and 363; idem. Book of the Pomegranate, pp. 161, 206, 243, 316; idem, R. Moses de Leon's Sefer Sheqel ha-Qodesh, p. 51; idem, Sheelot u-Teshuvot le-R. Moshe di Won be-Inyyenei Qabbalah, pp. 40 and 44; idem, Sefer ha-Mishkal, pp. 42, 45. The use of the word dugma in kabbalistic hterature reflects the long and varied history of the term in the lexicon of Jewish textual interpretation from late antiquity through the Middle Ages. See Kimin, Jews and Christians, pp. 13-30. Kamin focuses on dugma in Rashi's commentary on the Song, but her insights are helpflil for understanding something of the exegetical legacy inherited by kabbalists. See reference cited in chap. 8, n. 25. 306. For discussion of this motif, see my study on the interpretative evolution of the mythopoeic theme of the image ofjacob engraved on the throne in Along the Path, pp. 1-62, esp. pp. 4-9. 307. Kirk and Raven, Presocratic Philosophers, p. 344; Empedocles, Extant Fragments, pp. 44, 72—73, 76, 233-235308. Zohar 1:137b; cf. Hebrew parallel in Moses de Leon, Book of the Pomegranate, p. 144. Similar formulations appear in other zoharic passages; see Zohar 1:20b, 126b, 167b; 2:iiia, 141a; 3:169a, 234b {Ra'aya Meheimna), 263b {Piqqudin); Zohar Hadash, i8b. 309. Moses de Leon, Book of the Pomegranate, p. 244; see idem, Sefer ha-Mishkal, p. 46. 310. The idea I am attributing to kabbahsts is made on numerous occasions by Meister Eckhart; see, e.g.. Sermons and Treatises, 1:163: "Our masters say union presupposes hkeness. Union cannot be without hkeness." Insofar as there can be no real resemblance between God and all other beings in the ontological chain, the likeness to God is achieved through the soul withdrawing from all images, a kenotic act that transforms the soul into the virgin ground wherein the Son is eternally born. See pp. 4-5: "And you must know too that inwardly the soul is free and void of all means and all images—which is why God can freely unite with her without form or likeness. . . . But God needs no image and has no image: without any means, hkeness or image God operates in the soul—right in the ground where no image ever got in, but only He Himself with His own being. . . . See, it is like this and in no other way that God the Father gives birth to the Son in the ground and essence of the soul, and thus unites with her. For if any image were present there would be no real union, and in that real union hes the soul's whole beatitude" (emphasis in original). See chap. 5, n. 162. Compare as well the formulation of this idea in the fifteenth century by Nicholas of Cusa, De Dato Patris Luminum, in Jasper Hopkins, Nicholas of Cusa's Metaphysic of Contraction, pp. 118-120: "The Giver of forms does not give something other than Himself; rather. His gift is best and is His own maximal goodness, which is absolute and in every respect maximum. But it cannot be received as it is given, because the receiving of the gift occurs in a descending manner. . . . For [one thing] cannot be received in another thing except in a manner other than [it is in itself]. For example, your face, in the course of multiplying from itself a close resemblance [aequalitas] of the facial features, is received in a mirror otherwise [than your face is in itself]—according as the mirror (i.e., [according as] the receiving) varies. In the one [mirror the face is received] more clearly, for the mirror-reception is clearer; in another, [it is received] more dimly; but in no [mirror] is it ever [received] as it is. For it will have to be received in something other [than itself] in a manner other [than it is in itself]. There is only one Mirror without flaw, viz., God Himself, in whom [what is received] is received as it is. For it is not the case that this Mirror is other than any existing thing; rather, in every existing thing, it is that which is, for it is the Universal Form ofbeing. . . . By means of such a hkeness [we see that] as the form of hght is related to the form of colors, so God (who is Infinite Light) is related as the Universal Form ofbeing to the forms of created things." The depiction of God as the "Fonn of forms" or as the "Absolute form, " the "maximum actual being," is repeated on several occasions in the writings of Cusanus. See Jasper Hopkins, On Learned Ignorance, 1:70, p. 78; idem, Nicholas of Cusa's Dialectical Mysticism, p. 123. Insofar as God is the Universal Form ofbeing, the forms of all beings are enfolded within him in the manner that the form of all colors is contained in the form of light. Accordingly, the mind of God may be characterized metaphorically as the mirror in which everything is reflected. The forms, moreover, are mani426

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fest in nature, and hence the latter can be viewed as well as the mirror through which the image of God as the one that is "all in all" is seen. For discussion of the "world as theophany" in Nicholas of Cusa, see Hopkins, Nicholas of Cusa's Metaphysic of Contraction, pp. 33-57. For a diflerent perspective on the question of omnipresence and divine immanence, see the comparative analysis of Brient, "Meister Eckhart and Nicholas of Cusa," pp. 127—150. 311. Kitvei Ramban, 2: 511. 312. For discussion of creation and emanation in medieval kabbalah, see Hayoun, Zohar aux origins, pp. 219-259.

313. The terminology sheteim esreh zero'ot olam is derived from Sefer Yesirah 5:1, where it is used to describe the twelve diagonals, gevulei ukhlusin, the spatial boundaries of the world, which are related, in tum, to the twelve simples, one of the three divisions of the twenty-two letters, the other two being the three mothers and seven doubles. 314. Ezra does not elaborate on the meaning of zayin, but Vajda, Commentaire, p. 122, translates it as "sept continents." 315. Zohar 1:129a. See 145b: "R. Jose said. Certainly, all that the holy One, blessed be he, made in the earth was through the mystery of wisdom, and it was entirely to illustrate the supernal wisdom to humankind." 316. Zohar 1:38a. See as well Zohar 1:158b, 240b; 2:20a {Midrash ha-Ne'elam). 317. Zo/iar 2:15b. 318. Coulter, Literary Microcosm, pp. 32-72. 319. Zohar 1:70b. 320. Moses de Leon is exphcating the expression eser sefirot belimah in the first part of Sefer Yesirah, rendering the last word as beli mah, "without being," and, apparently, applying it to the infinite source whence the sefirot emanate, the faceless light illumined by the luminous faces of the sefirot. The apophatic interpretation of the expression sefirot belimah is found as well in de Leon's Book of the Pomegranate, p. 376. In an earlier treatise, de Leon oflered a diametrically opposite explanation for the expression belimah. See Moses de Leon, "Moses de Leon's Sefer Or Zaru'a," p. 254: "And here you can understand the secret of the matter of the ten sefirot belimah, without his being [beli mahuto], blessed be he." For a shghtly different explanation, see p. 266. The gloss beU mahuto is meant to challenge those who would claim that the sefirot are of the same substance as God, a position that de Leon himself affirmed in his later theosophic compositions. As Altmann observed, "Sefer Or Zaru'a," p. 254 n. 81, a similar exegesis of belimah is found in Gikatilla, Cinnat Egoz. 321. Moses de Leon, Shushan Edut, p. 333. 322. The imaging of weighing on the holy scale alludes here to the process of symbolization by means of which two disparate things are rendered equal without compromising their diflerence just as two entities are balanced on a scale. See chap. 5, n. 219. 323. Moses de Leon, Shushan Edut, pp. 354-355; see parallel in idem. Book of the Pomegranate, p. 243. 324. Scholem, Major Trends, p. 223; see idem. Kabbalah, pp. 147-152. Scholem's position is reaffirmed by Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, p. 549: "Kabbalistic cosmogony, therefore, is really a framework for theogonic processes, that is, for stages in the revelation and embodiment of divine forces in the world of emanation." See ibid., p. 272. In spite of recognizing the convergence of the cosmogonic and theogonic, Tishby, p. 549, maintained that kabbalists distinguished the "divine cosmos in the system of the sefirot" and the "nondivine cosmos, that is, a system of worlds and of spiritual and corporeal entities outside the realm of the Godhead." Tishby's approach has been reiterated recently by Oron, "Three Commentaries to the Story of Genesis," pp. 183-184. While I would not deny that kabbalists struggled with this question and that they did develop a terminology that lends itself to such a distinction, I would nonetheless contend that in the final analysis there cannot be a being, let alone a universe of beings, that is nondivine. I am well aware of the fact that the genre of commentaries on ma'aseh bereshit suggests different approaches, some kabbahsts emphasizing a continuous emanation and others distinguishing emanation from volitional creation. See Gottheb, Studies in the Kabbala Literature, pp. 18-28, 59-87. Many of the relevant texts are conveniently described and partially 437

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transcribed in Asher ben David, R. Asher ben David: His Complete Works, pp. 301—353. See also S. Brody, "Human Hands Dwell in Heavenly Heights," p. 126: "On an ontological level, the divine and phenomenal realms constitute a single interhnked continuum." 325. Scholem, Major Trends, pp. 221-224, used the term "pantheism" when discussing passages from zoharic and related kabbalistic hterature that affirm the unbroken chain ofbeing. In the main, I am in agreement with Scholem's analysis, but I have used the word "panenhenism" instead of "pantheism" to avoid the theological quagmire traditionally associated with the latter term. I readily admit, however, that "panenhenism" may not fare any better. On this term, see above, n. 289. 326. Moses de Leon, She'elot u-Teshuvot, pp. 40 and 44. 327. Moses de Leon, Book ofthe Pomegranate, pp. 102-103. 328. Moses de Leon, Sefer ha-Mishkal, pp. 42 and 45. 329. Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, pp. 122—123. 330. Liebes, Studies in the Zohar, p. 38. Consider also Tishby's depiction ofthe "model" {dugma) or "image" {demut) as "static," in Wisdom ofthe Zohar, p. 1159. The context in which this occurs is his discussion of the relationship between the commandments and sefirot. While I surely have no qualms with the notion of a "dynamic conception" of this relationship (see brief discussion in E. Wolfson, "Mystical Rationahzation," p. 225), I do not think it necessary to set this in contrast to the symbohc, here demarcated philologicaUy in the terms dugmah and demut. In this matter, I concur with Liebes as well as with Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp. 222-234, who has emphasized the dynamism of kabbalistic symbolism, epitomized in the remark that for the kabbalist a symbol invites "one to act rather than to think" (p. 223). I do not think, however, that the dynamism can be affirmed only at the expense of rejecting Scholem's insight that the symbol in kabbalistic tradition is related to the expression of an inexpressible reahty. Indeed, I would argue that the dynamism stems precisely from the paradox of naming the nameless, ascribing form to the fonnless. 331. Eco, Search for the Perfect Language, p . 25. 332. Zo/jar 2:190b. 333. Book Bahir, sec. 92, p. 177. AU references in this book to the Bahiraie taken from this edition; translations are my own. 334. I am not generaUy in the habit of using such militaristic language when describing a phenomenon hermeneuticaUy, but I have here foUowed the path laid out by Liebes, Ars Poetica, pp. 9-30, where the matter of interpretation is described as destruction {harisah) of the other's point of view. This is not the place to unpack this rather alarming metaphorical way of depicting the hermeneutical task, but let me surmise that, in part, Liebes is influenced by an account of interpretation as waging battle found on occasion in zoharic texts, especiaUy the beginning of Idra Rabba, 3:127b, based on earher rabbinic descriptions ofthe beit midrash, the rabbinic study-house, as Liebes himself notes. Studies in the Zohar, pp. 21-22. In a preliminary way, I have dealt with the substance ofthe claim in E. Wolfson, "Text, Context, and Pretext." On this score, compare Heidegger, Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics, p. 138: "every interpretation must necessarily use violence. Such violence, however, cannot be roving arbitrariness. The power of an idea which shines forth must drive and guide the laying-out [ylui/egMHg]. Only in the power of this idea can an interpretation risk what is always audacious, namely, entrusting itself to the concealed inner passion of a work in order to be able, through this, to place itself within the unsaid and force it into speech." For discussion of Heidegger's notion of strife {Streit) related especiaUy to the poet's violence, understood as the task to wrest phenomena out ofthe reification of everycby experience and to retum them to the "interplay of concealment and unconcealment," the "ekstatic intertwining ofthe visible and the invisible," see Levin, Philosopher's Caze, pp. 129-132. 335. For scholarly discussions ofthe geometric aspect ofthe kabbalistic symbohsm, see Pachter, "Circles and Straightness," pp. 59-90; Ehor, "Metaphorical Relation," pp. 54-55. 336. I have utihzed the expression "hnear circularity" to characterize time in a number of previous studies, but the fuUest exposition thereof is to be found in the second chapter of the forthcoming volume, Alef, Mem, Tau. See E. Wolfson, "Assaulting the Border," p. 502; idem, "Before Alef/Where Beginnings End," p. 147. In "Cut That Binds," p. 104, I offer a brief account of recoUection as that which "transcends the hnearity of time by gathering together past, present, and future in the circular resumption of what has never 428

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been." Since penning those words, I have found support for my conception in the writings of Nicholas of Cusa, who similarly envisioned the compresence of circularity and linearity, or in the precise language that he utihzes, "in a circle oneness and infinity coincide—a oneness of essence and an infmity of angles. . . . Thus, the circle is both one and infinite; and it is the actuahty of aU the angles that are formable from a hne"; De Theologids Complementis 9, in Complete Philosophical and Theological Treatises, p. 761. See the extended

discussion ofthe infinity of man and the infinity of God in Harries, Infinity and Perspective, pp. 160—183, with particular sensitivity to the emphasis placed "on the human power of self-transcendence that hnks Petrarch to a mystic hke Meister Eckhart (1260-ca. 1328), and hnks both to St. Augustine" (p. 160). 337. Zohar 3:187a (for reference to Liebes, see below, n. 340). 338. In the Mantua edition of Zohar and aU subsequent printings based thereon, the yanuqa discourses are placed in the section on Balaq, 3:i86a-i92a, whereas in the Cremona edition they appear in the section on Devarim, 485-496. The discrepancy is reflective of two distinct manuscript traditions, as noted by Scholem, Major Trends, p. 161; Tishby, Wisdom ofthe Zohar, p. 3. 339. An enigmatic figure mentioned sporadicaUy in zoharic literature; see Zohar i:6a, 7a, 8a; 2:124a; 3:145b {Idra Rabba); Zohar Hadash 97b-c {Tiqqunim). 340. Liebes, Studies in the Zohar, p. 179 n. 116. 341. In my judgment, this statement is equaUy true for the so-caUed theosophic and ecstatic kabbahsts, though, of course, the way the nature of the sefirot is explained by devotees of each respective group may differ. For a different approach, see Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp. 200—210. 342. Moses de Leon, She'elot u-Teshuvot, p. 40. 343. Zohar 1:22a. The relevant sources were cited and explained in the doctoral dissertation by Yehuda Liebes pubhshed as Sections ofthe Zohar Lexicon, p. 182 n. 45. 344. DiUon, "Aletheia, Poiesis, and Eros," p. 17, defines poiesis as the "generation of a narrative that, once espoused by a community, becomes a social form." This seems to me an appropriate use ofthe term when apphed to the kabbahstic material. 345. It is possible to view the convergence ofthe theomorphic and anthropomorphic as emerging exegeticaUy from Hebrew scripture, and, in particular, fl"om the Priesdy account of man having been created in God's image (Gen. 1:26-27) and Ezekiel's depiction ofthe enthroned glory "in the image ofthe appearance of a man" (Ezek. 1:26). For an insightful comparison ofthe two accounts, see Kutsko, Between Heaven and Earth, pp. 59-70. 346. Chittick, Imaginal Worlds, p. 89, uses the expression "imaginal embodiment," a term that obviously resonates with Corbin, who has influenced my own conception of "imaginal body." AdditionaUy, the view I am expressing paraUels the comments of Waghorne, "Body for God," pp. 20-47. See also Rudhart, "Coherence and Incoherence," pp. 14—42, esp. pp. 38—39. By accepting this understanding ofthe symbol as the means by which one envisions the invisible, I do not mean to suggest that this constitutes in and of itself the essence ofthe religious phenomenon. To explain the dynamic of rehgion as a cultural phenomenon, one must take into account social factors that would explain the specific needs to which this envisioning might respond. Here one would do weU to consider the remarks of Gauchet, Disenchantment ofthe World, p. 102: "In order for religion to exist, it was necessary for individuals' spontaneous psychological and inteUectual functioning to adapt itself specificaUy to its investment in the invisible. And the otherworldly perspective, and the confrontation with otherness, most certainly constitute a major organizing factor ofthe human imagination. Similarly, the encounter with the undifferentiated, unrepresentable infinite presents an ineradicable horizon for structuring thought, just as the double-edged and contradictory experience of self-abrogation and inextinguishable self-presence echoes, at the deepest level, the problematic tension determines being-asubject. But that tension does not make this substratum a creative principle. It does not teU us what rehgions' essential function was, and consequently teUs us nothing about their intemal logic and the possible ramifications of successive changes to their content." 347. The eloquently simple phrase "real but not actual" is utilized by Wieseltier, Kaddish, p. 122, to describe the existence of "immaterial" and "inteUigible" objects or propositions that constitute the "realm of reason," which, in his opinion, "leads directly to the realm of rehgion, in the sense that religion, too, 429

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traffics in real but not actual entities." Wieseltier contends, moreover, that this notion of reason poses a chaUenge to the materiahst conception of mind and hence it is "not the enemy of mysticism" (p. 123). Wieseltier aUudes to the same idea when he remarks in another passage, "Rationalists are more hke mystics than hke materiahsts" (p. 359). In the session dedicated to Wieseltier's Kaddish at the 34th Annual Association for Jewish Studies Conference, held in Los Angeles, December 2002, I explored in some detail the embryonic understanding of mysticism implicit in these remarks, but suffice it here to say that what interested me most is the understanding that the mystical is not synonymous with the irrational or even the suprarational; it is, rather, congruent with the rational inasmuch as it presupposes an ideahzed realm of "real" but not "actual" objects that are subject to critical scrutiny even if belief ultimately cannot be reduced to a matter of demonstrative reason. 348. For some relatively recent discussions ofthe phenomenon, see Finney, Invisible Cod; Kessler, Spiritual Seeing; Besan^on, Forbidden Image. 349. Corbin, Paradoxe du monotheisme, pp. 9—10; idem. History of Islamic Philosophy, p. 161. 350. The view I have espoused accords with the notion of "metaphorical thinking in mysticism" promoted by Izutsu, Creation and the Timeless Order of Things, pp. 39-42. 351. Jacob ben Sheshet, Sefer Meshiv Devarim Nekhohim, p. 75. 352. Ibid., p. 76. 353. On this score it is of interest to note that the fourteenth-century apostate Abner of Burgos signaled out the doctrine of incamation as the "root of faith ofthe kabbalah" {la rayz de lafe de ta cabala). See Scholem, "The Beginnings of Christian Kabbalah," p. 27. 354. See above, n. 251. This is not to rule out the possibility that the scriptural roots ofthe Christological doctrine of incarnation in the prologue to the Gospel ofjohn may preserve an ancient Jewish esoteric motif centered on the embodiment of wisdom/Torah in human form. The identification of the latter with Jesus may represent the specific Christian apphcation ofthe Logos theology ofjudaic gnosis. For two recent phUologically competent and theoreticaUy sophisticated studies advocating this approach, see Eskola, Messiah and the Tttrone; and Endo, Creation and Christology. See also Schimanowski, Die himmlische Liturgie. The thesis that

the prologue of the fourth evangelist should be studied as an exegesis of the first chapter of Genesis was explored by Borgen, Philo, John and Paul, pp. 75-101. On the possible connection between the Logos Christology in the Gospel ofjohn and the Jewish Christian conception of the hypostasized name expressed, for instance, in the Cospel of Truth and Cospel of Philip, see Longenecker, Christology of Early Jewish Christianity,

pp. 41-46; Fossum, Name of Cod and the Angel ofthe Lord, pp. 106-112, 125-127; Quispei, "Qumran, John and Jewish Christianity," pp. 137-155, esp. pp. 149-154. For other representative studies that emphasize the Jewish milieu ofthe fourth gospel, see Schoneveld, "Torah in the Flesh," pp. 77-94; B. Mack, "The Christ and Jewish Wisdom," pp. 192-221; Boyarin, "The Gospel ofthe Memra," pp. 243-284. The Jewish milieu ofthe fourth gospel, including the suggestion that Hebrew-Aramaic idioms are detectable beneath the surface ofthe Greek, was a prime focus ofthe work of Dodd, Ititerpretation ofthe Fourth Cospel, and especiaUy pertinent is his discussion ofthe doctrine ofthe Logos in the prologue (pp. 263-285). On the possible background ofthe fourth gospel in the synagogue rite ofthe Palestinian triennial cycle, see Guilding, Tlie Fourth Cospel and Jewish Worship. Also relevant to this discussion is the presentation of Jesus as an angehc form imphed in some passages in the fourth gospel (see comments of Augustine, De Trinitate 2.5.23), an idea that may be rooted in the soil of Jewish apocalyptic, wherein the righteous soul is depicted as one who is angelicaUy transformed. For references, see chap. 5, n. 134. Hurtado, One Cod, Otie Lord, argues for a Jewish matrix to explain the binitarian pattern of devotion in early Christian piety, hnked, as it was, with the representation of God through the garb of angelic mediation. See idem, "Binitarian Shape of Early Christian Worship," pp. 187-213; and the later assessment in idem. Lord Jesus Christ, pp. 32-53; on the depiction ofjesus as the glory of God and as the divine name, see pp. 374—389. O'Neill, Who Did Jesus Think He Was7 pp. 94—114, suggests that the trinity and incarnation were "Jewish doctrines." On the Jewish milieu ofthe incamational doctrine of early Christianity, see also Dearman, "Theophany, Anthropomorphism, and the Imago Dei," pp. 31-46; and A. Segal, "The Incamation," pp. 116—139. Also pertinent here is the study byjonge, "Monotheism and Christology," pp. 225-237. On the divine status accorded the glorious angel in the history ofJudaism and its 430

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impact on Christianity, see Barker, Creat Angel; idem, "High Priest and the Worship ofjesus," pp. 93-111; idem, Creat High Priest, pp. 103—145; Gieschen, Angelomorphic Christology. In Through a Speculum, pp. 255—

263, I discussed the impact of this archaic exegetical tradition on the depiction of the glorious angel and angehc glory in various streams of medieval Jewish esotericism. See chap. 5, n. 134. In emphasizing the Jewish background to the Johannine Christology, one should not neglect to take into account the preponderant negative stance toward Jews and Judaism sponsored by the author of this gospel. See the proceedings of an intemational conference dedicated to this theme pubhshed in Bieringer, et al.. Against Judaism and the Fourth Cospel. In fact, one might even argue that it is precisely the Jewish background and foreground ofthe fourth evangelist that accounts for such strident opposition to "the Jews." On the Jewish background of John, see W. Davies, Christian Engagements, pp. 188-209. I have explored incamational elements in classical rabbinic texts, related specifically to prayer; for references, see Preface, n. 5. 355. Zohar 1:134b. 356. Meir Ibn Gabbai, Avodat ha-Qodesh, pt. 2, chap. 20, p. 129. 357. Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, p. 6$. See Zohar i:2ib-22a, where the 600,000 male Israehtes over the age of twenty are correlated with aspects ofthe supernal Jubilee, Binah. We are also told in this passage that after the death of his body, Moses ascended by means ofthe holy spirit to Binah to join these 600,000 aspects that belong to him. It is hkely that these aspects correspond to the lower six sefirot centered in Tiferet, which corresponds symbohcally to Moses. The kabbahstic association of Moses and the 600,000 Israelites is based on the earher aggadic motif that the clan of Moses equaled the number of Israehtes. For references, see Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, vol. 6, p. 97 n. 540. An interesting variation on the kabbalistic interpretation ofthe aggadic theme is found in Bachrach, Emeq ha-Melekh, chap. 16, p. 843: "The totahty of souls is 600,000, and the Torah is the root ofthe souls of Israel, and thus there are 600,000 explanations, and &om each and every one ofthe 600,000 a root of one soul in Israel comes to be." 358. Zohar 1:2b; 2:126b; 3:145a {Piqqudin); Moses de Leon, Book ofthe Pomegranate, pp. 6, 137, 354; E. Wolfson, "Mystical Rationalization," p. 242. 359. Lefebvre, Introduction to Modernity, pp. 174-175. On the hnk ofthe poet and incamation in Baudelaire's aesthetic, see Starobinski, Largesse, pp. 127-129. 360. For an interesting apphcation ofthe kabbalistic orientation in modem Jewish art, see Wechsler, "Eh Lissitzky's 'Interchange Stations,'" pp. 187-200. I am grateful to the author for drawing my attention to her study. 361. I am using the term "abyss" as synonymous with Ein Sof the hmitless that determines the hmit of what cannot be dehmited. On the identification of abyss and the infinite, see Reuchiin, On the Art of the Kabbalah, p. 285. 362. This description ofthe poem is indebted to the view of Paul Celan, which in turn has affinity with the thought of Heidegger. See Lacoue-Labarthe, Poetry as Experience, p. 67: "In other words, poetry's questioning is meta-physical questioning itself, in the sense that it is the repetition ofthe meta-physical as Heidegger understands it. It questions in the direction ofbeing as 'transcendence as such.'Just such a 'transcendent' is sought in the singular thing or being it is incumbent upon poetry—the poem—to perceive (think): it is the 'wholly other' . . . . In this sense, the poetic act is ecstatic. The exorbitant is the pure transcendence of being. It follows that the poem, as a questioning, is turned toward the open, offered up to it. And the open is itself open, after a fashion, to u-topia, to the place without place of the advent. To put it in other terms, the poetic act is catastrophic: an upsetting relation to what is an upset, in the direction of no-thingness (the abyss)." For a different perspective on the relationship between Heidegger and Celan with respect to the proximity of poetry and thought, see Joris, "Celan/Heidegger," pp. 155-166. See also Hatley, "Grund and Abgrund," pp. 176-195. On the task of hermeneutics to heed the unsaid in what is spoken, to mark the inscription of otherness, see Ziarek, Infiected Language, pp. 133-160. See also Wolosky, "Mystical Language and Mystical Silence," pp. 364-375; and the fuller analysis in idem. Language Mysticism, pp. 197-263; Moses, "Patterns of Negativity in Paul Celan's 'The Trumpet Place,'" pp. 209-224; Fioretos, "Nothing," pp. 295341; Olschner, "Poetic Mutations of Silence," pp. 369-385; Gadamer, "Meaning and Concealment ofMeaning," pp. 167-178; and Broda, "Traduit du silence," pp. 139-143. With respect to the silence ofthe poetic 431

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word, there is also an important affmity between Celan and Jabes. See ShiUony, "Metaphores de la negation," pp. 23-30; Gardaz, "Rhetorique et figures du silence," pp. 31-43; Walter, "La spirituahte du silence," pp. 71-88; Folin, "La figure du silence," pp. 147-156; Stamelman, "Le dialogue de I'absence," pp. 201-217; Mole, Levinas, Blanchot, Jabes pp. 112-113; Hawkins, "Perpetuating the Death of God," pp. 289-372, esp. pp. 371-372, and in greater detail in idem. Reluctant Theologians, pp. 155-241 For a different approach to Celan that minimizes the ontological partiality of Heidegger and the consequent idealization of poetry as the saying that entrusts beings with being, see Levinas, Proper Names, pp. 40-46, and the further elaboration of the Levinasian perspective in Foti, Heidegger and the Poets, pp. 114-124. On the other hand, it must be noted that Levinas himself accords special status to poetry as the form of language that best expresses the ontological state of "existing without existence," the "anonymity of existence," events ofbeing that tum the unnameable verb "to be" into substantives. See Chanter, "Reading Hegel as a Mediating Master," pp. 1-21, esp. pp. 6-10. In the poetic musings of Celan, silence, or the breakdown of language, is integral to the task of witnessing the suffering of the other. The poetic gesture springs from the desire to address the other, but the other being addressed cannot be addressed and remain other. The other, therefore, is continually on the way to becoming the other the other must always (not) be. See Hatley, Suffering Witness, pp. 137-165. 363. Schmidt, "Black Milk and Blue," p. n o . 364. Certeau, Heterologies, p. 81. On the role of absence, difference, and mystical patterns of speech in Certeau's thought, see Ahearne, Michel de Certeau, pp. 95-128. On yielding as a key component in Heidegger's appropriation of Celassenheit as a hermeneutical gesture, see T. Davis, "Deinon of Yielding," pp. 161174365. In this matter, too, my thinking has been informed by Heideggerian poetics. On "imagining invisibles" as a topos to converse about "Heidegger's meditation," see Foti, Vision's Invisibles, pp. 81-98. 366. Lacoue-Labarthe, Poetry as Experience, p. 68. It is of interest to consider the following remark of Kerouac, Poems All Sizes, p. 68: "The monument in the park / For the institute ofthe bhnd / Because it is not seen / Is truly a great monument / Would to God that I could make one / So artistically fabulous / As that with my hands." The poet expresses the desire to create in his poetic utterance something akin to the invisible monument to the bhnd. Consider as well the observation of Kierkegaard, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, pp. 409-409: "Poesy is the illusion which precedes the understanding; rehgiosity, the illusion which comes after the understanding. Between poesy and rehgiosity, worldly wisdom presents its vaudeville performance. Every individual who does not live either poetically or religiously is stupid." Implicit in Kierkegaard's remark is his behef that the faculty of reason cannot grasp truth; the distinction between poetry and rehgion is simply that the former is the "illusion" that precedes understanding while the latter is the "illusion" that succeeds understanding; to hve without one or the other is to be completely unenlightened or "stupid" in the author's own language. 367. E. Wolfson, "Sacred Space and Mental Iconography," pp. 605-606 n. 36. On the attainment of a "pure and all-consuming" vision that results in the absorption ofthe self in God, predicated on an ascetic praxis, the "pohshing of a dirty mirror," in the Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, the visionary cycle in the version of Abu Bakr Ibn Tufayl (c. 1116-1185), see Hughes, Texture of The Divine, p. ioi. The kabbalistic notion has a striking analogue in the mystical pietism of Rumi. See, for instance, Rumi, Mystical Poems of Rumi, p. 37: "The soul, like a mirror, has received your image in its heart; the heart has sunk hke a comb into the tip of your tress"; idem, Rumi Collection, p. 83: "Someone with a clear and empty heart / mirrors images ofthe Invisible. / He becomes intuitive and certain / of our innermost thought, / because 'the faithful are a mirror for the faithful'"; idem. Selected Poems From the Divani Shamsi TabrTz, p. 53: "Dismiss cares and be utterly clear of heart, /Like the face of a mirror without image and picture. /When it becomes clear of images, all images are contained in it;/No man's face is ashamed of that clear-faced one." On the image in Ruml's poems of the human being—with special emphasis on Adam, the perfect man—as a mirror that reflects the divine attributes, see Chittick, Sufi Path of Love, pp. 62-65, I39-I43- Significantly, Rumi maintains that the image ofthe beloved conjured in the imagination facihtates union with the beloved beyond the image. See sources translated and analyzed by Chittick, Sufi Path of Love, pp. 259-267. With regard to the relationship between imaginal representation and unitive experience, I again note a conspicuous similarity to kabbalistic 432

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sources. On the pohshing of the heart and the ascetic path in Rumi, see Renard, All the King's Falcons, pp. 37-38. Interestingly, according to Rumi, the prophets of ancient Israel—^Abraham, Joseph, and Moses—serve as models of perfection for initiates inasmuch as they possessed a polished mirror in which the imageless God could behold his image. See Renard, All the King's Falcons, p. 54, 64, 70. The image ofthe heart as a pohshed mirror wherein the divine glory is revealed has been repeated by other Sufi masters through the ages. For some examples, see Sviri, Taste of Hidden Tilings, pp. 5, 14, 19—20, 125, 170—171. 368. Hale, "Taste and See, For God Is Sweet," pp. 7-8. 369. Bloom, Kabbalah and Criticism, p. 51. 370. This expression is used to depict Nietzsche's asceticism in Lingis, Deathbound Subjectivity, pp. 59—70. 371. See On the Cenealogy of Morals, bk. 3, sees. 5-8, in Nietzsche, Basic Writings, pp. 538-548. On Nietzsche's approach to asceticism, in addition to the work of Lingis cited in note 370, see Huhn, "Nietzsche and the Suffering ofthe Indian Ascetic," pp. 6 4 ^ 5 ; C. Scott, "Mask of Nietzsche's Self-Overcoming," pp. 217229; J. Richardson, Nietzsche's System, pp. 174-179, 275-278; Ansell-Pearson, Viroid Life, pp. 37-39; T. Roberts, Contesting Spirit, pp. 77-102; Murray, Nietzsche's Affirmative Morality, pp. 72-73, 184, 187-188, 212-213, 243; D. B. Allison, Reading the New Nietzsche, pp. 141-142, 240-247; Zupancic, Shortest Shadow, pp. 47-61. The influence of Nietzsche is discemible in Foucault's remarks concerning self-overcoming through ascetic pleasures. See McWhorter, Bodies and Pleasures, pp. 176-192; A. Davidson, "Ethics as Ascetics," pp. 63-80. 372. Nietzsche, Cay Science, pp. 50-51, sec. 27. For a recent study that emphasizes Nietzsche's conception of tragic joy as an overcoming of nihihsm by embracing suffering and loss, see Mclntyre, Sovereignty of Joy; the author's thesis is summarized in the following statement: "As a pohtical vision that celebrates a tragic conception of joy, Nietzsche's poetry of the future overcomes modernity not by withdrawing from it, but by accentuating and intensifying its nihihsm. . . . This constitutes the atopia of grand pohtics: the poet ofthe future stands outside of the existing culture through the critique of morality and the politics of subjective freedom: hence, the ease with which it is read as an apology for tyranny or as a new form of utopianism" (p. 155). 373. Schelling, Ages ofthe World, p. 14. 374. Ibid., p. 107. 375. My language is derived from Keller, Hammer and the Flute, who utihzes the images ofthe "hammer" and the "flute" to convey the paradoxical situation ofthe possessed woman as one who becomes powerful because she has become the instrument of an overpowering force. In my judgment, this paradox of "instrumental agency" apphes as well to kabbahsts in their imaginal visuahzation of what has no image. 376. Deleuze, Nietzsche and Philosophy, p. 145. 377. Nietzsche, Will to Power, p.•^'j'j,sec. 708. 378. The matter is expressed in shghtly different terms by Ansell-Pearson, Viroid Life, p. 54: "Overcoming one's own time in oneself involves overcoming one's prior aversion to it, one's suffering from it, the kind of suffering that gave birth to romanticism. Again, the eternal return speaks not to the liberation fi-om this time but only of its enigma." On self-creation, self-overcoming, and the task ofthe poet in Nietzsche to articulate the "voiceless voice," see also Rorty, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, pp. 27-28; Hough, Nietzsche's Noontide Friend, pp. iii—112; Muneto, "Eloquent Silence of Zarathustra," pp. 226—243. 379. Nietzsche, Will to Power, p. 306, sec. 567. See n. 124. 380. Nietzsche, Tlius Spoke Zarathustra, p. ill. 381. Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, II, 3, pp. 74—75. On the temporal dimension ofthe poetic in Rilke, see Jacobs, Telling Time, pp. 188-205. 382. Nietzsche, Philosophy and Truth, p. 39, sec. n o . 383. Ibid., p. 39, sec.107. Cf ibid. p. 37, sec. 99, where Nietzsche depicted knowing as a "process of measuring according to a criterion." In other writings, Nietzsche signals out reason as the measure by means of which reality is created. See, for instance. Will to Power, p. 279, sec. 516, where Nietzsche raised the question whether axioms of logic were "adequate to reality" or a "means and measure for us to create reality" (emphasis in original). 433

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384. Joos, Poetic Truth and Transvaluation, pp. 71-81. 385. For extensive discussion ofthe motif of being and time in Nietzsche's studies on ancient rhythm and meter (1870-1872), see Porter, Nietzsche and the Philology ofthe Future, pp. 127-166. On the centrality to music in the shaping of Nietzsche's thought, especially in the aforementioned period, see Liebert, Nietzsche and Music, pp. 71-93. 386. Cited in Porter, Nietzsche and the Philology ofthe Future, p. 143 (emphasis in original). In Philosophy in the Tragic Age ofthe Creeks, p. 50, Nietzsche referred to the notion of becoming in the thought of Heraciitus as the "everlasting wavebeat and rhythm of things." From the continuation of Nietzsche's account of Herachtus, it is evident that he perceived in this Presocratic thinker the views that he would later proffer as his own, viz., the rejection of a duahty between the physical and metaphysical worlds and the consequent denial of a realm ofbeing over and against becoming. Reality consists solely of a perpetual flowing in which "every moment . . . exists only insofar as it has just consumed the preceding one, its father, and is then immediately consumed likewise" (pp. 52-53). Even closer to Nietzsche's own aesthetic is his comment that playfulness in Herachtus "exhibits coming-to-be and passing away, structuring and destroying, without any moral additive, in forever equal innocence" (p. 62). For an alternative account ofthe thought of Herachtus, see Nietzsche, Pre-Platonic Philosophers, pp. 53-74, esp. pp. 62-63. 387. Nietzsche, Will to Power, p. 380, sec. 715. 388. Nietzsche, Cay Science, p. 176, sec. 311, and p. 181, sec. 325. 389. My analysis has benefited from C. Scott, "Mask of Nietzsche's Self-Overcoming," pp. 217-218. See also Deleuze, Pure Immanence, p. 59: "With Nietzsche, everything is mask. His health was a first mask for his genius; his suffering, a second mask, both for his genius and for his health. Nietzsche didn't beheve in the unity of a self and didn't experience it. Subtle relations of power and of evaluation between different 'selves' that conceal but also express other kinds of forces—forces of life, forces of thought—such is Nietzsche's conception, his way of hving." 390. The expression voilante dissimulation is used to describe Nietzsche's view by Derrida in Spurs, p. 57. 391. Nietzsche, Beyond Cood and Evil, Preface, p. 2 and pp. 163-164, sec. 232; idem. Cay Science, Preface, p. 8, and p. 72, sec. 64. On the hnk between truth and woman in Nietzsche, a figurative representation that underscores the polysemous and dissimulating nature of truth as a veil hiding another veil, see Derrida, Spurs, pp. 47-67, 101-109; Doane, "Veihng over Desire," pp. 119-126; Joos, Poetic Truth , pp. 169-180; AnsellPearson, "Who is the Ubermensch?" pp. 23-45, esp. pp. 40-43; Burgard, "Introduction: Figures ofExcess," pp. 1-32, esp. pp. 11-12. On the artistic propensity of woman, associated with "inner longing for a role and mask, for an appearance {Schein)," attributed as well to the Jews, the "people possessing the art of adaptabihty par excellence," see Nietzsche, Cay Science, pp. 225-226, sec. 361. In discussing this passage, Denida, Spurs, p. 69, suggests: "parallel roles might in fact be related to the motif of castration and simulacrum for which circumcision is the mark, indeed the name ofthe mark." For further discussion of these motifs, see chap. 3, nn. 143 and 173. On the inseparabihty of truth and falsity in Nietzsche's philosophy, see J. Richardson, Nietzsche's System, p. 278. 392. Derrida, Spurs, p. 51. 393. Nietzsche, Cay Science, p. 8. In this connection, it is of interest to recall Nietzsche's description in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, p. 109, of "wild wisdom" as a "honess" that "became pregnant upon lonely mountains." 394. Nietzsche, Cay Science, p. 144, sec. 222. Compare p. 70, sec. 59, where artists are described as the ones "who conceal naturalness." On the poet's exerting attraction through imperfection, see p. 79, sec. 79. 395. Nietzsche, Will to Power, p. 330, sec. 616. 396. Harr, Nietzsche and Metaphysics, pp. 69-81, esp. pp. 70-73. 397. Nietzsche, Will to Power, p. 35, sec. 55. 398. Ibid., p. 273, sec. 499 (emphasis in original). 399. Ibid., p. 293 n. 18, sec. 544. 400. For discussion of the aphorism Wie man wird, was man ist, which is the subtitle of Ecce Homo, see Nehamas, "How One Becomes What One Is," pp. 255-280. 434

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401. I have borrowed this expression from AnseU-Pearson, Viroid Life, to characterize Nietzsche's celebrated image ofthe Ubermensch. 402. In Will to Power, p. 277, sec. 513, Nietzsche wrote ofthe "greatest artists in abstraction who created the categories." The taxonomic enterprise by which names of things are placed into law is viewed, therefore, as an illustration of artistic power. 403. Ibid., p. 330, sec. 617. 404. Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, p. 216. See Leiter, "Paradox of Fatahsm," pp. 217-255. See also the comparative discussion of Spinoza's amor dei and Nietzsche's amorfati in Stambaugh, Other Nietzsche, pp. 75-93405. Bloom, Kabbalah and Criticism, p. 52. See idem. Poetry and Repression, p. 140; idem, "Lying against Time," pp. 57-72, esp. pp. 60, 68, 70-72.

Chapter Two Differentiating (In) Difference: Heresy, Gender, and Kabbalah Study 1. Lawrence Kushner utilizes this formulation in his praise for Matt, Essential Kabbalah. Kushner's comments, together with the remarks of other scholars and rabbis, are included on the first page of the book. The pervasiveness of this misconception may be gauged from the cavaher comment ofjuha Kristeva to Catherine Clement (Clement and Kristeva, Feminine and the Sacred,, p. 98), conceming the "female deity" or "Hebrew goddess" ofjewish mysticism. 2. A number of rehgious thinkers and charismatic leaders (from a variety of different segments ofthe Jewish population) have emphasized the feminization ofthe divine in kabbahstic theosophy, which supposedly stands in marked contrast to the male-centered theology of legahstic rabbinism. For discussion of Scholem's dichotomous perspective, see Idel, "Rabbinism Versus Kabbalism," pp. 281-296. For a somewhat different view, see the brief discussion in E. Wolfson, Abraham Abulafia, pp. 34-35. Finally, it is of interest to consider the account given by Eliade, Jowma/ II, pp. 266-267 (entry of 30 June 1965): "[I]n the Kabbala we have to do with a new, real creation of the Judaic rehgious genius, due to the need to recover a part of the cosmic religiosity smothered and persecuted as much by the prophets as by the later Talmudic rigorists. What is significant is that the Kabbala redevelops very ancient, cosmic symbols and images (the Tree, the Sun, Fertihty, etc.) alongside gnostic, almost 'heretical,' ideas. Even better: introduced into the idea of God are feminine elements {Shekhinah) and dramatic ones (God's withdrawal. His exile, etc.). It would be interesting to compare cosmic Christianity, that is, the behefs of the rural populations of southeast Europe and of the Mediterranean, with these medieval and postmedieval Judaic religious creations. Surprising parallelisms: devotion to the Virgin Mary and the importance of the Shekhinah, the Christological drama and Yahweh's exile, paradigm of Israel's exile, etc." I will resist the temptation to engage Ehade's overall assessment of Judaism as a rehgious culture, for my main point is to draw attention to the potential distortion that has and can continue to emerge from Scholem's portrayal of kabbalah. For more recent attempts of Schafer and Green to consider the symbohc portrayal of Shekhinah on the part of kabbalists in hght of imaginative representations of Mary, see below, n. 224. Neither scholar mentions Eliade's brief but suggestive comment. The matter deserves to be analyzed independently. 3. Schwarz, Kabbalah and Alchemy, p. 8. The author follows the interpretation of gender symbohsm and tropes of sexuahty offered by scholars of kabbalah and especially Idel, who contributed the foreword (entitled "The Sexualizing Vector in Jewish Mysticism") to the volume and also allowed his study "The Origin of Alchemy according to Zosimos and a Hebrew Parallel" to be reprinted therein. 4. Perhaps the most telling rite that is indicative ofthe phallomorphic nature of rabbinic androcentricism is the covenant of circumcision, which from its priestly articulation in the bibhcal canon forged an opposition and a discrepancy in the social status between Israehte men and women, not to mention the polarity estabhshed between Israelite and non-Israehte men, who are classified as the alien other. See EilbergSchwartz, Savage in Judaism, pp. 167-176; idem. Cod's Phallus, pp. 141-142, 207; L. Hoffman, Covenant of Blood, pp. 22-23; Olyan, Rites and Rank, pp. 64-68. For an alternative and less androcentric reading ofthe

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rite of circumcision in rabbinic sources, see Boyarin, Radical Jew, pp. 126-130, 225-226. Eilberg-Schwartz, Cod's Phallus, pp. 157, 170-174, also affirmed the hnk between circumcision and feminization ofthe male body. Baskin, Midrashic Women, marshals many texts in support of her claim regarding the androcentric construction of women as ancillary beings in the aggadic ruminations ofthe rabbis. For an attempt to minimize rabbinic androcentrism, see also Boyarin, Carnal Israel; idem, "Women's Bodies," pp. 88-100 (in this study, Boyarin shifts his thinking somewhat and is careful to note that the abohshment of a misogynist ritual sanctioned by Scripture and hence the improvement of the social status of women occur at precisely the same moment and within the same space as rabbinic authority begins to be anchored on the study of Torah, the "epistemic regime" [p. 97], from which women are basically excluded); and the works of Tal Ilan cited below, n. 207. On the complex portrayal of gender construction in the economy ofthe early rabbinic period, see as well Satlow, "Texts of Terror," pp. 273-297, Peskowitz, Spinning Fantasies; Fonrobert, Menstrual Purity; idem, "Beginnings of Rabbinic Textuahty," pp. 49-68; Stein, "Maidservant," pp. 375-397. For a sympathetic reconstruction ofthe rabbinic attitude toward women, see also Valler, Women and Womanhood; Hauptman. Rereading the Rabbis; Novak, Covenantal Rights, pp. 133-142. On the ambivalent attitude toward Jewish women reflected in rabbinic halakhah, see R. Biale, Women and Jewish Law; and Wegner, Chattel or Person'? For a critical review of the scholarly project to interpret rabbinic culture through a feminist lens, see E. Alexander, "Impact of Feminism," pp. 101-118. 5. On the history ofthe composition, redaction, and hterary structure of zoharic literature, see Scholem, Major Trends, pp. 156-204; Tishby, Wisdom ofthe Zohar, pp. 1-12; Liebes, Studies in the Zohar, pp. 85138; Huss, "Sefer ha-Zohar as a Canonical, Sacred and Holy Text," pp. 257-307; idem, "Appearance of Sefer ha-Zohar," pp. 507-542; Mopsik, "Corpus Zoharique ses titres et ses amphfications," pp. 75-105; idem, "Moise de Leon, le Sheqel ha-Qodesh et la redaction du Zohar," pp. 117-218; D. Abrams, "Critical and Post-Critical Textual Scholarship," pp. 17-71, esp. pp. 61-64; Meroz, "Zoharic Narratives," pp. 3-63; Giller, Reading the Zohar. 6. This material is derived from a more extended discussion in the introduction to a forthcoming collection of my essays, Luminal Darkness. 7. Kumin, Logic of Incest, p. 278. 8. Zohar 1:228b. The connection between an earthly woman and Shekhinah is imphed in the narrative describing R. Joseph; whenever he heard the footsteps of his mother, he would say "Let me rise before the Shekhinah who has arrived" (Babylonian Talmud, Qiddushin 31b). 9. Lamentably, scholarly discussions of ethics and kabbalah have been virtually bhnd and deaf to the issue of gender and the construction of a cultural axiology. Here, too, I have stood alone in an effort to investigate kabbalistic symbohsm from this perspective. I have explored the relation of ethics and mysticism in my monograph Venturing Beyond, based on the Shoshana Shier Lectures in Jewish Studies delivered at the University of Toronto, February-March 1998. I am currently in the last stages of preparing the manuscript for pubhcation. For an illuminating study of postmodern gender theory and the ethics of difference, see S. Parsons, Ethics of Cender. 10. A careful reading discloses that the three models discussed by Idel, "Female Beauty," pp. 317-334, are all predicated on an instrumentalist representation ofthe feminine. 11. I borrow this expression from Lee, "Problems of Religious Pluralism," pp. 453-477. 12. This hne of reasoning is adopted, for instance, by Barlas, "Believing Women" in Islam, pp. 101-103. As part ofthe effort to demonstrate the hypothesis that the "teachings ofthe Qur'an (see, for example, 40:40) are radically egahtarian and even antipatriarchal" (p. 93), Barlas argues that the Islamic idea of unity {tawhid) runs contrary to a binary construction of reality that is linked to patriarchy. Sufism is presented as an extreme expression ofthe monistic truth imphed in the monotheism of Islam. From a gender perspective, according to this reading, the monotheistic orientation logically entails a principle of ontological sameness apphed to men and women, and hence "man" is to be taken as a paradigm for women and men, and women are viewed as the other ofthe true self instantiated in men. In short, for Barlas, the scriptural roots of Islam affirm sexual difference without sexual inequahty. Apposite here is the suggestion of Hassan, "Islamic Perspective," p. 346, that in the Qur'an the original human creation was that of an "undifferentiated humanity," neither male nor female. For a positive valorization ofthe feminine in Islam against the background ofthe avowed 436

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"male supremacy," see Bouhdiba, Sexuality in Islam, pp. 19-29. On the depiction of Sufism as the discernment ofthe ultimate truth that transcends confessional differences, see Goldziher, Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law, pp. 150-152. See also Nicholson, Mystics of Islam, pp. 86-88. For a more attenuated attempt to present Sufism as empowering women spiritually without denying the dominance of male agency in Islam, see Butorovic, "Between the Tariqa and the Shari'a," pp. 135-150. See chap. 7, n. 76. A philosophically rich analysis ofthe symbohc constructions of masculinity and femininity is presented in Murata, Tao of Islam. For a good survey of the social, political, and cultural standing of women in Islamic countries during the Middle Ages, see Hambly, "Becoming Visible," pp. 3-27. On the negative assessment ofthe feminine as the source of sexual temptation in Islamic literature, see Calderini, "Women, 'Sin,' and 'Lust,'" pp. 49-63. 13. A similar argument has been made by Schott, Cognition and Eros, pp. 60-61, with respect to the medieval worship of Mary. According to Schott, there is no correspondence between Mary figuring prominently in rehgious beliefs and practices and the social status of Christian women. On the contrary, Marian cults intensified misogynist tendencies, inasmuch as Mary was elevated as a semi-divine object of veneration precisely on account of her giving birth as a virgin and herself having been bom of immaculate conception, the notion of virginity being rooted in a denigration of femininity, which was associated with the senses and the physical world as opposed to masculinity, the site of reason and rationality. The need on the part of Christian men, predominandy monks and clerics, to sever the textual and visual representations of Mary, on the one hand, and the existential condition of women in social context, on the other, is emphasized by Gold, Lady and the Virgin, pp. 43-75. 14. I have examined this phenomenon in great detail in the concluding essay in Circle in the Square, pp. 79-121.

15. See Meeks, "Image ofthe Androgyne," pp. 166, 180-185; idem. First Urban Christians, pp. 87-89; Luedemann, Paul, Apostle to the Centiles, pp. 66-67; A. Segal, Paul the Convert, pp. 137, 146, 181-182; Boyarin, Radical Jew, pp. 180-200. See, by contrast, MacDonald, There Is No Male and Female; idem, "Corinthian Veils and Gnostic Androgynes," pp. 283-285. According to MacDonald, Galatians 3:28 proves only that the overcoming of sexual differentiation results in the constitution of one male person, an interpretation that resonates with my own perspective on the paradigm of sexual sameness implicit in kabbahstic symbolism. For a different approach, see W. Walker, "Corinthians 11:2-16 and Paul's Views regarding Women," pp. 94-110. See also Mortley, Womanhood, pp. 50-54, and the judicious weighing of contradictory evidence in Doran, Birth of a Worldview, pp. 145-156. Meeks, "Images ofthe Androgyne," pp. 189-197, discusses other rituals in gnostic sources—including, most importantly, the mystery of the bridal chamber—intended to renew or restore the androgynous image. I am not aware of any rituals of this sort initiated by early kabbahsts as a means of uniting masculine and feminine, although the traditional customs of rabbinic halakhah were transformed symbohcally into mystical rites. For examples ofthe phenomenon of bisexuahsm in the history of shamanism, see Ehade, Two and the One, pp. 116-117. A similar explanation is offered for the gender transformation of the female into male in Mahayana Buddhism by Ueki, Cender Equality in Buddhism, pp. 87-105. Ueki's thesis that statements affirming the need for the female body to be transformed into a male so that women can attain enlightenment actually affirm the equality of the sexes seems to me forced and apologetic. See the more critical and, in my judgment, historically accurate view of Gross cited below at n. 68, and the negative portrayals of women catalogued by Kloppenborg, "Female Stereotypes in Early Buddhism," pp. 151-169. For a more egahtarian approach to this material, see Murcott, First Buddhist Women. 16. Needless to say, many scholars have weighed in on the issue ofthe authenticity ofthe Pauhne authorship of Colossians. Cannon, Use of Traditional Materials, pp. 1-9, presents a useful and judicious account of the evidence and refers the reader to the relevant discussions in the accompanying notes. 17. A measured judgment is offered by Barth and Blanke, Colossians, p. 71: "Whether Colossians was written by Paul himself or by one of his disciples, its intention includes a confirmation and reinforcement of the apostle's authority, not a correction of his teachings." 18. On the spiritual transformation firom the "old human" to the "new human," see also Ephesians 4:22-24. In Romans 8:15, the matter is expressed in terms ofthe transition from the "spirit of slavery" to the "spirit of sonship." For a comprehensive philological analysis ofthe relevant nomenclature, see Jewett, Paul's Anthropological Terms. 437

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19. Even if one were to accept the prevailing opinion amongst New Testament scholars that the epistle to the Colossians is not an authentic Pauhne document, it is safe to conclude that with regard to the passage I have cited, there is an exact parallel to Galatians 3:28. Inasmuch as the latter hkely reflects the older baptismal formula, the same may be said with respect to the former. See discussion in Barth and Blanke, pp. 41541720. Meeks, First Urban Christians, pp. 89—90. 21. For a discussion of Paul's notion ofthe "new creation" against the backdrop ofthe sexual mores of his time and place, see P. Brown, Body and Society, pp. 44-57. 22. J. Z. Smith, Imagining Religion, pp. 11-12. Needless to say, Paul himself is not always consistent regarding the erasure of gender difference and on occasion affirms the conventional view of his time that ascribed a subordinate and submissive role to the woman (i Cor. 11:2-16, 14:34-36; Rom. 1:26). See discussion below, chap. 7. Consider also the observation of Gaston, Paul and the Torah, pp. 33-34, that the statement that there is neither Greek nor Jew in Christ actually imphes that there are both Greek and Jew, which is to say, Paul's remark affirms the legitimacy of both groups as autonomous units rather than signifying the erasure of their difference. Despite the avowed moral urgency on the author's part to encourage Christians in the post-Holocaust era to allow Israel to remain Israel and still be genuine faith partners, I am not certain of his ecumenical interpretation. For a review of Gaston's position, see Gager, Reinventing Paul, pp. 52-53, 56-57. 23. The rabbinic response (discernible from a textual viewpoint at a somewhat later date) is to insist, as do the Pharisees in Acts, on Torah as being the only way to break down difference. The outsider must come inside, and he does so by circumcision and submission to the ways of Torah. The overcoming of difference is related more specifically to the phenomenon of conversion, which is accorded eschatological significance, a point hnked exegetically to the tracing of the lineage of the Davidic messiah to Ruth the Moabite. Inasmuch as this seed comes forth as a consequence of the trespassing of the boundary separating Moabite and Israehte, the messianic figure embodies the mystery of conversion, the "othering ofthe other," as I refer to it in the third chapter of Venturing Beyond. For a succinct account of this aspect of rabbinic eschatology, see Jacob Neusner's assessment of Ruth Rabba, the midrashic compilation organized about the book of Ruth, in Neusner, Midrash Compilations, pp. 148—149. 24. Coptic Cnostic Library, vol. 2, pp. 63. For an alternative rendering, see Cospel of Thomas: Hidden Sayiftgs, p. 35, and parallel sources from early Christian documents cited and analyzed on pp. 79-80. On the disruption ofthe androcentric positioning of women in the household and a challenge to patriarchal norms in the early stages of the Jesus movement, see Schottroff, "Itinerant Prophetesses," pp. 347-360. 25. Apostolic Fathers vo\. i, p. 147. 26. Hennecke, New Testament Apocrypha, vol. 2, pp. 319-320. 27. P. Brown, Body and Society, pp. 49-50; S. Davis, " 'Pauhne' Defense," pp. 453-459. Also relevant to the question ofthe status of women in Christian origins is the cultivation of female disciples on the part of Jesus. See Munro, "Women Disciples," pp. 47-64. 28. Gibson, "Could Christ Have Been Born a Woman?" pp. 65-82. Needless to say, the metaphorical representation ofjesus in female imagery has its hterary roots in much older sources, including Christologies indebted to Jewish wisdom speculation. See, for instance, Guillemin, "Jesus/Holy Mother Wisdom," pp. 244-267. 29. "Byrmm, Jesus as Mother, idem. Holy Feast and Holy Fast, pp. 260-269. 30. Stendahl, Bible and the Role of Women; Fiorenza, In Memory of Her, Scroggs, "Paul and the Eschatological Woman," pp. 283-303; and the reaction by Pagels, "Paul and Women," pp. 538-549. 31. Schottroff, Lydia's Impatient Sisters, pp. 41, 124-128. 32. D'Angelo, "Veils, Virgins, and the Tongues of Men and Angels," pp. 389-419, esp. pp. 390-399. 33. Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, 3.92.2, p. 314. Regarding the text firom the Cospel ofthe Egyptians, see the comments by Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, pp. 373-374. For citation ofthe relevant passages fiom this apocryphal gospel and discussion about its hterary-historical provenance, see New Testament Apocrypha, vol. I, pp. 166-178. 438

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34. Fletcher-Louis, "Worship ofDivine Humanity," pp. 112—128, esp. pp. 120—125. 35. See Fatum, "Image of God and Glory of Man," pp. 50-133. See also the studies by MacDonald and Mortley cited above, n. 15. For a different interpretation emphasizing that Paul's "spiritual body" is a restoration ofthe androgynous image of primal Adam, see A. Segal, "Paul's 'Soma Pneumatikon,'" pp. 265-266. At the final stages of revising this chapter, Hindy Najman kindly drew my attention to D'Angelo, "Gender Refusers in the Early Christian Mission," pp. 149-173. In this study, D'Angelo weighs the evidence carefully and concludes that the baptismal formula, even when interpreted as a basis for sexual asceticism, did not necessarily translate into a rejection of patriarchal marriage and the estabhshment of community based on egalitarianism. However, she does refer to the proclamation of inclusion in Christ as a "knock-down argument" (pp. 164-166) inasmuch as it leaves open the possibihty for future generations to affirm an overcoming of gender difference, which entails not subsuming the female into perfect manhood but recognizing the autonomy and equality of the two genders in the image of God. For an interesting case example of gender differentiation presumed to profess equality of gender in the face of recognizing essential differences between women and men, see Wallace, "Priesthood and Motherhood," pp. 117-140. 36. Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis 3.45.3, p. 284. See parallel in Clement, Excerpta ex Theodoto 67, cited in New Testament Apocrypha, p. 169. 37. Clement of Alexandria, 3.63.2, p. 295. 38. Ibid., 3.64.1, p. 296. 39. Genesis 2:6; and see 2 Corinthians 11:3. By contrast, in Roman 5:12-14, Paul ascribed responsibility for the primal sin to Adam and not only to his female helpmate. For detailed philological exegesis of the passage in i Timothy cast in a comparative perspective with contemporary historical documents, see Quinn and Walker, First and Second Letters to Timothy, pp. 226—230. 40. Clement of Alexandria , 3.12.89-90, p. 312. To be precise, in this passage, Clement exegetically hnks I Timothy 2:15 with 5:14-15. 41. By "Pauhne" I do not mean to suggest that one accept the traditional attribution ofthe epistle to Paul. The connotation of this term conveys rather the assumption that the document was composed and redacted by individuals who thought of themselves as promoting the traditions and expounding the teachings ofthe apostle. See discussion on assessing the authorship ofthe pastoral epistles in L. Johnson, First and Second Letters to Timothy, pp. 55—90. 42. Consider the detailed analysis of multiple readings of i Timothy 2:15 offered by Kostenberger, Studies onjohn and Cender, pp. 283—322. 43. See Quinn and Walker, First and Second Letters to Timothy, pp. 230-243. 44. As we find, for instance, in the following comment of Quinn and Walker, First and Second Letters to Timothy, p. 225: "The equahty of male and female before God and in Christ does not contradict a further ordering within the marriage relationship, also created by God. The equality ofthe sexes belongs to nature; the subordination of one to the other comes by the choice ofthe marriage relationship." 45. J. Cooper, "Gendered Sexuality," p. 91 n. 30. 46. Coptic Cnostic Library, vol. 2, p. 93. Valantasis, Cospel of Thomas, pp. 194-195, remarks that sayings 22 and 114 must be seen in the broader context of gender transformations attested in Hermetic hterature that involved the male becoming female as well as the female becoming male, the ultimate goal being "supervening the mascuhne and feminine genders altogether." For the view that the two sayings refer to different stages in the redemptive process, see Buckley, "Interpretation of Logion 114," pp. 245-272, esp. pp. 253-254. For further discussion of these texts, see Eliade, Two and the One, pp. 105-107; Klijn, "Single One," pp. 271-278; Meyer, "Making Mary Male," pp. 554-570; idem, "Cospel of Thomas Logion 114," pp. i o i - i i i ; both of Meyer's studies are reprinted in Meyer, Secret Cospels, pp. 76-106; P. Brown, Body and Society, pp. 103-121. A more critical feminist approach, in hne with my own reading, is attested in a number of studies, including Vogt, "Becoming Male," pp. 172-187; Borresen, "God's Image, Man's Image?" pp. 188-207; McGuire, "Women, Gender, and Gnosis," pp. 277-282, esp. pp. 277-282; Meltzer, "Re-embodying," pp. 274-277; Nash, "Language of Mother Work," pp. 174-195, esp. the precis ofthe author's contention on p. 175: "I argue that, in the Cospel of Thomas, the act of gaining the Kingdom, being saved, is a harsh and violent 439

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process for women, amounting to psychic rape, a lobotomy ofthe female self" K. King, Cospel of Mary, p. 147, suggests that logion 114, the final saying in Cospel of Thomas, was "probably tacked onto the end ofthe work by a later scribe." It seems to me, however, that the conceptual thread that hnks sayings 22 and 114 weakens the plausibility of this suggestion. 47. K. King, Cospel of Mary, pp. 147-148. 48. Koester, "Gnostic Writings as Witnesses," pp. 238-261; idem. Ancient Christian Cospels, pp. 181-186; Koester and Pagels, "Report on the Dialogue ofthe Savior," pp. 66-74; idem, "Introduction," vol. 3, pp. 1-17. 49. Nag Hammadi Codex III, 3, 3:79. 50. Ibid., 3:81. 51. K. King, "Why AU the Controversy?" pp. 53-74; idem, Cospel of Mary, pp. 3-7, 32-34, 67, 83-90, 141-154, 170-187.

52. Nag Hammadi Codex III, 5, 3:83. 53. Ibid., 3:87. 54. Ibid., 3:91; K. King, Cospel of Mary, pp. 146-147. 55. Koester, Ancient Christian Cospels, p. 186, already suggested that the question ofthe "works of womanhood" in the Dialogue ofthe Savior is a "topic that belongs to the overarching concern of wearing a body," that is, the "continuation of existence in the body through child-bearing," and is thus "possibly a commentary on the fmal saying ofthe Cospel of Tltomas {114) about Mary, the woman who is not worthy ofthe kingdom unless she is made male." Koester's remark that "rejection ofthe works of womanhood does not imply a degradation of women as such" is not acceptable. He correctly notes the contrast between the mandate in the Cospet of Thomas for the female to become male by ceasing from bearing children and the assertion in I Timothy 2:13-15 that women will be saved by bearing children. It does not seem to me, however, that one can persuasively argue that the directive for the female to become a male is not degrading to women; at most one can say that this transformation eradicates a negative stereotype of femininity. 56. For further discussion of this motif, see Pagels, "Exegesis of Genesis i," pp. 477-496; and idem. Beyond Belief, pp. 40-41, 55-58, 66-69. 57. Meeks, "Image ofthe Androgyne," pp. 194-195, and reaffirmed more recently by DeConick, Seek to See Him, pp. 17-20. See also E. CasteUi, "I Will Make Mary Male," pp. 29-49, esp. p. 33: "The female can and should strive to become male—to overcome gender distinction, since the male embodies the generic 'human' and therefore the potential for human existence to transcend differences and return to the same. . . . 'Becoming male' marks for these thinkers the transcendence of differences, but it does so only by reinscribing the traditional gender hierarchies of male over female, mascuhne over feminine; the possibihty that women can 'become male,' paradoxically however, also reveals the tenuousness and malleability ofthe naturalized categories of male and female. . . . I would argue that these discourses do not simply rearticulate the hegemonic gendered order, nor do they simply deconstruct it; rather, they stretch its boundaries and, if only for a moment, call it into question—even if, ultimately, things retum to 'normal.'" See, by contrast, Meyer, Secret Cospels, pp. 91-92 and 103-104. Without denying the patriarchal dominance in late antiquity and the devaluing of femaleness based on the theory of a single sex, Meyer nevertheless insists that the injunction for the female to become male is to be interpreted symbohcally; the message of liberation, therefore, is not hmited to a biological woman, but extends to the transformation of what is earthly and corporeal (female) into what is heavenly and spiritual (male). An egahtarian reading of logion 114 is also proffered by Marjanen, "Women Disciples in the Cospel of Tliomas," pp. 89-106. See as well Cospel of Thomas: Annotated and Explained, translated by Stevan Davies, p. 138. According to Davies, the final saying "was added to the text of Thomas at some later date. . . . In any event, saying 114 is contradicted by saying 22, which requires the union ofthe sexes rather than preference for one over the other." For a similar orientation regarding the mascuhnization ofthe feminine as a sign of perfection in Philo, see Philo, Supplement I, II.49, p. 131; Supplement II, 1.8, pp. 15-16. It must be noted that, according to Philo, the ideal anthropos created in the image of God is an incorporeal and incorruptible "object of thought" that is "neither male nor female" in contrast to the corporeal and corruptible man that is an "object of sense perception . . . consisting of body and soul, man or woman" (OH the Creation 134 in Philo, vol. i, p. 107). However, given the fact that the incorporeal 440

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mind is gendered as mascuhne in Philo as opposed to the corporeal senses, which are feminine, it follows that the ideal anthropos depicted in the first chapter of Genesis is a male beyond gender bifurcation, an idea that corresponds, in my opinion, to the male androgyne that has informed the thinking of kabbahsts. See Jervell, Imago Dei, pp. 161-163; R. Baer, Philo's Use ofthe Categories, pp. 45-49, 69-71; Aspegren, Male Woman, pp. 79-98. For a different approach, see Boyarin, Carnal Israel, pp. 37-42, 78-80. On the myth of the androgyne in ancient Graeco-Roman literature, see also Delcourt, Hermaphrodite, pp. 27-61; and D'Angelo, "Transcribing Sexual Pohtics," pp. 115-146 (I thank the author for providing me with a copy of her essay). Consider the statement transmitted in the name ofjesus in the Second Treatise ofthe Creat Seth, a Christian Gnostic revelation dialogue, cited in chap. 7, n. 69. 58. On the eschatological renunciation ofthe female body and the transvestite motif of becoming male, see also T Shaw, Burden ofthe Flesh, pp. 235-252. On the encratic background ofthe motif of the female becoming male, see Aspegren, Male Woman, pp. 115-143. 59. For discussion ofthe encratic elements in the Cospel of Thomas, see Uro, "Is Thomas an Encratite Gospel?" pp. 140-162. 60. Patterson, Cospet of Thomas and Jesus, pp. 153-155. 61. For a relatively recent review of this question, see Marjanen, "Is Thomas a Gnostic Gospel?" pp. 107-139. 62. Zostrianos 131, 5-6, text and translation in Coptic Cnostic Library, 4: 222-223. See Wisse, "Flee Femininity," pp. 297-307. For the depiction of asceticism as an escape from the femaleness of somatic desire, see also M. Williams, Immovable Race, pp. 99-102. 63. Zostrianos i, 11-13, in Coptic Cnostic Library, 4: 31. 64. Zostrianos 7, 5-6, in Coptic Cnostic Library, 4: 43. 65. See chap. 7, n. 40. 66. D. Paul, Women in Buddhism, p. 236. A version ofthe narrative appears in Lotus Sutra, pp. 187-188. Needless to say, the ideal of a gender-neutral enlightenment is affirmed in other parts of this text. See, for instance, the comment attributed to Buddha, "the great sage, the World-honored One," Lotus Sutra, p. 103: "I look upon all things / as being universally equal, / I have no mind to favor this or that, / to love or hate another. / I am without greed or attachment / and without limitation or hindrance. / At all times, for all things / I preach the Law equally; / as I would for a single person, / that same way I do for numerous persons." The pietistic apphcation ofthe ideal is laid out in the chapter ofthe sutra that deals with "peaceful practices" ofthe bodhisattva: "Again one should not make distinctions / b y saying, 'This is a man,' 'This is a woman.' / Do not try to apprehend phenomena, / to understand or to see them" (p. 200). For another articulation of this Mahayana teaching, see Shantideva, Way ofthe Bodhisattva, p. 149: "All form, therefore, is hke a dream, / And who wiU be attached to it, who thus investigates? / The body, in this way, has no existence; /What is male, therefore, and what is female?" See also L. Wilson, "Buddhist Views on Gender and Desire," pp. 151-158. 67. For a representative hsting of studies that treat the Mahayana concept of emptiness from various theoretical perspectives and historical instantiations, see Nagarjuna, Twelve Cate Treatise, pp. 4-26; Jef&ey Hopkins, Meditation on Emptiness; idem. Emptiness in the Mind-Only School; Lopez, Heart Sutra Explained, pp. 57-93; Fenner, Ontology ofthe Middle Way, pp. 35-44; Swanson, "Spirituality of Emptiness," pp. 373-396; A. Klein, Path to the Middle, pp. 43-89; Huntington and Wangchen, Emptiness of Emptiness, pp. 40-59; Varela, "Pour une phenomenologie," pp. 121-148; Ganeri, Philosophy in Classical India, pp. 42-70; Garfield and Priest, "Nagarjuna and the Limits of Thought," pp. 1-21, esp. pp. 7-10. On the attempt to use the concept of zero, thought to be derived &om the Sanskrit sunya, to articulate the notion ofthe "unsexed" that precedes the division into gender binaries, see Weston, Cender in Real Time, pp. 32-41. 68. R. Gross, Buddhism after Patriarchy, p. 73. See idem, "Some Buddhist Perspectives on the Goddess," pp. 406-425. 69. Buddhism after Patriarchy, pp. 67-73. 70. Ibid., p. 117. 71. R. Gross, Feminism and Religion, p. 138. Consider also the observations by Campbell, Traveller in Space, pp. 147-148: "As I have shown, in the Vajrayana Buddhist scriptures, 'otherness' is commonly repre441

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sented as either demon or woman, or both. In the spiritual realm, the Tibetan Buddhist's ultimate goal is to realise all phenomena (both external experience and the mind itself) as emptiness. . . . However, as I will show, the promise on a non-dual philosophy, apphcable to men and women, is not fulfilled, for in the allocation of symbohc femaleness to the concepts of both 'otherness' and 'emptiness,' the apphcation ofthe philosophy is rendered problematic for women. . . . The monastic tradition emphasised the polluting aspect of women, and encouraged celibacy and physical distance from women. On the other hand, women were viewed as essential components to advanced Tantric practice, which addressed the understanding of man's being through his sexuahty. In both respects, however, woman is 'other,' either through her negative potential or through her female being and sexuality with which man had to associate in order to reach his fuU potential (Buddhahood)." See also L. Wilson, Charming Cadavers; and the discussion ofthe "hermeneutics of desire" in Faure, Red Thread, pp. 15-63, esp. pp. 29-34, 55-58. See also Sponberg, "Atttitudes toward Women," pp. 3-36. For a more positive account of women and the feminine imaginary, see M. Shaw, Passionate Enlightenment; Cleary and Aziz, Twilight Coddess; Simmer-Brown, Dakini's Warm Breath. For discus-

sion ofthe Tibetan ideal of enlightenment and the feminist project of undoing duahsms, see A. Klein, Meeting the Creat Bliss Queen, pp. 149-169. An intermediate position, which acknowledges negative stereotypes of the feminine but nonetheless discerns an ideal of spiritual enlightenment whereby gender differences are overcome, is taken in the survey offered by N. Barnes, "Women and Buddhism in India," pp. 38-69; and in the careful study by Peach, "Social Responsibihty," pp. 50-74. I am not in a position to judge between these approaches, but what is important to me is that Campbell's assessment presents a perfectly apt description ofthe symbolic representation ofthe female and the status of women in traditional kabbalah. See above, n. 15 and below, n. 231. 72. D. Paul, Women in Buddhism, pp. 175-176. Consider the exchange between Shariputra and the goddess in the Mahayana text, Vimalakirti, Vimalakirti Sutra, pp. 90-92. After the goddess instructs Shariputra in the ways ofthe Dharma, he inquires of her, "Why don't you change out of this female body?" assuming that "enlightenment can be obtained only by men and that women must first reincarnate in male form to reach the highest goal" (Vimalakirti, Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti, p. 128 n. 24.) The goddess responds by ehciting fiom Shariputra the insight that the form of a phantom (indeed, the form of all things) has no permanence, and hence it is meaningless to ask why she has not given up her female form to become male. To deepen the insight, the goddess employs the supernatural power of magic, clothing Shariputra in her female body while she takes on his male form. The goddess, then, turns the table on Shariputra and asks him what he had initially asked her, to which he responded "I don't know why I have suddenly changed and taken on a female body!" (The Tibetan version, presumed by some scholars to be closer to the original Sanskrit, is more loquacious. See Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti, p. 62: "I no longer appear in the form of a male! My body has changed into the body of a woman! I do not know what to transform!") At this juncture the goddess discloses her intent and reveals the moral: "Shariputra, who is not a woman, appears in a woman's body, and the same is true of all women—though they appear in women's bodies, they are not women. Therefore the Buddha teaches that all phenomena are neither male nor female." (According to Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti, p. 62: "All women appear in the form of women in just the same way as the elder appears in the form of a woman. While they are not women in reahty, they appear in the form of women. With this in mind, the Buddha said, 'In all things, there is neither male nor female.' ") The denigrated state of women is also attested in the comment in Lotus Sutra included in a htany of exhortations for one who aspires to be enlightened as a bodhisattva: "Never go alone into an enclosed place / to preach the Law to a woman" (p. 199). On similar expressions ofthe spiritual ideal in Islamic mysticism, see chap. 7, n. 81. 73. D. Paul, Women in Buddhism, p. 308. 74. Peach, "Social Responsibility," p. 57. 75. Note the observation ofjantzen. Power, Cender and Christian Mysticism, p. 28, that the "identification ofthe fertile earth with the female body did not mean that Hesiod thought well of actual women." Quite the contrary, Hesiod characterized the earth as the womb whence all hfe springs forth and at the same time used overtly misogynist language to depict women. This insight ought to give pause to the desire on the part of some contemporary feminists to utilize the kabbalistic symbol of Shekhinah to develop an ecologically sound theology of nature as the mother goddess. Analogously, Warner, Alone of All Her Sex, p. 191, has 442

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argued that under the influence of the Franciscans the adoration of the Virgin's femininity was transformed into a social code of behavior that kept women relegated to the domestic domain. For different perspectives on the gender dynamic, see Wefelmeyer, "Raphael's Sistine Madonna," pp. 105-118, esp. pp. 107-108; and Palumbo, "Gender Difference." 76. A similar argument with regard to the disjuncture between feminine images applied to the divine and the social value accorded women is made by Mortley, Womanhood, pp. 24-25, 40-43. 77. Peach, "Social Responsibihty," p. 69. 78. Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat I45b-I46a; Yevamot 103b; Avodah Zarah 22b. 79. Zohar 1:126b. The ontic connection between the woman's soul, the serpent, and the force of evil on the north side, is made explicitly in Book Bahir, sec. 140, p. 223. On the serpentine nature of women in the medieval context, see Chandes, Le serpent, la femme et I'epee, and Gregg, Devils, Women, and Jews, pp. 86-87,

90-93, 99-101, 119-121. A fascinating study combining linguistics and anthropology, on the nexus of woman, womb, and worm, focusing particularly on mythological depictions of the Great Mother as a serpent, is offered by Thong, Colden Serpent. As a total surprise I received a copy ofthe work directly from the author, and to the best my knowledge I do not think the work was ever pubhshed for public consumption. The dual role ofthe serpent in symbohzing male and female demonic potencies is consistent with the twofold character of this symbol in a host of varied societies. For a useful review, see Mundkur, Cult ofthe Serpent, pp. 172-208. On the nexus between serpent, women, and fecundity in erotic and initiatory symbohsm, see D. AUen, Structure and Creativity in Religion, pp. 150-153. 80. The severe nature ofthe view proffered in this zoharic passage can be appreciated if we bear in mind that Jewish women in medieval European communities did have a more active role in traditional ritual life, both communal and private. On this point, see Grossman, Pious and Rebellious, pp. 304-345. 81. In traditional zoharic commentaries, one can discern an attempt to interpret the statement in Zohar in hght of the more standard rabbinic taxonomy. See, for instance, the commentarial gloss on the zoharic formulation "women are exempt from the commands of Torah" by Moses Cordovero in Abraham Azulai, Or ha-Hamnah, i:io6d: "from the positive commandments dependent on time." 82. For an elaboration of this fundamental tenet of kabbahstic anthropology, unfortunately neglected by many scholars, see E. Wolfson, "Ontology, Alterity, and Ethics." 83. Exod. 22:17; 2 Kings 9:22; Ezek. 13:17-23; Mishnah, Avot 2:7; Palestinian Talmud, Hagigah 2:2, 77d, Sanhedrin 14:19, 25d; Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 66b, Pesahim iiia, Sanhedrin 67a; Eruvin 64b; Massekhet Soferim, 15:7, p. 282; Maimonides, Cuide ofthe Perplexed, III.37, pp. 541-542. On the association of women and magic in Jewish tradition, see Blau, Das AltjUdische Zauberwesen, pp. 18-19, 23-26; Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition, pp. 16, 50-51, 115-116; S. Fishbane, "Most Woman Engage in Sorcery," pp. 27-42; Lesses, "Exe(o)rcising Power," pp. 343-375; Baskin, Midrashic Women, pp. i o - i i , 33-34, 141143, 160, 162. For references to this motif in other cultural contexts, see J. Ward, "Women, Witchcraft and Social Patterning," pp. 99-118; Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages, pp. 31-33, 39, 187; Abusch, "Demonic Image ofthe Witch," pp. 27-58; Scarborough, "Pharmacology of Sacred Plants," pp. 140, 144-145, 161162; Breyfogle, "Magic, Women, and Heresy," pp. 435-454; Graf, Magic in the Ancient World, pp. 185-186; Cryer, "Magic in Ancient Syria-Palestine," pp. 134-137, 140-141; Janowitz, Magic in the Roman World, pp. 86-96; Stephens, Demon Lovers, pp. 32-57. Closely connected to the misogynist stereotype of the female magician is the persistent belief that has been felicitously referred to as the "witch fantasy in men's imagination." See Winkler, "Constraints of Eros," p. 228; see also Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages, p. 198; and Hanegraaff, "From the Devil's Gateway," pp. 213-242. 84. On the identification of creation of woman and the ontic arousal ofthe evil inclination, see Zohar 1:49a. For discussion ofthe theme of magic and the left side of feminine judgment, see E. Wolfson, "Left Contained in the Right," pp. 33-37. For a more comprehensive discussion ofthe phenomenon of magic in zoharic hterature, see Cohen-Alloro, "Magic and Sorcery in the Zohar." On pp. 63-64 and 68-69, the author discusses the correlation of women and magic in zoharic texts (including the passage that I have cited in the body of this chapter). The symbolic valence accorded Egypt as the locus ofthe demonic power of magic is discussed by Cohen-Alloro, pp. 93-94. For a varied approach to models of magical activity in zoharic literature, see Garb, "Power and Kawanah in Kabbalah," pp. 154-171. 443

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85. Zohar 1:126a. On the link between women and sorcery, see also the passage from Midrash ha-Ne'elam on Ruth in Zohar Hadash, 8ib-c. 86. Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat I45b-I46a; Yevamot 103b; Avodah Zarah 22b; Pirqei Rabbi Eli'ezer, chap. 21, 48a. On the related tradition that Cain was the progeny of Samael and Eve, see Targum PseudoJonathan to Genesis 4:3; Bowker, Targums and Rabbinic Literature, pp. 132 and 136 n. i. For discussion of the aggadic motif of the insemination of Eve by the serpent and its resonance with gnostic texts, see Stroumsa, Another Seed, pp. 45-52. G. Anderson, Genesis of Perfection, pp. 89-90, raises the possibility that the aggadic motif of Cain being bom from the serpent's deflowering of Eve came into Jewish materials from a Christian source wherein it served as the antitype to Mary's virginal conception of Jesus, as we fmd, for example, in the Protevangeiium ofjames 13:1. 87. Such an argument has been made about the treatment of women's ritual obligations in Sefer haQanah, an anonymous kabbalistic work composed in all likelihood in late-fourteenth- or early-fifteenthcentury Byzantine; see Fishman, "Kabbalistic Perspective," pp. 199-245. For an elaborate treatment of this work, see Kushnir-Oron, "Sefer ha-PeWah and the Sefer ha-Kanah." 88. Scholem, Major Trends, pp. 37-38. It should be noted that the exclusion of women was not unique to kabbalah. It seems that medieval Jewry, dominated as it was by rabbinic hegemony, had the distinctive quality of being more exclusive of women than the neighboring cultures. On this point, see the observation regarding the virtual lack of medieval Jewish women writers in comparison to Christian and Muslim women made by T. Rosen, Unveiling Eve, pp. 2-3. 89. See Rapoport-Albert, "On Women in Hasidism," p. 523 n. 80; Polen, "Miriam's Dance," pp. 17-18 n. 26; Idel, "Beloved and the Concubine," pp. 141-143. See below, n. 115. 90. Grossman, Pious and Rebellious, pp. 344-345, 505, similarly links Scholem's remark about the exclusion ofJewish women from mystical fraternities based on the presumed demonic nature of the feminine to an intensified concern with laws of menstrual purity. 91. See Humbert, "La femme etrangere du livre des Proverbes," pp. 40-64; Archer, "Evil Women," PP- 239-246; Skehan, Wisdom of Ben Sira, pp. 78, 90-92, 139, 171, 263-265; Newsom, "Woman and the Discourse of Patriarchal Wisdom," pp. 142-160; Blenkinsopp, "Social Context of the 'Outsider Woman,' " PP- 457-473; Horst, "Images of Women in Ancient Judaism," pp. 43-60; Camp, "Woman Wisdom and the Strange Woman," pp. 85-112; idem, "The Strange Woman of Proverbs," pp. 310-329; Crawford, "Lady Wisdom and Dame Folly," pp. 355-366. On the negative stereotype of the imprudent woman, see Yee, "I Have Perfumed My Bed with Myrrh," pp. 110-126, and Washington, "The Strange Woman," pp. 157-185. On the use of the image of the evil woman as a symbol for the heretical other, see Aubin, "She is the Beginning of All the Ways," pp. 1-23. On the duplicitous nature of the scriptural representation of the feminine, see also Toom, "Torn between Vice and Virtue," pp. 1-13. The Janus quality of the female in Proverbs is reflected in the contrast in the book of Revelation between Babylon, mother of all harlots (17:4-6), and New Jerusalem, bride of the Lamb (21:1-2). For a psychoanalytic and literary study on the twofold nature of the feminine in Jewish folklore, see Abarbanell, Eve and Lilith. Against this background, it is of interest to consider the following characterization of Sarai in Genesis Apocryphon, "Indeed, her beauty surpasses that of all women; her beauty is high above all of them. Yet with all this beauty there is much wisdom in her; and whatever she has is lovely" (20 6-8). I have utilized the text and translation prepared by Fitzmyer, Genesis Apocryphon, pp. 62-63. The ancient author seems almost surprised that Sarai exemplified both wisdom and physical beauty. 92. Moi, Sexual/Textual Politics, p. 167. 93. Loraux, Mothers in Mourning, p. 77. 94. Koren, "Woman from Whom God Wanders," pp. 150-208; idem, "Mystical Rationales for the Laws oCNiddah," pp. 101-121. See also E. Wolfson, "Face ofjacob in the Moon," pp. 267-268 n. 59. 95. As noted by Koren, "Woman from Whom God Wanders," pp. 178-181, 192-194. On the dual nature of Shekhinah and her interchangeability with LiUth, see Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, p. 105; idem. On the Mystical Shape, pp. 190-192; Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, pp. 376-379. 96. Regarding the complex compositional and redactional status of the introduction to the printed editions of Zohar, see D. Abrams, "When Was the Introduction to the Zo/iar Written?" pp. 211-226. 444

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97. Zohar i:ia; on the image of the red rose as a symbol for the demonic potency, see Zo/jar 1:148a {Sitrei Torah). See also Zohar y.ioji; Tiqqunei Zohar, sec. 19, 39b. On the implicit sexual intent of the symbol of the rose in zoharic literature, see Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, pp. 184-185. For a general account of the evocative image from the Song, see McGrady, "More on the Image of the 'Rose among Thorns,'" pp. 33~37- See also Anidjar, "Our Place in Al-Andalus," pp. 196-213. 98. This is the fonnulation of Asher ben David in Sefer ha-Yihud. See R. Asher hen David: His Complete Works, p. 52; see p. 61: kol ahat mehen kelulah be-hevratah, and p. 63 for further discussion on the unification of mercy and judgment in the execution of the divine will, and p. 77, where Asher observes with respect to the three central sefirot, the "patriarchs" {avot), referred to as the "interior attributes" (middot ha-penimiyyot), kot ahat mehem po'elet shetoshtan ke-ahat. . . we-kollelet bo et kulan. See Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 331.

Drob, Kabbalistic Metaphors, pp. 131-132, suggests that this kabbalistic principle should be viewed in light of the Neoplatonic idea of "all contained in all." The formulation of Asher ben David (combined with a passage from Zohar 2:26b-27a; see chap. 4, n. 195) is discernible in Book of the Pomegranate, p. ioi; the containment ofjudgment and mercy in each attribute is affirmed on p. 146. See additional references cited by Idel, "Kabbalistic Material," p. 182 n. 65. See also the text of Gikatilla cited below at n. 122. Finally, it is worth mentioning the observation of Moses Cordovero, Sefer Yesirah im Perush Or Yaqar, p. 104, that just as in the case of the sefirot each one is comprised of all the othen, so, too, in the case of the letters. 99. Kitvei Ramban, 2:359. See the text attributed to the Rabad cited in chap. 4, n. 185. 100. It is possible that the kabbalistic notion influenced Jung, who articulated a similar hybridity or, in a locution closer to the tenor of his thought, a synchronicity of gender, with masculine traits in the female, feminine traits in the male. For an elaborate discussion of this dimension ofjungian psychology, see Singer, Androgyny. 101. Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, p. 107. 102. Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 58a; Zohar 3:176b. 103. Babylonian Talmud, Hullin 60b; Shavu'ot 9a. 104. Based on the rabbinic idea (attributed to Simeon ben Yohai) that all of days of the week exist in pairs with the exception of Sabbath, whose mate is the community of Israel {kenesset yisrdel). Cf Genesis Rabbah 11:8, pp. 95-96. When refracted through the prism of medieval kabbalistic symbolism, the midrashic tradition is interpreted as an aUusion to the sacred union of masculine and feminine potencies of the divine, the fonner signified by the Sabbath and the latter by the Community of Israel. See Ginsburg, Sabbath in Classical Kabbalah, pp. 102-103, 109, n o , i n , 167 n. 179, 190. 105. The printed text reads "his desire," but this is clearly a scribal error, as the content demands that the reference is to the desire of woman for man on the basis of Genesis 3:16. 106. Isaac ben Samuel of Acre, Sefer Me'irat Einayion, p. 8. 107. On the "economics of marriage" that evolved in rabbinic literature, see Satlow, Jeiwi/i Marriage, pp. 199-224.

108. Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 24a; Yevamot 62a; Sanhedrin 76b, Bekhorot 38b. 109. Babylonian Talmud, Yevamot 62a; see also Sanhedrin 76b transmitted with an alternative introductory formula, reflecting a different redactional stratum. n o . There is, of course, the larger hermeneutical question of whether underlying the halakhic discourse is an ontological premise regarding what the rabbinic ehte considered to be the "nature" of woman and man. I fear this is a matter upon which the philosophically oriented and the historically inclined may never agree, but perhaps the field can continue to evolve to the point that genuine dialogue is possible. On the increasing tendency in prerabbinic and rabbinic sources to see contemporary marriage patterned on the biblical primal marriage, see Sidow, Jewish Marriage, pp. 60-66. i n . See Zohar 1:49b, "Come and see: What is the import of what is written here 'Then the man said. This one at last etc' (Gen. 2:23)? . . . 'Bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh,' in order to show her that they are one and there is no separation at all between them." 112. A similar ontological rationale for marriage and the love of women is found in Sufi texts, which begin from the same exegetical standpoint. See Murata, "Mysteries of Marriage," pp. 347-348. 445

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113. Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, pp. 403-405. Scholem refers to Sabbatai Sevi's efforts on behalf of women's reform as a "striking and very revealing sign of the messianic transformation of the old order, and of the substitution of a messianic Judaism for the traditional and imperfect one." His choice of words discloses much about his own hermeneutical bias. For a recent and expansive treatment of the topic, see Rapoport-Albert, "On the Role of Women in Sabbatianism." My statement regarding the lack of change in the status of women in the ideology of the Sabbatian movement does not apply to the Frankist resurgence of Sabbatianism, which would require an independent analysis. 114. On this point, I find myself in basic disagreement with the claim of Idel, "Eros in der Kabbala," p. 59 (my gratitude to Daniel Abrams for bringing this study to my attention), who speaks of the difficulty of discussing the theme of eros in kabbalistic literature given the diversity of opinions in the "conglomerate of different schools and tendencies." While I certainly concur that kabbalah (as any literary-cultural phenomenon) is marked by multivocality, I maintain that with respect to critical structures of thought, including the complex nexus of eros, gender, and sexuality, the uniformity of approach is more telling than diversity. Moreover, as I argue later on in this chapter, it is precisely the repetition of stmcture that accounts for the innovation and proHferation of viewpoints. In many of his writings, Idel has repeated his "models" for the study of Jewish mysticism that are presented as ostensibly more pluralistic and multivalent than the so-called Scholemian school. For instance, see Idel, "Kabbalah-Research," pp. 15-46; idem. Messianic Mystics, p. 33, where Idel proposes his "theory of models" based on "different paradigms of Kabbalistic messianism" as an alternative to the "essentiahstic view" and "monolithic phenomenology" of Scholem's approach. In my judgment, polymorphism and monochromatism as methodological paradigms should not be set in opposition, as the seeing of multiple forms is possible only against the background of remembering what has already been visually apprehended, a point well attested in phenomenological studies of human perception, memory, and imagination. 115. See Vital, Sefer ha-Hezyonot, pp. 6-7, 10, and text by Abraham Galante cited by Fine, Physician of the Soul, p. 67; Faierstein, "Maggidim, Spirits, and Women," pp. 186-196; Chajes, Between Worlds, pp. 97-118. There is also evidence that in the Sabbatian movement both men and women had prophetic visions. See Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi, pp. 254, 418-423. Rapoport-Albert, "On Women in Hasidism," p. 496, points out, however, that these women were not central to the phenomenon of mass prophecy and they certainly were not mystical leaders of the messianic movement. For a more detailed discussion, see idem, "On the Role of Women in Sabbatianism." In the case of the Frankist heresy, a significant role is accorded to the feminine aspect of God and there is also evidence of female participants in visionary experiences (see Weinryb, Jetvi of Poland, pp. 236-261), but here too we are dealing with isolated incidents and would therefore be ill advised to draw any general conclusion about the role of women's participation in the history ofjewish mysticism. On the attribution of prophecy and other supernatural powers such as clairvoyance to Jewish women, see also Ben-Naeh, "Tried and Tested Spell," pp. 99-100. 116. Following the conjecture by S. A. Horodecky, several scholars have maintained that in Hasidism women were accorded a more positive and equal social role due to the popularization of esotericism and the overcoming of rabbinic intellectualism by pietistic emotionalism. For a critique of this romantic portrait of Hasidism and the assertion that the social position of women was actuaUy weakened, see J. Katz, Tradition and Crisis, p. 212; Rapoport-Albert, "On Women in Hasidism," pp. 495-525. For a more positive depiction of women in Hasidic spirituahty and a partial rejoinder to Rapoport-Albert, see Polen, "Miriam's Dance," pp. 1-21. A more balanced and methodologically sophisticated account is offered by N. Deutsch, Maiden of Ludmir, pp. 124-143. An astonishingly—and, in my judgment, exaggerated—affirmative role is accorded women in the history of twentieth-century Habad by Lowenthal, "Daughter/Wife of Hasid," pp. 21-28; and see idem, "Women and the Dialectic of Spirituality," pp. 7-65. Wiskind-Elper, Tradition and Fantasy, pp. 103-114, attributes a feminist sensibihty to Nahman's teachings based on depictions o( Shekhinah in his parabohc stories. For a criticism of this tendentious portrayal of Nahman, see E. Wolfson, "Cut That Binds," pp. 134-135 n- 26. 117. An interesting illustration of the point may be deduced from the study by Weissler, Voices of the Matriarchs. Weissler examines Yiddish supphcations, tkhines, composed by women in an effort to reconstruct 446

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something of women's religious experiences in the Ashkenazi orbit of the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries. Beyond the issue of women's rehgious devotion and the construction of gender in modem Ashkenazic culture, Weissler's research attempts to redress the imbalance in Judaic scholarship by including a genre of literature that was not written and studied exclusively by male elites of the rabbinic establishment. In one passage, Weissler optimistically states her conclusion: "Ashkenazic Judaism as reflected in Yiddish devotional literature is less rigid in its gender categories than the halakhah and tends to involve them in more playful and symbolic ways" (p. 65). This optimism is tempered, however, by the sober reahzation that many of the more daring motifs found in these texts, such as the depiction of righteous women in paradise studying Torah (pp. 76-85) or the transformation of the woman who hghts the Sabbath candles into a high priest (pp. 89-103), indicate that the androcentric inclination of traditional rabbinic culture is reinforced. Weissler herself admits that the tkhines at best present a "complicated web of resistance and accommodation, valorization and abnegation" that makes it impossible to distinguish sharply between women's popular culture and men's ehtist culture (p. 175). In the final analysis, the "religious world" that can be infened from the tkhine hterature "is, essentially, a set of female variants of male Jewish culture. It does not comprise a Judaism that takes women as the starting point" (pp. 185-186). 118. Consider the formulation of this motif in the sixteenth-century kabbahst, Joseph Ibn Sayyah, Even ha-Shoham, fol. 4a: "Each of the attributes from the ten sefirot is comprised of judgment and mercy except for the supernal Keter, which is complete mercy, and it mediates all of them to act with judgment or mercy." For detailed studies of this kabbalist, see Garb, "Kabbalah of Rabbi Joseph Ibn Sayyah," pp. 255-313; idem, "Trance Techniques in the Kabbalistic Tradition," pp. 47-67. For some kabbahsts even Keter must display the androgynous character of bestowing and constricting, a logical consequence of the view that the first of the emanations embodies the coincidence of opposites. An interesting example of this tendency is found in the writings of Moses Cordovero: see Pardes Rimmonim, 15:5, 77b-c, 23:11, 24a; Elimah Rabbati, 2ob-c; BenShlomo, Mystical Theology of Moses Cordovero, pp. 271, 277-280. See chap. 4, n. 243. It must be noted, however, that in other passages in his compositions Cordovero emphasizes (following earher sources, principally the Idrot strata of zoharic literature) that Keter is entirely right without any opposing left. See, for instance, Elimah Rabbati, 67b-c. The two approaches are not necessarily contradictory, as it is plausible to maintain that within Keter the feminine left is so completely integrated in the masculine right that we can speak of this attribute as having only one side. Cordovero adopts this approach in Shi'ur Qomah, 9a. 119. Liebes, Studies in the Zohar, pp. 99-105, and references to other scholars cited on pp. 203 nn. 77-79 and 204 n. 87. 120. This is one of the technical terms Gikatilla uses to designate the sefirotic emanations. See Gikatilla, Sha'arei Orah, r.65; Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, p. 177; Gikatilla, Secret du Mariage, p. 16. It is clear from

this particular context that the term ma'atot more broadly connotes all levels of being, including the sefirotic gradations. 121. That is, the sefirah of Keter, which is hidden so that it can be demarcated only by the scribal jot on top of yod, the first letter of YHWH, the name that comprises the sefirotic emanations. 122. Gikatilla, Sha'arei Orah, i: 238. Compare idem. Secret du Mariage, pp. 42-43 (the Enghsh rendering of the Hebrew text is my own): "Know that the one who knows the secret of the supemal grades [ma'atot] and the emanation of the sefirot in the secret of that which overflows [mashpi'a] and that which receives [meqabbel], in the secret of earth and heaven and heaven and earth, knows the secret of the bond of all the sefirot, and the secret of all created beings in the world, how they receive from one another." See analysis by Mopsik in Gikatilla, Secret du Mariage, pp. 16-33. Similar language is found in Gikatilla, Sha'arei Sedeq, 25a. On the secret of androgyny applied to the human soul, see idem, R.Joseph Cikatilla's Commentary, p. 53. The "secret of the androgyne" and the dual capacity of each of the sefirot to bestow and to receive are also affirmed byjoseph of Hamadan, Fragment d'un commentaire sur la Genese, p. 5 (Hebrew section). In the French section, pp. 52-53 n. 32, Mopsik asserts that the view ofjoseph of Hamadan stands in opposition to my thesis regarding the male androgyne since androgyny is clearly hnked to both male and female. The argument is repeated in Mopsik, Le sexe des ames, p. 60. In my opinion, just the opposite is the case, for the nature of the androgyny 447

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formulated here is decidedly androcentric insofar as the feminine receives and the masculine bestows. Moreover, the overflow of the male is inscribed in the female like the flame in the coal. The notion of the male androgyne that I have suggested applies to the kabbalistic sources does not negate the view that each sefirah comprehends mercy and judgment, bestowing and receiving. The issue, rather, is the ontically derivative status ofthe feminine vis-a-vis the mascuhne and the inflexible linkage of bestowal and the male, on one hand, and reception and the female, on the other. The most recent skewed characterization of my thesis is presented by Schafer, Mirror of His Beauty, p. 285 n. 37. In chapter 4, I shall deal with Schafer's specific challenge to my interpretation of the relevant bahiric passages, but here I wish only to draw the reader's attention to the author's comment that he sees no basis for my "repeated claim that God's allegedly primordial androgyny is only superficial, that in reality the feminine emanates from and depends on the masculine." To claim, as I do, that medieval kabbalah is suffused in an ontology that recognizes only one gender that comprises two sexes, what I call the male androgyne (for this I am indebted to Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty's study ofthe androgyne motif in Hindu mythology, as I acknowledged exphcitly in "Woman—The Feminine as Other," p. 193 n. 4) is not to say that I have ever suggested that the myth ofthe primordial androgyne is "only superficial." Perhaps Schafer imparts a meaning to this term of which I am unaware, but in the dozens of studies that I have written that deal with the topic of gender and kabbalistic symbohsm, I have never once referred to the myth of androgyny as "superficial." Regrettably, what is superficial is Schafer's rendering of my portrayal ofthe androcentric construction of androgyny on the part of traditional kabbalists and his lack of engagement with feminist studies that have shown the androcentric underpinnings of the image of the androgyne as a privileging of male subjectivity. For representative studies, see O'Flaherty, Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts; Warren, "Is Androgyny the Answer to Sexual Stereotyping?" pp. 170-196; Weil, Androgyny and the Denial of Difference; E. Goldberg, Lord Who Is Half Woman, pp. 113-132. I gladly situate my work within this vector of contemporary scholarship. 123, See Farber-Ginat, "Shell Precedes the Fruit," pp. 121-124. 124, See the introduction by Ben-Shlomo in his edition of Gikatilla, Sha'arei Orah, 1:30-31; and the discussion of this philosophical issue in Tishby, Wisdom ofthe Zohar, pp, 242-246. 125, I have qualified this claim with the word "ostensibly" since there are passages in Gikatilla's writings that suggest that Keter is portrayed in decisively masculine or, to be more precise, phallic terms, for example, the white head or the beard of thirteen curls, images that bear a resemblance to the imagery found in the Idrot sections of zoharic literature. See Gikatilla, Sha'arei Orah, 1:31-33, and E, Wolfson, "Beyond Good and Evil," pp, 118-122. A revised version of this study wiU appear in my forthcoming Venturing Beyond. On the purely mascuhne nature oi Keter, see also the passage from Joseph of Hamadan cited in chap. 4, n. 230. 126, Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 54a. See Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp. 130-134; idem, "Sexual Metaphors and Praxis," pp. 202-204. I" hght of the esoteric interpretation of the cherubim that may be ehcited from Jewish sources in late antiquity, it is of interest to consider the comment in Hebrews 9:5 that it is not appropriate to speak in detail about the "cherubim of glory," On the divine attributes in rabbinic and kabbalistic sources, see also Liebes, Studies in Jewish Myth, pp, 27-42, 127, See text ofjoseph ben Shalom Ashkenazi cited in chap, 4, n, 233, 128, Sefer Yesirah 23a (pseudo-RaBaD commentary), 129, For discussion of this matter, see E, Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp, 70-73, 130, Sefer Yesirah, 24b, 131, Proclus, Proclus' Commentary on Plato's Parmenides, I, 668, pp, 53-54, 132, For discussion ofthe different facets ofthe concept of activity in the thought of Proclus, see Gersh, K I N H 2 I 2 A K I N H T O 2 , pp, 81-102, On the theme of participation in Platonic thought, see Brisson, Meme et I'Autre, pp, 116-125, 133, Proclus, Proclus' Commentary on Plato's Parmenides, II, 740, p, 114, For an informative discussion on the notion of contrariety in Greek philosophic thought, which undoubtedly influenced Neoplatonic thinkers, see Anton, Aristotle's Theory of Contrariety, pp, 1-67, 134, Proclus, Prodi Diadochi In Platonis Timaeum Commentaria, 17A, p, 18, AU renderings of this text are

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my own, though I have consulted the following translations: Proclus, Commetttaire sur le Timee, vol. i, p, 45; idem. Commentaries of Proclus on the Timaeus of Plato, vol, i, p, 14, 135, An illustration ofthe point is found in Proclus, On the Existence of Evils, 13,13-17, p, 67: "For the good is measure and Hght, whereas evil is darkness and absence of measure; the former is the cause of all foundation and all power, the latter is without foundation and weak; the former is that which sustains everything, the latter that which corrupts each thing in which it is present, each according to its own rank; for, as we have explained, not everything has the same mode of corruption," 136, Comford, Plato's Cosmology, p. 10, 137, In the final stages of preparation of this chapter, Mopsik's Le sexe des ames came across my desk. On pp, 76-75, Mopsik cites a portion ofthe same passage from Proclus as textual support for his contention that gender is located not in the body but in the soul, and hence it is possible to conceive of heterosexual and homosexual yearning as legitimate or "natural" possibilities in the economy of desire embraced by kabbalists, I concur with this claim, but I would contend that the shift from body to soul as the site for difference sexuelle does not alter the androcentric bias of the gender construction, which in fact calls into question whether it is credible to speak of a genuine sense of sexual difference rather than a one-sex theory, with the feminine derived ontically from the mascuhne, a point that Mopsik assiduously ignores as he repeatedly emphasizes the unity ofthe primal androgyne as masculine and feminine interpreted as autonomous powers (ibid,, p, 77), It is also curious that Mopsik is completely silent with respect to the misogynist characterizations ofthe feminine offered by Proclus; it is reasonable to expect a scholar writing on the issue of masculinity and femininity to heed the specific depictions of male and female before rushing to promote a doctrine of androgyny that challenges the engendering structure ofthe primal male androgyne. It is lamentable that Mopsik did not realize that his claim for shifting the locus of gender identity is consonant with my own view, I beheve a more sympathetic reading from him would have gone a great distance in advancing the field, but sadly, with his untimely passing, this is not to be, and even colleagues who embrace my work more generously are left with the impression that Mopsik's discussion of homosexuality is a radical departure, 138, Proclus, In Platonis Timaeum Commentaria, i8c, p, 46; idem, Commentaire sur le Timee, vol, i, pp, 77-78; idem. Commentaries of Proclus on the Timaeus, vol, I, pp, 38-39, 139, Proclus, Proclus' Commentary on Plato's Parmenides, II, 740, p, 114, 140, Proclus, Elements of Theology, prop, 123, p, 109, 141, Ibid,, prop, 129, p, 115, On the motif of participation, see De Ruk, "Causation and Participation in Proclus," pp, 1-34; Meijer, "Participation in Henads and Monads," pp, 65-87; Siorvanes, Proclus, pp, 71-86, 142, Neumann, Origins, p. 75; for more detailed discussion ofthe maternal uroboros, see pp, 13-18, 143, Neumann, Creat Mother, p. 7, 144, Neumann, Origins, p. 371, 145, Neumann, Creat Mother, p. 6. 146, Ibid, 147, Neumann, Origins, pp, 5-6, 367-369, 148, Ibid,, p, 276, 149, Ibid,, pp, 276-277, 150, Neumann's position is captured succinctly in the remark ofjacobi. Complex/ Archetype/ Symbol, p. 146, that in the Great Mother "the male principle is not yet operative , , , the opposites, male and female, are not yet separate," The engendering mythos of traditional kabbalistic symbolism, according to my understanding, is predicated on the notion ofthe male androgyne in which the female principle is "not yet operative" as a distinct and actualized potency. 151, Neumann, Origins, pp, 322-323. 152, Neumann, Origins, p. 331, notes, "In the patriarchal development of theJudaeo-Christian west, with its masculine, monotheistic trend toward abstraction, the goddess, as a feminine figure of wisdom, was disenthroned and repressed. She survived only secretly, for the most part on heretical and revolutionary bypaths," It is hkely that in the case ofJudaism, Neumann has in mind the kabbalistic symbol of Shekhinah. 153, Although Neumann consistently speaks ofthe Great Mother in a manner that justifies the locution 449

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"female androgyne," which is to say, the male is contained in the female, it behooves me to note that Neumann's depiction of the archetypal feminine as a vessel and the association of the latter with the body and the material world (Neumann, Creat Mother, pp. 39-47, 95-96, 120-146, 162-164, 171-172, 282-287, 325329; idem. Origins, pp. 13-14) bespeak a typical androcentric depiction ofthe female as a container or orifice the value of which is determined by what is received from the male. Finally, it is incumbent on me to underscore that for Neumann the archetype of the Great Mother is a psychological and not a sociological structure; thus it hves in man as well as woman, individually or collectively, and hence the archetype can take form in a patriarchal society just as the archetype of the Father God can take form in a matriarchal society (Neumann, Creat Mother, pp, 91, 94-95), 154, Neumann, Fear of the Feminine, pp, 102-103, 155, Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, pp, 185-186, 156, In the zoharic context, Shekhinah is identified both as the "redeeming angel," ha-mal'akh ha-go'et (based on Gen, 48:16) and as the angel who bore the name of God in his entrails (fei shemi be-qirbo, "for my name is in him," words attributed to the divine voice) as he accompanied the Israelites in the desert (Exod, 23:20-23), On the identification of Shekhinah (designated Matronita) and the angel of God {mal'akh haelohim), see Zohar2:iii. 157, Zohar 1:232a, In the continuation ofthe text, the dual nature o{ Shekhinah is related to the belief that angels appear in this world as both male and female, an idea hnked exegetically to the bibhcal image ofthe "fiery ever-turning sword," lahat ha-herev ha-mithapekhet (Gen, 3:24), Regarding the zoharic passage, see Tishby, Wisdom ofthe Zohar, p. 372; E, Wol&on, "Woman—The Feminine as Other," p, 188, The extent to which the contemporary need to find a voice for the feminine in traditional kabbalistic symbolism blinds the scholar is exemphfied in the comment by Daniel C, Matt in the introduction to his critical edition of David ben Yehudah he-Hasid, Book of Mirrors, p. 28, After citing a portion ofthe zoharic text wherein Shekhinah is described as assuming a male character when she bestows blessings on the world. Matt writes, "From the perspective ofthe lower worlds. She is a powerful governess; from a higher perspective. She is simply transmitting divine blessing or chastisement," How is it that the contemporary interpreter employs the word "governess" to depict the status o{ Shekhinah that the zoharic text itself portrays as masculine? The one example is, sadly, illustrative of a much larger tendentious reading ofthe medieval kabbalistic sources predicated on attenuating or obscuring their androcentric orientation in the name of pohtical correctness, 158, In the course of teaching kabbalistic rehgious philosophy over the last two decades, I have found that audiences are always struck by the symbohc correlation of mascuhnity/mercy and femininity/judgment, expecting the reverse. This was indeed the more typical association in the medieval Christian ideal ofthe two faces of divine justice—the punitive dimension linked to the father and the merciful to the mother. See Semple, "Male Psyche," p, 186, 159, It is possible, although the matter is not stated exphcitly in the zoharic homily, that there is allusion here to the two stages of pregnancy and giving birth. With regard to the former, the female is engendered as feminine, the vessel that holds in, and with regard to the latter, the female is masculinized, the opening of the womb to discharge. On the use of the image of a pregnant woman to describe Shekhinah when she is filled with the souls ofthe righteous, see Zohar 2213b, 259a, 160, The pronoun is in the third person singular masculine, ihu, but I have accepted the practice of translators, scholarly and traditional (for instance, Tishby, Wisdom of Zohar, p, 202), in rendering it in the feminine, which is demanded by the language ofthe rest ofthe passage, 161, Zo/iijr 3:187a, 162, Zohar i.6O3.-h.

163, Zo/iar i:33b-34a. See Zb/iar 2:23 5b, where the "mystery of Adonai," the ark ofthe covenant, Shekhinah, is hnked to the "mystery ofthe tabernacle," In that context, the epithet Adonai is said to be in the "likeness ofthe mystery ofthe supernal holy name, YHWH," Although the symbolic associations are somewhat different, the main point is the same, 164, Moses de Leon, Book ofthe Pomegranate, pp, 203-204, 165, Tishby, Wisdom of Zohar, pp, 379-381, 450

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166, Moses de Leon, Sheqel ha-Qodesh, p. 26, 167, Ibid., p. 72. 168, Pattai, Hebrew Coddess, pp. 186-206. 169, See Liebes, Studies in the Zohar, pp, 103-126, 170, In chapter 5, I discuss the import ofthe book's title for understanding the author's worldview, 171, Joseph of Hamadan, Sefer Tashak, p. 436, 172, Ibid,, pp, 97, 356; see p, 70, where Hokhmah is similarly described as "occasionally overflowing and occasionally receiving," 173, Cenesis Rabbah 1:3, pp, 21-22; Babylonian Talmud, Hagigah 12a, 174, Babylonian Talmud, MegiUah 15b; Sanhedrin iiib, 175, Joseph of Hamadan, Sefer Tashak, p. 355, 176, Ibid., pp. 69, 73, 103-104, and see discussion in E. Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp. 211-212 n. 85, 224-225 n. 152. On the identification ofthe encirchng spirit as the wellspring and source of all things created, the "pattern in the pure and holy chain," which I assume should be decoded as a reference to the phallic potency, see Joseph of Hamadan, Sefer Tashak, p. 64, Consider also the passage from Joseph of Hamadan cited in E, Wolfson, Through a Speculum, p. 340 and discussion in n, 48 ad locum. An alternative explanation ofthe eschatological symbol of the crown perched on the head of the righteous is offered by Jacob ben Sheshet, Sefer Meshiv Devarim Nekhohim, pp, 71-72, If I understand this text properly, then a distinction is drawn between the status of the righteous in this world and in the world-to-come: in the former state, they are crowned by Shekhinah (linked exegetically to Ps, 8:6) whereas, in the latter, they are crowned by Tiferet, which ascends to Keter (linked to Ps, 103:4), In support ofthe depiction ofthe conjunction ofthe righteous and S/)efe/ima/i, Jacob ben Sheshet mentions a tradition conceming the drawing forth ofthe dalet in the word ehad ofthe Shema, which he ascribes to Isaac the Bhnd, The author adds "as I have written his language in the second chapter with respect to the verse 'Hear O Israel' (Deut, 6:4)," Vajda, op, cit,, p, 72 n, 44, remarks that he did not find this reference in the manuscript he utihzed. The reference seems to be the third (and not second) chapter oi Sefer ha-Emunah we-ha-Bittahon, where Jacob ben Sheshet does exphcate the liturgical practice connected to the word ehad, including a tradition he heard in the name of Isaac the Bhnd, See Kitvei Ramban, 2:362, 177, Joseph of Hamadan, Sefer Tashak, pp, 166-168, 178, E, Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp, 357-368, 179, For discussion of this motif ehcited from a text of Cordovero, see E, Wolfson, "Coronation ofthe Sabbath Bride," pp, 336-338, and references to zoharic sources cited on p. 337 n, 97, 180, This is not to deny that Scholem was well aware ofthe centrality of phallic imagery in kabbalistic tradition connected especially to the ninth emanation, Yesod, to which in fact he dedicated a separate treatment; see Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, pp, 88-139, See also idem. Origins, pp, 152-158; idem. On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, pp, 104-105, 181, Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, p. 188, For a less nuanced presentation ofthe feminine character of Shekhinah, see idem. Major Trends, p. 230, 182, Scholem, Mystical Shape, p. 174, Interestingly, in On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, p. 105, Scholem notes that the third sejirah is the "upper mother or upper Shekhinah, but also, strange to say, the demiurgic potency," Though Scholem does not elaborate, I would surmise that what struck him as "strange" was the amalgamation of demiurgical and maternal characteristics in the same potency, the former typicaUy associated with the paternal; see p, 107, where Scholem contrasts the demiurgical qualities oi Binah and Malkhut on the grounds that the former are purely positive, whereas the latter are combined with pejorative, even demonic, aspects, 183, MS Munich 47, fol, 338b, For discussion of this text, see Scholem, "Eine unbekannte mystische Schrift des Mose de Leon," pp, 109-123, The verse is interpreted in an analogous manner in Zohar 3:39b, 46b, 184, In Moses de Leon's writings, Tiferet is identified as the hving creature whose name is "Israel," a 451

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tradition preserved in the Heikhalot corpus; see E. Wolfson, Along the Path, p. 7 and references cited p. 118 n. 48. See Shushan Edut, p. 336, 185, E, Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp, 339-345; idem. Circle in the Square, pp, 116-119; idem, "Tiqqun ha-Shekhinah," pp, 313-329; idem, "The Engendennent of Messianic Pohtics," pp, 203-258, esp, pp, 230247, 186, Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 22b, 187, Luzzatto, Adir ba-Marom, p. 134, For a shghtly different translation and brief analysis of this passage, see E, Wolfson, "Tiqqun ha-Shekhinah," p. 325, 188, Needless to say, Luzzatto exphcates this theme in many of his writings. Particularly helpful is the discussion in Pithei Hokhmah wa-Da'at, sees, 92-94, pp, 226-229, 189, See E, Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp, 110-112, and references to primary and secondary sources given, pp, 227 nn, 158-160 and 228 n, 168, 190, See E, Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp, 213-214 n, 96, The androcentric, if not misogynist, tendency reflected in this talmudic dictum was influential in shaping attitudes toward women in medieval rabbinic texts and beyond. See, for instance, Abraham Ibn Ezra's comment on the prohibition of a woman wearing a "man's apparel" (Deut, 22:5), "for the woman is not created except to estabhsh progeny, and if she were to go out to war with men she would be led in the way to harlotry," Text cited &om Ibn Ezra, Perushei haTorah, 3:287, 191, For translation and analysis of a representative hst of sources, see E, Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp, 85-89, and idem, "Divine Suffering," pp, 126-128 (some of these passages are repeated in chap, 4 of this monograph). In Luzzatto's kabbalah, closely following his Lurianic sources, there is a perfect symmetry between creation and redemption: just as in the originary state, the female is contained in the male in the image of the corona of the phallus, so the end is characterized by the restoration of the feminine to the masculine. See E, Wolfson, "Tiqqun ha-Shekhinah," pp, 322-332, 192, Here it is incumbent on me to correct the view of Tishby, Wisdom ofthe Zohar, p. 372, that Shekhinah is called atarah because "all the worlds are crowned by it," For a different explanation, see Liebes, Studies in Jewish Myth, p. 47, According to Liebes, citing the work of Asi Farber-Ginat and Moshe Idel (references on p, 264 n, 108), the symbol ofthe diadem (atarah) in early kabbalah "derived from mythical ideas , , , such as wreathing the divine crown from the prayers offered by His people and the phylacteries laid by God," This seems to be the understanding embraced as well by A, Green, Keter, pp, 141-144, The precise intent ofthe term atarah and the mascuhne transvaluation ofthe feminine imphed thereby, which has been a cornerstone of my own interpretation ofthe kabbalistic symbol, is stated exphcitly in an anonymous commentary on the ie/iro/pubhshed by Scholem, "Traditions of R, Jacob and R, Isaac," p, 230: "The tenth sejirah, Shekhinah, is the diadem [ateret], and she is alluded to in the feminine language, and it is this world, for this world is guided by her through the efflux that she receives from the mascuhne, which is the sixth attribute , , , and it is called the angel of God [mal'akh elohim], and Rabbi Moses explained that it is apposite rather than in the construct state, and the meaning is the angel that is called elohim, the angel that is called YHWH, 'The angel that is the Lord appeared to him' (Exod, 3:2), The Rabbi said, 'Therefore she is called ateret, for the providence ofthe world [hanhagat ha-olam] is by means of her,' as we have explained," The author of this text alludes to two passages in the commentary on the Torah by Nahmanides, references that are lacking in the short recension. The first is to Exod, 14:19 (Moses ben Nahman, Perushei ha-Torah, 1:351) and the second to Exod, 23:20 (vol, I, p, 442), For my purposes, the latter is crucial. The exact language of Nahmanides is: "By way of tmth, the angel about whom promises are made here is the redeeming angel [mal'akh ha-go'el] in whose midst is the great name , , , and the verse refers to it as an angel since the entire providence ofthe world is dependent on this attribute," Significantly, Nahmanides himself does not utilize the word ateret (the version printed in Liqqutei Shikhehah u-Fe'ah is more faithful to the language of Nahmanides), It is nevertheless accurate on the part ofthe latter kabbahst to interpret Nahmanides in this fashion, for the designation atarah indeed relates to the providential role assumed by Shekhinah, which is also the esoteric sense ofthe title mal'akh applied to her. Both "diadem" and "angel" denote the mascuhne transposition ofthe feminine presence vis-a-vis the cosmos. Finally, I note the attention drawn to the symbol oi atarah, especially in the anonymous Ma'arekhet 452

NOTES TO PAGES 7 - 7 7 ha-Elohut, in Neumark, History ofjewish Philosophy, vol. i, pp, 191, 196-199, Neumark clearly understood that the significance of this symbol was connected to the mystery of androgyny in the divine. Thus he observed that Malkhut "is called atarah because it is the last ofthe sejirot and it serves as the final channel for all ofthe influx that comes from above. But, in truth, the power oi atarah is in the middle bar that mediates between all the sejirot and unites them as one. The activity oi atarah, which is the overflow ofthe potencies from the androgynous source, from within the inner unity of the elements of mascuhnity and femininity, is an activity shared by all the sefirot, and therefore atarah is the motif shared by every movement in the world of emanation" (pp, 196-197), 193, E, Wolfson, "Engenderment of Messianic Politics," pp, 223-224, 194, Tishby, Wisdom ofthe Zohar, pp, 245-246, 195, Zo/iar 3:128b, 196, Luzzitto, Adir ba-Marom, pp. 133-134, 197, It seems that an allusion to this doctrine is found in Zohar 2:177a (Sifra di-Seni'uta): "The supernal yod, which is crowned in the crown oi Atiqa, is the supernal membrane that is pure and sealed," The image ofthe yod in the brain to symbolize the attribute of wisdom set in the middle and encompassing everything is found in the commentary to Sefer Yesirah that preserves the teachings of Isaac the Blind, See Isaac the Bhnd, Perush Sefer Yesirah, p. 2, The conventional wisdom of experts in the field is that the aforementioned commentary is properly attributable to Isaac, though Scholem did surmise on the basis of a reference in one passage to "our teacher says" (ibid,, p, 12) that the text was a transcription on the part of a disciple of Isaac's teaching (presumably from a text) or written from the master's dictation. See Scholem, Origins, pp, 257-258, For further weighing ofthe evidence, see Sendor, "Emergence of Provencal Kabbalah," vol, I, pp, 45-50- I concur with Sendor's conclusion, "whether the writer was R, Isaac himself or a student copyist, the text can be considered an accurate record of R, Isaac's thought" (p, 50), and thus I refer to the commentary as "preserving the teachings of Isaac the Blind," 198, In distinguishing "phallus" (the cultural mark of signification) from "penis" (the physical organ), I am following the suggestion of Lacan; see chap, 3, n, 119, 199, The text of Luzzatto illustrates a larger point that is true of kabbalistic symbohsm more generally and particularly pronounced in the intricacies of Lurianic theosophy. Somatic images such as ateret berit, the corona of the phallus, or, alternatively, ateret yesod, do not denote only the lower gradations of the divine anthropos. On the contrary, they are semiotic markers of aspects of the highest realm of the divine, even apphcable to Ein Sof, according to some texts. In kabbalistic lore, hardly altered by time or place, the myth of the ascent of atarah, which draws upon much older material describing the coronation of God by the prayers of Israel, denotes the elevation ofthe lowest gradation to the highest, which signifies the reconstitution of the broken circle of divine unity. Moreover, in the relevant sources, this process denotes as well the gender transformation of the feminine by her restoration to the mascuhne in the form of the corona or crown. A, Green, Keter, pp, 151-153, presents the former meaning, but he has not appreciated the gender imphcations ofthe mythical image, a point that has been central to my own reflections. See below, n, 256, 200, E, Wolfson, "Divine Suffering," p, 156 n, 128, 201, I am in agreement with the formulation of Eilberg-Schwartz, Savage in Judaism, p. 27: "Since the historical anthropologist cannot question natives about the meaning of practices, she or he is in the position of doing cultural archaeology, a mode of interpretation that involves imagining what practices meant from incomplete and partial remains. These unstated meanings can often be detected from symbohc artifacts such as metaphors, which point to larger complexes of unarticulated meaning," See also pp, 143-144: "Symbohc exegesis is the attempt to tease out imphcit meanings that are embedded in the practice in question, , , , Since the historical anthropologist cannot question natives about the meaning of practices, she or he is in the position of doing cultural archaeology, a mode of interpretation which involves imagining what practices meant from incomplete cultural remains. Unstated meanings can often be detected from symbolic artifacts such as metaphors which point to larger complexes of meaning that never found explicit articulation," 202, The philosophical point is well stated by Salvaggio, Enlightened Absence, p. x: "Yet while my primary concern is with representations of woman, imphcit in my argument is the behef that configuration and reality 453

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are always infused in each other—making it impossible to talk about the plight of women without also understanding the ways in which they and their gender have been represented, and just as it is impossible to talk about schemes of representation without constantly keeping in mind the effects of these configurations in the real world," 203, Grossman's Pious and Rebellious is a comprehensive attempt to reconstruct the lives of women in medieval Europe (in both the Ashkenazic and Sephardic cultural miheu) based exclusively on documents written by men ofthe rabbinic ehte. See also Baskin, "Jewish Women in the Middle Ages," pp, 94-114, On the use ofGeniza sources, see Goitein, "Sexual Mores ofthe Common People," pp, 43-61; idem, Mediterranean Society; Kraemer, "Women's Letters &om the Cairo Geniza," pp, 161-182, For additional studies that treat in some measure the sexual hves and domestic rights of women in the Jewish middle ages, see Z, Falk, Jewish Matrimonial Law; Assis, "Sexual Behaviour," pp, 25-59; M, Friedman, "Ethics of Medieval Jewish Marriage," pp, 83-101; idem, "Halacha as Evidence for the Study of Sexual Mores," pp, 143-160; Barkai, Les itrfortunes de Dinah; Westreich, Transitions in the Legal Status ofthe Wife, pp, 62-198, 204, For an elaborate discussion of this subject, see Spiro, Cender Ideology. 205, See N, Miller, "Text's Heroine," pp, 112-120, 206, Gold, Lady and the Virgin, pp, 73-74, See also Ellington, From Sacred Body, pp, 47-76, esp, pp, 69-70, 207, An excellent illustration of this methodological strategy is found in the trilogy produced by Ilan, Jewish Women in Creco-Roman Palestine; Mine Are Yours Are Hers; and Integrating Women into Second Temple History. Consider also the review of scholarly hterature offered by S, Heschel, "Genre et historiographie juive," pp, 157-180, and the monograph by Grossman, Pious and Rebellious. Grossman offers a balanced account of historical changes that affected Jewish women in medieval Europe, noting both improvement and dechne. There is an enormous amount that one can learn from this work, but it is still marred theoretically by privileging a materialist historicism that fails to take into account the difference between sexual and gender identification. Many ofthe changes he notes should be examined in terms ofthe former and not the latter, which, in my view, would not alter substantially the construction of gender that informed rabbinic culture in medieval societies. An exception to this prevalent tendency in Jewish studies is found in Fonrobert, Menstrual Purity. In this work, Fonrobert offers the reader a sophisticated gender analysis that attempts to locate a "counterdiscourse" that "disturbs the tahnudic metaphoric imagination of the women's body even within talmudic literature" (p, 67), that is, the portrayal of woman's body as a subject rather than an object determined functionally in relation to man, an "alternative constellation" that may lie on the "margins of the androcentric universe" ofthe rabbis but that nevertheless presents a "corrosion ofthe 'center' of androcentrism" (p, IOI). Following the feminist theorists Cixous and Irigaray, Fonrobert attempts to "move beyond the strategy of critique to a constructivist mode" (p, 66) based on discerning a rupture within the fold of rabbinic hterature itself Although I am sympathetic to this approach, I am not convinced ofthe argument on textual grounds nor am I hopeful that ruptures of this sort are enveloping ofthe feminine. Surely this is not evident in kabbalistic texts. Notwithstanding my reservation, I would not consider a continual effort to discern cracks in the edifice futile. In my judgment, a sophisticated approach to this question is displayed in Exum, Fragmented Women. The interpretative strategy of recovering the voice of the feminine adopted by Exum is predicated on exhuming the subversion of negative portrayals of women preserved in the scripture of ancient Israel, 208, T, Rosen, Unveiling Eve, p. 3, 209, Ibid,, p, 5, 210, For a more detailed analysis of this theme and a critique ofthe oral/written binary that has dominated the field, see E, Wolfson, "Beyond the Spoken Word," 211, E, Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp, 49-78, On the images of writing (kitaba) or the book {kitab) as metaphorical tropes for sexual union in the thought of Ibn 'Arabl, see Chittick, Self Disclosure, p. 5, 212, Isaac Luria, Perush Sifra di-Seni'uta, in Vital, Sha'ar Ma'amerei Rashbi, 27c; printed anew in Vital, Sefer ha-Derushim, p. 257, See also Sha'ar Ma'amerei Rashbi, 28a; Sefer ha-Derushim, p, 259, 213, Moi, Sexual/Textual Politics, p. 44,

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214, Bourdieu, Masculine Domination, pp, 41-42, 215, Ibid,, p, II, 216, Orr, Donors, Devotees, and Daughters of Cod, p. 179, 217, Feminist Jewish theologians such as Judith Plaskow, Lynn Gottlieb, and Marcia Falk have expressed this hesitancy. See the concise but insightful discussion in Oppenheim, Speaking/Writing of Cod, pp, 77-78, Scholars of kabbalah would benefit from the discussion on the compatibility of feminism and women's mystical writings in Mazzoni, Saint Hysteria, pp, 156-196, Kabbalistic literature from the Middle Ages (and, for the most part, continuing in the modern period even to the present) leaves one with an even more difficult task as we do not have literary compositions or any historical documentation written or even inspired by Jewish women's mystical experiences, 21B, See the preliminary remarks of Tirosh-Rothschild, "Continuity and Revision," pp, 182 and 186, Far more perceptive was the observation of Neumann, Creat Mother, p. 50, regarding the "patriarchal world of India, as ofthe cabala and Christianity," The problematic nature ofthe mistaken perceptions on the part of leading scholars in the field is most acutely felt in the influence they have had on other fields, A noteworthy example of this phenomenon is the comparison of the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, gnostic Sophia, and kabbahstic Shekhinah in Parpola, Assyrian Prophecies, pp, xxxv-xxxvi, bcxxix n, 98, Particularly troublesome is Parpola's uncritical acceptance ofthe feminine characterization oi Shekhinah, which he then compares to what he considers to be similar depictions of Ishtar, In my judgment, this approach is methodologically flawed on several fronts, but this is not the place to elaborate. See idem, "The Assyrian Tree of Life," pp, 161-208, In spite of my critique of Parpola's attempts to use later Jewish esotericism to explain the contours of biblical monotheism, I would not deny the fact that the range ofthe mythical imagination and actual ritual practices based thereon in ancient Israel were far greater than what has been preserved in the literary confines of Scripture, The relationship of this older material to kabbalah, however, is another matter. For a thorough and careful analysis of the polytheism of the ancient Near East and the emerging monotheism of biblical Israel, with special focus on the ways in which gender assumptions about the divine are mirrored in the social roles assigned to men and women of a particular cult, see Henshaw, Female and Male. See also references in chap, 4, nn, 3 and 4, 219, Vital, Sefer ha-Cilgulim, chap, 19, 21a, 220, I have benefited from the discussion of Foucault in Braidotti, "Body-Images," pp, 17-19- See also McLaren, Feminism, Foucault, and Embodied Subjectivity, pp, 81-116, 221, Fausto-Sterling, Sexing the Body, pp, 3-4, 20, 222, Ibid,, p, 21 (emphasis in original). For a recent attempt to essentialize gender difference in neurobiological terms, see Baron-Cohen, Truth about the Male and Female Brain. 223, Grosz, Volatile Bodies, pp. 138-159, 224, For instance, Tishby, Wisdom ofthe Zohar, pp, 379-381. discems that maternal images applied to Shekhinah signify her mercy in relation to Israel in particular and to the lower worlds in general, but he is oblivious to the fact that this imphes masculinization ofthe feminine, Liebes, "Zohar and Eros," p, 105 n, 250, refers to the attribution ofthe idiom "world of mascuhnity" to Binah, which is personified as the mother (he relates specifically to the image ofthe mother lending her clothes to the daughter in Zohar i;2a; see below at n, 252), in zoharic hterature, as a paradox, I do not think this is paradoxical at all, since "motherhood" is engendered precisely and consistently as mascuhne in kabbalistic symbolism, Schafer, "Daughter, Sister, Bride, and Mother," pp, 221-242, similarly displays no engagement with critical or theoretical accounts of the imaginary construction of gender. The essay has been published in revised form, but with little substantive change, in Schafer, Mirror of His Beauty, pp, 118-134, I commend Schafer for raising the important issue of the possible influence of the veneration of Mary in Christian piety on the formation of the symbol of Shekhinah in European centers of kabbalah in the late Middle Ages, but he has not evaluated the phenomenon utilizing contemporary gender theory. A, Green, "Shekhinah, the Virgin Mary, and the Song of Songs," pp, 1-52, has independently explored the conjecture regarding the impact of Marian imagery on the kabbalistic symbolization of Shekhinah. Both Schafer and Green neglect to mention previous scholars who have made this connection, for instance, Pattai, Hebrew Coddess, pp, 191-192, 202-203; Pope, Song of Songs, pp, 168455

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171, See also the remark of Ehade cited above, n, 2, and my comments in chap, 5, n, 454, For a thorough analysis ofthe divinization of Mary in textual and iconic sources, at roughly the time when kabbalistic symbohsm began to crystallize, see Newman, Cod and the Coddesses, pp, 245-290, 225, A stereotypical example of this approach is found in the moral admonition offered by A, Harvey, Retum ofthe Mother, pp, 17-18: "The tragic imbalance ofthe masculine has brought humankind to the point of disaster, and unless we recover the feminine powers of the psyche, the powers of intuition, patience, reverence for nature, and knowledge ofthe holy unity of things, and marry in our depths these powers with the masculine energies of rule, reason, passion for order and control, hfe on the planet will end. This sacred marriage of the masculine with the feminine has to take place in all our hearts and minds, whether we are male or female," His study ofthe image ofthe mother in various traditions, to wit, Christianity, Sufism, Taoism, and Buddhism, represents an effort to correct this disparity, I am sympathetic to the ethical dimension ofthe scholarly enterprise, responding to the demands ofthe moment in particular cultural settings, but I cannot justify philological inexactitude on this basis, 226, As a matter of fact, there are kabbahstic texts, including passages in the zoharic corpus, wherein Binah, the third gradation in the divine pleroma, is identified as the ontic source whence the demonic potencies emerge. For a sampling of relevant references, see E, Wolfson, "Left Contained in the Right," p, 29 n, 10, 227, Idel, "Beloved and the Concubine," p, 144, Grossman, Pious and Rebellious, pp, 499-500, lists as the last ofthe ten enhancements ofthe status ofjewish women in the European Middle Ages the "important place of women in the teachings of kabbahsts, in the life ofthe family and in the future paradise," The author compares the change in the position ofjewish women in the twelfth century to the general atmosphere of Chnstian Europe, In support of his claim regarding kabbalists, Grossman relies exclusively on texts cited and analyzed by Idel, 228, Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, pp, 174-176, and see brief discussion in E, Wolfson, Circle in the Square, p. 99, See also Scholem, Major Trends, p. 219; idem. On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, p. 105, 229, For select references, see above, n, 224, 230, Bynum, jMMi as Mother, pp, 143-144, The "rift between symbohc exaltation and pragmatic subjection" of women in the writings of Hildegard of Bingen is also noted by Newman, Sister of Wisdom, p. 197; see also pp, 214-215, 231, On the "uroboric coincidence of opposites" attributed to the androgynous mother, who comprises the feminine aspect of containing (womb-vessel) and the mascuhne aspect of bestowing (breast-phallus), see Neumann, Creat Mother, pp, 45-49, 64-83; idem. Origins, pp, 43-44, 54-58, 73-75, 94-98, 322-323, For in-depth studies ofthe phallic portrayal ofthe mother, see Gallop, Daughter's Seduction, pp, 113-131; Ian, Remembering the Phallic Mother. On the phallus of the mother and the narcissistic-incestuous complex, see Kristeva, Desire in Language, pp, 191-200, 206, 238, 242-243; idem. Tales of Love, pp, 41-45, Another facet of this complex issue is the extent to which images of motherhood reflect the institution of patriarchy in a given sociocultural framework. The naive assumption on the part of some scholars of kabbalah that the symbol of mother necessarily points to the adulation ofthe feminine reflects a complete ignorance of contemporary feminist theorizing of motherhood. For a useful discussion of this theme, see Nnaemeka, "Introduction," pp, 1-25, esp, pp, 4-6, See also the description of Buddha as mother in a biographical text translated by Gombrich, "Feminine Elements in Sinhalese Buddhism," cited and analyzed in L, Wilson, Charmittg Cadavers, pp, 30-31, As Wilson makes clear, particularly from a passage in Cotamt Apadana in which the spiritual nurturing of Buddha in teaching the Dharma, on the one hand, and the physical nourishment provided by his foster mother, Gotami Mahapajapati, on the other, are contrasted, the ascription ofthe role of mother to Buddha is actually a devaluation of worldly motherhood, which is associated with the female body. Hence there is no basis to conclude that the appropriation of the maternal symbol is meant as an affirmation ofthe feminine. On this score, I would also add that maternal representations ofjesus in the late Middle Ages are not necessarily indicative ofthe positive valorization ofthe feminine, or of what Bynum, Jesus as Mother, p. 129, called a reflection of "affective spirituality," but rather they may provide another indication of even women succumbing to the androcentric strategy of ascribing the role of nurturing to the 456

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male figure of Christ, See Bynum's own warning quoted above and cited at n, 230, This, at least as it seems to me, is the import of the ascription of the symbol of mother to Jesus, identified as well with wisdom, in the revelatory accounts ofjuhan of Norwich, See especially the following passage from the fifty-seventh chapter ofthe long text in Julian of Norwich's Showings, p. 292: "So our Lady is our mother, in whom we are all enclosed and bom of her in Christ, for she who is mother of our saviour is mother of all who are saved in our saviour; and our saviour is our true Mother, in whom we are endlessly bom and out of whom we shall never come," For the original text, see Juhan of Norwich, Book of Showings p. 580, Juhan acknowledges that Mary must be considered the mother of all Christians from the (presumed) biological fact that she gave birth (without phallic insemination), but Jesus is the "true Mother," that is, the being in and through whom Christians are reborn and consequently etemally saved. In simple terms, Mary is the physical mother and Jesus the spiritual, the womb of wisdom, even though I would accept the point raised by a number of scholars that Juhan's emphasis on the maternal character ofjesus provides an androgynous model of personhood reflective ofthe imago dei and thus problematizes the standard binary opposition of sexual difference, the male correlated with reason, which is the divine aspect ofthe soul, and the female with the body, pleasure, or the senses, I would also agree that the marginal societal status ofjuhan as a woman lends credibihty to her claim ofbeing the vessel or medium to transmit the message ofjesus, though I do not concur with the view that this marginality is mapped onto the bodily humanity of Christ, See further references in n, 232, On Hildegard of Bingen's apphcation of imagery connected to the motherhood of God to the male clergy, see Newman, Sister of Wisdom, pp, 188-195, 228-238, Finally, let me adduce the following passage from the section on the "mystery of reincarnation and impregnation" (sod ha-gilgul we-ha-ibbur) in Abraham Azulai, Hesed le-Avraham, 5:20, 55c, as a textual example that illustrates the need to maintain the difference between the semiotic/ gender and anatomic/sexual conceptions of motherhood operative in kabbalistic sources: "Know that when the male reincamates in a female, he cannot give birth unless the soul of a female impregnates in him, and for this reason it is also impossible that the male reincamated in a female can give birth to males, for the man and woman are males, but it is written 'When a woman brings forth seed' (Lev, 12:2)," For parallel discussion, see Vital, Sha'ar ha-Cilgulim, sec, 9, iob, Azulai's comment indicates that from a biological standpoint it is the woman who gives birth, and thus when the soul of a male reincamates as a female (the author previously made the point that only male souls suffer the cycle of reincarnation), that being must receive an additional female soul by way of impregnation. From a gendered perspective, the soul in the body of the woman is male even after it receives the female soul, 232, Julian of Norwich, Jw/wtt of Norwich's Showings, pp, 293-299, 300-305, 340; Bynum, Jesui as Mother, pp, 129-135, 140-141, 148 n, 130, 151, 159 n, 160, 168, 195; McNamer, "Exploratory Image," pp, 21-28; D, Baker, Ju/iiin of Norwich's Showings, pp, 108, 112-113,118-120, 124, 128-134, 166; Bauerschmidt, JH/MM of Norwich, pp, 59, 76, 89-95, i i o - i i i , 155-156, 160; Jantzen, Ju/iatt of Norwich, pp, 104, i n , 115-124, 143, 158; Newman, Cod and the Coddesses, pp, 222-234, On the apphcation of feminine images to Jesus, see also Leclercq, Women and St Bernard of Clairvaux, pp, 109-114, Finally, mention should be made here ofthe application of "a motherly name" (ein mueterlich Name) to the Father on the part of Meister Eckhart to designate the pure potentiahty ofthe divine to conceive the Son, the Nothingness ofthe "natural power" {natiurlichen Kraft) for generation, as opposed to "fatherhood" {Vaterlicheit), which is the primordial fuUness ofthe "personal power" {personlichen Kraft), the active source of bearing. See McGinn, Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart, pp, 84-86; see also pp, 139-140, 233, Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, p. 107, 234, E, Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp, 89, 99, 103, and references given on p, 205 n, 47, 235, In the original Aramaic, de-salqa; the author ofthe zoharic text is playing on the word olah, "bumt offering," which is from a root that means to ascend, 236, The zoharic interpretation oitamim as a reference to circumcision, particularly associated with Abraham on the basis of Genesis 17:1, is based on older sources. See Cenesis Rabbah 46:4-5. PP- 461-463; Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 24a; Nedarim 32a, For an elaboration of this exegetical motif, see Zohar i:i6ia; 3:i65b-i66a; Moses de Leon, Book ofthe Pomegranate, pp, 375-376, 380-381, 237, Cf Zo/iar 2:137a, 238, Zohar i:246a-h. 457

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239, The principle is stated in Zohar 2:224a: "Moses and Bezalel are one, Moses above and Bezalel below, the terminus ofthe body is as the body" {siyyuma de-gufa ke-gufa). Decoded symbohcally, Moses corresponds to Tiferet, the torso ofthe body, and Bezalel to Yesod, the terminus ofthe body; see Zohar 2:214b, 225a, The zoharic idea is based on the expression ^w/w-i^en( had hu, "the body and the phallus are one," in Book Bahir, sec, 114, p, 199, The bahiric locution is evident in the interpretation ofthe scriptural phrase ish tam in Zohar 3:223b {Ra'aya Meheimna): gufu-verit hashvinan had, "the body and phallus are considered as one," For further discussion ofthe phallocentric imphcations of this motif, see E, Wolfson, "Cut That Binds," pp, 132-133 n, 25, 240, Utilizing this approach, we can explain why the term "mother" is on occasion apphed in early kabbalistic sources to Hokhmah, the second emanation, which is more often depicted as the father ofthe divine pantheon. See, for instance, Azriel of Gerona, Commentary on the Talmudic Aggadoth, p. 82 n, 7; Bos and Pellow, "Ma'amar Rabbi Barzillai," p. 371 and references cited in n, 15 ad locum. Conceming this somewhat enigmatic thirteenth-century kabbalist, apparently from Gerona, see Scholem, Origins, pp, 392-393; Jacob ben Sheshet, Sefer Meshiv Devarim Nekhohim, p. 14, On the scriptural roots for the mascuhne transvaluation ofthe anatomical process of conception and birth, see Levine, " 'Seed' versus 'Womb,'" pp, 337-343, 241, E, Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp, 98-106, I note that the locution "phallic womb" well captures the idiom used by disciples of Isaac Luria and many subsequent kabbahsts, yesod de-nuqba, hterally, "foundation ofthe female," but metaphorically the phaUic potency ofthe female, or the part ofthe woman's anatomy that corresponds functionally to the male organ, viz,, the womb. The utihzation ofthe word "phaUic" to depict the womb does not make sense biologically; the meaningfulness rests, rather, in the reakn of gender construction. In this regard, there is continuity with the psychoanalytic category ofthe penis ofthe mother, which is a form of representation in the psychic landscape of desire and not a claim about nature. See the brief but illuminating discussion in Leclaire, Psychoanalyzing, pp, 42-43, 242, In hne with an archaic metaphorical expression, the zoharic authors employ the image ofbeing in one's house as a figurative trope for sexual cohabitation. See C, Baker, Rebuilding the House of Israel, pp, 34-76, The metaphorical depiction ofthe feminine in spatial metaphors, and especially interior spaces, is not unique to Jewish sources but is, rather, fairly well attested in texts from diverse cultural and hterary contexts. For recent discussion ofthe symbohc nexus of femininity and spatiality in zoharic hterature, see the work of my student, Greenstein, "Aimless Pilgrimage," pp, 262-273, 243, The expression iqqar ha-bayit is apphed to Rachel based on the description of her as "infertile," aqarah (Gen, 29:31) in Moses de Leon, She'elot u-Teshuvot, p. 44, The wordplay may have been suggested by the exegesis of "The Lord supports all those who have fallen" (Ps, 145:14) in Cenesis Rabbah 71:2, p, 821, "These are the barren women [aqarot] who fall within their houses [bateihem]." Clearly, the term "house" in this context refers metaphorically to the womb, 244, Cenesis Rabbah 60:16, p, 656, 245, Zohar i:$Oi. 246, Zohar 1:153b; Moses de Leon, Book ofthe Pomegranate, pp, 138 and 142; Tishby, Wisdom ofthe Zohar, PP- 1357-58; Liebes, Studies in the Zohar, pp, 15, 72-73; idem, "Zohar and Eros," pp, 101-103; Idel, "Sexual Metaphors," p, 206, None ofthe scholars mentioned in this note has been attentive to the gender dynamics imphcit in this motif 247, E, Wolfson, Circle in the Square, p. 217 n, 118; and discussion of this motif below, chap, 7, The absurdity ofthe androcentric orientation is attested in striking terms in the following remark in Vital, Liqqutei Torah Nevi'im Ketuvim, p. 291 (ad i Sam, 1:6): "Know that whoever comes from the side ofthe female has no hfe," Under the weight ofthe kabbalistic symbohsm, the very source of hfe in the natural world becomes its opposite, 248, Moses de Leon, Shushan Edut, p. 331, 249, For a similar mascuhne appropriation of the symbol of motherhood to express the male fantasy of reproduction and the creation of a homoerotic world in Tibetan Buddhism, see Campbell, Traveller in Space, pp, 76-77, 148, 185, 250, For example, Zohar 1:178b, and analysis in Hellner-Eshed, "Language of Mystical Experience," p, 73, The symbohc correlation of David and Shekhinah is expressed in other images; for example, Shekhinah is 458

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portrayed as the jewel clasped by David, the foundation stone rejected by the fathers (Ps, 118:22), by means of which he entered before the Lord {Zohar 1:7a), In this instance, the bibhcal king serves as a model to instruct the pious that Shekhinah, the attribute of righteousness, is the portal through which one enters to behold God, See also Zohar i:72a-b, discussed in the Epilogue of this monograph. To be sure, on occasion the hnk between the feminine and David is emphasized, for example, Zohar 2:103b: "When King David arrived, he remained in the lower tree ofthe feminine and he had to receive the hfeforce from another," For parallel language, see Zohar i:i68a, and extended discussion in Vital, Sha'ar ha-Cilgulim, sec, 7, iob-i ia. The ontic linkage of David to the "lower tree ofthe feminine" does not contradict the claim that Shekhinah is symbohcally represented by the figure of David on account of his royal pedigree, which is gendered as mascuhne. The failure to comprehend the gender valence underlying the association ofthe figure of David and Shekhinah is conspicuous in the remark by A, Green in his introduction to The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, p. hi: "The bibhcal personage associated with Malkhut is David (somewhat surprisingly, given its usual femininity), the symbol of kingship," There is nothing surprising here if one apprehends that the term malkhut denotes providence, and this attribute is applied to Shekhinah in her role as the womb that overflows, a role that is predicated on her assuming the masculine trait of bestowing. It thus makes perfectly good sense that David, who emblematizes kingship, would be associated with Shekhinah in her providential posture. See E, Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp, 103 and 221 n, 133, Also pertinent to this discussion is the association of Ephraim and the feminine in Zohar 2:246b: "Since Joseph is the mark ofthe mascuhne [reshimu di-dekhura] he is called 'Joseph the righteous' [yosef ha-saddiq], for he is surely the righteous one , , , and since all the arrayments of Shekhinah [tiqqunei shekhinta] are females [nuqvan], Joseph departed from there, and Ephraim was appointed in his place, and he is the female of her arrayments [nuqva le-tiqqunaha]." Finally, let me note one more example from Vital, Sefer ha-Cilgulim, chap, 19, 21a, which sheds much light on the methodological issue at hand. Vital reports that he heard from his teacher that the five aspects of soul—yehidah, hayyah, neshamah, nefesh, and ruah—correspond respectively to Enoch, Adam, Eve, Abel, and Cain, Why, then, does Cain emerge before Abel? "Since Adam sinned and the shells [qelippot] that come forth from the powers ofjudgment [gevurot] were augmented, the attribute ofthe feminine [behinat ha-nuqba], which is Cain, is revealed first, in the secret of'a women of valor is a crown for her husband' (Prov, 12:4)," Obviously, the ascription ofthe attribute ofthe feminine to Cain cannot be understood in a biological manner; the mark of femininity, which is the aspect ofjudgment, is culturally determined, and since Cain embodies that quahty, he is referred to as the "attribute ofthe feminine," which emerges prior to Abel on account of Adam's transgression and the consequent augmentation ofjudgment in the world, Cain is thus linked exegetically to the symbol ofthe "woman of valor" {eshet hayyil) who is a "crown for her husband" {ateret ba'lah). 251, In opposition to the explicit words ofthe zoharic authors and other kabbalists who followed their path, Tishby, Wisdom ofthe Zohar, p. 372, writes "Malkhut's activity as ruler ofthe world , , , presents us with a completely new view of its status, , , , In relation to the upper world it is the last hnk in the chain of emanation, acting as a receptacle for the supemal flow of influence, and representing the extreme limit of the divine being. In relation to the lower world, however, it is the very beginning and highest point, assuming the role of mother and ruler ofthe world, , , , The parallel with Binah is mainly one of femininity and motherhood: the upper mother and the lower mother," See ibid,, p, 550, In the imagination of kabbalists, motherhood is valenced as a mascuhne activity, 252, Zohar 1:2a, For translation and analysis of this text as well as its ramifications in Lurianic kabbalah, see E, Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp, 104-106, See also Moses de Leon, Sefer Sheqel ha-Qodesh, p. 26; Luzzatto, Adir ba-Marom, pp, 16-17, 253, Zohar 1:156a, 254, Zohar 1:1 s62r-h. 255, Tishby, Wisdom ofthe Zohar, pp, 288, 588-589, 256, E, Wolfson, "Coronation ofthe Sabbath Bride," pp, 301-343, The matter is discussed in greater detail in the concluding chapter of this monograph, 257, See the review of this problem in the introduction of Epstein and Straub, Body Cuards, pp, 1-28, A poststructurahst feminist perspective that attempts to get beyond the essentialist/contextualist opposition is 459

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offered by Fuss, Essentially Speaking. Summarizing her thesis. Fuss remarks, "This book will make the claim that there is no essence to essentialism, that (historically, philosophically, and pohtically) we can only speak of essentialisms. Correlatively, it will also make the claim that constructionism (the position that differences are constructed, not innate) really operates as a more sophisticated form of essentialism. The bar between essentialism and constructionism is by no means as sohd and unassailable as advocates of both sides assume it to be" (p, xii; emphasis in the original). See also the astute observation by Moi, What Is a Woman'! p. 167: "In their style and mode of writing, postmodem theories tend to be as generalizing and univenalizing as the Enlightenment theory they oppose (as if there were such a thing as one monohthic Enlightenment theory, any more than there is one postmodem theory)" (emphasis in original), 258, For a critique ofthe sex/gender distinction, see Gatens, Imaginary Bodies, pp, 3-20, The author is correct to argue that the assumption underlying many theorists ofthe sex/gender distinction that body and psyche are neutral, passive entities is untenable. See also Nadeau, S/He Brain. For opposition to positing biology and social conditioning as distinct ways to explain feminine identity, see Irigaray, Democracy Begins between Two, pp, 30-39, According to Irigaray, the identity of a woman should be determined by recognition of her "belonging to a different sex or gender that makes up half of the human species" (p, 34), That is, as Irigaray has argued in numerous publications, we must accept "sexual difference" as a given in the very nature of human embodiment, a sex that is not essentially one but two, for only by discerning the essential othemess ofthe opposing gender can there be unity and relationship, A succinct account of her orientation is found in Irigaray, Sexes and Cenealogies, pp, 169-170: "Gender as index and mark ofthe subjectivity and the ethical responsibility ofthe speaker. In fact gender is not just a question ofbiology and physiology, a matter of private life, of animal habits or vegetal fertility. It constitutes the irreducible differentiation that occurs on the inside of 'the human race.' Gender stands for the unsubstitutable position ofthe /and the you [le tu] and of their modes of expression. Once the difference between I and you is gone, then asking, thanking, appeahng, questioning , , , also disappear" (emphasis in the original). Needless to say, this notion of dual subjectivity is repeated in many of Irigaray's writings. To name a few ofthe relevant titles: Speculum ofthe Other Woman; This Sex Which Is Not One; An Ethics of Sexual Difference; To Be Two; Why Different} For a critique of treating

nature and nurture as dichotomous, see Tuana, "Re-Fusing Nature/Nurture," pp, 70-89; see also Elam, Feminism and Deconstruction, pp, 42-58; Felski, Doing Time, pp, 116-136, Notwithstanding the important corrective ofthe feminist theory of difference, it still seems valid to distinguish biological sex and the sociocultural specification of gender as an epistemic category. On the complex interplay of biological constitution and sociocultural organization, see Jaggar, "Human Biology in Feminist Theory," pp, 78-89, For a review ofthe criticism of the essentializing tendency imphcit in Irigaray's notion of a distinct feminine subjectivity, see Fuss, "Essentially Speaking," pp, 94-112, 259, J, Scott, Cender and the Politics of History, p. 2, See idem, "Deconstructing Equality," pp, 134-148, A similar position is offered by Butler, Cender Trouble, p. 7: "Gender ought not to be conceived merely as the cultural inscription of meaning upon a pregiven sex (a juridical conception); gender must also designate the very apparatus of production whereby the sexes themselves are estabhshed. As a result, gender is not to culture as sex is to nature; gender is also the discursive/cultural means by which 'sexed nature' or 'a natural sex' is produced and estabhshed as 'prediscursive,' prior to culture, a pohtically neutral surface on which culture acts" (emphasis in the original). See also Jaggar, "Sexual Difference and Sexual Equality," pp, 18-28, 260, Here is not the place to enter into a lengthy discussion, but it seems to me that the contemporary feminist demand to balance the theological language of traditional Judaism, particularly evident in the realm of prayer, should be viewed in the larger context ofthe phenomenology of religious experience in a theistic framework, that is, the task remains envisioning what cannot be envisioned in imaginal forms that appropriately reflect the moral and sociopohtical needs ofthe contemporary cultural moment. The change in imaginal representation demands a corresponding change in modes of theological discourse. This has been the working assumption of a number of feminist thinkers who have sought to traverse beyond the mascuhnized God of patriarchal philosophy and religion. For instance, Daly, Beyond Cod the Father, p. 8: "To exist humanly is to name the self, the world, and God, The 'method' of the evolving spiritual consciousness of women is nothing less than this beginning to speak humanly—a reclaiming of the right to name. The liberation of 460

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language is rooted in the liberation of ourselves," For specific apphcation of this approach to contemporary Judaism, see Plaskow, "Language, God, and Liturgy," pp, 3-14, 261, An eloquent expression of this theme is found in Scholem, "Revelation and Tradition as Religious Categories in Judaism," in Messianic Idea, pp, 282-303, My emphasis on the constitution of tradition in Judaism should not be construed as if I were saying that the process is unique to this religious culture. On the contrary, I assume a similar process is at work in other cultural settings, though in each it will bear an inimitable quahty reflective of its own irreducible particularity. For a thoughtful account ofthe use ofthe midrashic method to construct a feminist revision, see Myers, "Midrashic Enterprise," pp, 119-141, 262, This does not mean that I think it advisable to isolate the moral fabric of a tradition and its attitude toward gender in the sociopolitical arena, as we find, for instance, in the following comment of FrymerKensky, Reading the Women ofthe Bible, p. xiv: "Readers can accept the Bible's moral structure without conforming to the patriarchal social structure within it," Frymer-Kensky is honest enough to stress that the Bible did not ehminate or question patriarchy, even if it did not create it. The author is also to be given credit for stressing that slavery and poverty were not eradicated from ancient Israel in spite of the biblical concerns with these matters. Nonetheless, it seems to me, her comment regarding accepting a moral structure without conforming to the patriarchal structure within it is problematic and perhaps even apologetic. The hermeneutical basis for her statement is the view that "the idea of social revolution is integral to bibhcal thought" (p, xv). Without denying that Scripture is a product of a patriarchal society, Frymer-Kensky uses the narratives about women to suggest that ancient Israehte rehgion includes within its parameters a chaUenge to the status quo, I can accept this argument but I think it is precarious to offer the reader the possibility of separating "moral stature" and the "patriarchal social structure," An attempt to reconstruct the subjectivity ofthe feminine from scriptural texts on the basis of an essentiahst feminism is found in Sawyer, Cod, Cender and the Bible. For an engaging discussion of the manner in which a feminist agenda can be appropriated as consistent with the hermeneutical presuppositions of rabbinic tradition, see Ross, "Modern Orthodoxy," pp, 3-38, 263, See M, Falk, "Notes on Composing New Blessings," p, 129, cited by Oppenheim, Speaking/Writing of Cod, p. 67, 264, The complexity ofthe task, which requires the creation of a new feminist symbohc reflected in both modes of discourse and pattems of behavior, is set out lucidly by Jantzen, Becoming Divine. See also the discussion ofthe possibility of a "feminist hnguistics" in Nye, Philosophy and Feminism at the Border, pp, 47-81; and idem, "Voice ofthe Serpent," pp, 323-338, The philosophical challenge of getting beyond anthropomorphic representationalism—viewed as a form of narcissism—by substituting a matriarchal for a patriarchal imaginary, is set out by Kristeva, "Women's Time," pp, 13-35, 265, Plaskow, Standing Again at Sinai, pp, 139-140, 266, Raphael, "Goddess Religion," pp, 198 and 211 n, 3, 267, Ibid,, p, 213 n, 21, 268, Irigaray, This Sex Which Is Not One, p. 164, The approach is exemplified in the collection of essays edited by Haddad and Esposito, Daughters of Abraham. 269, For an elaboration of this point, see Adler, Engendering Judaism. 270, I am indebted to Heidegger, who articulated the nexus between phenomenology and philology by arguing that Westem philosophical concepts must be understood in light ofthe Greek language out of which they arose. This is certainly the case if one is to hear the thought unthought in archaic forms of poetic utterance. Since these thoughts were transmitted largely through the medium of translation into Latin, the originary experience underlying the concepts has been concealed, a condition that Heidegger refers to as the "rootlessness ofWestem thought," See Poetry, Language, Thought, p. 23, It is the task ofthe thinker to recover that experience through a translation that opens the space in which the matter fint came to show itself, and in this respect translation belongs essentially to language. See Sallis, Echoes, pp, 195-199, For a succinct account of this dimension of Heideggerian thought, see Erickson, Language and Being, pp, 7-8, 271, The use of philology, in my judgment, ought to be seen as a way of openly concealing philosophical views of a decidedly phenomenological pattern. For a similar argument with respect to the philological schol461

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arship of Gershom Scholem on the history ofjewish mysticism, see D, Kaufrnann, "Imageless Refuge for All Images," pp, 147-158, esp, pp, 147-148, 272, The element of traditional kabbalah that has most escaped the attention of contemporary, popular presentations of this lore is the ascetic rejection ofthe sensual world. This particular example fits in with the more general this-worldly orientation of modem New Age spirituality. See Hanegraaff, New Age Religion and Westem Culture, pp, 113-119, 515-516, On the intimate relationship between mysticism and asceticism, see the cogent and stiU relevant remarks of Hugel, Mystical Element of Religion, pt, 3, pp, 341-351, 273, My articulation is indebted to Feder and Zakin, "Fhrting with the Truth," p, 25, Their remarks conceming Derrida's attempt to deconstruct the gender categories of traditional masculine philosophy apply perfectly to my own project. For a nuanced analysis of Derrida's critique of phallocentrism, see Spivak, "Displacement and the Discourse of Woman," pp, 43-71, For different perspectives on this question, see Marrati, "Le reve et le danger," pp, 194-211; Deutscher, Yielding Cender, pp, 34-58; Armour, "Crossing the Boundaries," pp, 193-214; and the study by Elam, Feminism and Deconstruction. Consider Derrida's own words cited below in n, 275, 274, The point is articulated clearly by Jantzen, Becoming Divine, pp, 25-26: "From a feminist perspective, it is self-evident that a critique of Anglo-American philosophy of rehgion is long overdue. Yet in my opinion such a critique can be counter-productive unless it derives from a creative altemative. This is because a consequence of remaining at the level of critique means that effectively we stay at the same old level as those whom we critique: we do not change the ground. But if we do not change the ground, then in fact, though we may not intend it, we are reinforcing it, , , , This is not to say that we should always wait to develop a critique until we see what the future possibihties are: sometimes it is necessary to do the former task before the latter becomes clear. Nevertheless, the move to develop creative alternatives is both to claim the right to develop our own identities rather than have them imposed on us, and to change the ground of debate so that it may become more liberative," 275, My own scholarly enterprise is mirrored in the following comment of Derrida, Acts of Literature, p. 58: "Following this logic, if we come back to the question of what is called 'feminist' literature or criticism, we risk finding the same paradoxes: sometimes the texts which are most phallocentric or phallogocentric in their themes (in a certain way no text completely escapes this rubric) can also be, in some cases, the most deconstructive. And their authors can be, in statutory terms, men or women, , , , Because of the literary dimension, what 'phallogocentric' texts display is immediately suspended. When someone stages a hyperbolically phallocentric discourse or mode of behavior, s/he does not subscribe to it by signing the work, s/he describes it as such, s/he exposes it, displays it. Whatever the assumed attitude ofthe author on the matter, the effect can be paradoxical and sometimes 'deconstructive,' " 276, Beal, "Opening," pp, i—12, 277, The role of appropriation in the hermeneutics of deconstruction, usually associated with Derrida, is traceable to Heidegger, See Glendinning, On Being with Others, p. 77, and further discussion below. My use of "appropriation" also bears the influence of Ricoeur, Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences, pp, 182-193, On the event of appropriation in philosophical hermeneutics, see Walluhs, Hermeneutics of Life History, pp, 15-30, For utihzation of this technical term to depict the nature of reading in zoharic texts, see E, Wolfson, "Beautiful Maiden without Eyes," p, 172, 278, Critchey, Ethics of Deconstruction, pp, 20-21, 279, Ibid,, p, 89, 280, A typical expression of this sentiment is offered by Peskowitz, Spinning Fantasies, p. 9, who thus explains her use ofthe expression "gendered knowledges" in reference to Roman antiquity: "I use 'knowledges' as an exphcidy plural form precisely because different knowledges about gender and sexuahty circulated simultaneously, , , , I use the plural 'knowledges' to resist suggesting that there was one singular hegemonic gender culture in 'the Roman world,' or (moving toward the specific focus of this book) 'the world of early rabbinic Judaism and Roman Palestine,' Especially when I tum to study the texts of rabbis and other Jews from Roman Palestine, I read these texts from an ethos that recognizes multiple notions of gender, and looks for both their texture and contexts," I, too, embrace an ethos that recognizes multiple notions of 462

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gender; however, the hegemonic character of traditional kabbalistic symbohsm lamentably does not allow for the desired diversity. It should be noted, finally, that some feminist theorists have expressed concern over the postmodem emphasis on plurahty of perspective and diversity of voice, A consequence ofthe logic of the postmodemist hermeneutic is that the very categories of gender analysis can be dislodged as a primary tool of cultural explication inasmuch as no single metatheory can claim the status of unequivocal referentiality. See Hare-Mustin and Mareck, "Beyond Difference," pp, 196-197, 281, Irigaray, This Sex Which Is Not One, p. 68, 282, Ibid,, pp, 74-75, 283, Moi, Sexual/Textual Politics, p. 108, 284, On the question of essentialism and constructivism in feminist theory, see Lazreg, "Women's Experience," pp, 45-62, and Fricker, "Knowledge as Construct," pp, 95-109, On the charge of essentialism leveled at Irigaray, see reference to the study of Fuss cited above, n, 257, 285, Grosz, Space, Time, and Perversion, p. 16, 286, My formulation here draws on the distinction between "women's texts," "feminine texts," and "feminist texts" offered by Grosz, Space, Time, and Perversion, p, 11, The claim I have made for the texture of medieval kabbalism stands in contrast to the history of mysticism in both medieval Christianity and Islam, where we find that visionary experiences of women apparently had the effect of challenging more conventional patriarchal norms and their misogynist tendencies, 287, See the prehminary and somewhat primitive attempt on my part to articulate this matter in E, Wolfson, Abraham Abulafia, pp, 4-5, 288, Abulafia, Sitrei Torah, fol, 149b (printed ed,, p, 119), 289, Rosenzweig, Briefe, p. 263 (emphasis in original). An English translation is found in idem. Philosophical and Theological Writings, pp, 51-52 n, 11: "[S]ystem is not architecture, where the stones assemble the structure and are there for the sake ofthe structure (and otherwise for no reason); rather, system means that every individual has the drive and will to relation to all other individuals; the 'whole' hes beyond its conscious field of vision, it sees only the chaos of individuals into which it stretches out its feelers," The innovation of Rosenzweig's approach to system, still understood as the impulse for wholeness but without subsuming particulars to an ontological unity ofbeing, can be appreciated especially in hght of ScheUing's later philosophy, Conceming the latter, see Vater, "ScheUing's Neoplatonic System-Notion," pp, 275-299, 290, Jakobson, Verbal Art, p. 12, 291, Chevalier, Scorpions and the Anatomy of Time, p. 4 (emphasis in original), 292, Derrida, "Living On: Border Lines," p, 84, For a valuable discussion ofthe pertinent hermeneutical issues, see M, Taylor, "Introduction: System , , , ," pp, 373-404, 293, Derrida, Dissemination, pp, 316-317, 294, Derrida, Acts of Literature, pp, 44-45, On the issue of play and the indetenninacy of meaning in Derridean thought, see C, Johnson, System and Writing, pp, 109-141; Amdor, "Interpretive Unicity," pp, 48-62, 295, Derrida, Acts of Literature, p. 47, 296, Ibid,, p, 50, 297, Lisse, "Donner a lire," pp, 133-151, For a critique of Derrida's notion of trace and the act of "transcendental writing," see Pavel, Spell of Language, pp, 38-73, 298, Derrida and Ferraris, Taste for the Secret, p. 30, For a somewhat different perspective on the characterization of his work as unreadable, see Derrida's comments in an interview included in Wood and Bemasconi, Derrida and Differance, pp, 71-72, On the presentation of hermeneutics and writing as getting lost in a labyrinth, see Krajewski, Traveling with Hermes, pp, 96-114, For a sharp critique ofthe ambiguity of language in Derrida's thinking, see McCarthy, Ideals and Illusions, pp, 97-119, 299, Derrida and Ferraris, Taste for the Secret, p. 47, With regard to the convergence of endurance and change, it is instructive to compare Derrida's notion of iteration to Nietzsche's doctrine ofthe etemal recurrence ofthe same. See Pfeffer, Nietzsche: Disciple of Dionysus, p. 137; Deleuze, Pure Immanence, p. 87, 300, Howells, Derrida: Deconstruction, p. 3, 463

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301, Derrida, Acts of Literature, p. 54, As Wyschogrod, "Texts in Transit," p, 47, has duly noted, for Derrida the process of reading "does not provide a warrant for indiscriminate interpretation, but rather presupposes passing through the discipline of historical analysis," I would simply add that this "passing through" is not accomphshed once and for aU; on the contrary, each event of reading imphcates one in the transgressive moment of bypassing the historical, Altematively expressed, philology is the way beyond the philological, a way that must be traversed constantly if one is to be centered in the margins ofthe text, 302, Denida and Ferraris, Taste for the Secret, p. 47, 303, Wood and Bemasconi, Derrida and Differance, p. 73, In the continuation of this comment, Derrida mentions the fact that the oldest synagogue in Prague is caUed "Old-New," 304, Derrida and Ferraris, Taste for the Secret, p, 31, On the inabihty to re/present the present, see Derrida, Dissemination, pp, 302—303, 305, Derrida and Ferraris, Taste for the Secret, pp, 56-57, 306, Derrida, ", , , and Pomegranates," p, 326, 307, Derrida and Ferraris, Taste for the Secret, p. 68, On the Derridean notion of iterabihty, see T, May, Reconsidering Difference, pp, 96-99; Hohion, Jacques Derrida: Opening Lines, pp, 97-106, The interplay between repetition and difference in Derrida's wrestling with traditions is aptly noted by T, Wright, "Midrash and Intertexuahty," pp, 113-115, 308, This locution is derived from Felstiner, Paul Celan, p. 204, For an extended discussion ofthe motif of translation in Derrida's work, see Dunkelsbuhler, Reframing the Frame of Reason. 309, Derrida, "Living On: Border Lines," p, 81, On the interplay of "repetitions and differenciations," see C, Scott, Time of Memory, pp, 185—204, 310, Derrida and Ferraris, Taste for the Secret, p. 4, 311, Ibid, On the paradoxical quality ofthe institution of philosophy, "whose space has to be administrated without a symmetrical contract—an institution in which thought on the subject ofthe institutionality ofthe institution has to remain open and have a future," see ibid,, p, 50, Derrida further characterizes the "double bind" of philosophy as a "way ofbeing home with itse\i[chez elle] that consists in not being at home with itself" in ibid,, p, 55, The quality ofthe unheimUch, the belonging of unbelonging, is connected as weU to the secret; indeed, in one place, Derrida even refers to this as his taste for secrecy; see ibid,, p, 59, 312, See, for example, the account of various renderings of Plato's use oipharmakon in Derrida, Dissemination, pp, 71-72, and the analysis of B, Johnson, "Taking Fidelity PhilosophicaUy," pp, 145-146, On the question of context, text, and authorial intent, see also S, Wheeler, Deconstruction as Analytic Philosophy, pp, 79-84, 313, Derrida, "Sending: On Representation," p, 108, Compare Derrida's enunciation in Derrida et al,. Life. After. Theory, p, 13: "Even when we want to break with the discourse, or logic, or grammar—that is, to reach a point of a-grammaticality—we have to follow the grammar. That is what I try to do when I read a text. Even when, as I said at the beginning, I try to locate an interruption, a break, an inconsistency, or some inarticulation, I have, in order to locate this, to think of this, I have to respect the grammar, I have to know the language, I cannot deconstruct Heidegger if I don't read Heidegger, if I don't read German, if I don't respect the grammaticahty ofthe discourse" (emphasis in original), 314, Derrida and Ferraris, Taste for the Secret, p. 43, 315, See Derrida, "Devant la loi," pp, 128-149, and idem, "Sending: On Representation," pp, 135-137, 316, Derrida and Ferraris, Taste for the Secret, p. 43, 317, Ibid,, p, 55, 318, By assuming "structures," I do not suppose that there is a logical consistency or an attempt to resolve contradictory views. My sentiment about the logic of kabbalistic symbolism accords with the foUowing observation of Rospatt, Buddhist Doctrine of Momentariness, p. 115: "Canonical Buddhism is not a systematic philosophy aiming at maximum coherency. Therefore, it is not self-evident that two disconnected teachings are seen in the context of each other and that the bearing they may have upon each other is worked out," 319, For discussion of this issue in Derrida's writings, see C, Johnson, System and Writing, pp, 142-187, 320, Idel, "Kabbalah-Research," pp, 27-32, offers a sharp contrast between what he caUs the monochro464

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matic nature of Scholem's approach and the supposedly variegated approach ofthe new penpectives, which refers mosdy to his own work. See above, n, 114, In Messianic Mystics, p. 17, Idel characterizes his approach as "synchronic polychromatism," a typology that takes into account a diversity of models, to wit, theosophicaltheurgical, ecstatic, and magical, 321, Simeon Lavi, Ketem Paz, vol, i, p, 27c, The passage is mentioned by Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 136, For further discussion ofthe orientation of this kabbalist, see chap, 4, 322, My language is a paraphrase of Yishaq Isaac Haver, Pithei She'arim, pt, i. Seder ha-parsufim, sec, 11, 84a, Careful analysis of this text suggests that even in this setting, where the eschaton is blatantly described as an equahzing of gender difference, the account is stiU phaUomorphic, Hence the overcoming of difference is predicated on elevating the feminine as a crown to be restored to the head ofthe male, the mystery oi keter malkhut, "crown of royalty," 323, E, Wolfson, Through a Speculum, p. 275 n, 14, 324, Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, p. 176, Interestingly, Scholem felt the need here to emphasize that the symmetry between creation and redemption arises from indigenous Jewish sources and hence need not be traced to Christian influence. This is a matter that requires an analysis beyond the parameters of this study, 325, Vital, Liqqutei Torah, p. 21 (ad Gen, 3:1), 326, As one finds, for example, in Coulmas, "Principles masculin et feminin," pp, 41-70, esp, p, 52, An exemplary textual illustration of the distinction I make between gender ambivalence and the dynamic of intermingling or crossing gender boundaries is found in the foUowing passage from an exposition of the symbohc significance of erotic foreplay as it pertains to the divine configurations oi Abba ("Father") and Imma ("Mother") in Lurianic kabbalah, preserved in MS Oxford, Bodleian Library 1791 (Opp, 467), fols, iia-b: "Know that when Abba and Imma wish to be conjoined [lehizddauweq], there are kisses [neshiqot] from one to the other, 'and from my flesh I would behold God' Qoh 19:26), for it is the way of man to retum initiaUy to his loss [ki darko shel ish lahazor tehillah al avedato]. Therefore, Abba first kisses Imma, and afterward Imma kisses Abba in response. Know that when Abba kisses Imma, he receives the breath [hevel]fromher, for she sits without any motion [yoshevet beli shum tenu'ah]. Similarly, when Imma kisses Abba, she verily receives the breath from him, for Abba sits without any movement [yoshev beli shum tenu'ah]. It foUows from this that Abba has a kiss and breath that he receives from Imma, and Imma has a kiss and breath that she receives from Abba. . . . there are two kisses and two breaths in relation to what is given and to what is received, for each of them gives a kiss and receives a kiss, gives breath and receives breath. With respect to the kisses and breaths, they are equal. Yet, there is one thing found in Abba and not in Imma, and it is speech [ha-dibbur], for the rule [din] is thus that he must appease her [with words], but silence is appropriate for women," The author of this text clearly acknowledges a crossing of gender boundaries as both male and female impart and receive, but he nevertheless maintains a supremacy for the male by affirming that speech {dibbur) is assigned only to the man, and he thereby stops short of affirming a leveling of gender difference to the point of positing the ontic position of indifference, 327, Armstrong, "Womanly Men and Manly Women," pp, 107-115, I am equally unconvinced of Mopsik's la femme masculine, a locution he employs in Le sexes des ames, pp, 19-105, to name the construction of mascuhne and feminine in kabbalistic symbolism with special emphasis on Hayyim Vital, Mopsik foUows the standard viewpoint, making a case once again for an affirmation of genuine sexual difference on the part of traditional (male) kabbalists, I detect in la femme masculine an implicit response to my analytic category male androgyne, which does not, as Mopsik and others have claimed, deny that gender dimorphism is a central component ofthe kabbalistic perspective; my claim, rather, has always been that since the feminine is ontically derived from the mascuhne, in the unified ground ofbeing there can be no real difference to speak of but the difference of indifference, wherein same and other are no longer distinguishable as contrary, 328, ZoW 2:176b, 329, Perush Sifra di-Seni'uta, in Vital, Sefer ha-Derushim, pp, 237-238; Sha'ar Ma'amerei Rashbi, 22a, The degree to which a feminist predisposition can lead a scholar to offer an entirely erroneous view can be gauged from the foUowing account oi Shekhinah in kabbalistic lore offered by Beitchman, Alchemy ofthe Word, p, 38: "The purpose of this feminine divine avatar or emanation is to attenuate the severity, cruelty, and violence

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of the jealous, possessive, military, and aggressive Old Testament Jehovah, It is certainly through the Shekhinah, or the feminine, that the cabalist is in relation with the male Godhead," While it is true that the feminine Shekhinah is the medium through which the male kabbalist is conjoined to the mascuhne gradations of the divine (see discussion in chap, 7), it is manifestly incorrect to say that the role oi Shekhinah is to attenuate the severity of the judgmental male deity. Apart from the questionable use of this somewhat biased language to characterize traditional kabbalah, the symbohsm ofthe latter associates judgment and severity precisely with the feminine, and mercy and compassion with the mascuhne. Another illustration of this erroneous approach is found in Shoham, Bridge to Nothingness, p. 190: "When projected onto transcendence, there is the Kabahst Malkhut-Schechina hovering ethereally around the coagulating and hence profane self She is the graceful and pure early oral mother, as structured in the cosmogonic myths of Lurianic Kabala," To the degree that the sources themselves depict Malkhut as graceful, it is the masculine aspect of this emanation that warrants such a description, and not the feminine component of divinity, 330, Luzzatto, Pithei Hokhmah wa-Da'at, sec, 92, p, 226, 331, Consider, for example, the words of Luzzatto in a letter to his teacher, Isaiah Bassan, composed in Padua on the 22nd ofthe month of Elul 1729, Iggerot Ramhal u-Venei Doro, p, 15: "The withdrawal [simsum] is the first hmit placed on the actions, and it is not privation [he'eder] but existence [mesi'ut], for the shimmering [hitnosesut] is the source ofjudgment that is revealed and that imparts boundary on the action to guide it, and the rest ofthe gradations similarly descend one from the other in the progression of potencies," Luzzatto incisively notes that the primal act of withdrawal, denoted by the technical term simsum, which semioticaUy marks the paradoxical dehmitation of the hmitless, is an expression of divine judgment, but the constriction itself is a form of iUumination, a shimmering, a bursting-forth, hitnosesut, being and not the privation thereof 332, Ezra ben Solomon of Gerona, Perush Shir ha-Shirim, in Kitvei Ramban, 2:521, 333, Text of Ezra published in Azriel of Gerona, "New Fragments" p, 222, 334, Azriel of Gerona, "New Fragments," p, 215, For an alternative and somewhat less precise rendering, see Scholem, Origins, p. 416, 335, Azriel of Gerona, "New Fragments," p, 208, 336, Sefer Yesirah 2:5, 337, Azriel of Gerona, "R, Azriel of Gerona—Perush ha-Tefillah," p. 21; Sed-Rajna, Commetttaire, p. 67, 338, Jasper Hopkins, Concise Introduction, p, 31, 339, Trialogus de possest, 16, translated in Jasper Hopkins, Concise Introduction, p. 81, 340, Nicholas of Cusa, On Learned Ignorance, 1,21, p, 76, 341, My summary is indebted to Bond, "Changing Face of Posse," pp, 35-46, 342, Azriel of Gerona, "New Fragments," p, 215, 343, On the use ofthe term efes in Azriel's writings to designate either Ein Sof or Keter, see Azriel of Gerona, Commentary on the Talmudic Aggadoth, p. 103, and further references cited in n, 4 ad locum; Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp, 220-221, 344, Azriel of Gerona, "New Fragments," p, 215, 345, Scholem, Origins, pp, 422-425, 438 n, 170, where the analogy to Eriugena's praeter eum nihit est, is duly noted, 346, Dionysius the Areopagite, Divine Names, chap, 5, 825A, p, 171, Compare the depiction ofthe "cause of aU things" in idem. Mystical Theology, chap, 5, 1048A, p, 222, cited in chap, i, n, 61, 347, Palestinian Taknud, Berakhot 2:4, 5a; Mishnah, Oqsim, 3:12; Siphre ad Numeros, sec, 42, p, 46; Numbers Rabbah 21:1, 348, Azriel of Gerona, Perush ha-Tefillah, fol, 232a; "R, Azriel of Gerona—Perush ha-TeJillah," p. 46; SedRajna, Commentaire, p. 123, 349, Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Tlwught, p. 218; idem, Vortrdge und Aufsdtze, p. 187, 350, Consider the foUowing account ofthe Chinese understanding of caUigraphy and poetry in Julhen, Propensity of Things, p. 127: "just as the guiding principle of caUigraphy is to create a combined relation of attraction and repulsion between the two complementary elements of a single ideogram , , , similarly the art ofthe poet is to introduce a relation of both affinity and contrast between two succeeding lines," 466

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351, Azriel of Gerona, Perush Eser Sejirot, 2a, Scholem, Origins, p. 440, utihzes the expression "indifferent 'en-sof " to characterize the viewpoint of Azriel of Gerona, which Reuchhn compares in De Arte Cabalistica to Nicholas of Cusa's coincidentia oppositorum. See, for example, Nicholas of Cusa, On Learned Ignorance, II:i, p, 89: "pure oppositeness ofthe opposites, , , agree precisely and equaUy," The technical term "indifferent," however, must be distinguished from coincidence; that is, as I argue below, indifference means precisely that the opposites do not coincide but remain distinct, Scholem, Origins, p. 312, remarks that the Iyyun term ahdut ha-shaweh (see below, n, 355) "refers to that unity in which aU oppositions become 'equal,' that is, identical," See also Sed-Rajna, Commentaire, pp, 160—161, 352, This is a very large topic that demands a separate monograph, if not several. For a good introduction to the taxonomic issue, see Hayman, "Monotheism," pp, 1-15, See further references cited in chap, i, n, 263, 353, Azriel of Gerona, Perush Sefer Yesirah, in Kitvei Ramban, 2:254, Kitvei Ramban, 2:454, For a more recent discussion of this aspect of Azriel's thinking, see J, Goldberg, "Mystical Union," pp, 516-522, 354, Azriel of Gerona, Perush Sefer Yesirah, in Kitvei Ramban, 2:455, See idem, Perush ha-Tefitlah, fol, 200b (Sed-Rajna, Commentaire, p. 26; for a shghdy different version, see " R , Azriel of Gerona—Perush ha-Tefillah," p. i), Corrmienting on the second-person mascuhne singular pronoun atah, which is part ofthe standard hturgical formula, Azriel observes that aU the letters ofthe Hebrew alphabet are comprised within this word, a claim substantiated by the fact that two ofthe three consonants that make up this word are alef and tau, the first and last letters. The additional letter is he; although not stated exphcitly, I suggest that Azriel interpreted this letter as a metonymic reference to the name Y H W H , a stock scribal circumlocution for the Tetragrammaton, In Azriel's own words: "AU the letters of the name are comprised in atah, and when we make a blessing we do not intend to bless the separate letters [otiyyot ha-nifradot] even though they are from him, but rather the distinctive and unifying letters [ha-otiyyot ha-meyuhadot ha-mit'ahdot], for aU are blessed from them, and this is what they said in Midrash Tehillim [16:8, p, 122] 'The one who prays must say "you" [atah] on account of'I have placed Y H W H ' [Ps, 16:8], and the meaning of'I have placed' [shiwwitt] is [the aspect o£] indifference [hashwa'ah], for this word [atah] is equal to every name and every praise, and it aUudes to aU of reahty," 355, Scholem, Origins, pp, 312, 439 n, 174; Verman, Books of Contemplation, pp, 39 n, 10 and 195, 356, Azriel of Gerona, Commentary on the Talmudic Aggadoth, p. 116, 357, Azriel of Gerona, "New Fragments," p, 208, 358, An interpretation of Micah 2:13 based on Book Bahir, sec, 48, p, 145, 359, Based on the description ofJericho in Joshua 6:1, 360, Compare Jacob ben Sheshet, Sefer ha-Emunah we-ha-Bittahon, Kitvei Ramban, 2:361: "The a/ef alludes to that which thought cannot comprehend" {le-mah she-ein ha-mahshavah masseget); p. 364: "The pious one [he-hasid], R, Isaac ben Abraham, may the memory ofthe righteous and holy one be for a blessing, explained that the beginning ofthe essences [hawwayot] is alef'; and pp, 385-386: "And a/ef aUudes to the infinite wiU [remez le-rason ad ein sof] from which is the potency of arousal [koah ha-mit'orer]." Seejacob ben Sheshet, Sefer Meshiv Devarim Nekhohim, p. 153: "Hokhmah exists from Ayin, that is, the one subde essence that thought cannot comprehend [hawwayah ahat daqqah she-ein ha-mahshavah yekholah lehasiggah] . . . and the a/ef aUudes to the subtle essence from which is the existence oi Hokhmah . . . and it is the beginning of aU essences," 361, Jacob ben Sheshet, Sha'ar ha-Shamayim, p. 155; "Sefer Sha'ar ha-Shamayim (The Book Gate of Heaven)," p, 104, 362, Plotinus, Enneads 111,7,6, 363, Nicholas of Cusa, Of Learned Ignorance, 1,19, p, 73, 364, Ibid,, 1,21, p, 75, 365, De Visione Dei, in Jasper Hopkins, Nicholas of Cusa's Dialectical Mysticism, chap, 3, p, 123, 366, Jasper Hopkins, Nicholas of Cusa on Cod as Not-Other, p. 69; De Venatione Sapientiae, 14, in Nicholas of Cusa, Complete Philosophical and Theological Treatises, p. 1303, 367, See Prologue, n, 2, 368, ScheUing, Philosophical Investigations, p. 276 (emphasis in original), 369, Ibid,, p, 277, 467

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370, Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit, p. 99, 371, Ibid,, pp, 99-100, 372, Hegel, Hegel's Logic, p. 168 (emphasis in original). There were three editions ofthe Encyclopaedia in Hegel's hfe: 1816, 1827, and 1830, For discussion ofthe hterary evolution ofthe text, see Wallace's bibliographical notice, op, cit,, pp, xxxi-xhii, 373, Ibid,, p, 169, 374, Ibid,, p, 170, 375, Ibid,, p, 171, 376, Ibid,, pp, 171-172 (emphasis in original), 377, Ibid,, p, 173, 378, Ibid,, p, 175, 379, See Rang, Identitdt und Indifferenz. 380, There is a critical shift in the connotation ofthe term "indifference" in the various stages of Schelling's thought. In the early phase ofthe Identity Philosophy, "indifference" names the absolute identity of freedom and necessity in the first principle or "ground" {Crund), the "source" {Quelle) and "root" {Wurzel) of aU beings. In the latter phase ofthe post-Identity PhUosophy, "indifference" denotes the nonground in which all oppositions shatter not through the identity of difference but through the difference of identity. See Marx, Philosophy of F. W. J. Schelling, pp, 10, 67, 84, On the "indifference oi differance," see the rich analysis ofSpanos, Heidegger and Criticism, pp, 81-131, 381, ScheUing, Ages ofthe World, p. 6, 382, Ibid,, p, 12, 383, Ibid,, p, 6, 384, Ibid,, p, 9 (emphasis in original), 385, Ibid,, p, 6, 386, Ibid,, p, 10, 387, Heidegger, Schelling's Treatise, p, 51, For further discussion ofthe theme ofthe ontotheological and the thought of ScheUing, see Courtine, Extase de la raison, pp, 263-311, 388, ScheUing, Ages ofthe World, p. 85, 389, Ibid,, p, 87, 390, In my judgment, the logic articulated by ScheUing to account for the Godhead, A + B, can be viewed as a source for the dialogical philosophy that runs its course from Hermann Cohen through Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig to Emmanuel Levinas and beyond. From another standpoint, the ScheUingian logic anticipates the move of Irigaray to speak ofthe sex that is not one, that is, the affirmation of a binary of difference that cannot be transcended in the identity ofthe same, 391, ScheUing, Ages ofthe World, p. 42, 392, Berdyaev, "Unground and Freedom," pp, v-xxxvii, esp, pp, xxvii-xxviii; D, Walsh, Mysticism of Innerwortdly Fulfillmetit, pp, 68-70; Magee, Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition, pp, 38-42, Bohme himself may have been influenced by Christian kabbalah; see Weeks, Cerman Mysticism, p. 171, and the detailed analysis in Schulitz, yafeob Bohme und die Kabbalah, and Schmidt-Biggerman, "Jakob Bohme und die Kabbala," pp, 157-181, The resemblance of Azriel of Gerona's characterizations ofthe infinite nought and Bohme's Ungrund is noted by Scholem, Origins, p. 436; see pp, 442-443, where Ein Sof is depicted as the "abyss and Ungruftd hidden in the absolute nothingness of which we have only a vague intimation," 393, See the brief comments on this work by Scholem, Kabbalah, pp, 200, 416-419, and the more detailed treatment in Coudert, Impact of the Kabbalah, pp, 100-136, esp, pp, 118-119, For a similar argument regarding this anthology serving as the source for Hegel's knowledge of kabbalah, see Magee, Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition, p. 167, 394, Schulze, "Friedrich Christoph Oetinger," pp, 268-274; Weeks, Cerman Mysticism, pp, 196-198; Kilcher, Sprachtheorie der Kabbala, pp, 199-201; Magee, Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition, pp, 65-67, 167, 173, 395, For an elaborate exphcation ofthe problem ofthe identity ofthe Absolute in ScheUing's philosophy and its repercussions, see Bowie, Schelling and Modem European Philosophy, pp, 55-90, 468

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396, Scholem, Origins, p. 439, Apparendy reflecting the influence of ScheUing, Scholem uses the expressions "indifferent with regard to the opposites" and "indifference of unity" to render the notion oi hashwa'ah as applied to Ein Sof As Scholem emphasizes, the notion of God's indistinctness imphes equahzation or coincidence, and not merely a conjoining, of opposites (he refers the reader tojudah Halevi's Kuzari 4:25 as an iUustration ofthe altemative), I would argue that Scholem has incorrecdy equated the "indifference" of ScheUing and "coincidence" of Cusanus, for the fonner connotes the indeterminate that contains aU determination in the preservation of opposites, whereas the latter signifies the rendering of aU determination indeterminate in the coUapse of opposites, 397, ScheUing, Ages ofthe World, p. 7, 398, Ibid,, p, 8, 399, Ibid,, p, 7, 400, Ibid,, p, 9, 401, Ibid,, p, 10, 402, Zohar 2:239a, 403, For citation of some ofthe relevant sources, seeE, Wolfson, "Beyond Good and Evil," pp, 112-122; idem, "Gender and Heresy," pp, 234-235 n, 17, 244-259; idem, "Divine Suffering," pp, 123-128, 404, Neumann, Origins, p, 18, 405, See, for example, Waite, Holy Kabbalah, pp, 377-405; Scholem, Major Trends, pp, 225-235; Tishby, Wisdom ofthe Zohar, pp, 298-302, 957-959, 1355-1379; Liebes, Studies in the Zohar, pp, 67-71; Mopsik, Lettre sur la saintete, pp, 41-163; idem, Crands textes de la Cabale, s.v. hierogamie. 406, For further discussion of the theurgical significance accorded to each gender in the play of carnal sexuahty, see below, chap, 7, 407, Schelhng articulates this position in Ages ofthe World, p. 89: "Sweetness is inverted into bitterness, gendeness into ire, and love into hate, because a root of bitterness lies even in sweetness and a root of hatred hes in love and, although concealed, it is necessary for its support," 408, E, Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp, 92-98, 409, Nahman of Bratslav, Liqqutei MoHaRaN, II, 23, 410, LiteraUy, "black bile" {marah shehorah), which I have rendered in accordance with its intended connotation, 411, Nathan of Nemirov, Liqqutei Halakhot, Even ha-Ezer: Peri'ah u-Reviyyah, 3, 8c-9b, 412, Sefer ha-Peli'ah, pt, i, 28b, 413, One would do weU here to recaU the description ofthe myth of divine androgyny offered by Ehade, Pattems in Comparative Religion, pp, 420-421: "Divine androgyny is simply a primitive formula for the divine bi-unity; mythological and rehgious thought, before expressing this concept of divine two-in-oneness in metaphysical terms {esse and non esse), or theological terms (the revealed and the unrevealed), expressed it first in the biological terms of bisexuality," Bracketing the question ofthe validity of Eliade's behef that his comment apphes to the history of rehgions in general, it seems to me his insight regarding the expression of an ontological principle in biological terms is appropriate to kabbalistic symbohsm in particular. For a recent analysis ofthe uses of androgyny in the history of rehgions, see Wasserstrom, Religion after Religion, pp, 204214, 414, For an interesting attempt to locate the origins of medieval Jewish esotericism in ancient Greece, see Barry, Creek Qabalah. Although the tide of this work is anachronistic and potentially misleading, as the author himself acknowledges (p, xiii), the hypothesis that medieval kabbalah is a Jewish manifestation of gnosis that is traceable to ancient Greek speculation on alphabetic numerals, which in tum is based on the adoption of Phoenician letters written in cuneiform script, is argued in a convincing and historically plausible manner. On the affinity between Pythagoras and kabbalah, see also the somewhat speculative account offered by Ouaknin, Mysteries ofthe Kabbalah, pp, 355-360, 415, Kirk and Raven, Presocratic Philosophers, p. 285, 416, Laozi, Tao Te Ching, sec, 28, p, 41, See the comments of Roberts, in Laozi, Dao dejing, pp, 88-89: "This stanza is about controlhng the excess of a positive quality (the proud male stance) by preserving the 469

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opposite (meek female reserve). By holding to the 'female' or submissive course while aware ofthe opposite 'male' or dominant course, one can approach the unity underlying the differences and thus balance the dialectic," Consider the commentary on this passage by the third-century scholar Wang Bi cited in Laozi, The Classic ofthe Way and Virtue, p. 103: "The male belongs to that category ofbeing that is in front; the female belongs to that category ofbeing that is in the rear," This schematization has an analogue in kabbalistic symbohsm, based on earher midrashic precedent, whereby the front is correlated with the male and the rear with the female, a theme hnked exegeticaUy to Psahns 139:5, On the balance of opposites in ancient Chinese thought, see the remarks by Jung in the introduction to Secret ofthe Colden Flower, p. 85, 417, Laozi, Tao Te Ching, sec, 42, p, 55, 418, Grigg, Tao of Zen, p. 4, See also the comment by Roberts in Laozi, Dao dejing, p. 117: "For Laozi yin and yang seem to be equal and, like heaven and earth, subordinate functions of Dao, Yin and yang became dominant concepts in the philosophical schools ofthe eastern Qi kingdom when the understanding of them as natural, equal forces interacting in a balanced manner was revised and they were each assigned to sets of social factors, , , , In this way yang became associated with dominance and dynamism, yin with submissiveness and quietism," See also Yao, "Harmony of Yin and Yang," pp, 67-99, For the view that the theory conceming the interaction of two opposing principles, yin and yang, is due to the influence of a metaphysical dualism that is not Taoist in origin, see Waley, Way and Its Power, pp, 51,1 io-i 12, 419, Robinet, Taoist Meditation, pp, 83-85, Another similarity between Taoist doctrine and the kabbahstic understanding of gender polarity consists of the fact that even though both systems of thought understand reality as the endless play of female and male as interactive forces, hght takes precedence over darkness. As Robinet expressed it in her Taoism: Crowth of a Religion, p. 10, when viewed horizontaUy, yin and yang are complementary poles, but if ahgned verticaUy, the latter is superior to the former. Given the gender valence of each pole, it is fair to say that the mascuhne dominates the feminine. Surely, the same can be said about the orientation of traditional kabbalah. Consider, however, the formulation in the Huanglao Taoist text, "The Canon" {fing), in Five Lost Classics, p. 125: "Punishment is dark and virtue bright; / punishment is Yin and virtue is Yang; / punishment is obscure and virtue conspicuous, / It is the bright that is taken as a model, / but it is the obscure Dao that is to be carried out, / The brightest clarity becomes obscure, / the seasons revolve and act as the key," See also the passage from another text, "Designations" {Cheng), p. 161: "The Dao of Heaven and Earth has left and right, has female and male," According to this text, the feminine is aligned on the right and the mascuhne on the left; see p, 274 n, 465, On the hierarchical classification of yin-yang, see pp, 167-169, 420, Idel, "Beloved and the Concubine," p, 144, 421, Coudert, Alchemy, pp, 179-180, 422, The imagery is derived from a parable in Book Bahir, sec, 36, pp, 137-139, and see analysis in chap, 4, 423, Babylonian Talmud, Bava Mesi'a 59a, 424, Mishnah, Yoma 2:4; Tamid 5:2, 425, Babylonian Talmud, Yevamot 63b, 426, Seferha-Peli'ah,pt. 2,ji-b. 427, This is precisely the argument put forth by Idel, "Beloved and the Concubine," pp, 146-148, 428, On the discrepancy between the intentions assigned respectively to man and woman in the act of intercourse, see discussion in chap, 7, With regard to this matter, kabbahsts continue and expand the androcentrism ofthe rabbinic portrayal ofthe subservient role of women in marriage. See Sadow, Jew^«/i Marriage in Antiquity, pp, 248—249, 429, My formulation here is indebted to the thesis propounded by Deutscher, Yielding Cender. The author readily acknowledges the intemal instabihty of gender and more specificaUy the meanings of "female" and "woman," but she also insists that this instabihty has been constitutive of phaUocentricism in the history of Westem philosophy. In my judgment, this is an important corrective to those who use the ambiguity of gender to stabihze instability, 430, I have borrowed this expression from R, Smith, Derrida and Autobiography, p, 91, 431, Neumann, Creat Mother, p. 50, refers to the scriptural account of Eve emerging from Adam as an 470

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"unnatural" symbol rooted in a "patriarchal spirit" that expresses "hostility to the nature symbol," On this "patriarchal revaluation," see op, cit,, p, 58, 432, Stordalen, Echoes of Eden, p. 199, points out that in the second chapter of Genesis the paraUel wordplays ish/ishshah and adam/adamah indicate that just as "man" {adam), is created from "earth" {adamah), so "female" {ishshah), is constructed from "male" {ish). Stordalen contends that the "narrative subtly lets humankind encounter its essence when returning to humus, and men find their origin when abandoning their parents for their wives," AndrocentricaUy construed, the coupUng of man and woman is portrayed as a domestication of man's narcissistic impulse to be conjoined with woman in order to restore the unity of his being. See Bal, "Sexuality, Sin, and Sorrow," pp, 149-173, 433, See E, Wolfson, "Tiqqun ha-Shekhinah," pp, 313-329; idem, "Coronation ofthe Sabbath Bride"; and the final chapter of this book, 434, McGuire, "Women, Gender, and Gnosis," p, 262, 435, My interpretation ofthe kabbahstic conception ofthe image of God as it is configured in the beginning and in the end is comparable to the foUowing account ofthe anthropological notion according to Pauhne eschatology offered by Meeks, "Images ofthe Androgyne," p, 185: "Where the image of God is restored, there, it seems, man is no longer divided—not even by the most fundamental division of all, male and female. The baptismal reunification formula thus belongs to the familiar Urzeit-Endzeit pattern, and it presupposes an interpretation ofthe creation story in which the divine image after which Adam was modeled was masculofeminine," I would simply add that the "masculofeminine" model corresponds to my own locution, "male androgyne," an ideal that presumes the incorporation ofthe feminine in the mascuhne. See also the account ofthe myth ofthe androgyne in Eliade, Two and the One, pp, 103-108, Finally, it is of interest to consider the kabbahstic symbol in conjunction with the following comment by Bohme, Mysterium Magnum, 18,2, vol, I, p, 121: "Adam was a man and also a woman, and yet none of them [distinct], but a virgin [eine Jungfrau],friUof chastity, modesty and purity, viz, the image of God, He had both the tinctures ofthe fire and the hght in him; in the conjunction of which the own love, viz, the virginal centre [Jungfrauliche Centrum], stood, viz, the fair Paradisical rose-garden of dehght, wherein he loved himself As we also, in the resurrection of the dead, shaU be such; as Christ teUeth us, that we shall neither marry, nor be given in marriage, but be like the angels of Cod" (emphasis in original), I have also consulted the original German in Bohme, Sdmtliche Schriften. For Bohme, the original Adamic figure was both androgynous and genderless, a pristine virgin, chaste, modest, and pure, created in the image of God, the "tinctures of fire and light," In the paradisaical state, Adam stood alone in the "virginal centre," that is, "the rose-garden of dehght, wherein he loved himself"—self-delight, but no desire for the other, as there is no other to desire. That center, the rosegarden, is doubtless an aUusion to the feminine capacity incorporated within the primal Adam, the Divine Virgin, not yet a separate entity to be desired; in time, according to Bohme's understanding, Satan tempts Adam to the point that he lusts for the Virgin, an act that brings about the departure of the Virgin from Adam and her replacement by the figure of Eve, the earthly woman with whom he wiU cohabit physicaUy, In the future resurrection, the primal state will be restored and gender dimorphism overcome; hence the admonition ofjesus to shun marriage, the angehc status ofthe resurrected body hnked to the celibate conquest of desire for the other (Mark 12:25; Matt, 22:30; Luke 20:34-36), as the angel is "neither flesh nor bones, but is constituted or composed by the divine power in the shape, form and manner of a man, and hath all members like man, except the members of generation, and the fundament on going out ofthe draff, neither hath an angel need of them" (Bohme, Aurora, 6,23, p, 124), For discussion ofthe motif of the androgynous Adam in Bohme, see Weeks, Boehme, pp, 114—121, 436, See chap, 4, My assumption regarding the monolithic character ofthe symbol ofthe androgyne in kabbalistic doctrine stands in sharp contrast to those who would argue that androgyny is a semiotic marker of gender ambiguity. See, for instance, Levinson, "Cultural Androgyny," pp, 119-140, It is beyond the scope of this note to assess Levinson's claim criticaUy, but let me say that the position I have attributed to kabbalists is not unique. See studies mentioned at the end of n, 122 above. See also the brief but incisive comments on the rabbinic fear of the hermaphrodite or androgyne—making a man into a woman capable of becoming a wife—in Sadow, "They Abused Him Like a Woman," pp, 17-18, 471

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Chapter Three Phallomorphic Exposure: Concealing Soteric Esotericism 1, Heidegger, Being and Time, p. 141, The hermeneutical discussion in this section is a reworking of my earher analysis in "Lying on the Path," 2, Heidegger, Being and Time, p. 141, See Gadamer, Truth and Method p. 236: "The point of Heidegger's hermeneutical thinking is not so much to prove that there is a circle as to show that this circle possesses an ontologicaUy positive significance, , , , All correct interpretation must be on guard against arbitrary fancies and the hmitations imposed by imperceptible habits of thought and direct its gaze 'on the things themselves' (which, in the case ofthe hterary critic, are meaningful texts, which themselves are again concerned with objects). It is clear that to let the object take over in this way is not a matter for the interpreter of a single decision, but is 'the first, last and constant task,' , , , A person who is trying to understand a text is always performing an act of projecting. He projects before himself a meaning for the text as a whole as soon as some initial meaning emerges in the text. Again, the latter emerges only because he is reading the text with particular expectations in regard to a certain meaning. The working out of this fore-project, which is constandy revised in terms of what emerges as he penetrates into the meaning, is understanding what is there," 3, Gadamer, Truth and Method, p. 274, It is of interest to note that Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, vol, 3, p, 158, drew the analogy between his notion of appropriation and Gadamer's problem of application, 4, Gadamer, Truth and Method, pp, 273—274, 5, Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, pp. 178-179, 6, Here my thinking betrays the influence of Heidegger's analysis ofthe temporal character of human comportment in the world. On temporahty and thinking in Heidegger's thought, see Dastur, Heidegger and the Question of Time, pp, 17-51; Blattner, Heidegger's Temporal Idealism, pp, 89-126, esp, p, 124; Boer, Tliinking in the Light of Time, pp, 79-113, Sikka, Forms of Transcendence, pp, 177-180, raised the possibility that Heidegger's notion of temporality as the event of appropriation ofbeing wherein the three dimensions of time are unified in the future as "anticipatory resoluteness" {vorlaufende Entschlossenheit) that "makes present in the process of having been" {Beitig and Time, pp, 299-300) may paraUel Eckhart's conception of eternity as the fuUness ofthe now {nunc, nu) in which aU modes of time are comprehended. For a different view, see Caputo, Mystical Element, pp, 216-217, 225-226, A mystical understanding of Heidegger's thought is explored from another perspective in idem, Heidegger and Aquinas, pp, 246-287, A comparative analysis of Heidegger and Eckhart with particular focus on the notion of Celassenheit (releasement) as the way to let beings be is offered by Schurmann in Wandering Joy, pp, 188-209, See also Helting, Heidegger und Meister Eckehart; and the brief but insightful comments regarding the circular logic of identity in Heidegger and the mystics offered by Taubes, "Gnostic Foundations," pp, 165-166 (my thanks to Charlotte E, Fonrobert for drawing my attention to this study); and the remarks by Albert, Mystik und Philosophie, pp, 193-202, For a more detailed analysis ofthe affinities between Heidegger and ancient Gnosticism, see Jonas, Cnostic Religion, pp, 64-65, 333-337; Baum, Cnostische Elemente. Also relevant is the more imaginative work by Avens, New Cnosis; and the study ofthe impact of Heidegger and Bultmann, and in particular the notion oi Entweltlichung (acosmism), on the early conception of gnosticism proffered by Hans Jonas in Waidstein, "Hans Jonas' Construct 'Gnosticism'," pp, 341-372, esp, pp, 343-345, 7, Heidegger, Wliat Is Called Tliinking^, pp, 174, 180-181; idem. On the Way to Language, p. 129; idem, Parmenides, pp, 12-13, Regarding the significance of translation in Heidegger's philosophy as the means by which one thinks the unthought in the history of ontology, see Emad, "Thinking More Deeply," pp, 341347, See also Gondek, "Das Obersetzen denken," pp, 37-55, Heidegger's view on translation as interpretation shares much in common with Franz Rosenzweig, Regarding the latter, see GaUi, Franz Rosenzweig and Jehuda Halevi, pp, 322-359; idem, "Introduction," pp, 3-57; Batnitzky, Idolatry and Representation, pp, 105141, GaUi, "Introduction," pp, 12-54, discusses the respective views of Benjamin and Rosenzweig on translation against their cultural background with special emphasis on the thought of Kafka, For discussion ofthe views of Benjamin and Rosenzweig on translation, see E, Wolfson, "Lying on the Path," pp, 19-23; Jacobs, Telling Time, pp, 128-141; P, E, Gordon, Rosenzweig and Heidegger, pp, 248-274, esp, pp, 267-272, where the author notes the proximity of Rosenzweig and Heidegger on the hermeneutical nature of speech as 472

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translation. See also Bamstone, Poetics of Translation, pp, 20-24, 261-262, On the relationship of Heidegger and Rosenzweig, see E, Wolfson, "Facing the Effaced," pp, 41-42, and references to other scholars cited on p, 41 n, 10, See also the brief but poignant remarks on this relationship in Gadamer, On Education, Poetry, and History, pp, 161—163, A sustained comparison ofthe two thinkers is also found in Dlittmann, Cift of Language, pp, 5—34, Curiously, in the author's chapter on translation, Benjamin's views are discussed in conjunction with Heidegger but no mention is made of Rosenzweig, On translation as a mode of interpretation, see Iser, Range of Interpretation, pp, 5—12, 19; and Eco, Experiences in Translation, pp, 13—14, 67—132, 8, Gadamer, Truth and Method, p. 349, See idem, "Text and Interpretation," p, 32: "every translation, even the so-caUed hteral reproduction, is a sort of interpretation," 9, Gadamer, "Text and Interpretation," p, 34, 10, These taxonomies are, as thinking in general, pohticaUy driven. It would be naive to think of thinking without political context, as even this formulation occurs within a specific pohtical context, 11, Wood, Deconstruction of Time, pp, 319-334; Bennington, Interrupting Derrida, pp, 137-140, 12, Moses, "Rosenzweig et Levinas," pp, 137—155, For other references to the impact of Rosenzweig on Levinas, see E, Wolfson, "Facing the Effaced," p, 43 n, 17, to which many more studies could be added, 13, Barthes, Pleasure ofthe Text, p. 64 (emphasis in original), 14, Blanchot, Space of Literature, pp, 22—23, A similar view is espoused by Derrida, Demeure, pp, 28—29: "There is no essence or substance of hterature: hterature is not. It does not exist, , , , The contradiction is its very existence, its ecstatic process. Before coming to writing, hterature depends on reading and the right conferred on it by an experience of reading," It is important to note that Derrida's work is published together with Blanchot's Instant of My Death, to which it is a response. The title ofthe original French work is Demeure: Maurice Blanchot (Paris: Editions Galilee, 1998), 15, Borges, Seven Nights, p. 76, 16, On the nexus of time, eros, and hermeneutics, see the prehminary remarks in E, Wolfson, "From Sealed Book to Open Text," pp, 145-178, I have explored the matter in more depth in Alef, Mem, Tau. See also E, Wolfion, "Cut That Binds," pp, 112-122, 17, A presentation of hermeneutics from this vantage point is found in Vattimo, Beyond Interpretation. 18, Nietzsche, Will to Power, p. 291, sec, 540, See Granier, "Perspectivism and Interpretation," pp, 190200; Bergoffen, "Nietzsche's Madman," pp, 57-71, For a more recent analysis, see Hales and Welshon, Nietzsche's Perspectivism; and PoeUner, "Perspectival Truth," pp, 85-117, 19, For a striking polarization of cultural construction and the epistemological belief in truth, see Veyne, Did the Creeks Believe In Their Myths?, pp, 117-129, 20, Gadamer, Truth and Method, p. 238, On the role of openness and questioning in Gadamer's hermeneutical orientation, see Coltman, Language of Hermeneutics, pp, 52-57, 109-110; S,-J, Hoffinann, "Gadamer's Philosophical Hermeneutics," pp, 88-90; and Freudenberger, "Hermeneutic Conversation," pp, 262-264, 21, Betti, "Henneneutics as the General Methodology," p, 173, 22, Harpham, Ascetic Imperative, p. xvi, 23, Rogers, Interpreting Interpretation, p. 135, 24, Regosin, Montaigne's Unruly Brood, p. 85, 25, An appreciation and judicious characterization of my work can be found in S, Shapiro, "Toward a Postmodern Judaism," p, 89 n, 7, Two recent sensitive interpretations for which I am grateful may be found in Bruckstein, Die Maske des Moses, pp, 115-135, esp, pp, 120-124; and Kripal, Roads ofExcess, pp, 258-298, 26, On the relationship between philology and philosophical speculation in Nietzsche, which may be apphed more broadly, see Porter, Nietzsche and the Philology ofthe Future. See also Blondel, Nietzsche, the Body and Culture, pp, 88—200, 27, My formulation is indebted to Caputo, Radical Hermeneutics; idem, "Radical Hermeneutics and Rehgious Truth," pp, 146-172, See also R, Martinez, Very Idea of Radical Hermeneutics; Caputo, More Radical Hermeneutics; Safranski, Martin Heidegger, p. 155, The only other scholar of whom I am aware who has employed this term in the study of kabbalah is Idel, "Radical Hermeneutics," pp, 165-210, Idel, however,

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uses the term in a manner that is different from my own. For Idel, the expression "radical henneneutics" connotes an aggressive form of reading that may even lead to the destruction of the semantic form of the canonical text. My use ofthe term, which is in conformity with the way the expression is used by philosophers in the hermeneutical tradition, connotes a manner of reading that seeks to estabhsh the ground by breaking through the foundation. The positing of a "foundation" should not be construed as embracing a foundationalist hermeneutic, that is, I am not suggesting that there is a reified essence that constitutes the immutable origin of meaning and truth, the fixed point of departure. On the contrary, the act of establishing the ground by breaking the foundation is meant to convey the sense of disruption at the beginning, a splintering ofthe rock into manifold sparks, to utihze the weU-known image from ancient rabbinic lore, I would thus distinguish between "origin" and beginning," the latter term denoting the doubling, the retrieval of what has always not been, that hes at the inception. For an account of this distinction apphed specificaUy to Sefer ha-Bahir, presumed by Scholem to be the "first" text of medieval kabbalah, see E, Wolfson, "Before Alef" A revised and expanded version of this essay appears as the third chapter oiAlef Mem, Tau. 28, Frey, "Holderhn's Marginahzation of Language," p, 356, For an iUuminating study ofthe cultural significance ofthe margin from a different conceptual standpoint, see CamiUe, Image on the Edge. 29, Derrida, Archeology ofthe Frivolous, p. 71 (emphasis in original), 30, Cacciari, Icone della legge, p. 143, cited in CohUi, Idea of a Living Spirit, p. 15 (emphasis in original), 31, Steiner, Real Presences, p. 40, 32, For an introductory treatment ofthe hermeneutical methodology imphed by the fehcitous expression "textual reasoning," see Ochs, "Introduction to Postcritical Scriptural Interpretation," pp, 3-51; and the more technical account in idem, Peirce, Pragmatism and the Logic of Scripture, pp, 246-325, See also Meskin, "Textual Reasoning," pp, 475-490; and the relevant discussion on Scripture and phUosophical analysis in Novak, Election of Israel, pp, 108-115, 33, Schimmel, As through a Veil, p. 34, See idem, "Eros—Heavenly and Not So Heavenly," pp, 119-141, The intricate connection of the sacral and sexual has been emphasized by a number of other scholars, of whom I wiU here mention only a representative sampling: Sutter, Mystik und Erotik; B, Goldberg, Sacred Fire; Bleeker, Rainbow, pp, 208-224; Evola, Eros and the Mysteries of Love; Bouhdiba, Sexuality in Islam, pp, 88-100, On the more specific nexus between eroticism and esotericism in language that is compatible with my own thinking, see Kripal, Kali's Child; and idem. Roads ofExcess, pp, ix-xv, 15-23, passim; Freimark, Okkultismus und Sexualitdt. 34, On the distinction between eros and the libidinal drive, see the usefial discussion in Irwin, Eros toward the World, pp, 6-8, A key question, which lies beyond the scope of this book, concerns the precise moral value ofthe erotic, a determination that depends in great measure on the epistemic and ontic presuppositions ofthe unitive experience. Briefly put, is the union attained on the basis of accepting the other in the otherness of the other's being or on the basis of effacement of the other in the nondifferentiated sameness of the one? See discussion in chap, 4, 35, See Milka Rubin, "Language of Creation," pp, 306-333, The author defdy examines the nexus between claims to cultural and ethnic superiority and primacy accorded to a particular language as the language of creation in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam respectively. Regarding the latter, see also Ess, "Verbal Inspiration?" pp, 177-194, On the possibihty of a semiotic interpretation ofthe world without falling into the ethnocentric hole of medieval kabbalah, see the discussion of Renaissance thinkers in Steiner, After Babel, pp, 64-65, and Hallyn, Poetic Structure ofthe World, pp, 163-182, I note in passing that one ofthe interesting features of Christian kabbalah and its aftermath as an inteUectual force in Westem thought, from Romantic to postmodem hermeneutics, is the attempt to universalize the ontologizing understanding of Hebrew as the mother tongue, the source of aU language, by identifying it with the Logos, the name ofthe invisible Father incamate in the glorious Son, See Schmidt-Biggemann, "Christian Kabbala," pp, 81-121; and Kuntz, "Original Language as a Paradigm," pp, 123-149, 36, For a richly nuanced discussion of this aspect of the Jewish esoteric tradition, see Scholem, "Name of God," 37, Steiner, After Babel, pp, 39-40, 474

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38, Ibid,, pp, 61-64, 39, The symbohc nature ofthe erotic provides a specific example ofthe larger epistemological claim that corporeal metaphors lie at the origin of human language. See M, Johnson, Body in the Mind; Bouvet, "Metaphors ofthe Body," pp, 27-39, 40, One would do weU to compare the nexus between sexuahty and speech, which is an integral aspect of the kabbalistic tradition (in both the theosophic and the ecstatic streams), to a similar tendency in the esoteric current of Indian rehgion that served as the basis for Tantric practices. See Dange, Sexual Symbolism, pp, xiii-xiv, 99-115; D, G, White, "Tantric Sects and Tantric Sex," pp, 249-270, 41, Woods, Articulate Flesh, p. i, 42, See the relevant remarks of Ouaknin, Bumt Book, p. 198, 43, See E, Wolfson, "Anthropomorphic Imagery," pp, 147-181; and further discussion in chap, 5, 44, On this score, see the iUuminating discussion of Eckhart in D, Turner, Darkness of Cod, pp, 168-185, For an attempt to consider the apophatic/kataphatic distinction from the perspective of the aniconic/iconic polarity, see Gerhart, "Word Image Opposition," pp, 63-79, 45, Freud, Moses and Monotheism, p. 144, See EUberg-Schwartz, Cod's Phallus, pp, 32-33, For discussion ofthe larger German-Jewish cultural context to explain the aniconism adopted by Freud, see Bland, "Antisemitism and Aniconism," pp, 41-66; idem. Artless Jew, pp, 24-26; and the apphcable remarks of Mendelsohn, "People ofthe Image," pp, 305-312, esp, pp, 307-308, For a different approach to Freud, see Boyarin, "Imaginary and Desirable Converse," pp, 184-204, 46, For a brief discussion ofthe matter, see E, Wolfson, "Sacred Space," pp, 599—600 n, 15 and 605—606 n, 36, I have explored the theme in greater detail in "Imaging the Imageless," The kabbahstic perspective can be profitably compared to the view of Suhrawardi, Shape of Light, p, 35: "With these spiritual efforts, man can be elevated to the level of annihilation, leaving the material tastes of the world, the flesh, and worldly knowledge, cutting aU relationship with the exterior. That is when the soul becomes a mirror upon which AUah's hght reflects, and the soul sees the images of Light," For a similar account affirming the nexus between abrogation of the material body and the visionary conjuration of corporeal images, compare the explanation of a vision by the anonymous author oi Sefer ha-Qanah offered by Ehezer ben Abraham ha-Levi, Iggeret Sod ha-CeuUah, in Shalosh Ma'amerei Ce'ullah, p,45: "We should not push away the words ofthe Qanah conceming what he said about the act he executed and the visions he saw upon the sea , , , his words were hke metaphor and simile [mashal we-hiddah], for he conjoined his soul to the supemal beings, and he entered to navigate the sea of wisdom [yam ha-hokhmah], and he performed a deed by the agency of a name so that he would see with his eyes, hear with his ears, and understand with his heart that the deed of the Lord is wondrous, and he would not be injured or damaged, AU of this was only because he removed the garment of matter [kettonet ha-homer] that was on him and he remained an actuahzed inteUect [sekhel be-fo'al], as this is known to those who traverse the ways of contemplation [hitbodedut] and disembodiment [hafshatah] to bind their souls to the supernal hght. The great hght that comes to his eyes is a figurative representation [mashal] ofthe hght ofthe efflux [or ha-shefa] that overflows upon him from God, and the splendor [ziw] that emanates upon him is from the place to which his mind is conjoined [she-hidbiq bo mahshavto]." 47, For a psychoanalytic study of the image of the mirror as mediating symbol, see Legendre, Dieu au miroir, and the relevant material extracted from this work in idem. Law and the Unconscious, pp, 211—254, 48, Scholem's assessment, in On the Possibility ofjewish Mysticism, p. 143, that the kabbalists' use of anthropomorphic symbols bespeaks their role as "theoretical defenders ofthe concept of God by the simple and naive pious Jew" against the claims of the philosophical elite is problematic. Closer to the mark is the characterization he offers in On the Mystical Shape, p. 39, 49, On occasion Scholem explicidy mentioned the affmity between Schelling's thought and a kabbalistic idea. For references, see Prologue, n, 2, As Kilcher, Sprachtheorie der Kabbala, pp, 45-46, points out, in Major Trends, p. 27, Scholem cites from Friedrich Creuzer's Symbolik und Mythologie der alten Volker, a work bearing the influence of ScheUing, in an effort to articulate the transformative power of the symbol to unify the life of God and creation. For the influence of ScheUing's narrative philosophy on Scholem, see also Wasserstrom, Religion after Religion, pp, ioo-ioi. On the role of imagination in ScheUing's privileging ofthe mythopoeic over the philosophical, see the recent analysis of Llewelyn, HypoCriticat Imagination, pp, 50-68, 475

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50, See Weigel, Body- and Image-Space, pp, ix-xvii, 8-11, 21-22, 49-60, 80-83, The influence of both ScheUing and Benjamin on Scholem has been noted by Kilcher, Sprachtheorie der Kabbala, pp, 45-46, Here it is also important to recaU Scholem's reference to ScheUing in his depiction of Benjamin's autobiographical A Berlin Childhood around lgoo in a lecture delivered at the Leo Baeck Institute, New York, October 1964, printed in English translation in Scholem, On Jews and Judaism in Crisis, p. 176: "It has often been asserted that ScheUing, the philosopher, at the height of his creative powers wrote Nachtwachen {Night Vigils) . . . under the pseudonym of'Bonaventura,' It is not certain whether this is correct. If it were, it would be the most exact paraUel to Benjamin's book , , , a prose that could only have been conceived in the mind of a philosopher turned storyteUer, 'Narrative philosophy' was ScheUing's ideal. In this book by Benjamin it has been achieved in an undreamt-of manner," It is significant that in the same context Scholem notes that in Benjamin's work "poetry and reality have become one," 51, Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, p. 96, 52, Scholem, Kabbalah, pp, 87-88; see p, 117, where Scholem concludes that the philosophers did not deal at aU with the divine emanations, although kabbahsts were influenced by philosophical cosmology when discussing the world below the last of the sefirot. This statement must be qualified, however, in hght of the fact that some ofthe early kabbahsts identified either the sefirot coUectively with the separate inteUects or one ofthe sefirot (usuaUy the second or the tenth) with the Active InteUect, 53, The question ofthe relationship between philosophy and kabbalah or Jewish mysticism more generaUy in Scholem's oeuvre is a complex matter, the clarification of which hes beyond the scope of this study. For brief analysis and citation of some other relevant scholarly discussions, see E, Wolfson, "Hebraic and HeUenic Conceptions," pp, 151-156, This subject has to be seen against a broader polarization of mysticism and philosophy, the former associated with the irrational or nonrational intuition and the latter with rational argumentation, a somewhat antiquated dichotomy that has its roots in post-Kantian Westem thought. See R, King, Orientalism and Religion, pp, 26—34, 54, See, for instance, Scholem, Kabbalah, p. 370, and discussion in E, Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp, 278-279, 55, Scholem, Kabbalah in Provence, Appendix, p, 4, Particularly relevant is a passage wherein Benjamin describes the imagination in terms of a Hasidic saying that everything in the world-to-come is arranged in the pattem of this world, "Everything wiU be the same as here—only a httle bit different. Thus it is with the imagination. It merely draws a veil over the distance. Everything remains just as it is, but the veil flutters and everything changes imperceptibly beneath it," See Benjamin, Selected Writings, Volume 2, p. 664, For a different account ofthe imagination, which emphasizes the role of de-formation or dissolution of forms, see Benjamin, Selected Writings, Volume 1, pp, 280-282, In that context as weU, however, Benjamin argues that "pure imagination" is not an "inventive power" because it does not create a new nature, A similar approach is taken by Bachelard, Air and Dreams, p. 72: "We always think ofthe imagination as the faculty thix. forms images. On the contrary, it deforms what we perceive; it is, above aU, the faculty that frees us from immediate images and changes them. If there is no change, or unexpected fusion of images, there is no imagination; there is no imaginative act" (emphasis in original), 56, For a description of this part of Sha'arei Qedushah, including a hst of the major sources utilized by Vital, see Fine, "Recitation of Mishnah," pp, 188-189, The mystical techniques recommended by Vital to attain a contemplative state of corrmiunion, consisting mainly of unifications {yihudim), conjurations {hashba'ot), and adjurations by divine or angehc names {hazkarot ha-shemot), are discussed in Werblowsky, Joseph Karo, pp, 71-83, See also Pachter, "Concept ofDevekut," pp, 225-229; Fine, "Maggidic Revelation," pp, 141-157; idem, "Contemplative Practice of Yihudim," pp, 64-98; idem. Physician ofthe Soul, pp, 259299, 57, Sha'arei Qedushah, 4:2, in Vital, Ketavim Hadashim, p. 10, 58, Ibid,, p, 9, 59, See, for instance. Vital, Sha'ar ha-Cilgulim, sec, 38, 52a, In that passage. Vital reports that Luria instructed him to fast three days before Pentecost, a theme hnked exegeticaUy to the scriptural admonition to the male Israelites to prepare themselves three days prior to the theophany at Sinai by separating from 476

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their wives (Exod, 19:15), for just as the poUution ofthe serpent was removed from the Israehtes at that time, so the "fUth of matter" {zuhamat ha-homer) would be eradicated from Vital and he would consequendy be empowered in "knowledge ofthe secrets of Torah" {yedi'at sodot ha-torah) on the night ofthe festival. On the role of asceticism in kabbalistic pietism, especiaUy expressed in sixteenth-century texts, see Werblowsky, Joseph Karo, pp, 38-83, 113-118, 149-152, 161-165; Pachter, "Concept ofDevekut," pp, 200-210; Fine, "Purifying the Body," pp, 117-142, 60, The point is stated exphcitly in another passage in Sha'arei Qedushah, 4:2, p, 5: "The person must meditate in his thought {yitboded be-mahshavto) until the utmost hmit, and he should separate his body from his soul as if he does not feel that he is he garbed in matter at aU, but he is entirely a soul. To the degree that he separates from matter his comprehension is augmented , , , if any corporeal thought comes to him, the thought of his soul ceases to be conjoined to the supernal entities and he does not comprehend anything, for the supernal holiness does not dweU on a person when he is attached to matter even [in the measure oi] a hairsbreadth," For an altemative translation, see Fine, "Recitation of Mishnah," pp, 189-190, 61, Ma'arekhet ha-Elohut, chap, 10, 142b—144b; for discussion of this passage, see E, Wolfson, Ttnough a Speculum, p. 325, 62, Consider the foUowing passage in the anonymous kabbahstic treatise, Sutlam ha-Aliyyah, p. 73: "AU this is in order to separate the soul and to purify it from aU the physical forms and entities, , , , And when it is in this condition, he wiU prepare his true thought to form in his heart and in his inteUect as if he were sitting above in the heaven of heavens before the holy One, blessed be he, and in the midst ofthe splendor, the effulgence, and the majesty of his Shekhinah, and it is as if he were to see the holy One, blessed be he, sitting like a high and exalted king," 63, Sha'arei Qedushah, 4:2, p, 12, 64, Ma'arekhet ha-Elohut, 143a, 65, Sha'arei Qedushah, 3:5, p, 89, 66, Ibid,, 3:8, p, IOI, For discussion of this passage, see M, Fishbane, Kiss of Cod, pp, 44—45, 67, Sha'arei Qedushah, 3:5, pp, 89-90; and see analysis of this passage in E, Wolfson, Tiirough a Speculum, pp, 320-323, See also Werblowsky, Joiep/; Karo, pp, 65-71; E, Wolfson, "Weeping, Death, and Spiritual Ascent," pp, 209—247, On the description oi devequt as an ecstatic separation ofthe soul from the body and its consequent restoration to the divine, cf Sha'arei Qedushah, 3:2, pp, 80 and 84, 68, See, by contrast, the characterization of kaivwanah in sixteenth-century Lurianic material given by Scholem, Major Trends, pp, 276—278, Scholem emphasizes that for the Lurianic kabbalists, kawwanah, which involves concentrating on the mystical meaning associated with each word, is the way that leads to devequt, the kabbalistic equivalent oiunio mystica. True to fashion, however, he does not mention the visionary quality ofthe experience, 69, Olat Tamid, 46a-b, This passage appears in some editions oi Sha'ar Ruah ha-Qodesh, for example, the version of this text pubhshed in Kitvei Rabbenu ha-Ari, 11:39, For discussion of this text, see E, Wolfson, Ttirough a Speculum, pp, 323-324, and Fine, "Purifying the Body," pp, 131-132, Cf Sha'arei Qedushah, 4:2, p, 15, 70, Sha'arei Qedushah, 3:4, pp, 87-88, 71, This aspect oi devequt in the writings ofjewish mystics was duly noted by Werblowsky, Josep/j Karo, pp, 58-59, Interestingly, Werblowsky suggests that the idea expressed by kabbalists that the mystic's heart is the true dweUing of God may betray the influence of Sufism, For more recent studies that reconsider this possibihty, see Fenton, "La 'Hitbodedut' chez les premiers Qabbahsts," pp, 133-157, and idem, "Influences of Sufism," pp, 170-179, 72, My orientation to the history ofjewish mysticism, which has served as the theoretical underpinning of much of my work, including Through a Speculum, bears a close resemblance to Bernard McGinn's approach to the history of Western Christian mysticism, which he has aptly caUed TIte Presence of Cod. Contrary to the widely held view, McGinn argues that "union with God" is not the most central category for understanding mysticism. The mystical element in Christianity relates to the "behef and practices that concerns the preparation for, the consciousness of and the reaction to what can be described as the immediate or direct presence 477

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of God," See McGinn, Foundations of Mysticism, p. xvii; see p, xix: "When I speak of mysticism as involving an immediate consciousness of the presence of God I am trying to highhght a central claim that appears in almost aU mystical texts," See also idem, Crowth of Mysticism, pp, x-xi: "It also seems necessary to insist that the mystical element of the Christian rehgion be seen primarily as a process or way of hfe rather than being defined solely in terms of some experience of union with God, , , , Though this encounter is often expressed in terms of some form of union with God, I have argued that a more flexible understanding of this goal in terms ofthe consciousness ofthe immediate or direct presence of God—a presence that paradoxicaUy is often expressed through such thoroughgoing negation of aU created forms ofbeing and awareness that it appears as absence—is a better way of looking at the entire story ofthe Christian mystical tradition" (emphasis in original). On the dialectical relation of absence and presence, see idem. Foundations of Mysticism, pp, xviii-xix, 73, See the reference to Corbin's notion of "metaphysical idolatry" in chap, i, n, 349, 74, This is a summary account of my thesis presented in Through a Speculum. For a more recent discussion of this theme, see E, Wolfson, "Iconicity ofthe Text," The matter is discussed from a different vantage point by Adams, "Idolatry and the Invisibihty of God," pp, 39-52, For a richly nuanced and sophisticated discussion of idolatry and aniconism in the bibhcal hterary context, which is cast in terms of the larger question concerning literal versus metaphorical explanations of language, see Aaron, Biblical Ambiguities, pp, 125-192, Kochan, Beyond the Craven Image, presents the more conventional and hackneyed approach to the topic, 75, This is the depiction ofjesus in Colossians 1:15, On Christ's image as the icon of God, see Raw, Trittity and htcamation, pp, 120-142; and the studies cited in chap, i, n, 348, For an iUuminating theological discussion ofthe idol, icon, and visibility ofthe invisible, see Marion, Cod without Being, pp, 7-24; idem. Idol and Distance, pp, 1-9; idem, "Event, the Phenomenon, and the Revealed," pp, 87-105, A chaUenge to the possibility of a "pure" experience, the epistemological condition necessary for the appearance ofthe Other, the giving/showing ofthe non-phenomenalizable, is presented by Zarader, "Phenomenahty and Transcendence," pp, 106-119, For an altemative approach to the nexus ofthe image and idol in the theistic rehgious imagination, see Mommaers, Riddle of Christian Mystical Experience, pp, 5—41, 76, Benz, "Color in Christian Visionary Experience," pp, 95-101; HeUer, "Contemplation in Christian Mysticism," pp, 195-196, 77, For an interesting study that iUumines the same tension in a different cultural context, see Stewart, "Imageless Prayer," pp, 173-204, I am indebted to Stewart for the expression "imageless prayer," 78, On the relationship ofthe kataphatic and apophatic in kabbahstic symbohsm, see E, Wolfson, "Negative Theology," pp, v-xxii, 79, Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, pp, 41-42, German expressions are derived from Scholem, Von der tnystischen Cestalt, p. 34, 80, For discussion of this dimension of Scholem's theory of mystical experience and citation of some of the relevant sources, see E, Wolfson, Tiirough a Speculum, pp, 55—57, 81, The English translation is a fairly precise rendering ofthe original German in Von der mystischen Cestalt, p. 47: "mit der sie in ihrer Cleichsetzung der Emanationstheorie mit der mystischen Sprachtheorie im Namen Cottes zugleich auch das Bildlose ergriffen." See, however, the Hebrew version in Scholem, Pirqei Yesod beHavanat, p. 186: "she-mitokh hashunva'atam we-zihuyam et torat ha-asilut le-torat ha-lashon ha-mistit hissigu be-shem hwy "h gam et ne'edarha-demut." Ben-Shlomo added the phrase hissigu be-shem hwy'li, which should rendered

as "they contemplated the name YHWH," It is significant that there is nothing in the original to which the gloss corresponds, but it nevertheless reflects a proper understanding ofthe kabbahstic tradition described by Scholem, for there is an intricate hnk between contemplation of the ineffable name and envisioning the imageless form, 82, Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, p. 55, 83, Benjamin, Selected Writings, Volume 2, p. 269, 84, For an illuminating study of this theme in Taoism and Zen Buddhism, see Izutsu, "Between Image and No-Image," pp, 427-461, reprinted in idem. On Images, pp, 3-37, 85, For a description of this literary stratum of zoharic hterature, see Scholem, Major Trends, p. 161; Tishby, Wisdom of Zohar, pp, 2-3, 478

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86, Zohar 1:147b {Sitrei Torah). 87, Dionysius the Areopagite, Divine Names, i, 596A, p, 114, 88, E, Gottheb, Studies in the Kabbala Literature, p. 236, identifies this as R, David Kohen, 89, In my judgment, this verse was already utihzed exegeticaUy by rabbis of the talmudic period as a scriptural prooftext to anchor the meditation practice of envisioning the divine in prayer. See E, Wolfson, "Iconic Visualization," pp, 141-142, 90, The passage is cited in E, Gotdieb, Studies in the Kabbala Literature, p. 236, On the Abulafian background for this image, see Idel, Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia, p. 116, For recent discussion of visualization techniques and contemplation ofthe divine name in Isaac of Acre, see E, Fishbane, "Contemplative Practice," pp, 271-299, 91, I have appropriated the term autrement qu'etre, utihzed by Levinas in his rejection ofthe ontological understanding of self as an entity or event that manifests itself in being; the self such that it is, is shaped by the movement of alterity, which is otherwise than being, a key notion that Levinas returns to repeatedly in his writings, for instance. Otherwise Than Being. The defense of its suitability in characterizing the metaphysical position of medieval kabbalists is not an easy matter and would require an independent treatment that would have to delve more deeply into the "kenosis of discourse" in thinkers hke Heidegger, Levinas, and Derrida, and its relationship to the Neoplatonic apophatic tradition. For references to scholars who have tackled this issue, see E, Wolfson, "Assaulting the Border," p, 476 n, i; and in particular Vries, Philosophy and the Turn to Religion, pp, 305-358, whence I derived the redolent locution "kenosis of discourse," See also the thoughtful discussion ofthe "anarchy of transcendence" in Peperzak, Beyond, pp, 72-120; and the pertinent analysis in Crignon, "Figuration," pp, 100-125, 92, Isaac ben Samuel of Acre, Sefer Me irat Einayim, p. 91, 93, E, Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp, 291-293, 94, See, for instance, Verman, "Kabbalah Refracted," pp, 123-130; and Ehor, "Jewish Studies in Israel," pp,

i-ii,

95, Horkheimer, Studien iiber Autoritdt, p. 13, cited in Rudolph, Historical Fundamentals, p. 31, On the relationship between psychology and religious experience, see Goodenough, Psychology of Religious Experiences; Taves, Fits, Trances, and Visions, pp, 261—307; and Vaidyanathan and Kripal, Vishnu on Freud's Desk, esp, pt, 5, "Psychoanalytic Approaches to Hindu Mysticism, Myth and Ritual," pp, 233-398, and the afterword by Kripal, "Psychoanalysis and Hinduism: Thinking through Each Other," pp, 438-452, Another side ofthe argument consists of a more nuanced understanding ofthe rehgious underpinnings (and especiaUy in the area of mysticism) of modem psychoanalysis. For an early attempt to articulate this complex relationship, see Dunlap, Mysticism, Freudianism, and Scientific Psychology; and the more recent discussion in W, Parsons, Enigma ofthe Oceanic Feeling. Freud's complex relationship to rehgion has been discussed by a number of scholars. See, for instance. Gay, Codless Jew; Kristeva, In the Beginning Was Love; Scharfenberg, Sigmund Freud; and Vitz, Sigmund Freud's Christian Unconscious. For a review essay of these studies, see Jonte-Pace, "Quest for the Religious Freud," pp, 493-505, For more recent discussions on religion and psychoanalytic theory, see Kirschner, Religious and Romantic Origins; and DiCenso, Other Freud. 96, HiUman, "On Paranoia," p, 307, Interestingly enough, Hillman further noted that the interpenetrating of psychology and theology was the "Eranos tradition since its inception with C, G, Jung and Rudolf Otto, continued by Gershom Scholem, Henry Corbin and Ernst Benz, and now by Ulrich Mann, David L, MiUer and Wolfgang Giegerich," His insight regarding Scholem is particularly iUuminating, and it stands as a corrective to the overly simphstic claims ofjoseph Dan that Scholem the historian distanced himself entirely from psychological paradigms, especiaUy Jungian archetypes. For discussion and citation of some relevant passages, see E, Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp, 56-57 n, 21; and more recently the analysis of Scholem's relationship to depth psychology in Wasserstrom, Religion after Religion, pp, 187-190, On this score, it is important to recaU that Altmann, "God and Self in Jewish Mysticism," p, 143, remarked that the world of sejirot as depicted in zoharic literature "must be understood as a projection into the outer realm ofthe unconscious archetype of Self" Altmann goes on to say that kabbahsts—he mentioned the mystics of Gerona in particular—did not realize the character ofthe sefirot as a projection of self, but it is nevertheless feasible for 479

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scholars to speak of the matter in these terms. It should be evident that his remarks embrace the technical terminology ofJungian psychology. Several scholars with varying degrees of success have also advanced the comparison of Freudian psychoanalysis and kabbahstic symbohsm. See Bakan, Sigmund Freud; Bloom, Kabbalah and Criticism, pp, 43-44, 83-84, For a recent attempt to apply the Jungian notion of individuation to kabbahstic symbolism, see Shokek, Kabbalah and the Art of Being, pp, 62-76, A different attempt to analyze kabbahstic symbohsm in a psychological hght can be found in Shoham, Bridge to Nothingness. See also Drob, Symbols ofthe Kabbalah; and idem, Kabbalistic Metaphors. 97, The repeated emphasis of a certain theme in a thinker's writings is not necessarily indicative of a reductionist posture. On the contrary, such repetition may underscore the very opposite tendency of inteUectual expansiveness. Here it would be worthwhile to recaU Heidegger's remark that every essential thinker thinks one essential thought. Every thought, therefore, is a station on the pathway of thinking that facUitates the retum to the single thought that informs that thinker's worldview in its entirety. Each step on the journey is an act of recoUection, a gathering-in, that leads to a homecoming of that which is repeatedly new. See Heidegger, Nietzsche, Volume 3, pp, 4-5, Consider also idem. Contributions to Philosophy, pp, 15-16: "AU essential thinking requires that its thoughts and sentences be mined, like ore, every time anew out of the grounding-attunement. If the grounding-attunement stays away, then everything is a forced ratding of concepts and empty words," A comparable view is attributed to Bergson in Kolakowski, Husserl and the Search for Certitude, p. 4: "Bergson was probably right in saying that every philosopher in his hfe says only one thing, one leading idea or intention that endows aU his works with meaning," For a similar description of poetry, see Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 160: "Every great poet creates his poetry out of one single poetic statement only. The measure of his greatness is the extent to which he becomes so committed to that singleness that he is able to keep his poetic Saying whoUy within it. The poet's statement remains unspoken. None of his individual poems, nor their totality, says it aU, Nonetheless, every poem speaks from the whole of one single statement, and in each instance says that statement," The Heideggerian notion ofthe essential thought provides a model of an inteUectual single-mindedness that is expansive rather than reductive in nature. On the question of reductionism and the study of rehgion, see R, Segal, "In Defense of Reductionism," pp, 97-124; Idinopulos and Yonan, Religion and Reductionism; Flood, Beyond Phenomenology, pp, 65-90, 98, Freud, Croup Psychology, p. 30, 99, For a StiU useful discussion of the transformation of sexuahty into eros in Freudian psychoanalysis, see Marcuse, Eros and Civilization, pp, 197-221, 100, On this matter there is again much affinity between my own thinking and the remarks by Kripal, Roads ofExcess, pp, 21-23, 101, I referred to Neumann's text in my response, printed as a "Letter to the Editor," Shofar 14 (1996): 155, to Verman's review oi Through a Speculum. 102, Neumann, Origins, p. 19, Jung makes a similar claim with regard to the multivalence ofthe Hindu symbol ofthe hngam. See Jung, Symbolic Life, pp, 249-250, See chap, 2, n, 231, See also Ehade, Pattems in Comparative Religion, p. 421: "We have already noted on more than one occasion how archaic ontology was expressed in biological terms. But we must not make the mistake of taking the terminology superficiaUy in the concrete, profane ('modem') sense ofthe words," For a more recent study of ancient Egyptian cosmology and images of reproductive sexuality, see Troy, "Engendering Creation in Ancient Egypt," pp, 238-268, 103, Neumann is here drawing on the terminology in several passages in Hebrew scripture where qedesha (from the root qdsh) denotes the cultic prostitute (Gen, 38:21-22; Deut, 23:18; Hosea 4:14), 104, Neumann, Origins, p. 53; see p, 53 n, 53, where the author, in an attempt to avoid potential misundentanding, makes a clear distinction between "symbolic castration" and "personalistic castration," which is acquired in childhood and has a concrete reference to male genitaha, 105, It is of interest to note that D, Biale, Cershom Scholem, p. 146, cites Neumann in an effort to draw an analogy between Scholem's reevaluation of myth in Judaism through the prism of kabbalistic symbohsm and the Jungian attack on a repressive psychoanalytic reductionism regarding the ultimate rehgious meaning of mythical symbols. Bracketing for a moment the validity of this comparison, I would say that Neumann's own understanding is helpful in articulating kabbalists' deployment of erotic symbols to convey the divine 480

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reahty. For a recent attempt to interpret kabbalistic symbohsm through a psychological prism, with particular emphasis on interpreting the creation myth as the paradigm for an ethical praxis, see Shokek, Kabbalah and the Art of Being. 106, A similar point was made already by UnderhiU, Mysticism, p. 80: "AU kinds of symbohc language come naturaUy to the articulate mystic, who is often a hterary artist as weU: so naturaUy, that he sometimes forgets to explain that his utterance is but symbohc—a desperate attempt to translate the truth of that world into the beauty of this, , , , Symbol—the clothing which the spiritual borrows from the material plane—is a form of artistic expression. That is not say, it is not hteral but suggestive, , , , Hence the persons who imagine that the 'Spiritual Marriage' of St, Catherine or St, Teresa veils a perverted sexuality, that the vision of the Sacred Heart involved an incredible anatomical experience, or that the divine inebriation ofthe Sufis is the apotheosis of drunkenness, do but advertise their ignorance ofthe mechanism ofthe arts," WhUe I would explain the recourse to symbohc language on the part of mystics in different terms, I agree with UnderhiU's assessment that the use of embodied symbols to depict mystical experience is comparable to a similar process in artistic creativity, 107, G, Scott, Phallic Worship, p. xviii, 108, The expression is derived from Whitman's "Song of Myself," p, 26: "Out ofthe dimness opposite equals advance, always substance and increase, always sex, / Always a knit of identity, always distinction, always a breed of life," 109, See E, Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp, 61-67, A view quite similar to my own has been expressed by Trias, "Thinking Religion," p, 103: "The symbol is thus a {sym-ballic) unity that presupposes a break. There is in principle a disjunction between the symbohzing form as a manifest and manifestative aspect of the symbol (given to vision, to perception or hearing) and the symbohzed form in the symbol, which constitutes the horizons of meaning," For an analogous account ofthe symbohc imagination, see the remark by AUen Tate cited by Donoghue, Adam's Curse, pp, 69-70, 110, On the dialectic of concealment and disclosure in the kabbahstic approach to the symbol, see E, Wolfson, "Occultation ofthe Feminine," pp, 113-121; idem, Abraham Abulafia, pp, 9-38, 111, See Inge, Mysticism in Religion, p. 72, 112, Esmail, Poetics of Religious Experience, pp, 23-24, 113, See chap, i, n, 251, 114, On the characterization of poetry as the experience ofthe letter in the death of language, see Agamben, End ofthe Poem, pp, 62-75, 115, Many have written on circumcision, but especiaUy important for our discussion of kabbahstic androcentrism are the remarks in Sacha Stem, Jewish Identity, p. 239, and the extensive analysis in L, Hoffhian, Covenant of Blood. For other references, see chap, 2, n, 4, 116, It is worth recalhng that in the satire ofjuvenal (verses 102-104) there is mention ofthe secret book that Moses transmits only to the circumcised, which I assume discounts Jewish women along with Gentiles, See CoUins, Between Athens and Jerusalem, p. 213, 117, I have argued this thesis with much textual support in 'Tttrough a Speculum. By locating the object of contemplative envisioning in the phaUic potency, I do not deny that other attributes of the divine pleroma served as objects of meditational intention {kawwanah) in kabbalistic practice. Needless to say, the overarching goal ofthe meditation was to envision the unified body ofthe divine anthropos lest one be guilty of creating division in the Godhead, a transgression troped by the traditional idiom "cutting the shoots," I would stiU maintain, however, that the central focal point of contemplative visuahzation is the phallic potency, Yesod, which is caUed kot, "aU," inasmuch as it was thought to have comprised aU the potencies within itself There is also ample evidence that in kabbahstic texts the body is metonymicaUy understood as the phallus, an insight supported philologicaUy by the fact that the -wordguf usually translated as "body," was applied more specificaUy to the phaUus, For example, consider the passage from Sefer ha-Bahir translated and analyzed in E, Wolfson, Along the Path, pp, 87-88, See also examples of this usage from zoharic hterature cited by Liebes, Sections ofthe Zohar Lexicon, pp, 170 n, 2, 178 n, 32, and 182 n, 45, 118, E, Wolfson, "Circumcision and the Divine Name," pp, 77-112, 481

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119, See Lacan, Ecrits, pp, 281-291, Lest my utilization of Lacanian ideas to elucidate medieval kabbalah be labeled anachronistic, it is significant to recaU the foUowing comment in idem. Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XI, p. 5: "This remark is not without relevance to my subject—the fundamentals of psycho-analysis— iot fundamentum has more than one meaning, and I do not need to remind you that in the Kabbala it designates one ofthe modes of divine manifestation, which, in this register, is strictly identified with the pudendum. AU the same, it would be extraordinary if, in an analytic discourse, we were to stop at the pudendum. In this context, no doubt, the fundamentals would take the form of the bottom parts, were it not that those parts were already to some extent exposed," It should also be recalled that Lacan was indebted to Christian mystics and to philosophers who influenced the mystical tradition in the West, Consider, for example, the citation from The Cherubinic Wanderer by Angelus Silesius at the end ofthe lecture "The Symbohc Order" in Lacan, Seminar ofJacques Lacan, Book I, pp, 232-233; the reference to Comehus Agrippa in Book XI, p. 88; and especiaUy the interpretation of mystical experience in light oi the jouissance ofthe woman that is beyond the phaUusin Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XX, pp, 76-77, See Webb and SeUs, "Lacan and Bion," pp, 195-215; W, Parsons, Enigma ofthe Oceanic Feeling, pp, 132, 134; and the elaborate discussion in HoUywood, Sensible Ecstasy, pp, 64-66, 146-170, On the convergence between mysticism and psychoanalysis, with specific reference to Lacan, see Certeau, Heterologies, pp, 36-37, Kakar, Analyst and the Mystic, p. 5, characterizes Lacan as an "ironic mystic," An explanation of this depiction may be ehcited from the author's discussion of Lacan's notions ofthe real, the imaginary, and the symbohc order of language to articulate the mystic's quest to get beyond the rupture of this world (p, 27), 120, Irigaray, This Sex Wliich Is Not One, pp, 60-61, 121, D, Brody, "Levinas and Lacan," pp, 56-78, esp, pp, 56-57; Bergoffen, "Queering the PhaUus," pp, 273-291, esp, pp, 281-286, 122, Lacan, Ecrits, pp, 285-287, 123, Lacan, "Les formations de I'inconscient," cited in Lacan, Language ofthe Self, p. 187, 124, Lenaire, Jacques Lacan, p. 86, See also Frosh, Sexual Difference, pp, 65-88; Smith and Ferstman, Castration of Oedipus, pp, 154-158; H, Lang, Language and the Unconscious, pp, 118-121, On the suppression of the spatiaUy located body implied in Lacan's insistence on the distinction between the symbohc phallus and bodily penis, see Lefebvre, Production of Space, pp, 36 and 185 n, 19, and, in more detail, Blum and Nast, "Jacques Lacan's Two-Dimensional Subjectivity," pp, 184, 196-200, 125, Ragland-SuUivan, Jflcgwei Lacan, p. 55, On the inscription ofthe Other through the letter ofthe phalhc signifier, which reduces the feminine to a projection of the mascuhne insofar as the other is demarcated as lack or absence, the space wherein the phaUus thrusts its presence, see Buder, Cender Trouble, p. 44; ]u]ien, Jacques Lacan's Retum to Freud, p. 124, A critique of Lacan's "heterosexist structurahsm" is given by Buder, Cender Trouble, pp, 43-57; and idem. Bodies That Matter, pp, 57-91, The debate amongst feminist theorists regarding Lacan's phaUocentricism and the related question of separating the phaUus and penis is discussed by Fuss, Essentially Speaking, p. 65, For a more recent assessment, see Luepnitz, "Beyond the Phallus," pp, 221-237, 126, It is of interest to consider here the foUowing remark of Derrida, ", , , and pomegranates," p, 327: "This double value—is it not, for example, that signified by a phaUus in its differentiahty, or rather by the phalhc, the effect ofthe phaUus, which is not necessarily the property of man? Is it not the phenomenon, the phainesthai, the day of the phaUus?—but also, by virtue of the law of iterabihty or of duplication that can detach it from its pure and proper presence, is it not also its phantasma, in Greek, its ghost, its specter, its double or its fetish? , , , The phaUic—is it not also, as distinct from the penis and once detached from the body, the marionette that is erected, exhibited, fetishized, and paraded in processions?" 127, See Boothby, Death and Desire, pp, 188-191, 128, On the double meaning oiaufheben as to annul and to preserve, see esp, Hegel, Hegel's Logic, p. 142, Derrida, Taste for the Secret, p. 55, refers to Aufliebung as a "poetic signature" that means at the same time to preserve and to destroy, 129, Lacan, Ecrits, p. 288, 130, Blum and Nast, "Jacque Lacan's Two-Dimensional Subjectivity," p, 184, 482

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131, Jacquehne Rose, "Introduction—II," in Lacan, Feminine Sexuality, p. 40, 132, Ibid,, p, 42: "Sexual difference is then assigned according to whether individual subjects do or do not possess the phaUus, which means not that anatomical difference is sexual difference (the one as stricdy deducible from the other), but that anatomical difference comes to figure sexual difference, that is, it becomes the sole representative of what that difference is aUowed to be" (emphasis in original), 133, Lacan, Ecrits, p, 288; see p, 285, where Lacan addresses the Freudian notion ofthe "sphtting" {Spaltung) by which the phaUus (as signifier) is constituted. See Lacan, Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book VII, pp, 102 and 209, Freud addressed this phenomenon in the unfinished fragment dated January 2, 1938, and pubhshed posthumously in 1940 as "Die Ichspaltung im Abwehrvorgang," An English translation is included in Freud, Collected Papers, vol, 5, pp, 372-375, 134, Lacan, Ecrits, p. 290, 135, In an altemative translation of this piece, included in Lacan, Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XX, p. 73, the French is rendered more fehcitously as "not-whole," 136, Feminine Sexuality, p. 144, 137, Ibid,, p, 147, 138, Zizek, Tarrying with the Negative, pp, 57-58, 139, I have appropriated this locution from Kristeva, Sense and Non-Sense of Revolt, pp, 65-90, esp, pp, 72-76, 140, On the charge of phaUocentrism in Lacan's thought, see GaUop, Daughter's Seduction, pp, 15-32; idem, Reading Lacan, pp, 133-156, See also Cixous, "Castration or Decapitation?" pp, 41-55, esp, pp, 45-46, and the brief but insightful discussion in Koudinesco, Jacques Lacan, pp, 369-370, Consider as weU the comment by Zizek, Tarrying with the Negative, p, 43: "The whole point of Lacan's insistence on the 'impossibihty of sexual relationship' is that this, precisely, is what the 'actual' sexual act is; man's partner is never a woman in the real kernel of her being, but woman qua a, reduced to the fantasy-object (let us recaU Lacan's definition ofthe phaUic enjoyment as essentiaUy masturbatory)!" 141, Jacqueline Rose, "Introduction—II," in Lacan, Feminine Sexuality, p. 49: "For Lacan, men and women are only ever in language, , , , AU speaking beings must hne themselves up on one side or the other of this division, but anyone can cross over and inscribe themselves on the opposite side from that to which they are anatomicaUy destined," In fairness to the author, it must be noted that she emphasizes the subservient nature accorded women in Lacan's phaUic definition of sexual identity, 142, Zizek, For Tliey Know Not What They Do, pp, 25-26, 143, Jacquehne Rose, "Introduction—II," in Lacan, Feminine Sexuality, p. 38; Boothby, "Lacanian Castration," pp, 215-234; Zizek, Tarrying with the Negative, p. 60; Barzilai, Lacan and the Matter of Origins, p. 201, 144, Consider Lacan's depiction ofthe word made from the symbohc object in E,crits, p. 65: "Through the word—already a presence made of absence—absence itself gives itself a name in that moment of origin whose perpetual recreation Freud's genius detected in the play of the child. And from this pair of sounds modulated on presence and absence , , , there is bom the world of meaning of a particular language in which the world of things wiU come to be arranged," This is exactly the function ofthe phaUus as the signifier without a signified, 145, Lacan, Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XX, p. 35, 146, Lacan, Feminine Sexuality, p. 143, 147, Ibid, 148, Brivic, Veil of Signs, pp, 97-98, 149, Nancy and Lacoue-Labarthe, Title ofthe Letter, pp, 45-46, 150, Lacan, Seminar of Jacques Lacan. Book XI, p. 89; and see Hassoun, Cruelty of Depression, pp, 49-50, 151, H, Lang, Language and the Unconscious, p. 121, 152, Zizek, Puppet and the Dwarf, p. 61, 153, Vital, Es Hayyim, 46:3, 103b, See discussion and citation of relevant texts in E, Wolfson, Tiirough a Speculum, pp, 336-345, On the dialectic of concealment and disclosure as it pertains to the divine phaUus, see also Liebes, Studies in the Zohar, pp, 26-30, Coundess other sources could have been cited to support my 483

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depiction of the phaUic gradation as being paradoxicaUy the concealed disclosure of the disclosed concealment. An extraordinary application of this older symbohsm is found in the Yemenite kabbahst Azariah Hai Amrani, Shettien ha-Sutlam, pt, 2, p, 83: "The righteous man is considered to be an angel in relation to the people below even though he stiU holds on to the supemal secret, and he is cloaked and clad in a garment and hidden, but he is a king here. Even the alef is a mystery [pete], for then he is an angel in truth, and according to his way he wiU be blessed and they wiU reveal to him secrets, for he does not fear and he beheves," The righteous man is recipient of secrets that he reveals, but precisely for this reason he must be concealed in the manner of angels in relation to human beings. Interestingly, the book contains pictures of the author in which his face is veiled (see pt, 2, pp, 5 and 96), a rather uncommon practice amongst Jews, including kabbalists, to the best of my knowledge, although the custom of men wearing veils, which can be traced to the Berbers, is weU attested among Arabs, See Meier, Essays on Islamic Piety and Mysticism, pp, 400-420, and esp, pp, 408-409, where the veil is treated as a symbol ofthe mystery of sanctity or even as a sign of incarnation (I am grateful to Steven Wasserstrom for this reference). On the symbol ofthe veil in Sufism, see discussion in chap, i and relevant studies cited in n, 260, and discussion in chap, 5, On the veiling of men in Arab culture, see also El Guindi, Veil, pp, 117-128, I assume that for Amrani, the veU is a concretization of the notion that the righteous man corresponds symbolicaUy to the attribute of God that must be hidden, even though or especiaUy on account ofthe fact that it is the ontic locus of mystery; indeed, the veil is the vehicle of disclosure, 154, Zo/wr 3:187b, 155, Zohar 1:64b; an exact paraUel appears in Zo/iar 2:227b, 156, Tishby, Wisdom ofthe Zohar, p. 1364, 157, Tiqqutiei Zohar, sec, 19, 38a, 158, Babylonian Talmud, Hagigah 15a, 159, See chap, 2, n, 189, 160, The exegetical reference is to "And they saw the God of Israel and under his feet there was the likeness of a pavement of sapphire, hke the very sky for purity" (Exod, 24:10), Needless to say, the symbohc interpretation is found in earlier kabbahstic sources. For instance, see the commentary by Judah Hayyat, Minhat Yehudah, in Ma'arekhet ha-Elohut, 179a, 161, Vital, Sha'ar ha-Kaunmnot, i8d, previously translated in E, Wolfson, Circle in the Square, p. 117, 162, Isaac ben Samuel of Acre, Sefer Me'irat Einayim, p. 44, 163, See E, Wolfson, "Woman—The Feminine as Other," pp, 185-188; idem, Tiirough a Speculum, pp, 274-275 n, 14, 315-317, 339, 341-344, 357-360, 363-364, 369-370, 396-397; idem. Circle in the Square, pp, 20, 81, 88-89, 108-110, 117-121, 198-199 n, I I , 202-203 n, 33, 205 n, 42, 224-226 n, 152, 231-232 n, 198,

164, On the dual nature oi Shekhinah as revealed and hidden, connected to the name Esther, see Joseph of Hamadan, Sefer Tashak, p. 45, Particularly interesting is the foUowing text of Cordovero, which contrasts the visibihty ofthe male and the invisibihty ofthe female. The passage, which has been pubhshed in Sack, Kabbalah of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, p. 334, is a commentary on the description ofthe letter ^imme( in Zohar Hadash, 122a, as "revealed in day and hidden in night": "This is verily the emanation of Yesod, for he emanates and is revealed from the side of Tiferet, for he is the male, the hmb through which is disclosed the mercy that is within the mercy. However, the night is Malkhut, which is hidden, for it is the feminine, surely the hidden limb, submerged and invisible. Therefore, Malkhut is not comprised within Yesod, and this is the secret ofthe concealed hght," The concluding remark that the feminine Malkhut is not contained within the phaUic Yesod is especiaUy noteworthy as it goes against the grain of the tradition that Cordovero himself affirms on many occasions regarding the ultimate containment oi Malkhut in Yesod in the form ofthe corona. The matter requires further reflection, 165, I have dealt preliminarily with the theme of manifestation and concealment oi Shekhinah in "Occultation ofthe Feminine," but more work needs to be done in unpacking the symbolic intricacies of this motif 166, See chap, 2, n, 242, Mention should be made ofthe symbohc application ofthe image ofthe sealed garden in Song 4:12 to Mary in the Christian tradition, which draws on a similar cluster of motifs 484

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apphed to the feminine. See Stokstad, "Garden as Art," pp, 179-180; and Daley, "Closed Garden," pp, 255-278, 167, Zo/wr 1:50a, 122a, 168, Zohar 1:245a, 169, See Loraux, Tragic Ways of Killing a Woman, pp, ix, 2—3, 21—22; Wogan-Browne, "Chaste Bodies," pp, 24—42; Mews, "Virginity, Theology, and Pedagogy," pp, 23—24, 170, M, Green, "From 'Diseases of Women,' " pp, 5—39, 171, Ibid,, p, 12, 172, E, Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp, 42-47; idem. Through a Speculum, pp, 359-360; and esp, idem, "Occultation ofthe Feminine," pp, 120-121, 173, In this matter, Irigaray is responding to the connection between circumcision and castration in Freud, which is a specific example ofthe psychoanalytical approach to ritual initiation as an expression ofthe Oedipal complex. According to Freud's thinking, circumcision is a symbolic substitute for castration, which relates to neurotic repression ofthe child's masturbatory activity. See Freud, Complete Introductory Lectures, pp, 165, 550-551; idem, Moses and Monotheism, p. 156; idem. Totem and Taboo, p. 189 n, 61, See Ozturk, "Ritual Circumcision," pp, 49-60; Kem, "Prehistory of Freud's Theory," pp, 309-314; Gilman, Freud, Race, and Cender, pp, 70-92; BuU, "Re-Interpretation of a Male Initiation Ritual," pp, 83-104, On the depiction of circumcision as a symbohc castration, which is related to inscription in language, see Derrida, Cias, pp, 4 1 46, On the depiction of circumcision as the name ofthe mark ofthe simulacrum, which is linked to castration, see Derrida, Spurs, p. 69 (for the fuUer hterary context of this remark, see chap, i, n, 391), By contrast, see idem. Archive Fever, p. 42, where Derrida emphasizes the irreducibility of circumcision to castration in opposition to the Freudian view that circumcision is a symbohc substitute of the castration of the son by the primitive father. The change in Derrida's writing with regard to the relationship between circumcision and castration has been duly noted by Caputo, Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida, pp, 234, 240, 259, 262, 306-307, On the treatment of castration, which is hnked to the phaUus as opposed to the penis, as a metaphor or simulacrum for emasculation oilogos in Kantian thought, see Derrida, "Of an Apocalyptic Tone," pp, 42-43, For discussion of Derrida's view, see also M, Taylor, Tears, pp, 164-165; Oirat, Jewish Derrida, pp, 44-50 (where the influence of Lacan's phaUocentrism on Derrida is duly noted); Cixous, Portrait of Jacques Derrida, pp, 67—87, On castration as resistance to writing, see Cixous, Readings, pp, 10—11, An anthropological explanation of circumcision as ritualized castration is offered by Paige and Paige, Politics of Reproductive Ritual, pp, 147-157, A summary of their view and what seems to me to be a justified hesitation regarding its apphcability to the priesdy rite of circumcision in ancient Israel is found in L, HofEnan, Covenant of Blood, pp, 39-40, 174, Irigaray, Marine Lover of Friedrich Nietzsche, p. 82, 175, Tanhuma, Lekh Lekha 19, 176, Sacha Stem, Jeu/ish Identity, pp, 229-231, 177, Restriction ofthe secret to the humble is imphed in the statements in Babylonian Talmud, Qiddushin 71a, regarding either the transmission ofthe twelve-letter name of God to the modest priests or the transmission ofthe forty-two-letter name to the modest and humble middle-aged man. On the use ofthe term seni'u to designate the hidden and incomprehensible nature of Ein Sof, see Zohar 3:26b, 178, Irigaray, Marine Lover, pp, 81-82, 179, For fliUer discussion of this motif, see E, Wolfson, "Circumcision, Vision of God," pp, 189-215; idem, Tiirough a Speculum, pp, 104, 249 n, 251, 330, 342 n, 52, 357, 397, 180, Consider the midrashic passages from Cenesis Rabbah and Numbers Rabbah translated and analyzed in E, Wolfson, "Circumcision, Vision of God," pp, 192-198, It is of interest to consider the interpretation of the theophany in Genesis 18 offered by Jacob Bohme, Mysterium Magnum, p. 449, According to Bohme, reflecting a much older exegetical tradition attested by Christian homihsts, the appearance ofthe three men is rendered in Trinitarian terms. Significantly, and what appears to me somewhat exceptional, according to Bohme, Abraham merited seeing the incamation ofthe Trinity on account ofthe covenant of circumcision. In this matter the German mystic and theosophist foUows the kabbahstic path in emphasizing the nexus

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between circumcision of the flesh and revelatory experience of divine embodiment. It should be further noted, however, that for Bohme, the spiritual intent of circumcision is to cast aside man's base bestiality, epitomized in the sexual urge expressed through the penis, which paraUels the death ofjesus, the ultimate sacrifice that overcomes the bestial wiU and desire. Circumcision, in a word, is a sign that to receive Christ one must cut off the natural urge to procreate (see Mysterium Magnum, pp, 432-433), 181, Marks, "On Prophetic Stammering," pp, 60-80, esp, pp, 63, 71-73, 182, See E, Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp, 339-345, 183, I refer here to a process that elsewhere I have caUed "erasing ofthe erasure," See E, Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp, 49-78, 184, The hnk between circumcision and sexual renunciation is based on an ancient behef widely repeated in medieval Jewish hterature that removal ofthe foreskin diminishes the sexual drive. See Judah Halevi, Sefer ha-Kuzari, 1:115; Abraham Ibn Ezra, Yesod Mora, chap, 7, 29a; Maimonides, Cuide, 111:49; A, Gross, "Reasons for the Commandment of Circumcision," pp, 25-46, esp, pp, 25-34; D, Biale, Eros and the Jews, pp, 91-92; J, Diamond, Maimonides and the Hermeneutics of Concealment, p, 35, For an aUegorical interpretation of circumcision along these hnes in early Christian sources, see E, Clark, Reading Renunciation, pp, 225-230, See also the suggestive remark by Scetis, Abba Isaiah of Scetis Ascetic Discourses, p. 163: "Abraham was the first to be circumcised. This signified that the left was no longer alive in him," 185, My remarks here are indebted to the discussion in Hassoun, Cmelty of Depression, p. 50, 186, On asceticism as a means to intensify rather than weaken the phallic potency, see the foUowing description ofthe man who embraces Tao in Laozi, Tao Te Ching, no, 55, p, 68: "He is obhvious to the union of male and female / yet his vitahty is fuU / his inner spirit is complete," The hfe force of man's virility is not in the least diminished by the renunciation of physical sex, 187, Lacan, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan. Book XI, pp, 234-235 (emphasis in original), 188, I have here borrowed a distinction made by Nasio, Five Lessons, p. 38, On circumcision, the symbohc correlate to castration, as a sign of phaUic empowerment, see the analysis ofthe "circumcision of Moses" (Exod, 4:24-26) in Pierre Gordon, Sex and Religion, pp, 69-71, 189, Daly, Pure Lust, p. 72, 190, Miles, "Textual Harassment," p, 50, 191, Verman, "Kabbalah Refracted," p, 129, A, Green, "Kabbalistic Re-Vision," p, 272 n, 16, also resorts to a pornographic reference when describing my work. This is a regrettable association that does justice neither to my scholarship nor to future discourse on matters of body and sexuahty as they apply to the symbohc world of kabbalah, Alas, the latest name to be added to the hst of scholars ofjewish mysticism who feel the need to use pornographic imagery to attack my work on gender comes from the pen of Peter Schafer, For discussion, see chap, 4, n, i i i , I would hke to note, however, that a plausible argument can be made that erotic representations in pornography have something in common with sexual symbolism pervasive in rehgious texts and rituals. Consider, for example, the observation of Michelson, Speaking the Unspeakable, pp, 95-96: "There is a verbal strategy common to both rehgious and pornographic hterature, what Eric Auerbach in Mimesis has defined as the figural interpretation of reality, , , , The important point here is that the figural method is a way of articulating an abstract reality (God, for example) by means of imagistic reference to an experiential reality (God as father, shepherd, or lover), , , , But, unlike figurative language, it is not simply a rhetorical way of speaking; it is a means of getting at reality, , , , My thesis here is that pomographic imagery is best understood in terms of its figural structure, that it has that structure in common with rehgious hterature, and that both use it as a device of moral statement," In the continuation of his analysis (pp, 96-99), Michelson discusses in particular the use of sexual figures in mystical hterature, his primary examples being derived from the writings ofjohn ofthe Cross, While acknowledging the critical difference between "naturahstic figuration of sex" in pornography and the "figural use of sex" to depict spiritual love in mysticism, the author nonetheless concludes that there is a similarity with regard to the privileged place accorded sexual images in the figural representation of reality. In my judgment, this is a useful insight that can be profitably apphed to the erotic imagery in kabbahstic texts, but this is a far cry firom the crude understanding attested in the aforementioned comments of Green and Verman,

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192, Verman's response in "Kabbalah Refracted," p, 167, to my rejoinder, which is printed in Shofar 14 (1996): 167, 193, See E, Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp, 196-197 n, 6, and my discussion in Shofar 14 (1996): 158-160, 194, Let me take this opportunity to correct another misunderstanding of my interpretation oi atarah as the corona ofthe phallus. Both Verman and Green, to mention two ofthe more obvious examples, have assumed that I have said that this symbohc interpretation has to be apphed in every occurrence of this term in kabbahstic texts, I have nowhere in my scholarly writings suggested that this is the case. On the contrary, my symbohc decoding is always relative to a particular textual context. The absurdity of assuming that I have made general claims for this symbol is epitomized in a remark by A, Green, Keter, p. 143 n, 30, In the context of discussing a passage from Sefer ha-Bahir wherein the image of atarah is used. Green notes that he is aware of my "phaUic reading oi atarah references in the Kabbahstic corpus," and he has tried to imagine such a reading in the bahiric text that he has cited, Alas, he concludes, such a reading would make no sense in this context. Bracketing the accuracy of Green's claim with respect to the bahiric passage that he mentions, I would hke to point out that he incorrectly presumes that my decoding oi atarah as phallic crown is meant to be apphed universally and indiscriminately. This runs counter to my methodology, which allows for generalization only on the basis of retracing specific textual markings, 195, Semah, Semah Saddiq, 37b, 196, On the identification ofthe yod ofthe covenant and the corona {atarah), see ibid,, 37c, and on the analogy between the exposure ofthe corona and the disclosure ofthe rainbow, see ibid,, 38b, 197, E, Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp, 336-345, 357-377, 384-392; idem. Circle in the Square, pp, 29-48, 198, E, Wolfson, "Woman—The Feminine as Other," pp, 179-180; idem. Through a Speculum, pp, 382 n, 204, 388—390, See also Liebes, "Zohar and Eros," p, 80, 199, E, Wolfson, "Circumcision and the Divine Name," pp, 103-106, 200, The original Hebrew in this context is not entirely clear, but I have rendered the verse in accordance with the meaning imphed by Gikatilla's interpretation, 201, Gikatilla, Sha'arei Orah, 1:103, 202, See chap, i, n, 251, 203, See texts cited and analyzed by E, Gotdieb, Studies in the Kabbala Literature, p. 130; and Idel, "Infinities of Torah in Kabbalah," pp, 141-157, esp, pp, 148-151, 204, For citation of some ofthe relevant sources, see E, Wolfson, "Circumcision and the Divine Name," p, 104 nn, 84—85, 205, Gikatilla, Sha'arei Orah, 1:114-115, 206, See discussion of this redactionai matter in E, Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp, 12-14, 207, Gikatilla, Sha'arei Orah, 1:115, 208, Abulafia, Osar Eden Canuz, fol, 129b (printed ed,, p, 285), 209, Underlying the identification of ha-shem and mosheh is the assumption that Moses is the personification of the Active Intellect, a point that is underscored further by decoding the letters of mosheh as metatron sar ha-panim, "Metatron the angel ofthe presence," On this identification, see, for instance, Abulafia, Imrei Shefer, fol, 241a (printed ed,, p, 81), For the identification oi mosheh and ha-shem, see, for instance, Abulafia, Sitrei Torah, fol, 171a (printed ed,, p, 186), Both elucidations ofthe name mosheh are found in Abulafia, Sheva Netivot ha-Torah, p. 18, See Idel, "Writings of Abraham Abulafia," p, 93 and references to primary sources given on p, 115 nn, 60-62, For a later attestation of these identifications, see Sabba, Seror ha-Mor, 2:456 (ad Deut, 34:6), The possible influence of Abulafia in this matter has been noted by A, Gross, Iberian Jewry, p. 146 nn, 69 and 71, On the identification of Moses and Metatron, see E, Wolfson, "Metatron and Shi'ur Qomah," p, 91 and references to other studies cited in n, 151, On the desire of Moses to behold Metatron, the angel of the presence, sar ha-panim, which is hnked exegetically to the request to see the face of God's glory (Exod, 33:18-23), see the passage from Midrash ha-Ne'elam in Zohar Hadash, 9d-ioa,

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210, See, however, Abulafia, Osar Eden Canuz, fol, 129a (printed ed,, p, 284), where Abulafia writes that the new covenant {berit hadashah) given to Abraham and his descendants comprised the covenant of circumcision {berit milah) and the covenant ofthe tongue {berit lashon). For a shghdy different formulation ofthe two covenants, see Abulafia, Hayyei ha-Olam ha-Ba, fols, 28b-29b (printed ed,, pp, 107-109): "The blood attests that the foundation of man is the blood, and this is the blood of circumcision, as they speak ofthe blood of the paschal sacrifice [dam pesah] and the blood of circumcision [dam milah]. . . . The blood ofthe male is superior in the secret of the mouth that speaks [peh salt] and the blood of the female is in the image of the blood of circumcision," 211, See Abulafia, Imrei Shefer, fol, 231b (printed ed,, p, 48): "Abraham our patriarch, the beginning for every master ofthe covenant [ha-hathalah le-khol ba'al berit], was circumcised through the commandment of God, and since in the secret of circumcision [be-sod berit mitah] there is the first principle regarding knowledge ofthe exphcit name, the verse said 'The secret ofthe Lord is with those who fear him, to them he makes his covenant known' (Ps, 55:14), and this secret wiU be revealed from the words eser sefirot belimah." On the nexus between circumcision and the contemplative ideal of intellectual conjunction, which is expressed mystically as cleaving to the name, see additional Abulafian sources cited and analyzed in E, Wolfson, Abraham Abulafia, pp, 87-90, 194-195, 216-220, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217,

Abulafia, Osar Eden Canuz, fol, 130a (printed ed,, p, 286), Gikatilla, Sha'arei Orah, 1:116, Ibid,, p, 117, Neumann, Creat Mother, p. 3, See the concise summary in Madison, Hermeneutics of Postmodemity, pp, 178-179, See Iser, "Representation," pp, 217-232,

Chapter Four Male Androgyne: Engendering E/masculation 1, Pattai, Hebrew Coddess, p. 18, 2, Eilberg-Schwartz, Cod's Phallus. 3, Pattai, Hebrew Coddess, pp, 29-100; Frymer-Kensky, In the Wake ofthe Coddesses; Gruber, Motherhood of Cod, pp, 3-107; Brenner, "Hebrew God," pp, 56-71; Ackerman, "Queen Mother and the Cult in Ancient Israel," pp, 385-401; idem, "Queen Mother and the Cult in the Ancient Near East," pp, 179-209; E, F, Beach, "Transforming Goddess Iconography," pp, 239-263, For review ofthe evidence regarding Asherah as a goddess of ancient Israel, see M, S, Smith, Origins of Biblical Monotheism, pp, 72-74, For a useful discussion of the role of feminist theory and the disciphne of archaeology, related especially to the goddess motif, see Conkey and Tringham, "Archaeology and the Goddess," pp, 199-247, 4, Hadley, "From Goddess to Literary Construct," pp, 360-399, and Bemhard Lang, "Lady Wisdom," pp, 400-423; idem, Hebrew Cod, pp, 25-28, See further references, chap, 2, n, 91, Also relevant is the study on the "divine lady" by Bleeker, Sacred Bridge, pp, 83-111, 5, In spite ofthe many challenges and modifications to Scholem's account of Heikhalot mysticism, on this point his insights have stood the test of time. See Scholem, Major Trends, pp, 54-56, 6, For discussion ofthe feminization ofthe throne, see E, Wolfson, Tiirough a Speculum, pp, ioo-ioi and other references to scholarly hterature cited on p, 100 n, 120, For a psychoanalytic confirmation of this symbolism, see Neumann, Origins, pp, 98-100, Scholem's remark in Origins, p. 162, that one would look in vain in the "literature ofthe Merkabah gnosis" for feminine images ofthe Godhead cannot be upheld in hght of the textual evidence that the throne itself is treated hypostatically and assumes a quasi-divine status in contradistinction to the masculine glory. On the possible roots for the hieros gamos in ancient Israel, see Weinfeld, "Feminine Elements," pp, 348-358, 7, On the female imaging of Torah, see E, Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp, 1-28, and references to other scholars cited on pp, 123-124 n, 1, The identification of Torah as the preexistent sapiential order of being, so vital in the mythopoeic imagination retrievable fi-om latter rabbinic texts, is found already in some 488

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Second Temple hterary sources, as has been argued persuasively by Lange, "Wisdom and Predestination," pp, 342-343; and in fuller detail in idem, Weisheit und Prddestination. 8, M, Cohen, Shi'ur Qomah, pp, 210-211 n, 47 and p, 217 n, 6, 9, Here I am following the argument of several scholars reviewed and expanded by Wasserstrom, "Sefer Yesira and Early Islam," pp, 1-30, The dating ofthe intensive period of redaction of this text to between the eighth and ninth centuries in an Islamic/Arabic environment makes perfecdy good sense, 10, Gruenwald, "Prehminary Critical Edition," p, 141, The reading oi Sefer Yesirah that I have proposed is a departure from most scholarly interpretations, which do not interpret the doctrine oi sefirot in Sefer Yesirah theosophically. On this question, the common view is still the one expressed by Scholem, Origins, pp, 81, 139, For a more elaborate presentation of this interpretation, see E, Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp, 70-72, A theosophic exphcation ofthe sefirot in Sefer Yesirah is supported by Pines, "Points of Similarity," pp, 6 3 142,

11, E, Wolfson, "Circumcision and the Divine Name," 12, See chap, 3, nn, 210-211, 13, Several scholars, in varying degrees and for ulterior motives, have noted the gender/sexual imphcations ofthe gnosis ofthe secret ofthe nut and the imphcit correlation of eroticism and esotericism. For two ofthe more recent studies, see Farber, "Concept ofthe Merkabah"; D, Abrams, Sexual Symbolism. 14, E, Wolfson, "Image ofjacob," 15, Ibid,, p, 4, 16, For a more detailed account of this process, see E, Wolfson, "Face ofjacob in the Moon," pp, 240245; idem, "Sacred Space," pp, 593-634, 17, I am here responding to a critique of my position offered by D, Abrams, Sexual Symbolism, pp, 55-56, The gist ofthe criticism is that I supposedly build my argument fi-om passages in Eleazar's work wherein the four beasts ofthe chariot are seen as a single beast, which is the form that sits on the throne. According to Abrams, in the Pietistic writings there is no connection between the image ofjacob, the motif of the beast named "Israel," and the enthroned figure. Again, in apparent contradiction to my position, Abrams suggests that the image ofjacob is part ofthe throne and not an entity or form that sits upon it. Regrettably, I must say that this criticism fails to grasp not only the text of my argument but also the texture of my approach to the study of gender symbohsm in esoteric hterature. Without entering into a lengthy rejoinder, let me state briefly that I did not build my argument on the basis ofthe idea that the four beasts who bear the throne are identical with the one beast that sits upon the throne nor did I conflate the views of Eleazar with those expressed in the material that derives from the group of Pietists known as the circle of the Special Cherub {hug keruv ha-meyuhad). With respect to the latter, I simply conjecture that it is plausible that the various pietistic groups were working on similar traditions and hence the ideational chasm separating them is not as wide as some previous scholars (principally Joseph Dan) have maintained. With respect to the former, I propose through a very complex textual reconstruction that there are earher sources utilized by Eleazar wherein the image ofjacob is hnked either to the human form ofthe glory enthroned on the chariot or to the human form ofthe celestial beast that comprises the four faces ofthe beasts who bear the throne. Naturally, I recognize that these are distinct traditions that were fused together in the minds ofthe Pietists, but in either case there is the blurring of difference between throne and glory, which is precisely the point ofthe motif of the glory erotically interacting with the icon ofjacob engraved on the throne—the iconic form functions both as mirror reflecting image and image reflected in mirror, I stiU harbor the opinion that this is a foundational myth of ancient Jewish esotericism that evolved exegetically in the rehgious imagination of the Rhineland Pietists in the late Middle Ages, 18, My conclusions regarding this rabbinic motif have been corroborated by the independent study by S, Friedman, "Graven Images," pp, 233-238, As Friedman remarks, p, 237, he became aware of my study (written in 1989 but not published until 1994) after he had completed his own, I am grateful to Friedman for referring to my study as "outstanding" but I must take issue with his presentation of my thesis. In an apparent attempt to demarcate his own work from mine, he has misrepresented my view by downplaying the extent to which I myself considered the motif of Jacob's image engraved on the throne an attestation in rabbinic 489

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literature ofthe idea that God has an incarnate and iconic form. The point is already evident in the original Hebrew version of my study seen by Friedman but it is even more conspicuous in the English translation, prepared in 1992 but not published until 1995, 19, Cenesis Rabbah 8:1, pp, 54-56; Leviticus Rabbah, 14:1, pp, 295-299; Babylonian Tahnud, Berakhot 6ib; Eruvin i8a. For discussion ofthe motif of the creation of Adam as an androgyne in some ofthe relevant rabbinic sources, see Aaron, "Imagery ofthe Divine and the Human," pp, 1-62, esp, pp, 22-33, See also Boyarin, Camal Israel, pp, 42-46; Teugels, "Creation ofthe Human," pp, 107-127, On the utilization of this motif in kabbalistic sources, see Mopsik, "Recherches autour de la Lettre sur la saintete," pp, 29-73; idem, "Genese 1:26-27," PP, 341-361; Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp, 128-136, The kabbalistic symbol ofthe androgyne may also reflect the impact ofthe myth of Aristophanes articulated by Plato in the Symposium. For an iUuminating study of this source in medieval Arabic literature, see Gutas, "Plato's Symposion," pp, 36-60, 20, Todros ben Joseph Abulafia, Osar ha-Kavod ha-Shalem, 9b, 21, Concerning the use ofthe word "mishnah" in zoharic texts to refer to alleged older sources, see Matt, "Matnita Dilan," pp, 123-145, On p, 139, Matt correcdy notes that the reference to the Mishnah in this case is an attempt to present a kabbalistic motif, derived from either a prior hterary source or the imagination, as a statement ofthe rabbis. It may be the case, as Matt also notes, that the zoharic authorship is expanding the statement attributed to Rav in Babylonian Talmud, Baba Batra 74b, 22, See Babylonian Talmud, Yevamot 62a; Zohar 3,5a, 23, Zohar 1:55b, 24, For references, see chap, 2, n, 192, 25, Grosz, "Histories ofthe Present and Future," p, 22 (emphasis in original), 26, For representative studies on the Bahir, see Scholem, Origins, pp, 49-198; Lehmann, "Theology of the Mystical Book Bahir," pp, 477-483; Weinstock, Studies in Jewish Philosophy, pp, 15-50; Idel, "Problem ofthe Sources ofthe Bahir," pp, 55-72; idem. Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp, 122-128; Pedaya, "Proven9al Stratum," pp, 139-164; E, Wolfson, Along the Path, pp, 63-88, See also the survey of scholarship on the Bahir presented by D, Abrams in Book Bahir, pp, 1-54, and the comprehensive bibliography on pp, 293-336, For a challenge to the conventional scholarly view regarding twelfth-century Provence as the likely setting for the redaction ofthe Bahir, see Verman, Books of Contemplation, pp, 166-169; idem, "Evolution ofthe Circle," pp, 168-169, For a Spanish as opposed to a Proven9al setting, see also McGaha, "Sefer ha-Bahir znd Andalusian Sufism," pp, 20-57, McGaha argues that the Bahir was written in the thirteenth century by an Andalusian who fled to Northern Spain to escape Almohad persecution. On the possible "oriental" provenance, see Ariel, "Eastem Dawn of Wisdom," pp, 149-167, esp, pp, 160-165; and more recendy Meroz, "Bright Light in the East," pp, 137—180, 27, Many ofthe passages cited below have been noted and discussed by Scholem, Origins, pp, 139-142; and see idem. On the Mystical Shape, pp, 44-45, 28, The interpretation of the biblical notion of the divine image with which Adam was created as a reference to the body, implying thereby that God has a somatic human shape, is one of the distinctive doctrines promulgated by medieval kabbalists, even though there were some kabbahsts who recoiled from this idea and tried to explain it in a nonhteral way, I note in passing that the somatic interpretation of the divine image is attested in older gnostic sources that became a major bone of contention for Church authorities by the fourth century. See Gould, "Image of God," pp, 549-557; E, Clark, Origenist Controversy, pp, 43-84, A similar idea is attributed by Epiphanius to the Audians, a possible Jewish-Christian group that articulated views of an esoteric nature. See Stroumsa, "Jewish and Gnostic Traditions," pp, 97-108, esp, p, ioi. Finally, I note that the somatic interpretation ofthe divine image as the hteral meaning of Scripture figured in medieval Muslim polemical attacks on Jews, See, for instance, Pulcini, Exegesis as Polemical Discourse, p. 84, 29, In my opinion, the seven hmbs should be interpreted as an autonomous theosophic tradition based on a conception ofthe divine represented by seven potencies. There is no need to assume, as Scholem does, that the hmbs ofthe Primordial Anthropos are the lower seven often sejirot. Although Scholem does emphasize that the seven potencies are treated as a "separate whole," he nevertheless maintains that these seven are part of the decade, with the upper three potencies corresponding to intellectual powers or spiritual forces and the lower seven to the anatomical hmbs. See Scholem, Origitts, pp, 138-139, and On the Mystical Shape, 490

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p, 45, (In Origins, p. 140, however, Scholem acknowledges the wavering of numerical symbohsm related to different theosophies in the Bahir, and in On the Mystical Shape, p. 162, he correctly observes that "we cannot expect systematic uniformity among all ofthe highly disparate fragments scattered throughout the book," On the presumption of different and at times even contradictory traditions preserved in the bahiric text, see also Origins, pp, 56-57 and 147; On the Mystical Shape, p. 93,) Such an interpretation presupposes a doctrine often sefirot in sections ofthe book where it is not stated exphcidy or even implicitly. It is more plausible to assume, as I have argued, that the bahiric text preserves different theosophic structures, and one of those involves imaging the divine in terms of seven potencies that are described in different symbohc ways, to wit, seven limbs, seven days of creation, seven voices of revelation, seven holy forms, and seven gardens. See E, Wolfson, Along the Path, pp, 69-70, 30, Book Bahir, sec, 55, p, 151, 31, Ibid,, sec, 114, p, 199, Cf sees, 64-65, pp, 157-159, where a group of eight powers, added to the sixty-four forms in order to equal the sum ofthe seventy-two names of God, are said to comprise the seven days ofthe week (on the hypostatic nature ofthe days of creation, see sees, 39, p, 139; 55, p, 151; 74, p, 163; and 105, p, 189) with the eighth called (on the basis ofEccles, 5:8) yitron, the place whence the earth is hewn and fi-om which the inhabitants ofthe world receive the splendor. In sec, 65, p, 159, this "earth" is identified further as the throne of God, the precious jewel, and the sea of wisdom that corresponds to the blue thread ofthe fringe garment. All of these symbols are obvious references to the feminine potency. On the structure of seven forms or potencies plus the eighth, which is the ruler, see the comments by Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp, 125-126, 32, For the impact of this bahiric expression on later kabbalistic sources, especially the zoharic corpus, see Liebes, Sections ofthe Zohar Lexicon, p. 185 n, 52, 33, Regarding the expression "holy forms" {surot qedoshot) in the Bahir and some interesting parallels in gnostic hterature as well as several medieval Jewish sources, see Idel, Kabbalah: Neiv Perspectives, pp, 122-128, Idel discusses the particular bahiric text that deals with the seven holy forms, identified further as the seven sons, on pp, 126-127, 34, In accordance with the reading of MS Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibhothek 209, fol, 2 3i,gHf bi-verito. The reading in MS Vatican-Barberini Or, n o , cited in Book Bahir, p. 201, is gufu-verit milah ("the body and the phaUus"), The reading preserved in the Margahot edition, sec, 172, is guf berit. In the editio princeps ofthe Bahir (Amsterdam, 1651), iob, reproduced in Book Bahir, p. 281, the reading is; ha-guf u-verit ("the body and the phallus"). According to that text, the "head" is not delineated as a separate item, and hence the six limbs, which correspond to the six forms, consist ofthe right and left thighs, the right and left hands, the body and the phallus. This reading also appears in the passage ofthe Bahir copied in the Cremona edition ofthe Zohar (1559-1560), 32a, reproduced in Book Bahir, p. 246, 35, Book Bahir, sec, 116, p, 201, 36, It is of interest to note the depiction ofthe androgynous Christ in the fragment from Interrogationes maiores Mariae preserved by Epiphanius, Panarium, 26;8, The relevant passage is discussed by Jung, Aion, pp, 202-206, As Jung correctly notes (p, 204), the production ofthe woman fi-om the side of Christ, with whom he engages in sexual intercourse, suggests that Christ is here identified typologically with Adam, The androgyny ofjesus reflects the standpoint of the creation account in the second chapter of Genesis insofar as the male regains the original wholeness by cohabiting with his feminine counterpart after she is separated from him. On the depiction ofthe birth ofjesus from the virgin Mary in terms of Adam's creation from the virgin earth and Eve's creation from the virgin Adam, see Newman, Sister of Wisdom, p. 171, On the androgynous Christ, see as well Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, pp, 184-185 (the mystical androgyny of Christ is depicted in the image ofthe "man encompassed by the woman," which is reminiscent ofthe language used by kabbalists derived from Jeremiah 3i;2i to characterize the union of male and female in the Godhead), 208-217, 373-374, 393, 404-405 (in this context, Jung compares the unity ofthe dual nature of Christ as male and female to the Tantric iconography that depicts Shiva and Shakti in permanent cohabitation; see also p, 185 n, 384), 421-434, It is instructive to consider as weU Jung's use ofthe dictum from the Hermetis Trismegisti Tractatus vere Aureus de Lapide philosophici secreto of Dominicus Gnosius that every man "carries Eve, his wife, hidden in his body" as a reference to the anima or the feminine element in every man. See Jung, Symbolic 491

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Life, p. 189, The psychoanalytic appropriation ofthe dictum in some measure preserves the androcentric dimension of the original, albeit in a manner sufFiciendy transfonned by the new context. See, however, Jung, Symbols of Transformation, p. 221; "Not only the gods, but the goddesses, too, are libido-symbols, when regarded from the point of view of their dynamism. The libido expresses itself in images of sun, light, fire, sex, fertility, and growth. In this way, the goddesses , , , come to possess phalhc symbols, even though the latter are essentially mascuhne. One of the main reasons for this is that, just as the female lies hidden in the male, so the male lies hidden in the female," For a constructive application ofthe symbol ofthe androgyne in Jungian analysis, see the work of Singer cited in chap, 2, n, 100, Finally, it should be noted that in the fifth ofthe "Seven Sermons on the Dead," which were composed in 1916, Jung associated spirituality with the feminine, mater coelestis (the celestial mother), and sexuahty with the masculine, phallos (earthly father). This obviously represents a reversal of the standard gender stereotypes that have been influential in Western thought in general and in gnostic symbohsm in particular. In the same context, however, Jung contrasts the earthly sexuality of man and the spiritual sexuahty of woman, while he also affirms that the spirituality of man is heavenly and the spirituahty of woman is earthly. See Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, pp, 386-387, and analysis in Cnostic Jung, p. 42, 37, Book Bahir, sec, 116, p, 201, 38, See E, Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp, 92-98, An interesting and somewhat atypical remark that underscores the tenuous nature of heterosexual union is found in Sefer ha-Yihud, in R. Asher ben David: His Complete Works, p. 62, where the author contrasts the unity of the three central sefirot, Hesed, Din, and Rahamim, linked exegetically to the three names of God mentioned in Deuteronomy 6:4, and the unity of the sefirot in Shekhinah, related to the unity ofthe Tabemacle {mishkan) mentioned in Exodus 26:6, as well as the unity of husband and wife in one Resh according to Genesis 2:24; " 'And couple the cloths to one another with the clasps, so that the tabemacle will be one' (Exod, 26:6), this union is not like that union, for the union of the Tabernacle was fi-om discrete things, and when they are joined one to the other, it is as if it were one, but it is not so, for this union can break apart and it will be as it was at first, and there will be a multiphcity of things, and thus 'and they will be one flesh' (Gen, 2:24), But the 'one' ofthe verse 'Hear, O, Israel' (Deut, 6:4) is one fi-om every perspective and in all of his attributes without any division and without any composition [be-lo shum perud uve-lo shum hibbur] even though it appears as if they are distinct attributes [middot nifradot], for this one activates loving-kindness [hesed], this one judgment [din], and this one compassion [rahamim], but it is not so for he is one in every aspect and in each and every attribute, he is mercy, he is judgment, and he is compassion," For the zoharic parallel, see chap, 5, n, 452, It is of interest to note that in another passage from Sefer ha-Yihud, p. 106, Asher ben David affirms a threefold unity in the first ofthe sefirot, which he hnks to the description ofthe first sefirah in Sefer Yesirah (1:10) as the "spirit ofthe hving God" {ruah elohim hayyim), which is further identified as the "holy spirit" {ruah ha-qodesh) divided into three components, voice {qol), spirit {mah), and speech {dibbur). It appears that this is a formulation of the idea expressed by other kabbahsts (for instance, by the anonymous author ofthe epistle erroneously attributed to Hai Gaon on the three hidden hghts above the sejirot; see Scholem, Origins, pp, 347-354) concerning three attributes comprised in the first of the sejirot, an idea that may have arisen out of the attempt to harmonize the rabbinic doctrine of God's thirteen attributes of mercy {yod-gimmel middot rahamim)—derived exegetically from Exodus 34:6-7—and the esoteric notion ofthe ten sefirot, which were also identified as divine attributes {middot). See Matt, "Introduction," in David ben Yehudah he-Hasid, Book of Mirrors, pp, 23-24, 39, The Hebrew word that I have rendered as phallus isgewiyyah, which can refer to the body in general or to the male organ in particular. This signification of the term is reflected, for instance, in the expression ro'sh ha-gewiyyah, the "head ofthe body," in Babylonian Talmud, Nedarim 32b, as noted by Liebes, Sections of the Zohar Lexicon, p. 258 n, 382, A similar semantic usage is associated with the word ^H/" in kabbahstic hterature and is perhaps already imphcit in rabbinic literature. See Liebes, pp, 170 n, 2, 178 n, 32, 273 n, 442; Eilberg-Schwartz, Cod's Phallus, p. 182 (the author refers exphcitly to Palestinian Talmud, Berakhot 1:3, 3:3, and Leviticus Rabbah 25:6, to support his contention), 40, MS New York, Jewish Theological Seminary of America Mic, 2324, fol, 172b, Abrams, in Book Bahir, p. 42, cites this text, as well as three parallel versions, Independendy, in Circle in the Square, pp, 97-98, 492

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I translated and analyzed an almost identical text preserved in MSS Vatican, Bibhoteca Apostolica ebr, 236, fols, 76a-b and Parma, Bibhoteca Palatina 2704 (De Rossi 68), fol, 87a, as a kabbalistic commentary on levirate marriage, sod ha-yibbum. It is worth noting the affmity of the kabbalistic perspective and the foUowing depiction ofthe Sufi view in Murata, "Witnessing the Rose," pp, 353-354: "Love with its two sides— lovemess and belovedness—is an attribute of the Real at root, and it has permeated the existent entities in keeping with permeation by existence, , , , The fountainhead of love between a couple is that the woman is derived from the man and the relationship of wholeness and partness and the intimacy of rootness and branchness are estabhshed between them, , , , Especially since the woman was derived from the left side of the man—which is the place ofthe heart—the heart inchnes helplessly toward her," For a similar mystical interpretation in Ibn 'Arabi's reading ofthe scriptural account ofthe woman's creation from man and man's desire to unite with the woman as an analogue to the soul's yearning to become one with God, see Nettler, Suji Metaphysics, pp, 181-192, 41, Lacan, "Positions ofthe Unconscious," p, 276, 42, See chap, 2, n, 408, 43, The preference on the part of medieval kabbahsts for monogamy, which is a cultural innovation of the Ashkenazic rabbinate, is to be explained by the theosophic meaning they assigned to sexual relations between husband and wife. See Y, Baer, History of the Jews in Christian Spain, vol, i, p, 437 n, 19, 44, See, for instance, the dictum of R, Jeremiah ben Eleazar preserved in Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 6ia (parallel to Eruvin i8a) conceming the androgynous nature of Adam; "The first Adam had two faces [diyo parsufpanim hayah lo le-adam ha-ri'shon] as it says, 'You formed me in front and from behind' (Ps, 139:5), and it is written 'The Lord God fashioned the side that he had taken from the man into a woman' (Gen, 2:22)," The account ofthe female being constructed from the male in Genesis 2:22 is read as an exegetical gloss on Psalms 139:5, which is equivalent to the account ofthe bisexual nature of Adam in Genesis 1:27, See also Ketuvot 8a, where the following exegetical tradition is reported in the name of R, Judah (in Eruvin i8a, the exegesis is attributed to R, Abbahu); "It is written 'And God created Adam in his image' (Gen, 1:27) and it is written 'male and female he created them' (ibid,, 5;2), How is this possible? Initially, it arose in thought to create two but in the end one was created," The context wherein this teaching is transmitted is a halakhic discussion conceming the intent ofthe first two ofthe seven nuptial blessings, 45, For a different interpretation, see the studies by Mopsik cited above, n, 19, It is of interest to consider the following remark by Eliade, History of Religious Ideas, vol, I, p, 165: "The creation of woman from a rib taken from Adam can be interpreted as indicating the androgyny of the primordial man, , , , The myth of the androgyne illustrates a comparatively widespread belief; human perfection, identified in the mythical ancestor, comprises a unity that is at the same time a totality. We shall gauge the importance of androgyny when we come to discuss certain gnostic and hermetic speculations. We should note that human androgyny has as its model divine bisexuality, a conception shared by a number of cultures" (emphasis in original), Ehade's depiction ofthe biblical text accords with the exegetical strategy adopted by most kabbalists. On the use of the symbol of the androgyne in the work of Ehade, see Altizer, Mircea Eliade and the Dialectic of the Sacred, pp, 99-104; Wasserstrom, Religion after Religion, pp, 204-214, Also pertinent is the comment of Lacan, "Positions ofthe Unconscious," p, 276: "It is not true that God made them male and female, even if the couple Adam and Eve said so; such a notion is also explicidy contradicted by the highly condensed myth found in the same text on the creation of Adam's companion," 46, Gikatilla, Sefer ha-Niqqud, p, 21, 47, Book Bahir, sec, 116, p, 201, See Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, p. 169, I take this opportunity to respond to the criticism of my interpretation offered by Schafer, Mirror of His Beauty, p. 285 n, 37, based on an earher version of this material in my "Hebraic and Hellenic Conceptions ofWisdom," Schafer begins his note by saying that he sees no basis for "E, Wolfion's repeated claim that God's allegedly primordial androgyny is only superficial," I have already responded to this skewed characterization of my work in chap, 2, n, 122, Schafer further proclaims that I have "strangely" read "a lot of phallic symbolism into the bahiric sources" and that the "proofs" (placed in quotes to indicate to the reader that he does not consider them proofs at aU) I have adduced "are all weak or forced interpretations," Schafer's principle hne of attack is to 493

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say that the bahiric parables I have interpreted are not "concerned with the ontic status ofthe Shekhinah, but simply [include] her among the king's sons," In my judgment, not only does this comment not make sense, it illustrates a fundamental lack of understanding, as the parabohc form is precisely the way in which the bahiric authors engage in discourse about the nature of ontology. The parable is the key that transforms language into a mimetic discourse that allows one access to the imaginal realm of divine being. Along similar lines, Schafer rejects my surmise that the parable conceming the change in status ofthe last emanation, the etrog, from male to female, alludes to the containment ofthe female in the male, on the grounds that "the plain meaning ofthe text suggests that God simply changed his mind; he originally planned 'his garden' to be completely male, but realized that an all-male garden (i,e,, an all-male God) would not be able to survive," Schafer's comments serve only to buttress the androcentrism that I have uncovered in the bahiric imagery— the female, by his own account, is viewed solely from the procreative perspective. Surely, no one would argue with the claim that there can be no generation if there were only one sex, but dual sex does not necessarily mean two genders that are legitimately autonomous, 48, Regarding this symbohc image for the divine pleroma, see Book Bahir, sec, 4, pp, 119-121, sec, 15, pp, 125-127, sec, 62, p, 155, and sec, 90, pp, 175-177, The feminine character ofthe garden, an archaic trope attested in a variety of cultural contexts, is especially hnked to a plethora of erotic images on occasion stemming from fertihty rites enacted in sites of vegetation. On the garden as a setting for eroticism, see the evidence adduced by Stordalen, Echoes of Eden, pp, 107-111, 128-130, 49, On the bisexual nature ofthe symbol ofthe tree, see Jung, Symbols of Transformation, p. 221, 50, See Scholem, Origins, pp, 171-173, and discussion below in chap, 8, 51, Book Bahir, sec, 117, p, 203, See Scholem, Origins, p. 142, 52, See Targum Onkelos and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan ad locum; Sifra, Emor, 16:4; Leviticus Rabba 30:8; Palestinian Tahnud, Sukkah 3;7; Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 35a, 53, Scholem, Das Buch Bahir, p. 126, sec, 117 n, 3, suggests that the expression hadar ha-kol may be an eUipsis oi hadar kol ha-iltanot, the "splendor of all the trees," and thus has the signification oi hadar al ha-kol, the "most splendid of all," On p, 127 n, i, Scholem suggests that the word kol in the expression hadar ha-kol may be a technical name for the last sefirah, the Shekhinah. In support of this he refers to the reader to sec, 52 (p, 149 in the Abrams edition). In my opinion, however, the term kol in that context denotes the phaUus, and hence I have rendered the expression hadar ha-kol as the "splendor ofthe All," Similarly, in sec, 52, the daughter given to Abraham is called ba-kol (based on the rabbinic reading of Genesis 24:1 in Babylonian Tahnud, Baba Batra i6b) and not simply kol. That is, the feminine is in the mascuhne, literally, "in the All," ba-kol, a state that is retrieved or reenacted by the reverse, viz,, by the male entering into the female, the container becoming that which is contained. The point was well understood by subsequent interpreters of the bahiric text. See, e,g,, commentary of Nahmanides to Genesis 24:1 and Numbers 15:31 and discussion in E, Wolfson, "By Way of Truth," pp, 134 n, 90, 144 n, 116, and 166-167, On the demiurgic and phaUic connotation of die term kol in the Bahir, see my study, "Tree That Is AU" in Along the Path, pp, 63-88, 54, The bahiric exegesis is elaborated in Zohar 3:24a, 55, My formulation reflects the widely affirmed distinction between nature and culture, gendered respectively as female and male. See Ortner, "Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?" pp, 67-87, 56, Babylonian Talmud, Pesahim 56a, The characterization of the palm tree as androgynous should be viewed as one aspect of a broader anthropomorphic penpective that may be ehcited from rabbinic hterature. For instance, see Visotzky, "The Conversation of Palm Trees," pp, 205-214, 57, Book Bahir, sees, 139-140, p, 223, 58, Needless to say, the symbohc correlation ofthe moon and the feminine, particularly the archetype ofthe mother, is known from a variety of religious societies. See Harley, Moon Lore, pp, 53-68; Ehade, Pattems in Comparative Religion, pp, 163-169; Neumann, "Moon and Matriarchal Consciousness," pp, 64118, Particularly important for the history ofWestem culture is the influence ofthe kabbalistic symbol ofthe moon on alchemy. See Jung, Alchemical Studies, pp, 79 n, 64, 161; idem. Psychology and Alchemy, pp, 383 and 404; idem. Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, p, 81; idem, Mysterium Coniunctionis, pp, 24-29, 59, It is of interest to note the foUowing comment by Abraham Abulafia, Imrei Shefer, fol, 238a (printed

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ed,, p, 70): "The testicles are two spheres fiUed with semen and the two of them are male and female and the semen is the matter whence the particular body is generated," 60, Book Bahir, sec, 42, p, 141, For a more extended discussion of this passage, see E, Wolfson, Along the Path, p. 84, 61, Book Bahir, sec, 67, p, 159, 62, Consider the foUowing description ofthe tenth sefirah in an anonymous kabbahstic text extant in MS Moscow, Gunzberg 407, fol, 64b; "[It is caUed] heart [lev], for she is the completion of everything, and this is the beit from [the word] bere'shit (Gen, 1:1) and the lamed from [the word] yisra'et (Deut, 33:12), Therefore the tenth sefirah is caUed lev because she is the bride comprised of everything" {kaltah ha-kelulah min ha-kot). Cf ibid,, fol, 66a, The heart is associated with the feminine potency, which is constituted by what she receives from the mascuhne. The heart, moreover, comprises the whole of Torah, which is represented by the letters that make up the word lev, the tamed and beit, respectively the last and first letters ofthe Torah, For an analogous approach in the esoteric theosophy ofthe Rhineland Jewish Pietists, see E, Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp, 253-254, 63, That is, that which dwells, A similar play on the word hadar is found already in classical rabbinic sources. See Leviticus Rabbah 30:8; Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 31b and 35a, See also commentary of Rashi to Lev, 23:40, s,v,, hadar. 64, Book Bahirsec. 118, p, 203, 65, Ibid,, sees, 87-88, p, 173, 66, Ibid,, sec, 88, pp, 173-175, On the proposed gnostic origin and the fragmentary condition of this passage, see Scholem, Origins, pp, 119-120, 67, Book Bahir, sec, 89, p, 175, 68, Scholem, Das Buch Bahir, sec, 89, p, 96, renders daveq u-meyuhad as verbunden und geeint ist. For a similar rendering, see Gottfarstein, Bahir, sec, 128, p, 97: "qui se trouve attache et uni avec tous." Schafer, "Daughter, Sister, Bride, and Mother" pp, 227-228, duly notes the "twofold function" of the last sejirah imphed by the expression daveq u-meyuhad. The point is repeated in idem. Mirror of His Beauty, pp, 127-128, See, however, pp, 120-121, where Schafer asserts that the third qadosh, which is described as "united and special in (= separate from) aU of them," refers to Binah, the third ofthe ten emanations. His justification for applying this description to both Binah and Shekhinah seems to rest on the assumption that in bahiric symbohsm a "perfect harmony seems to exist between the third Sefirah {binah), as the lowest ofthe three upper Sefirot, and the tenth Sefirah {Shekhinah), as the lowest ofthe seven lower Sefirot" (p, 126), It is certainly the case that, according to one passage in the Bahir, Shekhinah is treated as twofold, below and above, the "light that emanated from the first hght" {Book Bahir, sec, 116, p, 201; Schafer's account is basicaUy a paraphrase of Scholem's discussion ofthe double Shekhinah; see Origins, pp, 178-180; On the Mystical Shape, pp, 173-175; see below, n, 88), I would argue, however, that it is not relevant or appropriate to introduce this motif in interpreting the depiction of the third qadosh, for discemible here is an attempt to combine an older mythic teaching that presumed the pleroma consisted of three potencies, 69, Mishta'asha'in bah. On the sexual connotation of this and related words, see E, Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp, 70-71, and further references to both primary and secondary sources given on pp, 190-192 nn, 175-180, On the symbolic intent oisha'ashu'a in the bahiric text, see E, Wolfson, "Before Alef" pp, 142150, and discussion below, chap, 6, 70, Babylonian Talmud, Hagigah 13b, 71, In subsequent kabbalistic literature, the expression eshet hayyil (Prov, 31:10) became a standard symbol for Malkhut. 72, On the feminine aspect ofthe field, with a decidedly sexual component connected to the motif of waUcing, cf Book Bahir, sec, 43, p, 141; Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, p. 162, The image ofthe field as a metaphor for the feminine is not uncommon in classical texts. See DuBois, Sowing the Body, pp, 39-64; O'Flaherty, Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts, pp, 29-30, 73, Book Bahir, sec, 90, p, 175, 74, O n this point, there are striking analogies between the bahiric symbohsm and ancient Zoroastrian495

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ism, but I cannot elaborate on these matters here. For discussion of some of the relevant themes in Persian hterature, see Corbin, Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth, pp, 36-50, Also relevant to this motif is the study by P, Berger, Coddess Obscured, pp, 5-47; and Newman, Cod and the Coddesses, pp, 190-244, 75, Scholem, Origins, pp, 94-96; idem. On the Mystical Shape, pp, 166-167, 76, Jacob ben Sheshet, Sha'ar ha-Shamayim, p. 156; "Sefer Sha'ar ha-Shamayim," p, 105 and see discussion, pp, 70-71, As Gabay properly notes, the three-letter name, YHW, is referred to as the "great name" {shem ha-gadot) in Sefer Yesirah 1:13, See also the formulation in Asher ben David, Sefer ha-Yihud, in R. Asher ben David: His Complete Works, pp, 112-113: "Moreover, this name is caUed the explicit name [shem hameforash] for it elucidates everything [mefaresh ha-kol], and within it is written his great name [shemo ha-gadol], which is yod he waw, and the second he that is in it alludes to God's glory [le-khivodo shel maqom], the Shekhinah, which is the tenth sefirah. The yod, as we said, refers to Hokhmah together with the efflux that flows to it from the alef [i.e., Keter]; they are two even though they appear as one. The he [i.e., Binah] is one, and hence there are here three. The waw refers to six sefirot corresponding to six extremities [i,e,, from Hesed to Yesod], and thus there are nine, and the second he, which corresponds to the place [ha-maqom], and there are ten. She completes the matter ofthe one [inyan ha-ehad], for the matter ofthe one is not concluded except in the tenth, no less and no more. Therefore, the author oi Sefer Yesirah [1:4] said 'Ten and not nine, ten and not eleven,' The iUustration [mashal] of this is that there is no point [nequddah] in the world that does not have nine [aspects], and they are length, width, and depth, and each of these has a beginning, end, and middle. Thus there are three times three so that there are nine. And every point needs a place [maqom], and this is caUed in the language ofthe tradition [be-lashon ha-qabbalah] the topos of place [geder ha-maqom], and together with it they are ten, and through it the enumeration ofthe one [minyan ha-ehad] is terminated, for it is not terrmnated with less than ten. Therefore the great name begins with yod, for the yod completes the enumeration ofthe one, as I have explained, not by less nor more, to aUude to the fact that everything derives from the alef, which is transmitted with respect to the unity [ha-mesurah al ha-ahdut]." See citation below at n, 205, 77, Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, pp, 26-27; see pp, 205 (where reference is made by Jung to the "masculine trinity" and the "feminine quatemity"), 229-230, On the symbol ofthe quaternity, see idem, Aion, pp, 222-265, esp, pp, 251-252, where the author discusses the duplex nature of one ofthe factors ofthe quaternity, that is the doubhng of an original member of a trinity to transpose the threefold into a fourfold, a move that invariably leads to the theme of marriage between brother and sister that emulates the conjunction of father and mother. See idem, Mysterium Coniunctionis, pp, 6-17, 47-48, 101-103, and esp, pp, 185-188, On the tendency in Indian symbohsm to perceive things through the lens of four axes structured about a central point of origin, see BuckneU and Stuart-Fox, Twilight Language, p. 139, 78, Knorr von Rosenroth, Kabbala Denudata, I, pt, 3, chap, 8, sec, 3, p, 116, 79, Vattzi, Jewish Alchemists, pp, 60-80, esp, pp, 69-74, 80, Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, pp, 429—430, 81, See Book Bahir, sees, 3, p, 119, 36, pp, 137-139, 43-44, PP, 141-143, 51, pp, 147-149, Some ofthe relevant texts are discussed by Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, pp, 163-164, The structure revolving about the father, son, and daughter that I have discemed in Bahir may be seen as a theosophic mythologization of the book of Proverbs itself wherein the feminine wisdom {hokhmah) mediates between God and Israel, imaged respectively as father and son, Eilberg-Schwartz, Cod's Phallus, pp, 130-132, remarks that one ofthe functions ofthe female image of wisdom in this text is to restore the heterosexual imagery and thereby keep the homoerotic associations of God's love for Israel and Israel's love for God at bay. In the case ofthe Bahir, and subsequent kabbalistic sources informed by the mythical structure attested in this text, it is the heterosexual relationship of son and daughter that militates against the incestuous relationship of father and daughter. The homoerotic relationship of father and son, as weU as that of mother and daughter, are developed independendy ofthe wisdom motif 82, See Book Bahir, sees, 3, p, 119, 37, p, 139, 43-44, pp, 141-143, 51-52, pp, 147-149, 74, p. 163; Scholem, Origins, pp, 70, 92; David Stem, Parables in Midrash, p. 221; E, Wolfson, Circle n the Square, pp, 11-12, In Book Bahir, sec, 96, p, 181, which is part ofthe section in which the ten divine sayings are dehneated, wisdom is identified as the second of these hypostases, 496

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83, The relationship of father and daughter, upper and lower wisdom, is a theme repeated often in later kabbalistic literature and is especiaUy prominent in the zoharic corpus. See, for instance, Isaac ha-Kohen, Ma'amar al ha-Asilut ha-Semo'lit, in Scholem, "Traditions of R, Jacob," pp, 246-247: "They placed the throne , , , in the bosom ofthe primordial wisdom, and he received her in the language 'Come O bride,' and he dehghted [mishta'ashe'a] in her like a father delighting with his only daughter amongst his sons," Ofthe many relevant passages in zoharic literature that could be cited, I mention one from Zohar 1:156b {Sitrei Torah) for it clearly draws on the language ofthe Bahir. "The desire ofthe father is constantly towards his daughter, for the daughter, his beloved, is always near him since she is the only daughter amongst the six sons," Apparently, this passage underhes the comment in Moses de Leon's She'elot u-Teshuvot, p. 43: "They said there is no love greater than that of a father for the daughter, for she is the only daughter amongst six brothers," The likely connection between this passage and the aforecited zoharic text was already noted by Tishby, Wisdom ofthe Zohar, p. 43 n, 46, An even more striking repetition ofthe structure underlying the bahiric myth is found in Tiqqunei Zohar, sec, 64, 95b: "When [Solomon] ascended in his kingship, it said concerning him, 'Solomon's wisdom was greater [than the wisdom of aU the Kedemites and than aU the wisdom ofthe Egyptians]' (i Kings 5:10), It increased until it reached that place whence it was taken, the place ofthe supemal wisdom, for he is the wisdom in the beginning and she is the wisdom in the end"; cf sec, 21, 44b, where the elevation of Shekhinah to the supemal yod or hokhmah, which is designated as the father, is related exegetically to the verse, "The Lord founded the earth by wisdom" (Prov, 3:19), And see sec, 21, 6ib: "When Israel contemplate wisdom [maskilim be-hokhmah], which is the yod, supernal thought [mahshavah ila'ah], they know how to cast [lezarqa] that stone, which is an only daughter, to the place whence she was taken, for the daughter is made in the father [di-beratta be-abba ifavidat], as it is written, 'The Lord in wisdom established the earth,' [yhwh be-hokhmah yasad ares] (Prov, 3:19), in wisdom, which is the father, he established the daughter, which the earth, his footstool [based on Isa, 66:1], Her thread is the waw, for the stone is a crown, the diadem on his head, the crown of the Torah scroU, and conceming it was said 'the one who makes use of the crown perishes' [Mishnah Avot 1:13], this is verily the crown of Torah, for there are three crowns [Mishnah Avot 4:13], the crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood, and the crown of kingship, and the crown of Torah is over the others," I note parentheticaUy that in the original dictum the crown of a good name is said to rise above the other three crowns, 84, The relationship of the father and daughter is also expressed in the theosophic reworking of the aggadic motif (Babylonian Talmud, Baba Batra i6b) regarding the daughter given to Abraham in Book Bahir, sec, 52, p, 149, See Scholem, Origins, pp, 87-88; idem. On the Mystical Shape, p. 168, Consider also the parabohc reference to the signs {simanim) ofthe king and of his daughter in Book Bahirsec. 62, p, 155, and the parable in sec, 104, pp, 187-189, about the prince who hides the riches of his father's house in the inner chamber where his bride is hidden. In that context, the phalhc potency is identified with the east, which stores its semen in the feminine west. On the occultation ofthe feminine in order to protect her from Satan, cf the parable ofthe king and his daughter in sec, 109, pp, I93-I95- The restoration ofthe original unity of the feminine in the mascuhne is also imphed in the symbol ofthe crown ascending to the head in sec, 61, pp, 153-155, (Cf also the depiction ofthe precious pearl that served as a crown in sec, 49, p, 145,) The use of this image to depict the mascuhne transformation ofthe feminine became a standard motif in subsequent kabbaUstic literature. See E, Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp, 275 n, 14, 362 n, 123, 363; idem. Circle in the Square, pp, 116-120, 231-232 n, 198,1 have also explored this symbolism in the writings of Hasidei Ashkenaz in "Sacred Space," pp, 624-634, FinaUy, let me note that my analysis ofthe father-daughter relationship depicted in bahiric parables confirms the insight of Zeidin, Playing the Other p. 113, that "the father-daughter relationship is the purest form of female dependence," 85, As various commentators have pointed out, what immediately foUows is not a direct citation of a bibhcal verse. See Scholem, Das Buch Bahir, p. 6, sec, 3 n, 2; and the Margahot edition oi Sefer ha-Bahir, sec, 3 n, 6, 86, Here I foUow the reading in MS Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibhothek 209, fol, 2b, reproduced in Book Bahir, p. 118, be-matanah, "as a gift," rather than the reading in other versions, including the edition of Margahot, be-hatunah, "in the wedding," 497

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87, Book Bahir, sec, 3, p, 119, 88, See Scholem, Origins, pp, 91-94, A particularly interesting mythologoumenon is preserved in the Cospel of Philip 60; 10-12, in Layton, Cnostic Scriptures, p. 336: "Ekhamoth is one thing; and ekh-moth another, Ekhamoth refers to wisdom proper; But ekh-moth, to the wisdom of death—that is, the wisdom who is acquainted with death, and who is caUed the litde wisdom," The proximity of this mythical teaching to the symbology ofthe Bahir and subsequent kabbahstic authors is obvious and does not require elaboration. The relationship of this ancient text and medieval kabbalah has been noted by several scholars. See Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, p. 300 n, 99; Liebes, "Messiah ofthe Zohar," pp, 230-232; Idel, "Sexual Metaphors," pp, 203-204; idem, "Jerusalem in Thirteenth-Century Jewish Thought," pp, 266-267, See below, n, 170, 89, See the introduction by WiUiam C, Robinson, Jr,, to his translation and edition ofthe Expository Treatise on the Soul, in Coptic Cnostic Library, vol, 2, pp, 138-139, On the utihzation of Hebrew Scripture in this composition, see R, Wilson, "Old Testament Exegesis," pp, 217-224, I added discussion of this text at the final stage of preparation of this monograph based on a comment of Hindy Najman, The conversation had nothing to do with my own work, but it did inspire me to review this gnostic treatise and in the process I discovered what I consider to be a remarkable affinity to the theologoumenon I have reconstructed from the Bahir. I am grateful to Professor Najman for goading me, albeit unwittingly, to this key source, 90, Ibid,, p, 145, 91, Ibid,, pp, 147, 153, 92, Ibid,, p, 151, The specific formulation that is interpreted symbohcaUy is "the sons of Egypt, men of great flesh" (Ezek, 16:26), 93, Ibid,, p, 145, 94, The experience ofthe soul in the corporeal reahn is portrayed in the image ofthe desolate widow. See ibid,, pp, 147, 157, 95, Ibid,, p, 155, 96, Ibid,, pp, 155, 159, 161, 163, 97, This is not to say that in the synoptic gospels the depiction ofjesus as the son of God imphes, as it does in the fourth gospel and other documents reflecting the thought ofthe early Church, divine status. See Friedrich, Theological Dictionary, vol, 8, pp, 367-368, 374-376; Charlesworth, JeiMi within Judaism, pp, 148153; E, Sanders, Historical Figure ofjesus, pp, 161-162; Flusser,yejMi, pp, 113-123, For a different perspective with respect to the Gospel of Mark, see Jonge, Christology in Context, pp, 56-63, 86-87, 98, The image of redemption through the bridal chamber caUs to mind several other gnostic texts: Cospel of Philip, Dialogue ofthe Savior, the apocryphal Acts of Thomas, as weU as accounts ofthe Valentinians offered in Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Heracleon, See Marcovich, Studies in Craeco-Roman Religions, pp, 163-167, Of special interest is the Cospel of Philip. 70:18-24, in Nag Hammadi Codex II, 2-y, vol, i, p, 183, where it is emphasized that the husband and wife united in the bridal chamber cannot be separated. On the motif of the bridal chamber, see also LaFargue, Language and Cnosis, pp, 107-108 n, 60, For reference to other scholarly treatments, see below n, 173, See, in particular, Cospel of Philip 71:5-10, in Nag Hammadi Codex II, 2-7, vol, I, p, 183, According to that passage, the mystery consists ofthe "father of everything" uniting with the "virgin who came down" in the bridal chamber. From the context, however, it appears that the male form uniting with the virgin is in fact Jesus, for it is the task ofthe anointed one to come "to repair the separation which was from the beginning and again unite the two, and to give hfe to those who died as a result ofthe separation and unite them" (70:14-16, vol, i, p, 183), 99, Nag Hammadi Codex II, z-j, vol, 2, p, 157, 100, For a sustained analysis ofthe apophatic dimensions of this treatise, expressed in both philosophical and mythological modes of discourse, see TrakateUis, Transcendent Cod of Eugnostos. 101, The Coptic is a borrowing from Greek, arche, which can be rendered either as "beginning" or "principle," Both meanings are attested in Eugnostos the Blessed; see TrakateUis, Transcendent Cod, pp, 81-82, 102, Nag Hammadi Codices III, 3-4 and V, 1, pp, 80-86, Also worthy of consideration is the speculation ofthe sect known as the Peratae described by Hippolytus, Refutation, 5,12: the three principles ofbeing are the father, son, and matter. The son, identified as the word, is compared to a serpent that is always in motion. 498

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snaking its way to the father or to matter. The serpentine son tums to the father to receive the powers, or the "paternal marks," and he then tums toward matter to discharge these powers, as matter is said to be "devoid of attribute, and being unfashioned, moulds (into itself) forms from the son which the son moulded from the father." The gender character of the third principle is not made explicit, but given the overwhelming cultural assumption of late-antique thinkers, it stands to reason that matter is feminine is nature. Even if we assume the correctness of this surmise, the triad as a whole is gendered as male. Consider the description ofFered by Hippolytus, Refutation, 5:7, of the "first segment" in the thought of the Peratae as the "triad" that is called a "perfect good" and "patemal magnitude." Bohlig, "Triade und Trinitat," pp. 617-634, presents a wide-ranging analysis of the centrality of the tripartite stmcture as a non-Christian gnostic theologoumenon. See also Petrement, Separate God, pp. 75-77. According to Petrement, two stages in the evolution of the gnostic trinity can be distinguished; the former stage, which involved the triad of father, mother, and son, is in all probability pre-Christian in origin, deriving from Jewish wisdom speculation, and hence the mother is holy spirit {ruah ha-qodesh), and the second stage, properly gnostic, involves the doubhng of the mother, extending the triad to a quaternity, the lower mother corresponding to Sophia, the demiurgical potency responsible for the creation of the inferior material world. For other references to the trinitarian aspects of gnostic myth, see chap. 7, n. 63. In the wedding hymn of the apocryphal Acts of Thomas, one can discem a similar threefold stmcture of father, son, and daughter. See LaFargue, Language and Gnosis, pp. 91-112. The author utihzes Jewish esoteric Hterature, including Sefer Yesirah and Sefer ha-Bahir, in an effort to reconstmct the intellectual miheu of the wedding hymn; see pp. i i o - i i i , 122-128. 103. Nag Hammadi Codices III, 3-4 and V, 1, pp. 110-124. Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp. 123-127, discusses the affmity of the image of the seventy-two powers in the text o{Eugnostos as well as the image of the seventy-two names in the Origin of the World and passages in Sefer ha-Bahir. The mythologic stmcture of the triad that I have adduced provides another striking resemblance between the gnostic and bahiric sources. 104. Nag Hammadi Godex II, 2-7, vol. 2, p. 161 (citing John 6:44 as exegetical prooftext). On receiving the name as a gift through baptism, see Gospel of Philip 64:25-30, in Nag Hammadi Godex II, 2-7, vol. i, p. 169. 105. E. Wolfson, Along the Path, pp. 84-86. 106. Ibid., pp. 73-75 (note that I am modifying my remark on p. 74 that the second potency of the tnad, symbolized by the letter beit, represents either the mother or daughter); E. Wolfson, "Before Alef." 107. It is on account of this feature of generosity—giving without any thought of retum—that Cixous associates the realm of the gift with the feminine in contrast to the mascuhne, which is hnked with the realm of the proper. See Moi, Sexual/Textual Politics, pp. 110-113. 108. Derrida, Gift of Death, p. 7. See Derrida's comment in his discussion with Jean-Luc Marion on the nature of the gift in Keamey, God, the Gift, and Postmodernism, p. 59: "As soon as a gift—not a Gegebenheit, but a gift—as soon as a gift is identified as a gift, with the meaning of a gift, then it is cancelled as a gift. It is reintroduced into the circle of an exchange and destroyed as a gift." On the analysis of gift-giving in terms of sacred objects that are not exchangeable, see Godeher, Enigma of the Gift. 109. Derrida, Given Time, pp. 79-81 (emphasis in original). n o . The nexus of the image of the gift and the androcentric theme of treating the woman as a vessel to receive the male seed is illustrated in the following passage in Ha-Ketavim ha-Iuriyyim shel Ba 'al Tiqqunei Zohar we-Ru'aya Meheimna, p. i: "The kabbalah is the Shekhinah . . . when she is given into the hands of Moses she is called qabbalah, and this is the import of 'Moses received [qibhel\ the Torah from Sinai' [Mishnah, Avot 1:1], and when he tumed her into something that could receive [hiqbil otah], she is called 'gift' [matanah], as it says [in the Sabbath liturgy] 'Moses took joy in his allocated portion' [be-matnat helqo]." I I I . See David Stem, Parables in Midrash, p. 222. Schafer, Mirror of His Beauty, p. 285 n. 47, offers the following pronouncement regarding my Derridean analysis of the gift (based on the earlier version of this material in my study "Hebraic and Hellenic Conception"): "The incestuous relationship, on which WoUson feasts, is the 'logical' conclusion of the daring imagery, but not its essence." A firm grasp of the function of parable as it pertains to the hermeneutics of secrecy expressed in medieval kabbalah, exemplified in a striking manner by the bahiric example wherein incestuous relationships—particularly the relationship of father and

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daughter, which is supplanted by the relationship of daughter and son, sister and brother—does not allow for the distinction made by Schafer. The logic of the parables in the Bahir conveys the meaning of the essence of the parables, as the parabolic formulation provides the way to approach the metaphysical tmth of the divine reality and the ontological problem of alterity, the possibihty of affirming the difference of identity from within the identity of difference. 112. Derrida, Gift of Death, p. 9. 113. Ibid., pp. 29-30. In Spurs, p. 121, Derrida draws a connection between the feminine and the gift on the basis that both defy essentiaUzing and therefore they cannot be thought from the perspective of Being. 114. Derrida, Given Time, p. 147 (emphasis in original). For a rehashing of the argument, see idem. Taste for the Secret, p . 34. 115. Derrida, On the Name, p. 25. 116. Derrida, On the Name, p. 26. See idem, Glas, pp. 49-50. In that context, Derrida engages Hegel's depiction of the Jewish aversion to iconic representation. He remarks that the characteristic feature of the inner sanctum in the tabernacle and temple was that at the center was nothing, an empty space devoid of all content. The nothingness that hes at the sacred center, the hearth, which is the mystery [Geheimnis), arises from the attempt to provide a dwelling for that which cannot be contained, to delimit the limitless, to assign a figure to the infinite. "One undoes the bands, displaces the tissues, pulls off the veils, parts [karte] the curtains: nothing but a black hole or a deep regard, without color, form, and hfe. . . . The Jewish Geheimnis, the hearth in which one looks for the center under a sensible cover [enveloppe]—the tent of the tabemacle, the stone of the temple, a robe that clothes the text of the covenant—is finally discovered as an empty room, IS not uncovered, never ends being uncovered, as it has nothing to show." The Jewish notion of the inner sanctum alludes to the hermeneutical dynamic of secrecy: That which is covered can never cease being uncovered since nothing is there to be recovered. Significantly, Derrida apphes this notion of mystery to the text of the covenant veiled behind the curtain. 117. Derrida, On the Name, p. 59. 118. Ibid., pp. 26-27. On the impossibihty of testifying to a secret, see Derrida, Demeure, pp. 30-31. 119. Derrida, Taste for the Secret, pp. 57-58. 120. Derrida, Gift of Death, p. 59. 121. See E. Wolfson, "Occultation of the Feminine," pp. 118-119; idem, Abraham Abulafia, pp. 21-33. 122. Derrida, "Of an Apocalyptic Tone," p. 26 (emphasis in original). 123. For discussion of this Derridean notion, see Foshay, "Introduction," pp. 1-24. On the relationship of Derrida, mysticism, and the apophatic orientation of traditional negative theology, see K. Hart, Trespass of the Sign, pp. 183-194, 124. Derrida, "How To Avoid Speaking: Denials," p. 25. On the "negativity of the secret" and the "secret of denegation," see ibid., p. 18. 125. See Caputo, Prayers and Tears, p. 33, 126. In "Of an Apocalyptic Tone," p. 26, Derrida relates this process to the act of translation, rendering one language in terms of another: "translation-proof, grace would perhaps come when the writing of the other absolves you, from time to time, from the infinite double bind and first of all, such is a gift's condition, absolves itself, unbinds itself from the double bind, unburdens or clears itself, it, the language [langue] of writing, this given trace that always comes from the other, even if it is no one." 127. The point is made explicidy in the exegetical homihes on Leviticus 18:9 in Zo/iar 3:77a-b. For partial translation and analysis, see Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, p. 1368. My formulation of the insight regarding the symbolic meaning of incest is indebted to Neumann, Origins, pp. 16-17. See also Layard, "Incest Taboo," PP- 254-307; Heritier, "Symbolics of Incest," pp. 152-179. Jung, Practice of Psychotherapy, pp. 228-230. As Jung correctly notes, the mystical reading of the Song in Christian exegesis, according to which the love narrative is transposed into a dialogue between Christ and the Church, sponsus and sponsa (see below, chap. 8), is a good example of the use of an incestuous relation, deplorable in the social sphere, to express the supreme spiritual ideal. An analogous situation is found in kabbalistic sources with respect to the secret of ilhcit sexual relations, sod arayot. For an elaborate discussion of this topic, see Idel, "Kabbalistic Interpretation," pp. 89-199. On the evolution of incest symbohsm, understood as the regressive urge to get back to

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childhood, see Jung, Symbols of Transformation, pp. 158-159, 204-205, 213, 235 n. 42. A difFerent approach, albeit one that exemphfies considerable theoretical sophistication and that may prove advantageous in considering incestuous motifs in rabbinic and kabbalistic hterature, is offered by Kumin, Logic of Incest. On the primitive ritual of incest and its sociological consequences, see Pierre Gordon, Sex and Religion, pp. 137-157, and for other anthropological examples of ritual incest, especially involving the figure of the king, see Girard, Violence and the Sacred, pp. 104-107, 114-116. Finally, it is worth recalling that in the dehneation of incestuous relationships in Lev. 6-18 the one prohibition that is not exphcitly mentioned is sex between father and daughter. See Berquist, GontroUing Gorporeality, pp. 87-88. Worthy of consideration here as well is the discrepancy in medieval ecclesiastic penitential hterature noted by Gregg, Devils, Women, and Jews, p. 134: mother-son incest required specific penances, while father-daughter sexual relations did not. 128. Girard, Violence and the Sacred, p. 74. 129. Based on the statement in Babylonian Talmud, Hagigah 15a. 130. That is, the numerical value of the consonants of the word lev equals thirty-two, lamed (30) and beit (2).

131. Sefer Yesirah 1:1. 132. Book Bahir, sec. 43, p. 141. See Scholem, Origins, pp. 168-169; idem. On the Mystical Shape, 162-163. 133. Book Bahir, sees. 67, p. 159 (in that context, the heart of the tree is identified as the citron, for it comprises the thirty-two paths of mysterious wisdom), 75. p. 163, 91, p. 177 (in that context, the heart is identified as the glory, based on the numerical equivalence of lev and kavod). See Scholem, Origins, p. 92; idem. On the Mystical Shape, p. 162. 134. The image of the daughter is used in other parabolic contexts in the Bahir. See sees. 3, p. 119, 36, pp. 137-139, 44, pp. 141-142, 52, p. 149. In hght of this obvious sexual innuendo, I cannot agree with Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, p. 163, that in the Bahir the "explicitly sexual sphere of female symbolism is here quite clearly and visibly rejected." Scholem notes one exception, a passage that refers to the feminine as the matrona of the king (sec. 90, p. 175), but he neglects to note the sexual aspects of other feminine images, including most significantly the relationship of father and daughter. Incest is also imphed in the parable in sec. 124, p. 207, which explains the sexual praxis related to the Sabbath: The king invites his sons to join him in rejoicing with his bride on the day of his joy. 135. Compare the parable of the king's garden with thirty-two paths in sec. 62, p. 155. The phallic connotation of the paths is suggested by the statement that the king utters to the guard appointed over the paths: "Guard them and traverse them each day, and at any time that you tread through them peace will be upon you." I assume that the word "peace" {shalom) also has a phallic connotation in this context as it does elsewhere in the Bahir and other kabbahstic writings. For the possibihty regarding the archaic use of this usage, see E. Wolfson, Along the Path, p. 205 n. 71. On the notion of the thirty-two paths and the forms that guard them, see also Book Bahir, sec. 67, p. 159. 136. Cf the interpretation of "the land is full of His glory" (Isa. 6:3) in Book Bahir, sec. 90, p. 175: "That land that was created on the first day, which is above corresponding to the land of Israel, is filled from the glory of the name." It seems to me that the "glory of the name" {kevod ha-shem) should here be interpreted phalhcally, and hence the point of the passage is that the feminine potency, symbohzed as the land, is filled with the overflow of the divine phallus. The phalhc signification of the word kavod obviously has far-reaching implications for Jewish rehgious thought. 137. See Pesiqta de-Rav Kahana, 1:3, 7; Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah 3:21; Exodus Rabbah 52:5; Numbers Rabbah 12:8; Midrash Tanhuma, Pequde, sec. 8, p. 133. 138. Elsewhere in the Bahir (sec. 74, p. 163) the mother (given the name Binah on the basis of Prov. 2:3) is depicted as the source of the seven hypostases, which are rendered symbolically as the seven sons or the seven days of Tabernacles. In the parable employed in sec. 51, p. 147, the mother acts as the mediating force between the king and his sons who have disobeyed his will. The mother implores the father to have mercy for his wayward children. See also the parabolic use of the symbol of mother to characterize the divine glory in sec. 90, p. 175. It is not uncommon in the mythic imagination for the mother and daughter to be identified as one persona. See discussion of the identification of Demeter and Kore in the Eleusian mysteries in Neumann, Great Mother, pp. 142, 197, 305-309, 332, and Kerenyi, Eleusis, pp. 32-33, 130. 139. The five names are neshamah, ruah, hayyah, yehidah, and nefesh. Cf Genesis Rabbah 14:9, p. 132. 501

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140. Book Bahir, sec. 36, p. 137. See Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, pp. 165-166. 141. Book Bahir, sec. 36, pp. 137-139. The bahiric passage is based on a midrashic parable in Exodus Rabbah 33:1. See Scholem, Das Buch Bahir, p. 40, sec. 36 n. 2; idem. Origins, p. 170; Margaliot's note in his edition oC Sefer ha-Bahir, sec. 54 n. 3; E. Wolfson, Gircle in the Square, pp. 11-12. For a different interpretation of this parable, see Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, p. 164. 142. See Liebes, Sections of the Zohar Uxicon, p. 358 n. 13. The imphcit intent of the bahiric passage is made exphcit in Zohar 1:56a, wherein the "secret of the covenant" {raza di-verit), the phallic potency, is identified as the letter beit, which completes the name "Seth" {shin-taw) to form the word "Sabbath" {shin-

beit-taw). 143. Support for this interpretation may be ehcited from a number of kabbalistic sources. See, for example, Ibn Gaon, Sefer Baddei ha-Aron u-Migdal Hananel, p. 55. In his explication oi teit, the ninth letter that corresponds to the ninth gradation, Shem Tov writes: "In the secret oi Yesod, in the form of a throne to show there is a throne to the throne. And see that the emanation that it had from the east retumed to the west, and the opening that it had from the west retumed from the east. And I have seen that it is in the form of an open window to receive hght from the east." See also the Lurianic text Sha'ar ha-Kelaiim, chap, i, printed in Vital, Es Hayyim, 8a: "When the hght of Ein Sof enters into Keter, it does not have the capacity to bear it except by means of spatial distance. Yet, from Keter to Hokhmah there is no distance at all, but rather it comes by way of a window, that is, from Yesod oi Arikh Anpin, which is called 'window' [halon], for the light is diminished from what it was. From Hokhmah to Binah it comes as well by way of a window, that is, from Yesod oiAbba, which is another small window. However, in the six extremities [Hesed to Yesod] themselves their windows are identical to one another for they are all one aspect. Subsequently, from Yesod to Malkhut, the hght comes from a small and very narrow window in the pattem of a small perforation." 144. Babylonian Talmud, Shavu'ot 35b. According to some versions of the bahiric text, e.g., MS Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibhothek 209, fol. 8a (reproduced in Book Bahir, p. 140), the rabbinic comment is transmitted in the name of R. Yohanan. Conceming this talmudic text and the possibility that it preserves an older theosophic tradition, see E. Wolfson, Along the Path, p. 205 n. 71. 145. MS Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibhothek 209, fol. 8b (reproduced in Book Bahir, p. 142) reads: "the very wisdom that was given to God." Scholem, Origins, p. 92, prefers this reading and suggests that it was changed in later manuscripts because of the bold theological implication regarding God's union with the feminine hokhmah. I am not convinced, however, that this altemative reading actually makes better sense in context, and hence I have followed the version, ottah hokhmah she-natan lo elohim, "the very wisdom that God had given to him," which is preserved in the editio princeps of the Bahir (Amsterdam, 1651), 4c, reproduced in Book Bahir, p. 270. See the reading in MS Vatican-Barberini Or. n o , cited in Book Bahir, p. 143, as well as Margahot's edition oi Sefer ha-Bahir, sec. 65. 146. Book Bahir, sec. 44, pp. 141-143. 147. Scholem, Origins, p. 92. Scholem's interpretation is accepted by David Stem, Parables in Midrash, p. 222.

148. Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat iob, Sanhedrin 55b. 149. Babylonian Talmud, Shavu'ot 35b. 150. Book Bahir, sees. 9, p. 123, 40, p. 141, 50, p. 147, and 62, p. 155. See E. Wolfson, Along the Path, pp.

204-205 n. 71. 151. Cf. the use of the term kavod in Book Bahir, sec. 33, p. 137, analyzed in E. Wolfson, Along the Path, p. 209 n. 85. 152. I thus take issue with Scholem's remark that the Solomon to whom Sophia is given as a gift is "the Solomon of history and not a symbohc Solomon" {Origins, p. 92). In fact, the bahiric parable (in both sees. 3 and 44) makes htde sense if one does not appreciate the symbolic character of Solomon. 153. Book Bahir, sec. 19, pp. 127-129. 154. See, for instance, Zohar 2:218b; 3:223a. 155. It appears that dalet symbohzes the feminine in other sections of the Bahir, see sees. 20, p. 129, and 25, p. 131-

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156. Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, p. 165, already suggested that the twofold description of the one king who is wealthy but poor signifies the active and passive elements in the Shekhinah. Although my locution differs from that of Scholem there is a common element to the two approaches. 157. Based on a passage in Seder Rabbah di- Vere'shit; see Schafer, Synopse zur Hekhalot-Literatur, sec. 440 (cf. sec. 745): "Just as his Shekhinah is above so it is below." See Scholem, Origins, pp. 178-179; idem. On the Mystical Shape, pp. 173 and 296 n. 59. On the distinction between the lower and upper Shekhinah, see also the magical text, Sidrei de-Shimmusha Rabba we-Sidrei Heikhalot, in Jellinek, Beit Midrash, 6:110, previously cited by Scholem, Dai Buch Bahir, p. 124, sec. 116 n. 2. Scholem's statement that according to the predominant theosophic symbohsm, the double Shekhinah refers respectively to the third and tenth of the sefirot, is valid for latter kabbalistic texts but it does not reflect the approach of the bahiric passage. As I have argued, in the context of the Bahir itself, the upper Shekhinah is wisdom or the first light, and the lower Shekhinah is the hght that emanated from that hght, the divine glory that is immanent in the world and the aspect of wisdom that is imaged as feminine. The assumption here is that the divine comprises eight powers consisting of seven sons and one king. 158. It is noteworthy that the expression "encompassing everything" {sovevet ha-kol) is used to describe the attribute of divine wisdom in some of the Provencal kabbahsts, e.g., Isaac the Blind and Asher ben David. See Isaac the Bhnd, Perush Sefer Yesirah, p. 2; Asher ben David, Sefer ha-Yihud, in R. Asher ben David: His Gomplete Works, p. 113. For discussion of this expression, see Scholem, Kabbalah in Provence, p. 177. The relationship between Sefer ha-Bahir and strands of theosophic kabbalah that crystallized in Provence is a complex issue that has been addressed by various scholars. See Scholem, Reshit ha-Qabbalah, pp. 64-65; idem. Origins, pp. 209-211; Idel, "Sefirot above the Sefirot," p. 239; and Pedaya, "Provencal Stratum." 159. Book Bahir, sec. 116, p. 201. See Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, p. 173. 160. Book Bahir, sec. 116, p. 201. See E. Wolfson, "Woman—The Feminine as Other," p. 171. 161. Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98b. 162. Book Bahir, sec. 58, p. 153. 163. Scholem, Origins, p. 142. 164. Gospel of Thomas, 114, in Nag Hammadi Godex II, 2-7, p. 93. See chap. 2, n. 46 and chap. 7, nn. 68-69. 165. Scholem, Origins, p. 142. Scholem's approach is reiterated by Idel, "Sexual Metaphor," p. 211: "The retum to the primal androgyne state of humans, which was commonly described by Gnostics, or the endeavor to transcend the feminine phght by mystic transformations of the female into a 'male,' recurring in ancient Christian thought and Gnosticism, is alien to tahnudic and theosophical kabbahstic Weltanschauung." Idel repeats his opinion regarding the androgyne in the symbohsm of theosophic kabbalah in "Eros in der Kabbala," pp. 68-85. See also Mopsik, Lettre sur la saintete, pp. 324-325 n- 218. Schwarz, Kabbalah and Alchemy, pp. 35-43, uncritically follows the view espoused by Idel and Mopsik that androgyny does not mean eradication or neutralization of either gender. 166. See chap. 2, n. 15. 167. As described by Ginsburg, Sabbath in Glassical Kabbalah, p. 107. 168. I borrow this locution from Mircea Ehade, who employs it, for instance, in Quest, p. 134: "On the religious level, the solution of the sexual antagonism does not always imply a ritual enactment of the hieros gamos; in many cases, the antagonism is transcended by a ritual androgynization." 169. See Mopsik, Lettre sur la saintete, pp. 214-215. 170. See above, n. 88. In addition to the references hsted there, see also DeConick, "Tme Mysteries," pp. 225-261, esp. pp. 253-256; and idem, "Great Mystery of Marriage," pp. 307-342, esp. pp. 339-34°171. Nag Hammadi Godex II, 2-7, vol. i, p. 179. 172. Ibid., vol. I, p. 183. A slightly different explanation is offered in Gospel of Philip, 71:18-20, Nag Hammadi Godex II, 2-7, vol. i, p. 185: "Adam came into being from two virgins, from the spirit and from the virgin earth. Christ, therefore, was bom from a virgin to rectify the fall which occurred in the beginning." Consider as well the contrast between Adam and Jesus in Constas, Proclus of Gonstantinople, p. 169: "That one had a woman as his accomphce, but this one had a virgin as his bridal chamber." In the case of 503

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Adam, the female is taken out from the male, and the two become one flesh through intercourse, whereas in the case ofjesus, the male is taken from the female, and union is achieved by the passion, the means by which the corporeal Jesus is transfigured into the spiritual Christ. Significantly, the virginal womb of Mary is referred to as the "bridal chamber." 173. Pagels, "Mystery of Marriage," pp. 107-116, esp. pp. 108-110. For other scholarly discussions, see Grant, "Mystery of Marriage," pp. 129-140, esp. pp. 134-138; Meeks, "Image ofthe Androgyne," pp, 189, 195-196; Sevrin, "Noces spiritueles," pp. 143-193; M. Williams, "Uses of Gender Imagery," pp. 205-211; and references to studies of DeConick cited above, n. 170. See Rudolph, Gnosis, p. 80: "For the Gnostics bisexuality is an expression of perfection; it is only the earthly creation which leads to a separation of the original divine unity, which holds for the whole pleroma." The choice ofthe term "bisexuality" is somewhat misleading, but the basic point is well taken, that is, in the perfect state, there is no union between male and female. What Rudolph does not sufficiently note is that the primordial androgyne, which symbohzes perfection, IS gendered as the male that contains within himself the female. In this regard, it is of interest to consider the bearded, androgynous figure ofthe Goddess in Assyrian texts and iconography, which symbolizes purity and perfection. See Parpola, Assyrian Prophecies, pp. xxix and lxxxix n. 97. 174. Nag Hammadi Codex II, 2-^, vol. i, p. 179. 175. Ibid., vol. I, p. 195. 176. It would appear from Book Bahir, sec. 42, p. 141, that the bent nun represents the female, the neqeuah. Compare Bahya ben Asher, Rabhenu Bahya, 2:123 (ad Exod. 14:31): "You already know that the word amen is an acronym for el melekh ne'eman ["God the trustworthy king;" see Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin m a ] . You must consider that in the word ne'eman there is a bent nun and a straight nun . . . the straight nun in the word amen comprises male and female since the bent nun is female and the straight nun male, and inasmuch as the bent nun is contained in the straight it comprises male and female." 177. Book Bahir, sec. 57, p. 151. 178. On the symbol ofthe open mem, see also Book Bahir, sec. 25, p. 131. In that context, the open mem is associated with an aspect ofthe head upon which is placed the crown, which also functions parabolically as the throne upon which the king sits and the phylacteries that he places upon his arm. While the language of this text is truly enigmatic, in general it seems to be depicting the hieros gamos in the divine world through various images, including that of coronation: the crown is the feminine potency and the head, or more specifically the open mem ofthe head, is the masculine. Scholem, Origins, p. 60, interprets the open mem as a symbol ofthe feminine. See also David Stem, Parables in Midrash, p. 221. For discussion of this bahiric parable and the other passages that utilize these images, see E. Wolfson, "Images of God's Feet," p. 161. 179. See E. Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp. 98-106. 180. For discussion ofthe two Creation narratives from the vantage point of human sexuality and gender, see Bird, "Images of Women," pp. 71-74; idem, "Sexual Differentiation," pp. 11-34. For a convenient review of various feminist readings ofthe creation ofthe female in the biblical narrative, see Pardes, Countertraditions in the Bible, pp. 13-38. 181. On the chain of tradition, see Scholem, Origins, p. 37; Twersky, Rabad of Posquieres, pp. 286-287; E. Wolfson, "Beyond the Spoken Word," pp. 190-192. 182. Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 6ia, Eruvin i8a. The text attributed to Rabad is translated and discussed in Scholem, Origins, pp. 216-218. See also Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp. 128-134; idem, "Eros in der Kabbala," pp. 70-74. 183. That is, the sun and moon, which here stand symbolically for the male and female aspects of God. See Scholem, Origins, p. 217 n. 30; Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 338 n. 151. 184. A similar exegetical point is made by Abraham Abulafia, Imrei Shefer, fol. 235b (printed ed., p. 62). 185. I have translated the text from the version published in Scholem, Reshit ha-Qabbalah, p. 79, n. i, from MSS London, British Museum 768, fol. 14a and Oxford, Bodleian Library 1956, fol. 7a. 186. See the text ofjacob ben Sheshet cited in chap. 2, n. 99. 187. See chap. 2, n. 103. 504

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188. The text is cited in Pedaya, Name and Sanctuary, p. 103. 189. Genesis Rabbah 13:3, p 113; 15:1, p. 135. 190. Ezra ben Solomon of Gerona, Perush Shir ha-Shirim, in Kitvei Ramban, 2:510. Cf. the language of Asher ben David in his commentary on the account of creation, Perush Ma'aseh Bere'shit, transcribed in R. Asher ben David: His Complete Works, p. 327: "On the sixth day the edifice was completed in a perfect form, as it says, 'in our image and in our hkeness' (Gen. 1:26), the completion ofthe edifice to produce ofSpring. This is [the meaning of] what is said, '[God ceased from all the work of creation] that He had done' (Gen. 2:3). Up to this point [Scripture] did not mention the Tetragrammaton in all ofthe six days of creation, for the ten sefirot are contained in i t . . . and how could the name be mentioned until the edifice was completed?" 191. Ezra ben Solomon of Gerona, Perush Shir ha-Shirim, in Kitvei Ramban, 2:513. 192. See above, n. 56. 193. See M. Cohen, Shi'ur Qomah, pp. 77-78. 194. Based on earlier rabbinic sources, for example, Mishnah, Berakhot 9:5. 195. Zohar 2:26b-27a. For analysis of this passage, see E. Wolfson, "Light through Darkness," pp. 89-91. A parallel is found in Moses de Leon, Book ofthe Pomegranate, p. ioi; see chap. 2, n. 98. Ofthe many texts influenced by the zoharic approach, consider Vital, Sefer ha-Demshim, p. 204: "Know that in the heart there are two cavities, right and left, and they allude to two hearts, the evil inclination and the good inclination, which correspond to the two houses of Israel, the lower Shekhinah and the upper Shekhinah, and these are the two [occurrences of] he [in YHWH], and this is zakhor, 'remember' (Exod. 20:8) and shamor, 'observe' (Deut. 5:12), for the first he terminates with the masculine and this is YHWH, and the second is shamor and it is Adonai and it is also Elohim, and this is YHWH Elohim, and they are the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge. . . . Thus you have the secret of Abel and Cain, the one is the Tree of Life [on the right] and the other the Tree [of Knowledge] on the left in one root. This is [the import of] 'when YHWH Elohim are unified,' and this is the mystery of faith [raza di-meheimanuta], and there is a root that unifies acts of mercy and strength, and it is the mystery ofjacob, which is the secret of waw that stands between the two [occurrences of] he, and thus he is called the 'elect ofthe patriarchs.'" 196. Abraham Abulafia, Imrei Shefer, fol. 236a (printed ed., p. 62), relates the rabbinic idea o( du-parsufim to the binary of matter and form, which respectively represent female and male. The association of masculinity with form and femininity with matter is a commonplace in medieval philosophical hterature. See chap. 6, n. 29. 197. See the formulations of Asher ben David and Moses de Leon mentioned in chap. 2, n. 98. In this connection, it is of interest to recall the remark of Ibn 'Arabi, Divine Governance ofthe Human Kingdom, p. 9: "Thus the whole of creation in all its perfection is manifested in humankind. We are placed, in the connecting stage of our corporeal existence, between the divine attributes of Might and Grace. We are granted generosity, which we may dispense fi-eely, and power to rule over all and everything." In a manner consonant with kabbalistic symbohsm, the Spanish Sufi relates the ethical task to the two corresponding divine attributes, the execution of power related to might and the exercise of generosity issuing fi-om grace. 198. Abraham ben David, Ba'alei ha-Nefesh, pp. 13-15. The passage is paraphrased and cited in Jacob ben Asher, Arba'ah Turim, Even ha-Ezer, Introduction, ib. The text firom Ba'alei ha-Nefesh is partially cited and discussed by Idel, "Eros in der Kabbala," pp. 75-77. 199. Zohar 2:200a.. 200. See E. Wolfson, "Iconicity of the Text." Perhaps the most striking illustration of the connection between exclusive worship ofthe feminine and idolatry is the widespread hnkage in kabbalistic hterature of the golden calf and Shekhinah. See, for instance, Isaac of Acre, Sefer Me'irat Einayim, p. 185: "The intent of the act ofthe generation ofthe desert in making the calf was directed to Atarah because the essence of her reception is from the side ofthe calf and the ox." According to this explanation, the sin of idol worship is not venerating a false god but rather the female aspect of the divine, which is sustained by the attribute of judgment, in separation from the male aspect, which is the attribute of mercy. See Isaac of Acre, Sefer Me'irat Einayim, pp. 38-39. 201. The hnkage of heresy and the female attested in traditional kabbalistic lore is based in part on a topos 505

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for engendering sectarian heresy as the unchaste female, the "estranged woman" (ishshah zarah) in the book of Proverbs, attested in classical rabbinic sources. See Boyarin, Dying For God, pp. 67-68. The engendering of the heretic as the wayward woman is known fi-om rehgious symbolism cultivated in other patriarchal societies. One thinks, for instance, ofthe role accorded Sophia in the core mythologoumenon of Valentinian Gnosticism as well as the ambivalent attitude toward Mary in the history of Christianity. See Burrus, "Heretical Woman as Symbol," pp. 229-248; idem, Making of a Heretic, Trevett, "Spiritual Authority and the 'Heretical' Woman," pp. 45-62. For discussion of this theme in Christian mysticism at roughly the same time and place as the formative period of medieval kabbalah, see McNamara, "Rhetoric of Orthodoxy," pp. 9-27. Also pertinent is the discussion of the strategy of embodying heresy as a female figure, often linked more specifically to sexuahty, in Lipton, "Tanquam effeminatum," pp. 107-129. For a more comprehensive study of this theme in a later historical period, see McShefFrey, Gender and Heresy. 202. Liebes, "How the Zohar Was Written," p. 4 n. 12, argues that this passage was not composed by the "main author" ofthe zoharic text. Interestingly, this observation was not included in the Enghsh translation of Liebes's study, Studies in the Zohar, p. 195 n. 12. For my purposes, the question of authorship is not relevant. 203. For discussion ofthe kabbalistic interpretation of this biblical idiom, deduced from another zoharic passage, see E. Wolfson, "Left Contained in the Right," p. 40. 204. Zohat 2:38b. The dictum is repeated on 39b and applied exegetically to other verses. 205. Sefer ha-Yihud, in R. Asher ben David: His Complete Works, p. 103. See above, n. 76. 206. The kabbalistic perspective preserves and extends the androcentric posture expressed in rabbinic texts, exemplified in the following statement in Babylonian Talmud, Yevamot 63a: "R. Eleazar said: Every man who has no wife is not a man [adam], as it says, 'Male and female He created them . . . and he called their name Adam' (Gen. 5:2)." 207. This passage is based on the maxim, tehillat ha-mahshavah hu sof ha-ma'aseh ("the beginning of thought is the end of action"), which was influential in medieval philosophical texts. The saying is cited in the name ofthe rabbis in another section o( Ma'arekhet ha-Elohut, chap. 3, 36a; cf chap. 4, 50a, and chap. 8, 86b. Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 197, refers to an anonymous kabbahst ofthe fourteenth century who employs the same dictum to underscore the reversibility of the sefirot predicated on the fact that there can be no beginning or end with respect to that which is divine. A version of this saying, sof ma'aseh be-mahshavah tehillah ("the end of action is in thought first"), was popularized in the liturgical hymn for Sabbath, Lekhah Dodi, written by the sixteenth-century mystic, Solomon Alkabets. See Kimehnan, Mystical Meaning of Lekhah Dodi, pp. 47-48. The evolution of this maxim fi-om Greek to Arabic and Hebrew sources has been traced by Samuel Stem, "First in Thought is the Last in Action," pp. 234-252; the relevant passages from Ma'arekhet ha-Elohut are cited on p. 251 n. i. 208. The image of man ruhng his house as symbohc ofthe mascuhne dominance over women is based on an archaic locution attested in classical rabbinic hterature. See C. Baker, Rebuilding the House, pp. 56-59. 209. Ma'arekhet ha-Elohut, chap. 8, 88b. 210. Zohar i:4&h. 211. This reflects the heretical claim attributed to Elisha ben Abuyah (Aher) in Babylonian Talmud, Hagigah 15a. See A. Segal, Two Powers in Heaven, pp. 60-67. 212. MS Cambridge Dd. 10. 11, fols. 27a-b. Cf Bahya ben Asher, Be'ur al ha-Torah, 1:47 (ad Gen. 1:27). 213. Imphcit here is a central idea embraced by kabbalists conceming the unity ofthe first and tenth emanations, Keter and Malkhut, a unity that underscores the ultimate oneness ofthe multiplicity of potencies. 214. On the symbohc portrayal of woman as a house in classical rabbinic sources, which informed medieval kabbahsts, see C. Baker, Rebuilding the House, pp. 34-76. 215. Zohar 3:i8b-i9a. For an extended discussion ofthe motif of the containment ofthe female in the male in zoharic hterature, see my study referred to above, n. 38. 216. Zohar l.^ii. 217. The zoharic expression reflects a technical Spanish idiom, endulzar, as noted by Scholem, Major Trends, p. 388 n. 44.

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218. Zohar 3:i42b-i43a {Idra Rabba); cf. Liebes, "Messiah ofthe Zohar," p. 191. 219. The text here is elliptical, for it should read that the female alone is all-judgmental just as the male separated from the female is all-merciful. 220. Zohar 2:2963 {Idra Zuta). 221. Interestingly, a similar critique has been made with respect to the conception ofthe alterity ofthe feminine in Levinas. See Irigaray, "Questions to Emmanuel Levinas," pp. 109-118, and the more recent analysis in idem, "What Other Are We Talking About?" pp. 67-81. For a more conciliatory, although decidedly nonapologetic, approach to the issue of "sexual difference" and the status of women in the ethical philosophy of Levinas, see C. Katz, Levinas, Judaism, and the Feminine, pp. 35-77. 222. Zohar i:$63. 223. My citation of this passage is indebted to Elqayam, "On the 'Knowledge of Messiah'," p. 665. Referring to this passage, Elqayam remarks that Lavi "abrogates the distinction between male and female in the depths of nothingness." I agree with this claim, but as I will argue below, even this abrogation does not do away with the androcentric privileging ofthe mascuhne in this state of transcendence. 224. On the use ofthe aggadic motif of the hidden hght in Lavi's writings, see Huss, "Genizat Ha-Or," pp. 341-362; idem. Sockets of Fine Gold, pp. 108-146. 225. Based on the interpretation of Genesis 1:2 in Zohar 1:24b. An alternative interpretation appears in 1:31a. 226. Genesis Rabbah 2:2, p. 15. 227. Lavi, Ketem Paz, vol. i, p. 27c-d. 228. This is the gist ofthe criticism leveled against me by Elqayam, "On the 'Knowledge of Messiah,'" p. 665 n. 107. A similar critique has been offered more recently by Gamlieli, "Stages of'Becoming' in the Creation," pp. 316-320. Gamlieh's attempt to chaUenge my interpretation ofthe androcentric nature of gender construction in traditional kabbalah with her own egalitarian approach on the basis that I follow a "biological" model in contrast to her "philosophical" understanding of form and matter is misguided on two counts; first, because t have cast the issue of masculinity and femininity in these very philosophical terms, and second, because medieval philosophical hylomorphism, which is the foundation for the kabbalistic symbohsm, is not gender-neutral. 229. MS Munich 47, fols. 34Oa-b. 230. Toledot Adam, printed in Sefer ha-Malkhut, pp. 95d-96a. 231. See chap. 2, n. 354. 232. On the use of this phrase in thirteenth-century kabbalah, derived fi-om the medieval Hebrew philosophical lexicon ofJudah Ibn Tibbon, see David ben Yehudah he-Hasid, Book of Mirrors, p. 21 n. 151 (Introduction). 233. Sefer Yesirah, 28b. 234. For references, see David ben Yehudah he-Hasid, Book of Mirrors, p. 22 n. 163 (Introduction). It should be pointed out, however, that in some contexts, this kabbahst insists on not reversing the hnear relation that pertains between cause and effect. For instance, in Book of Mirrors, p. 98, David ben Yehudah heHasid notes that the import of the bibhcal details about kindling hghts to bum from evening to morning on the lampstand in the tabemacle, the tent of meeting (Exod. 27:20-21; see also Lev. 24:2-4), as well as the daily burning ofthe incense on the altar (Exod. 25:6, 30:1-10, 31:8, 11, 37:29; Lev. 2:16, 4:7, 16:12; Num. 4:16), challenges the one who would argue that the "supemal event arouses the event below" {she-ha-ma'aseh ha-elyon me'orer ma'aseh ha-tahton). The truth is the revene: "The kindhng of the lamps and the aromatic incense [hatlaqat ha-nerot u-qetoret ha-besamim] above, bound as one, as is appropriate, and the action below arouses the action above." A similar, if not identical, exegesis of Exodus 27:20-21 is found in Zo/iar 3:104b105a. In the fmal analysis, for David ben Yehudah he-Hasid, the circular nature of truth renders this hierarchical ahgnment insufficient. Consider his comment. Book of Mirrors, p. 279: "The blessings descend from the supemal source [ha-maqor ha-elyon], as it is known, which is the Supemal Crown [keter elyon], which discharges blessings to all ofthe worlds, as it is written, 'the river goes forth from Eden to irrigate the garden' (Gen. 2:10), and Shekhinah dwells in the world. When does Shekhinah dwell below? When Israel constmcts 507

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the Tabemacle [mishkan], and they made it in accord with the supernal pattern [al derekh dugma elyonah], as it is written, 'as it has been shown you on the mountain' (Exod. 25:30), for Moses contemplated and comprehended [mistakkel u-massig] in the world of Malkhut, and the Tabemacle below was made in the pattem of the Tabemacle above, and this is sufficient for the one who understands." 235. Adamson, "Aristotelianism and the Soul," p. 217. 236. Sefer Yesirah, 23b. 237. Ibid., 2c. 238. Compare David ben Yehudah he-Hasid, Book of Mirrors, p. 98 (Hebrew section): "We bind together the top of the palm branch [Mishnah, Sukkah 3:1] to allude to the fact that the Supemal Crown is bound and tied to the knot of the Cause of Causes [be-qesher illat ha-illot], for there is no separation [perud] or division [qissus] there, but rather all is whole in the limit of wholeness [ha-kol shalem be-takhlit ha-sheleimut] so that all will be like the supemal paradigm [dugma elyonah]." 239. Sefer Yesirah, 2c. 240. Zo/iar 3:129a. 241. Vital, Es Hayyim, 13:13, 68c. 242. Zohar 3:i29b-i30a, 137b, 293b. A similar characterization oi Keter is found in David ben Yehudah he-Hasid, Book of Mirrors, pp. 212, 259-260, 271-272 (Hebrew section). For a later Hasidic application of the zoharic image of the single eye to denote the world of pure mercy in which the left is contained in the right, see Qalonymous Qalman ha-Levi Epstein, Ma'or wa-Shemesh, p. 48. A comparative analysis of the kabbalistic idea and the symbol of the "third eye" in Tantric Buddhist sources would prove instructive, but it clearly lies beyond the scope of this note. See, however, D. G. White, Kiss of the Yogini, p. ioi, who expresses the opinion that "the third eye is itself an emblem of the female vulva on the forehead of the male Siva," and see references to other scholars cited on p. 300 n. 33. See also the representation of Siddhaloka as a crescent moon in the forehead of Jain Loka Purusa, the "Universal Man," reproduced in D. G. White, Kiss of the Yogint, p. 176. While it is possible that the eye can function as a symbol for female genitalia in Jewish esotericism (see discussion in E. Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp. 103-104, including the suggestion by David Halperin to this effect), it seems to me beyond question that in the relevant kabbalistic texts the third eye, which is correlated with Keter, is masculine in nature, corresponding to the upper phallus. 243. Cordovero, Elimah Rahbati, 66b-c. 244. It should be noted that in other passages Cordovero affirms that Keter is androgynous, exemplifying both qualities of overflowing (in relation to the emanations below it) and receiving (in relation to the infinite above it). See chap. 2, n. 118, where some of the relevant sources are mentioned. It is ofinterest to consider in this context the tradition of Israel Sarug reported by Abraham Cohen de Herrera, Gate of Heaven, 8:4, p. 326, to the effect that Adam Qadmon, the first emanation from Ein Sof, is called adam because the three letters of that word, alef, dalet, mem, can be transposed into alef, mem, dalet, which is vocalized as em dalet, literally "mother of the four," that is, according to this tradition, the name of the first emanation signifies that it is the matrix of the four worlds in the ontological chain of being, emanation {asilut), creation {beri'ah), formation {yesirah), and doing {asiyyah). Commenting on the attribution of the matemal symbol to Adam Qadmon, Herrera writes, "I believe he is called mother and not father of the worlds so that no one should think that he IS the First Cause but rather its female, instmment, vessel, and receptacle which, like a life that came out of Adam the first man and with his efficacy, was mother of all living human beings. The first and most perfect effect of the uncaused Causal Agent of everything, as if pregnant with its power and efficacy, therefore gave birth to all of the worlds, receiving them from it as if from the male in a very superior and hidden way and later producing or giving birth to them in a more coarse and diverse composite out of the male's uniform diminutive seed." For the corresponding Hebrew text, see Herrera, House of Divinity (Gasa de la Divinidad). Gate of Heaven (Puerta del Gielo), p. 510. I acknowledge that, in a manner that diverges from my explanatory model, Herrera links pregnancy and motherhood to the female, but the real agency of creation nonetheless resides in the male seed. Hence Adam Qadmon is depicted as the female receptacle vis-a-vis the masculine Ein-Sof, the First Cause and ultimate source of all being. The explanation of the word adam as em dalet, "mother of four," is reiterated by Herrera in Beit Elohim, 5:12; see House of Divinity, p. 168. I note, however, 508

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that in Gate of Heaven, 8:14, pp. 370-372 (Hebrew edition by Yosha, pp. 539-540, Herrera offers an extensive depiction of the chain of being from the First Cause to the material world of asiyah in the image of an anthropos that is masculine in gender. Thus the First Cause is described as the "mind" {haskkel) or "thought" {mahshavah) "of all the worlds, what the Platonic philosophers call the mental world. Son of God, and first mind, and Zoroaster calls fatherly and deep, in which they locate the causative representational unities and ideas to which the supreme unity and unmoving mind correspond in man." From the First Cause there emanates the "perfect effect," the "great Universal man" {ha-adam ha-gadol we-ha-kolel), in Lurianic terminology, Adam Qadmon, the "first mind" {haskkel ha-ri'shon). The five configurations of the world of emanation {parsufei asilut) are identified as "five ranks of spirit" of the "macrocosmic man" that "give being, hfe, and perfection to all the worlds." Atiqa Qaddisha (or Arikh Anpin) corresponds to yehidah; Abba to hayyah or the neshamah oi neshamah; Imma to neshamah; Zeeir Anpin to ruah; and Nuqba to nefesh. The world of emanation {asilut) thus constitutes the psychic component of the "singular universal man" {adam ha-yahid we-ha-kolel), whereas the remaining three worlds constitute his body: the world of creation {beri'ah) corresponds to the head, the world of formation {yesirah) to the chest, stomach, arms and hands, and the world of making {asiyyah) to the penis, called the "procreative member" {eiver ha-holadah), and the legs. Significantly, there is no mention of a female counterpart to the male persona nor is there even a reference to the feminine part incorporated in the anthropomorphic structure that metaphorically represents the chain of being; on the contrary, Shekhinah is described as the image of the mouth oi Adam Qadmon {Gate of Heaven, 8:14, p. 373). When Herrera does relate to the feminine representation oi Shekhinah, he does so in the context of articulating the ideal of elevating all the potencies back to their source in Ein Sof, "attaining the final end for which everything was produced, which is the communication and revelation of the First Cause in and to its effects, which is achieved by this union alone" (ibid., p. 372). The positive agency accorded the feminine relates, therefore, to the symbol of the mayyin nuqbin, the female waters that stimulate the arousal from below. The phallocentric nature of this configuration is abundantly clear from Herrera's own language: "And that mankind corresponds to the procreative member is proved by the fact that man is the most perfect of the lower ones, hke the member in comparison to the legs, and he is the cause (just as the member contains the whole human being by virtue of its procreative power) of a complete perfect man through whom alone the Deity communicates to the human race. . . . Like the tongue and the heart, the latter of which is located between the arms and the former in the center of the body, it is located between the legs and along the axis of man's body, and according to what one reads in the Book of Yesirah attributed to our Father Abraham, it is the point of the scale, balance, or mediator" (ibid., pp. 372-373). Finally, let me note that in the concluding part of this chapter Herrera, paraphrasing a passage from Sarug's version of Lurianic kabbalah anthologized as Seder Asilut or Kanfei Yonah (for bibhographic detail, see Hebrew edition by Yosha, p. 532 n. 55), characterizes the projection oi Malkhut from the world of emanation into the three lower worlds of creation, formation, and making in terms of the letter he broken orthographically into dalet and waw, which respectively represent the feminine and mascuhne, the "mystery of the cherubim." The three worlds are contained in the cherubim in the foUowing manner: the world of creation corresponds to their heads; the world of formation to the six extremities (two arms, two legs, torso, and the phallus); and the world of making to the corona of the phallus, ateret berit, which is identified further as Malkhut. Recapping the discussion, Herrera writes, "In summary, by making Malkhut the spirit of the three worlds, the mental, rational, and material, as she really is, he establishes berCah the seat of glory as the head of this great body; yesirah the angelical world as the body with its six extremities, top and bottom, right and left, fj-ont and back; and asiyyah the material world as the extreme, end-point, and subject of all, hke the tip of the member, appropriating their unions or copulation as if taking over those that consist of male and female, giver and receiver, all of which is largely symbolic of what we have said" {Gate of Heaven, 8:14, p. 376). 245. See above, n. 84. 246. That is, the combination of YHWH and Elohim, which correspond respectively to the mascuhne and feminine. 247. I have followed here the reading preserved in the Mantua edition of Zohar, which is also found in parentheses in the Cremona edition, 21a. The main reading in the Cremona edition is ba-imma be-fumeih de509

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imma, that is, "in the mother in the mouth of the mother," an apparently corrupt version. In the Zohar prepared by Margaliot, the two readings are conflated, ke-imma de-fumeih de-amah, which should be rendered "like the mother in the mouth of the penis." The conflated reading is also found in other editions such as Sefer ha-Zohar im Perush ha-Sullam. In my study "Gender and Heresy," p. 239 n. 42, I was misled by following this flawed version. Giller, Reading the Zohar, p. 134, rendered the zoharic idiom "like a mother in the mouth of a maidservant." In addition to being misled (as I was) by the mistaken reading oi imma in place oi amah, Giller incorrectly translated amah as "maidservant," a translation that obscures the intent of the passage. The expression pHmei/i de-amah, "mouth of the penis," appears in several zoharic contexts as a designation of the phallic corona. See Zohar 2:6oh; 3:38a, 142a. 248. Zo/iur 2:178a. 249. Support for this interpretation is found in the exphcation of this passage in Elijah ben Solomon, Commentary of the Gaon Rabbi Elijah of Vilna, p. 96: " 'In the measure of the mouth of the penis' [be-amah befumeih de-amah], and thus the essence of the rectifications [tiqqunin] is to amehorate the feminine in the mascuhne for this is the rectification in the world of chaos in which there was no balance [matqela], and the balance is in Yesod . . . for the balance consists of a side of merit and a side of guilt, the masculine and feminine, the masculine is the side of merit and the feminine the side of guilt, Hesed and Gevurah, and the tongue that is the law mediating in between, and this is Yesod, which is called 'tongue' [lashon] . . . in the secret of the covenant of the tongue and the covenant of the foreskin. The mediator needs to comprise both male and female and this is the penis and the mouth of the penis, which is Yesod and Malkhut, as is known." For further elaboration of these themes in the Vilna Gaon's kabbalistic thought, see E. Wolfson, "From Sealed Book," pp. 148-150. 250. For references to this motif, see chap. 7, n. 114. 251. Zohar }:142a. 252. Genesis Rabbah 14:9, pp. 132-133. 253. Vital, Liqqutim Hadashim, p. 63. 254. Vital, Es Hayyim, 6:5, 28a. C f Vital, Sha'ar ha-Gilgulim, sec. 19, i o b - i i a . 255. Vital, Liqqutim Hadashim, p. 22. 256. The word I have translated as "genitals" is yesod, literally, "foundation." The choice of this term should be obvious: The genitalia engender offspring since it is through them that procreation and begetting are effected. They are thus both appropriately referred to as yesod. 257. Vital, Es Hayyim, 39:2, 67d. 258. For discussion of this motif and citation of representative texts, see E. Wolfion, Gircle in the Square, pp. 69-72. 259. Based on Job 19:26. 260. Vital, Sefer ha-Derushim, p. 263. 261. Meroz, "Early Lurianic Compositions," p. 315, raises the possibility that the attribution oisha'ashu'a to Ein Sof may suggest an androgynous nature. My own interpretation concurs with this suggestion, although I have utihzed the expression "male androgyne" to capture the autoerotic quality of the sexual act that accounts for the division of the indivisible one into male and female. See E. Wolfion, Gircle in the Square, pp. 69-70. Y. Jacobson, "Aspect of the Feminine," p. 242, concludes that we can say that Ein Sof is neither male nor female or that it comprises both male and female. 262. Neumann, Origins, pp. 31, 207-208, 301-302. 263. The severity of spilling semen in vain is attested in a rabbinic dictum that compares this transgression to the shedding of blood (Babylonian Tahnud, Niddah 13 a; consider also the ruhng preserved in Tosefta, Berakhot 2:12, where men who have had a seminal emission, in contrast to gonorrheics, menstruants, and parturients, are prohibited fi-om reading Torah and studying Mishnah, midrash, halakhah, or aggadah) and another where the punishment for having an erotic fantasy {hirhur) that leads to an act of lewdness with the hand, i.e., masturbation, is being denied entry (presumably after death) into the antechamber of God (Babylonian Talmud, Niddah 13b, and the commentary of Rashi, ad locum, s.v. be-yad). See D. Biale, Eros and the fews, pp. 55-57, 252 n. 148; Satlow, "'Wasted Seed,'" pp. 137-175; Laqueur, Solitary Sex, pp. 111-122. The

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focus, indeed obsession, with this act as the severest of sins—according to some, the original transgression of Adam (in an earher aggadic tradition, Adam begot demons and evil spirits through the semen he emitted accidentally, and not volitionally, in the course of the 130 years when he was separated from Eve; see Babylonian Talmud, Eruvin i8b, and other sources mentioned by Ginzberg, Legends, vol. 5, p. 148 n. 47)—is a distinctive feature of kabbalah, inspired principally by passages in zoharic literature, which have had a lasting impact on the formation ofjewish piety. For select references, see following note. 264. Zohar 1:57a, 62a, 69a, i88a, 219b; 3:90a; Shushan Edut, p. 353; Book of the Pomegranate, pp. 230-231, 242; Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, pp. 154-156; Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, pp, 1365-1366, 1377 n. 119; D. Biale, Eros and thejews, pp. 107, 110; Fine, Physician of the Soul, pp. 177-179; Laqueur, Solitary Sex, pp. 122-124. Especially significant in this regard are the compositions dedicated exclusively to tiq^un haberit, the rectification of sexual sins of which voluntary masturbation and involuntary nocturnal emissions are treated as the most severe. Such works, which began to appear in the seventeenth century in the wake of the influence of kabbalah, especially due to the legendary status of Isaac Luria, in wider circles of rabbinic leadership, were an important part of the spiritual and ideational climate of Sabbatianism and Hasidism. See D. Biale, Eros and thejews, pp. 116-117 and treatises delineated on p. 269 n. 74, to which many more sources could have been added. See now Hundert, Jews in Poland-Lithuania, pp. 131-137. 265. Moses de Leon, Sheelot u-Teshuvot, p. 40. 266. See discussion of this motif in chap. 7. 267. Consider the following comment in the compilation of Nathan of Gaza, Liqqutei Raza de-Malka Qaddisha, fol. ib: "Furthemiore, we must ask, it is known to us that no configuration \parsuj\ comes to be except from male and female, so how can it be said that Atiqa Qaddisha has no female and that Ein Sof also has no female? We must respond that in truth there is no female there in actuality, but there is a female in potentiality . . . and with respect to Ein Sof as well there is no [female] in actuality but the aspect of the female is connected there to the point that we do not mention her for everything is one." What Nathan expresses is the philosophical insight that even autoeroticism entails the construction of the other in the imagination. On this point, see Marion, Le phenomene erotique, p. 194, and further discussion in chap. 6. See Nathan of Gaza, Sefer ha-Beri'ah, fols. ib-2a: "In the time of the contraction (simsum), several roots for the beings that are differentiated in the worlds were produced, and one instance of them is the root of the right and left. Why is one place called 'right' and one place called 'left'? Know that when there was the contraction (simsum) in the will of Ein Sof, in that very void (halal) there remained a trace (reshimu), as is known. In the elevation of the light above, that trace did not remain as it was initially, that is, in its first place, for the movement of the elevation of the hght above it was removed from its place. The depth of Ein Sof was great and wondrous to transfer the trace from its place to another place, that is, the trace that stands there today was not there from the beginning when Ein Sof filled the entire world, but rather it went to another place. Thus from one side it stood as it was, and that side is called 'right,' and comprised within it stood Ein Sof, for every left that is contained there in the right produces motion for the trace that remains from the great hght, and with respect to this it is left. When the hght of the straight hne (or qaw ha-yosher) comes to the primordial space {(ehiru), in every light that stands in its place are constructed the mercies (ha-hasadim) on the right side, and when motion from its place is produced the powers (ha-gevurot) on the left side are constructed." 268. Zohar 3:129a; and see Vital, Es Hayyim 13:13, 68c. 269. That is, the numerical value of the letters of the Tetragrammaton, when it is spelled as ywd he waw he, is forty-five (10 + 6 + 4 + 5 + 1 + 6 + 1 + 6 + 5 + 1), which signifies the mascuhne aspect of mercy. 270. That is, the numerical value of the letters of the Tetragrammaton, when it is spelled as ywd hh ww hh,, is fifty-two (10 + 6 + 4 + 5 + 5 + 6 + 6 + 5 + 5). This signifies the feminine aspect of judgment. 271. Vital, Sha'ar ha-Haqdamot, 29c. 272. It behooves me to note that in the continuation of the passage in Sha'ar ha-Haqdamot, 29c-d, it does appear that Vital makes a distinction between the status of duahty in Atiq Yomin and Arikh Anpin: "This was the intention of what was said in the Idra, 'accordingly, there is no right or left at all in Atiqa.' That is, the [permutation of) forty-five and the [permutation of] fifty-two that are in him are joined together in his right 511

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side and in his left side. Thus there is no left or right there, as is found in Arikh, for his right side is masculine and his left side is feminine." 273. The philosophical issue here is reminiscent of descriptions in Gnostic (especially Valentinian) and Neoplatonic sources of the First Principle as the sohtary and alone Father. See Pepin, "Theories of Procession," pp. 297-335, esp. pp. 301-307. 274. Vital, Es Hayyim, 17:3, 85a. 275. For translation and discussion of some of the relevant texts, see E. Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp. 85-92; idem, "Gender and Heresy," pp. 255-259. 276. Vital, Sha'ar ha-Haqdamot, 20c. Compare Vital, Es Hayyim, 28:2, i8c (parallel in Sefer ha-Derushim, p. 234): "In Arikh Anpin there are only nine sefirot, and the aspect o£Malkhut is not mentioned there. However, Yesod that is within him is comprised of male and female, in the image of the date-palm that encompasses male and female, in the secret of'the righteous shall bloom like a date-palm' (Ps. 92:13)." 277. I have not found this exact formulation in the Zohar. The closest passage to this citation is the reworking of the aggadic motif that when it arose in God's will to create the world, he took counsel with the Torah. See Zohar y.6ih. 278. "Commentary on Idra Rabba," p. 142. 279. To be more precise, the rabbinic expression is "thus it arose in thought" (kakh alah ba-mahshavah). See Babylonian Talmud, Menahot 29b; Ketuvot 8a. 280. See, for instance, the following passage in Luria's commentary on Sifra di-Seni'uta in Sefer haDerushim, p. 261 {Sha'ar Ma'amerei Rashbi, 28c): "Yesod is male and it is not from the side oiBinah for she is female. . . . Nevertheless, the supernal point of Zion that is in Binah is in him even though it is not discernible. Accordingly, within him the potency of femininity is hidden and the potency of mascuhnity revealed . . . and these two aspects are Joseph and Benjamin, the one is the female waters . . . and the other the male waters in the secret of Joseph the righteous, he is above and he is below, he enters and exits, he enters to bestow the male waters and he exits to take out the female waters corresponding to the male waters, and this is so every time there is copulation." The translation and interpretation of this passage are shghtly different from what I presented in Circle of the Square, p. 106. 281. Vital, Es Hayyim, 35:1, 5oc-d. 282. Sha'ar ha-Pesuqim, $3-h. 283. Vital, Liqqutim Hadashim, p. 47. 284. I have not located a precise parallel to the exegesis of Isaiah 44:6 in Tiqqunei Zohar, but something quite close appears in sec. 70, 120a. 285. Fano, Ma'amerei /IU-RAMA, vol. i, pp. 30-31. 286. See, for example. Vital, Mauo She'arim, 28a; idem, Es Hayyim, 6:5, 28a, 39:2, 67d; idem, Liqqutim Hadashim, pp. 22-23, 63. I have translated and analyzed these texts in "Beyond Good and Evil," pp. 116-117. For a revised and expanded version, see the third chapter of Venturing Beyond. 287. Yonat Elem, chap. 29, in Fano, Ma'amerei ha-RaMa, vol. 2, p. 37. I had the occasion to cite this passage in Circle in the Square, pp. 119-120. 288. Brenner, Intercourse of Knowledge, p. 12. The persistence of this ancient bias is discernible in the more modem correlation of the mascuhne with culture, on the one hand, and the feminine and nature, on the other. 289. E. Wolfson, "Re/membering." 290. Book Bahir, sec. 83, p. 169. The expression is derived from Babylonian Tahnud, Eruvin 76b. 291. Zohar 2:180a. To be more precise, in that context, the yod, which signifies the second emanation or Hokhmah, is said to be supported by the nine pillars, which are also identified as nine points arranged in the shape of the final mem or a square with three points on each of the four sides. The image of the point supported by these pillars, which are also depicted as the chariot, conveys the motif of the male resting upon the female. It is of interest to consider the following comment by Derrida, Dissemination, p. 353: "here, the squaring of the circle is the uniting of the mascuhne sex and the feminine sex into a whole, just as it is possible to unite into a single figure the framed circle or the circle square" (emphasis in original). In the continuation of the passage, the "squaring of the circle" is identified as the "philosopher's stone," the object of the alchemical quest. Concerning this image, see also Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, p. 169; idem, Aion, pp. 224-225. 512

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292. On the gender implications of the symbol of the point related specifically to the mascuhne transformation of the feminine, see E. Wolfson, "Coronation of the Sabbath Bride," pp. 315-324. 293. Literally, "whenever the male and female come as one." 294. Zohar 2:147b. See as well Zohar 1:49a, previously cited in E. Wolfson, Circle in the Square, p. 210 n. 76: "when a woman is joined to her husband she is called by the name of her husband." 295. On the phenomenon of gender metamorphosis in Jewish mysticism, see E. Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp. 79—121 and notes on pp. 195—232. Chapter Five Flesh Become Word: Textual Embodiment and Poetic Incarnation 1. Wiethaus, "Introduction," p. i; Hale, " 'Taste and See,' " pp. 3-14. The polarizing of the camal and spiritual had grave imphcations for the implementation of ecclesiastical disciphne in the High Middle Ages. For discussion of this theme, see Peters, "Destruction of the Flesh," pp. 131-148. 2. Jaouen and Semple, "Editors' Preface," pp. 1-4. On the Eucharist, the glorified flesh of Christ, and the indwelling of the divine presence in the saintly body, see Lubac, Corpus mysticum; Kantorowicz, King's Two Bodies, pp. 193-272; R. Williams, "Troubled Breasts," pp. 63-78, esp. pp. 67-72. D. Power, Eucharistic Mystery, pp. 184-240, discusses Eucharistic devotion and representation of Christ's passion contemporary with the time and place of the early kabbalist fraternities in Europe. On the "swell of eucharistic devotion" in the later twelfth and thirteenth centuries, see Bynum, JeiMS as Mother, pp. 192-193, 256-257, and Miri Rubin, Corpus Christi. 3. Jager, Book of the Heart. For an illuminating study on the corporeahzation and fetishization of the book in a fourteenth-century Christian milieu, see Camille, "Book as Flesh," pp. 34-77. 4. I have discussed this notion in chaps, i and 2. 5. This account is a philosophic synopsis of my exegetical presentation of the imaginal body of God in "Judaism and Incarnation." For a similar account in a different cultural context, see Lagerwey, "Ecriture et corps divin," pp. 383-398. It is of interest to note that the author begins his essay with an epigram firom Jeremiah 7:23-24. 6. Barbaras, Toumant de I'experience, pp. 95—136. 7. On poetry as the embodiment of the mystery of incarnation, see R. Schwartz, "From Ritual to Poetry," pp. 138-160. 8. Merleau-Ponty, Visible and Invisible, p. 193. 9. Ibid., p. 28. Sarukkai, "Inside/Outside," pp. 459-478, thematizes the overcoming of the internalexternal binary in Merleau-Ponty's thought in conversation with the yogic practice of attaining the inner body that does not yield to or foster transcendent/immanent duahty. The comparative analysis of MerleauPonty and Asian rehgions has been a fruitful area of scholarly inquiry; see references cited in Prologue, n. 69. 10. On the nexus between perceptual faith and the invisible, see Dastur, Chair et langage, pp. 111-126; see also G.Johnson, "Desire and Invisibihty." 11. Merleau-Ponty, Visible and Invisible, p. 28. 12. Ibid., pp. 226-227 (French ed., p. 280). 13. Ibid., pp. 252-253. 14. Ibid., p. 167. 15. Ibid., p. 37. 16. Levin, Opening of Vision, p. 331. 17. Merleau-Ponty, Visible and Invisible, pp. 127-128. 18. Lingis, "Intentionahty and Corporeity," pp. 75-90, esp. pp. 83-87; Ihde, Sense and Significance, pp. 124-127.

19. 20. 21. 22.

Merleau-Ponty, Visible and Invisible, pp. 147-148. Ibid., p. 142. Ibid., p. 148. Ibid., pp. 248-249. 513

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23. Ibid., p. 118. 24. Ibid. 25. Ibid., p. 119. On the entwining of the visible and invisible, see Levin, Opening of Vision, pp. 175, 211-323. 26. Merleau-Ponty, Visible and Invisible, p. 107 (emphasis in original). Various scholars have written about the nexus of body and language in Merleau-Ponty's thought. For a representative hst, see Kwant, Phenomenological Philosophy, pp. 46-62; Barral, Body in Interpersonal Relations, pp. 171-212; Dillon, Merleau-Ponty's Ontol-

ogy, pp. 130-150; Priest, Merleau-Ponty, pp. 73-74, 166-178. On the isomorphic relation between language and world, see Kwant, From Phenomenology to Metaphysics, pp. 54-61; Dillon, Merleau-Ponty's Ontology, pp.

178-223, esp. pp. 209-219; and idem, "Unconscious," pp. 67-83. On the inextricable hnk between language and silence, see Kwant, From Phenomenology to Metaphysics, pp. 184—190. On language as gesture, see also discussion in Gill, Merleau-Ponty and Metaphor, pp. 82-104. 27. Merleau-Ponty, Visible and Invisible, pp. 216-217. 28. Ibid., p. 139 (emphasis in original). 29. Ibid., p. 138. 30. Ibid., p. 249. 31. Ibid., p. 140 (emphasis in original). 32. Ibid., p. 147. 33. Ibid., p. 146. 34. Cantillon, "Corpus Pascalis," pp. 44-45. 35. Merleau-Ponty, Visible and Invisible, p. 271. See Lingis, "Sensitive Flesh," pp. 225-240. 36. For discussion of the fuller context and imphcations of this theme in Merleau-Ponty's hermeneutical phenomenology, see Barbaras, "Dedoublement de l'originaire," pp. 289-303; and idem, Toumant de I'experience, 81-94. 37. My English renderings of Urprdsentiert and Nichturprdsentierbar are indebted to the suggestions made by Charlotte E. Fonrobert. 38. Merleau-Ponty, Visible and Invisible, p. 228. See P. Burke, "Flesh as IJrprdsentierbarkeit in the Interrogative," pp. 60-70. 39. Merleau-Ponty, Visible and Invisible, p. 251 (emphasis in original). 40. Ibid., p. 228 (emphasis in original). 41. It is important to recall here Merleau-Ponty's exploration of the metaphysical imphcations of human sexuality and the play of eroticism in the fifth chapter oi Phenomenologie de la perception: "The importance we attach to the body and the contradictions of love are . . . related to a more general drama which arises from the metaphysical structure of my body, which is both an object for others and a subject for myself The intensity of sexual pleasure would not be sufficient to explain the place occupied by sexuality in human life or, for example, the phenomenon of eroticism, if sexual experience were not, as it were, an opportunity, vouchsafed to all and always available, of acquainting oneself with the human lot in its most general aspects of autonomy and dependence. . . . Metaphysics—the coming to hght of something beyond nature—is not localized at the level of knowledge; it begins with the opening out upon 'another,' and is to be found everywhere, and already, in the specific development of sexuality" (pp. 167-168). For a constructive, feminist reading of Merleau-Ponty's notion of lived bodies and the phenomenon of the flesh, see Grosz, Volatile Bodies, pp. 86-111; and the nuanced analysis of Heinamaa, Toward a Phenomenology of Sexual Difference, pp.

21-79. By contrast, a feminist critique of Merleau-Ponty's thinking about sexual difference is offered by Chanter, "Wild Meaning," pp. 219-236. 42. Merleau-Ponty, Visible and Invisible, p. 132. See Treguier, Corps selon la chair, pp. 135-148. 43. Merleau-Ponty, Visible and Invisible, p. 26^^. 44. For an elaboration, see E. Wolfson, "Before Alef" 45. Bohme, Aurora, 8.123-126, p. 173. For other pertinent references, see chap, i, n. 49. 46. E. Wolfson, "Anthropomorphic Imagery," pp. 147-181; idem, "Letter Symbolism," pp. 195-236. The reader interested in gathering more information about the molecular biological image of the genome would do well to consult the wide-ranging study by Verma, Genome. 514

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47. Book Bahir, sec. 53, p. 149. Scholem, "Name of God," duly noted that kabbalists draw no distinction between a thing and its proper name (p. 77) and that the most proper of all names is YHWH, the "essential name" that is the "original source of all language" (p. 194). It is ofinterest to note here that the number twenty-two was used to signify perfection in Christian devotional texts. This numerical symbolism was based both on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the Platonic tradition that twenty-two terms compose the double interval series related to the formation of the soul and the principle of order in the cosmos. See Frost, Holy Delight, pp. 109-110. 48. The point was well understood by Shem Tov Ibn Shem Tov, Sefer ha-Emunot, 19b, who cites and briefly explicates the bahiric text. 49. Lipiner, Metaphysics of the Hebrew Alphabet, pp. 124-140, presents a thorough summary of the hnguistic theory in the second part oi Sefer Yesirah. See also Idel, "Reification of Language," pp. 45-49; idem. Absorbing Petfections, pp. 34-37. 50. Scholem, "Name of God," pp. 65-66. The ancient Israelite tradition about the power of the name crossed over into syncretistic Hellenistic magic. See Gager, Moses in Greco-Roman Paganism, pp. 142-146. Another facet of the correlation of letters and hmbs that I will not discuss in this chapter is the richly evocative traditions about the golem that have been cultivated and transmitted through the centuries. For analysis of this motif, see Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, pp. 158-204; Idel, Golem; Liebes, "Golem in Numerology is Hokhmah," pp. 1305-1322; idem, Ars Poetica, pp. 63-71. 51. Jacob ben Sheshet, Sefer Meshiv Devarim Nekhohim, p. 154; see idem, Sefer ha-Emunah we-ha-Bittahon, in Kitvei Ramban, 2:392-393: "There is no letter in the alef-beit that does not allude to the holy One, blessed be he." 52. Technically, the word "enstatic" is from the Greek en-stasis, "standing within," the etymological opposite of "ecstatic" from ek-stasis, "standing without." For a brief account of these terms, see Griffiths, On Being Mindless, p. 149 n. 27. 53. Merleau-Ponty, Signs, p. 89. 54. My language respectfully modifies the saying discussed by Perrett, "Is Whatever Exists Knowable and Nameable?" pp. 401-414, being influenced in particular by Blanchot's notion of the hmit-experience to be discussed in more detail in the next chapter. 55. Shem Tov Ibn Gaon, Sefer Baddei ha-Aron, p. 14. 56. For a thorough treatment of this matter, and citation of other relevant scholarly analyses, see Idel, "Maimonides and Kabbalah," pp. 31-81. And see nowE. Wolfson, "Beneath the Wings," pp. 209-237, esp. pp. 212-221. Scholars of medieval kabbalah and Jewish philosophy would benefit from the nuanced and sophisticated discussion on the interplay of the mystical and philosophical enunciated in the essay by F. Rosenthal, "Ibn 'ArabI between 'Philosophy' and 'Mysticism,' " pp. 1-35. 57. Lirmoz Hterally means to hint, to allude, to represent symbohcally. I have rendered it "to imagine," out of the conviction that in kabbalistic sources there is no disjuncture between the verbal and visual. 58. Kitvei Ramban, 2:4.$4.. 59. Scholem, Origins, p. 452; J. Goldberg, "Mystical Union," pp. 518 n. 104 and 520 n. 109. 60. Kitvei Ramban, 2:453 (commentary on Sefer Yesirah 1:1). 61. Kitvei Ramban, 2:454; see also p. 455, where Azriel frames the ontological chain in terms of visionary ascent (in his commentary on Sefer Yesirah 1:6), that is, the natural {mutba) ascends in order to contemplate the sensible {murgash), and the sensible ascends to contemplate the inteUigible {muskkal), and the intelligible ascends to contemplate the hidden {ne'elam). According to Azriel, the word sefiyyah ("vision") denotes the effluence of the "potency that extends from above to below." 62. Scholem, Origins, p. 265, refers to Azriel's composition as a "Neoplatonic catechism." 63. See E. Wolfson, "Negative Theology," p. xi. 64. Perush Eser Sefirot, in Ibn Gabbai, Derekh Emunah, 3a. 65. Devarim; this is one of the technical terms in the lexicon of Isaac the Bhnd and his disciples to refer to the sefirot. See Scholem, "Name of God," pp. 166-167; idem. Origins, pp. 265, 277-278. 66. Sefer Yesirah 1:6.

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67. Scholem, "New Document," p. 143. 68. Ibid., p. 146; see also Scholem, Origins, pp. 394—395. 69. Gersh, Middle Platonism and Neopiatonism, vol. i, pp. 170-174. 70. Vanderkam, Book offubilees, p. 73. 71. Many competent scholars have tumed their attention to the evolution of the sapiential tradition in ancient Israehte religion and Second-Temple Judaism. For a useful survey and relevant bibhography, see Collins, Jeu/i.s/! Wisdom. 72. It should come as no surprise that this matter has been the focus of many important studies. Here I mention but one study, S. Sanders, "Writing, Ritual, and Apocalypse." I am indebted to the author, who graciously sent me a copy of his informative and impressive work. Needless to say, one will find in Sanders a judicious engagement with other relevant scholarly accounts. 73. For discussion of the depiction of wisdom as the image of fullness, see Liesen, Full of Praise, pp. 145-187. 74. Skehan, Wisdom of Ben Sira, p. 138. On the myth of the descent of the personified wisdom, see Argall, I Enoch and Sirach, pp. 53-98. 75. P. Davies, About Time, p. 248. 76. I ofler this remark as a rhetorical prod to stimulate thinking about kabbalah in a somewhat broader conceptual framework and not as a commitment to the behef that medieval kabbahsts anticipated current developments in quantum physics, as is sometimes suggested by the overly zealous preachers of the gospel of New Age Jewish spirituahty. For a helpful and measured account of the philosophical issues that emerge from the depictions of space and time in string theory, see Dainton, Time and Space, pp. 320-334. 77. Scholem, Explications and Implications, p. 38. For other passages in Scholem's oeuvre that express this idea, see chap, i, nn. 50-51. 78. Kabbahstic lore preserves and intensifies the nexus between the chosenness of the Jewish people and the privileging of Hebrew as the ontological language. For a comprehensive and nuanced study of the development of this "metasemantic" notion oileshon ha-qodesh, see Aaron, "Judaism's Holy Language," pp. 49-107, and esp. pp. 96-105, where the author discusses the mythological conception of Hebrew as a cosmogonic force in Genesis Rabbah and select mystical and magical texts. On the related but conceptually distinct topic of the hohness of the divine word, see Harrington, Holiness: Rabbinic Judaism, pp. 130—160. 79. Genesis Rabbah, 18:4, p. 164. For other sources, see Ginzberg, Legends, vol. 5, pp. 205-206 n. 91. 80. On the theme of the heavenly tablets, see S. Paul, "Heavenly Tablets," pp. 345-353; and other references cited in E. Wolfion, Gircle in the Square, p. 161 n. 31. I note here two worthwhile discussions of this imaginal symbol in more recent studies: F. Martinez, "Heavenly Tablets," pp. 243-260; Najman, "Interpretation as Primordial Writing," pp. 379-410. 81. For a still-useful review of the image of the world as a book, see Josipovici, World and Book, pp. 25-51. The augmented use of the metaphor of the book of nature has been traced to the renaissance of twelfth-century humanism; see Curtius, European Literature, pp. 302-347; Pai, "Varying Degrees of Light," pp. 3-19. On the later reverberation of this motif as a key to understanding the respective convergence and divergence of science and theology, two fundamental fountainheads of knowledge, see Howell, God's Two Books. 82. On the textuahzation of God in kabbalistic symbohsm, see E. Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp. 49-78; idem, "From Sealed Book to Open Text"; and the recent remarks in Idel, Absorbing Perfections, pp. 44, 116124, 483-487. On the hnk between representation of nature as a text or book in medieval Christian sources, a behef that rests on the assumption that things in nature and words in Scripture are to be interpreted as metaphorical signs denoting God's existence, and on the doctrine of incarnation, see Gellrich, Idea of the Book, pp. 29-50; Melchior-Bonnet, Mirror, pp. 108-118; Newman, God and Goddesses, pp. 51-137. On the impact of this motif in occult philosophies that crystallized in the Renaissance and early modem periods, in part under the influence of kabbalah, see Bono, Word of God and the Languages of Man, pp. 72-84, 123-166; Harkness,_/o/iM Dee's Gonversations with Angels, pp. 64—97, I57—19483. Rosenzweig, Star of Redemption, p. 409. 516

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84. For a comprehensive study of this influence, see Lobel, Between Mysticism and Philosophy. The author provides a brief review of previous scholars who have discussed the influence of Islamic mysticism on Halevi (pp. 6-9). The theme of the sacrahty of Arabic, the language of God's revelation transmitted to Muhammad and preserved in the Qur'an, in Sufism and its proximity to Halevi's view, not to mention Jewish mystical texts, is not discussed by Lobel. In spite of the justified emphasis placed on the auditory-verbal dimension of language attested to in the central role accorded recitation of the Qur'an in Mushm ritual, one should not ignore the importance of the graphic-visual dimension; indeed, there is a subtle and dialectical relationship between the recited qu/an and the written kitab. See Graham, Beyond the Written Word, pp. 81-115; Madigan, Quran's Self-image. Furthermore, Mushm belief in the Qur'an as the primal text, the heavenly "guarded tablet," al-lawh al-mahfu:z (Q 85:21-22), an archaic mythical notion (see above, n. 80), surely comphcates the relation between the written and oral aspects of scriptural language even at the revelatory stage. It has even been suggested that the notion of the uncreated Qur'an as the embodied word of God amounts to a doctrine of "ilhbration" that corresponds to the Christian concept of incarnation; see H. Wolfion, Philosophy of the Kalam, pp. 235-263; Wild, "We Have Sent Down," pp. 137-153. See the incisive and rich analysis of logocentrism and the construction of rehgious truth in Islam offered by Arkoun, Unthought in Contemporary Islamic Thought, pp. 170-203, esp. the discussion on writing, text, and reading, pp. 171-178. The sacred nature of the written script is also attested in the central place accorded calhgraphy in Islamic culture as well as in the sustained impact of magical tahsmans, which feature the sundry names of God written in Arabic. See Schimmel. Deciphering the Signs of God, pp. 150—158; idem. Mystical Dimensions of Islam, pp. 411—425. For a some-

what different perspective on the efficacy assigned to the isolated letters of the Qur'an, see Massignon, Passion ofal-Hallaj, vol. 3, p. 98. 85. Halevi, Sefer ha-Kuzari, 4:2$. 86. The influence of Halevi is conspicuous in Zohar 2:129b, where the "holy language" of the Jews is contrasted with the "foreign language" of the "other nations," i.e., the language of the other side, identified in the continuation of the passage as the "language of the Targum," i.e., Aramaic. The fact that most of Zohar was composed in the language attributed to the demonic potency is a matter that demands analysis. For a related motif, attested in earher sources, that may have influenced the formation of the zoharic topos, see below, n. 88. In Zohar 3:204a, the supremacy of the Jews vis-a-vis the idolatrous nations is emphasized by the claim that only the former possess the written and oral form of the language whence one can know the truth of reahty. Part of the text is cited below, at n. 100. 87. Halevi, Sefer ha-Kuzari, 2:68. The resemblance, indeed underlying unity, of the three languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic, is also noted in the writings of Halevi's contemporary, Abraham Ibn Ezra, but he is of the opinion that Aramaic is the "primordial language." See discussion in Idel, "Infant Experiment," pp. 59-61. On the contrast between the views of Halevi and Ibn Ezra on the nature of language, see Simon, Four Approaches, pp. 267—268 n. 53. See below, n. 102. 88. Halevi follows a Une of thinking in rabbinic literature according to which the language of the angels is Hebrew and not Aramaic. See Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 12b, Sotah 33a; Avot de-Rabbi Natan, version A, chap. 37, 55a; Yahalom, "Angels Do Not Understand Aramaic," pp. 33-44. The motif is repeated on a number of occasions in zoharic Hterature. See, for example, Zohar 1:9b, 74b, 88b, 89a. 89. Halevi, Sefer ha-Kuzari, 1:53-56; Silman, Philosopher and Prophet, pp. 90 n. 29 and 292 n. 7; Jospe, "Superiority of Oral," pp. 127-129. Another twelfth-century author who demonstrates affinity with the mystical tradition on this account is the Yemenite Nathanel Ibn al-Fayyuml. In his Bustan al-'uqul (Ibn alFayyuml, Bustan Al-Ukul, pp. 3-4, Enghsh section; p. 2, Judeo-Arabic section), al-PayyumI relates the view in the name of "some of the learned" that the "characters of the alphabet [hurufal-otiyyot] . . . were originated before the world of changeable things, inasmuch as every rational being needs them in discourse and in uttering the praise of God." In the continuation of this passage, al-Fayyuml hnks this thought exegetically to the first verse in Genesis, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" {bere'shit bara elohim et ha-shamayim we-et ha-ares). It is possible that the exegetical point is related to the particle et, which consists of alef and tau, the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The technical term used by al-Fayyuml reflects the Shi'ite notion of the "science of letters" (ilm al-huruf), that is, the "magical and divinatory apphcation of 517

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the numerical value of the alphabet" (Moezzi, Divine Guide, p. 95). A possible source for al-Fayyuml may have been Saadiah Gaon's commentary on Sefer Yesirah, especially the eighth of the nine positions he deHneates in the introduction to this work, a position that he identifies as compatible with the one expressed in Sefer Yesirah, viz., that the first of all things created were the numbers and letters. For some representative studies of al-Fayyuml, see Pines, "Nathanael ben al-Fayyumi et la theologie ismaehenne," pp. 5-22; Kiener, "Jewish Isma'ihsm," pp. 249-266; and the comments by Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp. 121 and 334 nn. 76-77. 90. In hght of this long-standing behef attested in works ofjewish esotericism, it is ofinterest to consider the remark of Dastur, Telling Time, p. 99 n. 14, that the "inflection" of Semitic languages "concerns a root which—contrary to the Indo-European radical which is merely a product of analysis and becomes apparent only through etymological research—is part of the hving hnguistic consciousness of the speaker without, however, being embodied otherwise than in consonantal script." 91. Some relevant passagesfi-omGikatilla on this point are cited by Idel, "Abulafia's Secrets," pp. 298299. 92. Halevi's influence is detectable in Joseph ben Shalom Ashkenazi, Kabbalistic Gommentary, p. 44: "On account of our sins we are mixed together with the nations and we have seen that their letters are only signs [simanim]. . . . The people of our nation made a great error and thought erroneously about God, his Torah, and the letters of Torah by saying they are only signs. God forbid that our holy Torah, that is, its letters, are signs fabricated in the hearts of men. How could the letters engraved by the finger of God be fabricated letters?"; compare p. 146. The former passage is cited by Lipiner, Metaphysics of Hebrew, pp. 48-49. See also the commentary to Sefer Yesirah by the same kabbalist erroneously attributed to Abraham ben David in Sefer Yesirah, 31a: "Thus it should be clear to you that there are letters of spirit [otiyyot shel ruah], and they are the letters of the Holy Spirit [otiyyot shel ruah ha-qodesh]. Therefore [Hebrew] is called the holy language [leshon ha-qodesh], which is not the case with any other language of the seventy languages, because it comes forth and emanates fi^om the source of holiness." 93. Scholem, "Name of God," pp. 134-135; Idel, Language, Torah, and Hermeneutics, pp. 12-14, 16-27; idem, "Abulafia's Secrets," pp. 300-304; E. Wolfion, Abraham Abulafia, pp. 58-65. On the possible impact the Maimonidean conception of language had in eliciting a response on the part of kabbahsts, see Idel, Absorbing Perfections, p. 106. 94. For instance, consider Abulafia's depiction of prophecy in Sitrei Torah, fol. 155a (printed ed., p. 138): "The beginning of the truth of prophecy is the inner speech [dibbur penimt] created in the soul in the seventy languages by means of the twenty-two holy letters, and all of them are combined in the heart through the permutation of letters." On the relation of the seventy languages to Hebrew in Abulafia's writings, see E. Wolfson, Abraham Abulafia, pp. 62-64 ^nd reference to studies of Scholem and Idel cited p. 62 n. 178. 95. Abulafia, Imrei Shefer, fol. 238a (printed ed., pp. 69-70; I have translated from the manuscript version). Compare Abulafia's comment in Osar Eden Ganuz, fol. 25a (printed edition, p. 51) on the statement in Sefer Yesirah that God created the soul of all that exists by means of the twenty-two Hebrew letters: "This is a great secret that God revealed to his prophets, and his prophets revealed it to his people Israel, and it is not known by any nation except this one." In the continuation of the passage, Abulafia refers to this "wondrous secret" as the "stake upon which everything is hung." 96. Idel, "Infant Experiment," p. 70. 97. Ibid., p. 71. 98. I am not engaging the third model, which Idel identifies as magic, since in my opinion the tripartite typological structure is a variation of the earlier twofold structure, that is, the magical is operative in either the theosophic or propheticfi-ameworkand one therefore does not gain much by according it an independent taxonomic status. 99. On occasion Abulafia hmited somewhat the claim about the "natural" state of Hebrew by ascribing this quahty only to the verbal dimension of the letters, as opposed to the written forms, which are considered to be conventional. The distinction is made, for instance, in Abulafia, Osar Eden Ganuz, fol. 62a (printed ed., p. 124): "I will speak now initially about the matter of the letters. That which is written in books are merely 518

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signs and that which is mentioned by mouth are also signs, but the difference between them is that the written letter alef is a conventional sign [simman muskkam], and even if it is prophetic [nevu't] it is conventional. However, the alef that is mentioned through pronunciation that comes forth from the throat is natural [mutba] and not conventional." 100. Zo/ior 3:204a. 101. On the identification of word and will, see Halevi, Sefer ha-Kuzari, 2:6. 102. Halevi, Sefer ha-Kuzari, 1:101; 4:25. The insistence that the exclusive language of prophecy is Hebrew (see also 5:20) is a corollary of the claims that it is hmited to the Jewish people and that it must occur within the boundaries of the land of Israel. See Silman, Philosopher and Prophet, pp. 178-179. The distinctiveness of Halevi's approach and its similarity to Jewish mysticism are underscored when he is compared to other thinkers of his time. For a comparison of Halevi and Abraham Ibn Ezra, see the reference in n. 87 above to Simon, Four Approaches. In contrast to Halevi's classification of Hebrew as the divine language, Ibn Ezra views it as the "first language," created by Adam, though he maintains the unique sanctity of Hebrew as the "holy tongue" exemphfied by the divine name. See Idel, "A la recherche de la langue originelle," pp. 416-420. An even sharper contrast to Halevi is Maimonides, who incontrovertibly affirms that language is a matter of convention; no special status is accorded Hebrew. See Jospe, "Superiority of Oral," p. 128 n. 2; Silman, Philosopher and Prophet, pp. 90-91 n. 29. For another example of a philosopher affirming the conventionalist view, see Dotan, "Saadia Gaon on the Origins of Language," pp. 237-249. The similarity of Halevi's identification of Hebrew as the divine language and the hnguistic theory formulated by kabbahsts, especially Isaac the Bhnd, is noted by Sendor, "Emergence," vol. i, pp. 244-246. 103. Manetti, Theories of the Sign, pp. 166-167. 104. See chap, i, n. 331. 105. R. Corrington, Ecstatic Naturalism, p. 67. 106. Schimmel, Deciphering the Signs, pp. xii-xiii. On the nexus of body and writing in Islamic sources, see also Chebel, Corps en Islam, pp. 175-190. 107. Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, p. 411. For the introduction of gender and specifically the feminine character to depict the nature of the sign and the spirit, see Sells, Approaching the Qur'an, pp. 201-204. 108. It is ofinterest to consider the foUowing prophetic tradition on the special status accorded the Qur'an in MerUn Swartz, Medieval Critique ofAnthropomorphism, sec. 170, p. 239: "In a tradition reported by 'Uthman, the Prophet said: 'The superiority of the Quran to other forms of speech is comparable to God's superiority over His creatures, for the Quran proceeded from Him {minhu kharaja) and will retum to Him.' The point of the saying is that the Quran has come {wasala) to us firom Him {min 'indahu) and will retum to Him again; moreover, [the saying] is to be taken as resting on the authority of the Prophet." The quahtative difference between God and the Qur'an must be upheld, even though the latter is to be accorded a special status since it proceeded fi-om and will retum to God and thus it stands apart firom the world of created things. The issue of the divinization of the qur'anic text and the imphed corporeality of God is underscored in sec. 237, p. 276: "As for the prophetic tradition: 'God's servants do not approach Him with anything like what proceeds fiom Him,' the expression 'what proceeds from Him' {ma kharaja minhu) should be construed to mean what becomes manifest through Him {zahara 'anhu). We are not to suppose that the expression imphes one body coming out of another, for God is not a body {jism) and His word {kalam) is not a body {jism)." On the charge of heresy on the part of Mushms who refused to acknowledge the created nature of the Qur'an, thereby affirming a view akin to the Christian depiction of Jesus as the uncreated Word of God, see the evidence adduced by Hawting, Ideal of Idolatry, p.80. 109. My analysis is indebted to the discussion of Augustine's semiology in Manetti, Theories of the Sign, where the author asserts that Augustine's semiology shows "a striking anticipation of some of the most recent semantic research tendencies (instructional model) in the contemporary world" (p. 168). n o . Cited in Chittick, Self-Disclosure, p. 5. 111. Cited in Nicholson, Studies in Islamic Mysticism, p. 140 n. i. 112. Scholem, Major Trends, pp. 152-153. In that context, Scholem is describing the prophetic kabbalah of Abraham Abulafia, but his words could easily be apphed to the theosophic kabbalah propounded, for 519

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instance, by Moses de Leon, Moses of Burgos, or Joseph Gikatilla, to mention just a few of the prominent figures active in the latter part of the thirteenth century. For an attempt to distinguish difFerent views of language in theosophic and prophetic kabbalah while affirming the shared assumption regarding the ontologized or reified nature of language and the assumption that the Hebrew letters are the constitutive elements of creation, see Idel, "Reification of Language." 113. Babylonian Talmud, Menahot 29b. Regarding this text and other cognate rabbinic dicta, see E. Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp. 159-160 n. 23. 114. Gikstiils, Sefer ha-Niqqud, p. 4. 115. See references cited in chap, i, n. 251. 116. Gruenwald, "Prehminary Critical Edition," sec. 19, p. 148. Scholem, "Name of God," p. 75, suggests three possible interpretations of this passage: the name refers to the Tetragrammaton; the reference is to the alphabet itself, which constitutes a mystical name; or the term shem does not denote a name in a precise sense but a method of the fonnation of words. I do not think the first two possibilities need be treated as distinct. That is, the mystical name can refer simultaneously to the divine name and to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, for the latter are comprised within the former. Kaplan, Sefer Yetzirah, p. 125, advances the interpretation of the "one name" as a reference to the Tetragrammaton. Although Kaplan is often anachronistic in his approach, it seems to me that in this particular instance he is not far off the mark. However, I do not agree with his assessment that this passage alludes to the process of combining the twenty-two letters with the letters of the Tetragrammaton, a technique we find in medieval prescriptions for creating the golem. This possibility is suggested as well by Idel, Golem, p. 11. In my estimation, the intent of the text in Sefer Yesirah is that the twenty-two letters themselves constitute the one divine name, which is the source of all that exists. 117. I am in agreement with Pedaya, " 'Flaw' and 'Correction,' " p. 160 n. 17, that the "one name" here refers to the Tetragrammaton, the root word of the metaphysical language, Hebrew, the divine source whence all being comes to be. See Pedaya, Name and Sanctuary, p. 75. See also S. Brody, "Human Hands Dwell in Heavenly Heights," Ph.D. dissertation, pp. 431-432. In my judgment, this is the original meaning of the expression in Sefer Yesirah. For a different approach, see Scholem, "Name of God," p. 75; and Idel, Golem, 118. 119. 120. 121. 122.

p. 13. Scholem, Kabbalah in Provence, Appendix, p. 10. See above, n. 65. Azriel of Gerona. Gommentary on Talmudic Aggadoth, p. 99. See chap. 2, n. 197. Scholem, Kabbalah in Provence, Appendix, p. 13; Mopsik, Grands textes de la Cabale, pp. 74-75. For

analysis of the emanationist doctrine articulated in this passage, see Sendor, "Emergence," vol. i, pp. 120121.

123. Lipiner, Metaphysics of Hebrew, pp. 100-103; E- Wolfson, "Anthropomorphic Imagery." In Osar Eden Ganuz, fol. 46a (printed edition, p. 94), Abulafia asserts that it is known to the "enlightened ones of our faith who receivefi-omthe truths" {maskitei dateinu ha-mequbbalim min ha-amitiyyot) that the "compositions of the body" {harkavot ha-golem) are identical to the "compositions of the letters" {harkavot ha-otiyyot). 124. Kitvei Ramban, 2:454. The Hnguistic conception of the human body is a principle affirmed by socalled theosophic and ecstatic kabbalists (see below, n. 338), and hence it may be considered an axiom of the esoteric tradition that cuts across the typological hnes that have dominated contemporary scholarship. 125. See chap, i, n. 345. 126. Some kabbahsts have affirmed the view that the soul, and not the body, is the image of God, an approach well attested in philosophically inspired exegesis traceable as far back as Philo. See Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, pp. 679—682. 127. E. Wolfson, "Ontology." It is regrettable that other scholars who have written on this subject have neglected to mention this critical point, thereby leaving the impression that the kabbahsts have advocated a humanistic anthropology more equitable towards Jewish women and non-Jews. While this apologetic orientation is understandable and perhaps even desirable in certain homiletical circumstances, I find it to be a 520

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moral failing when scholars tender such a gross and blatant misrepresentation of kabbahstic tradition. An exception is the essay by Hallamish, "Relation to the Nations," pp. 289—311. Working independently, we have reached similar conclusions, albeit expressed differently. 128. On the taxonomic centrahty of knowledge of the name to understanding the phenomenological contours of kabbalah, see Idel, "Defining Kabbalah," pp. 97—122. 129. Scholem, "Concept of Kawanah," pp. 165-180; idem. Origins, pp. 299-309, 414-430; Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp. 42—49, 51—55; Pedaya, Name and Sanctuary, pp. 73—102; idem. Vision and Speech, pp.

137-207; S. Brody, "Human Hands," Ph.D. dissertation, pp. 123-158; Mopsik, Grands textes, pp. 88-95. 130. Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp. 41-42. See also the detailed study by J. Goldberg, "Mystical Union." A similar argument with regard to Sufism in relation to Arab-Islamic philosophy is made by Ernst, "Mystical Language," pp. 192-194. 131. With respect to this dimension of the hved rehgious experience, Proven9al and Spanish kabbalists were indebted to the ideal of contemplative worship cultivated by thinkers of a philosophical bent. A particularly interesting use of the account of intention in Maimonides is cited and exphcated in a mystical vein in Asher ben David's Sefer ha-Yihud. See R. Asher ben David: His Gomplete Works, p. 80; and analysis in E.

Wolfson, "Beneath the Wings," pp. 222-223. 132. See below, n. 385. 133. Years ago I began to utihze the term "morphology" as a theoretical altemative to the typological approach championed by Scholem and Idel. For an elaboration of this terminological shift, see J. Goldberg, "Mystical Union," pp. 32-54. 134. Charlesworth, "Portrayal of the Righteous," pp. 135-151; Smelik, "On Mystical Transformation," pp. 122-144; Dimant, "Men as Angels," pp. 93-103; Fletcher-Louis, "4Q374: A Discourse," pp. 236-252; idem, Luke-Acts, pp. 185-198; idem, "Some Reflections on Angelomorphic Humanity," pp. 292-312; idem. All the Glory of Adam. On angelomorphic Christology, see Barker, Great Angel; Longenecker, Ghristology of Early Jewish Ghristianity, pp. 26-32; Fletcher-Louis, Luke-Acts; Bock, Blasphemy and Exaltation, pp. 113-183; Gieschen, Angelomorphic Ghristology; Hannah, Michael and Ghrist; Constas, Proclus of Gonstantinople, pp. 300-

307. For other pertinent references, see chap, i, n. 354. On angehfication as an ideal of mystical piety, see Morray-Jones, "Transformational Mysticism," pp. 1-31; and E. Wolfson, "Yeridah la-Merkavah," pp. 23-26. As one might expect, in later rabbinic texts the angehc status is absorbed into their pietistic conception. Hence the one garbed in a fHnged garment for the sake of prayer, study, or other ritual behavior is said to resemble the ministering angels of God. See Pesiqta Rabbati 14, 6ib-63a; Babylonian Tahnud, Shabbat 25b; Nedarim 20b; Qiddushin 72b; Rubin and Kosman, "Clothing of the Primordial Adam," pp. 155-174, esp. pp. 166-168. 135. In some rabbinic texts, inferential knowledge—"understanding one thing from another"—is accorded a privileged place in the epistemological hierarchy. See, for instance, Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a: According to the dictum attributed to Rava, the last of five queries that every Jewish male will be asked at the moment ofjudgment is hevanta davar mi-tokh davar ("have you understood one thing fiom another?"). And compare Hagigah 14a, where the word nevon in Isaiah 3:3 is interpreted as ha-mevin davar mi-tokh davar ("the one who understands one thing fiom another"), which is superceded only by "words of Torah that are transmitted silently" {divrei torah she-nittenah be-lahash), a mode of learning encoded in the word lahash firom the aforementioned verse, which hterally connotes enchanting. In his tahnudic commentary, Solomon ben Isaac (Rashi) explains this as a reference to sitrei torah, the "mysteries of Torah," communicated clandestinely. According to the teaching attributed to R. Ami in Hagigah 13 a, the expression nevon lahash is hsted as the last of five things (all derived firom the same verse in Isaiah) that one must possess before one receives secrets of Torah. In the immediate context, no attempt is made to explain the idiom. On the use of lehishah as a terminus technicus in the rabbinic lexicon to demarcate communication of esoteric lore "in a whisper," see Scholem, Jewi'ih Gnosticism, p. 58 (consider especially the comment of Hai Gaon cited in n. 10 ad locum); Altmann, Studies in Religious Philosophy, pp. 129-130; E. Wolfson, "Beyond the Spoken Word," pp. 173-174. 136. Scholem, "Name of God," pp. 71, 167-168. Sendor, "Emergence," vol. 2, p. 57 n. 163, remarks that sefiyyah for Isaac the Bhnd "refers to the contemplation or inference of one thing fiom another, in this 521

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case, an object of inner hearing grasped through an object of inner sight." Basing himself on an explicit remark of Abulafia, Idel, "Reification of Language," pp. 52-53, distinguishes the presumed two types of kabbalah, theosophic and ecstatic, on the grounds that the visual aspect of language is paramount for the former and the vocal aspect for the latter. Assuredly, there is cogency to this typological distinction, but the matter is more complex, inasmuch as both theosophic and ecstatic kabbalists (to use the nomenclature for the sake ofthe argument) affirm the phenomenon of synesthesia, which is predicated on the melange ofthe visual and auditory fields, ontically and experientially. See E. Wolfson, TItrough a Speculum, pp. 287-288. While it is true that some kabbalists emphasize the visual and others the auditory, or it may even be the case that the same kabbalist will at one point stress the former and at another point the latter, the texture of the experience should thwart any proposed dichotomization ofthe two epistemic modes along presumed typological lines. Even more vexing is the recent formulation in Idel, Absorbing Perfections, p. 76. Challenging my thesis regarding the centrality ofthe iconic dimension ofjewish mysticism, related specifically to contemplation of Torah as a technique for seeing God (some of my work is mentioned on p. 510 n. 158 together wdth one of Idel's own studies), Idel writes that the visual "should be understood as a less influential tradition in the general economy ofjewish mystical hteratures. . . than the recurrent resort to the recitation ofthe Torah as another technique to induce a mystical experience." Apart from the dubious scholarly practice of making a general pronouncement with no textual backing, this claim rests on the false separation ofthe visual and auditory; I contend that in the mystical experience, seeing is hearing, and hearing, seeing. Another attempt, learned though it may be, based on an equally faulty dichotomy is found in Pedaya, Vision and Speech. The remark of Suhrawardi, cited in Schimmel, Deciphering the Signs, p. 156, encapsulates the collapse ofthe dichotomy precisely: "To listen to the Koran means to listen to God; hearing becomes seeing, seeing becomes hearing, knowing turns into action, action turns into knowing—that is the 'fine hearing.' " Though the conclusion of this statement would seem to privilege hearing, which indeed reflects the central role accorded the oral recitation ofthe Qur'an in Muslim prayer ritual (see above, n. 84), the mystical wisdom imparted by Suhrawardi is that listening to the recital ofthe inscripted word of God is hke listening to God, and in hstening to God, hearing is seeing and seeing is hearing, just as knowing becomes acting and acting becomes knowing. This succinct fonnulation well captures what I have tried to articulate with respect to the phenomenology of vision and imagination in kabbalistic sources. See also Graham, "Das Schriftprinzip," pp. 209-226, esp. pp. 220-221. For a well-informed discussion of a similar phenomenon in early Christianity, see Chidester, Word and Light. The tendency of kabbalists not to distinguish absolutely between writing and speech was duly noted by Scholem, "Name of God," pp. 71, 167-168; idem. Origins, p. 277; D. Biale, Gershotn Scholem, pp. 99-100. Scholem's view is repeated by Bloom, Kabbalah and Criticism, p. 52. The ritual basis for the mystical wisdom can be sought in the fact that the word for Scripture, miqra, literally means "what is recited." Hence just as in the case ofthe Qur'an in Islam, so Torah in Judaism embodies the oral and written in an inseparable confluence. 137. These words are repeated verbatim in Ezra's commentary to Song 6:3, Kitvei Ramban 2:504. 138. That is, the composite and individual entities in the world of differentiation (olam ha-perud) which is beneath the world of unity [dam ha-yihud), the realm oi sefirot, which are not ontically distinct from the infinite divine being. As Scholem observed ("Concept of Kawanah," pp. 35, 62-65), the expression nifradim to designate differentiated beings reflects an interesting misuse of a technical medieval philosophical Hebraism, nifrad, which denotes the incorporeal being; for instance, the nomenclature sekhalim nifradim refers to the immaterial intellects attached to each of the spheres. See also extended discussion in Sendor, "Emergence," vol. I, pp. 130-136. 139. Scholem, Kabbalah in Provence, Appendix, pp. 5-6. For analysis of this passage, see Scholem, "Concept ofKawanah," pp. 165-166; idem. Origins, pp. 300-301; S. Brody, "Human Hands," Ph.D. dissertation, pp. 429-430. 140. We can distinguish between writing and speaking, the fonner associated with a higher emanation than the latter and which thus can be thought of as preceding it. However, just as the emanative scheme can be imagined in a linear way, it also can be imagined cyclically, and when viewed through that prism, there is no lower or higher, before or after. To apply this to the particular example of language, every spoken utter522

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ance is an inscripted word and every inscripted word, a spoken utterance, a critical dimension ofthe kabbalistic worldview duly noted by Scholem. See above, n. 136. 141. Scholem, Origins, pp. 264-265. 142. E. Wolfson, Through a Speculum, p. 285 n. 54. 143. Scholem, Kabbalah in Provence, Appendix, p. i. 144. Scholem, Kabbalah in Provence, Appendix, p. i; idem. Origins, p. 275. Elsewhere in the Sefer Yesirah commentary, the term yeniqah is used to depict the manner by which the lower entities draw the efllux from the sefirotic potencies. See Scholem, Kabbalah in Provence, Appendix, p. 9; Sendor, "Emergence," vol. i, pp. 122-123. 145. The distinction becween yedi'ah and yeniqah is not meant to convey anti-intellectualism, a mystical sensibility that is pitted against a speculative or philosophic orientation. On the contrary, the contrast between discursive and intuitive forms of apprehension is an integral part of the Platonic tradition, especially significant in Neoplatonism. See Rappe, Reading Neoplatonism, pp. 25-66. Consider also the pertinent discussion on the divergence of discursive philosophy (al-bahth, literally, "investigation") and "divine philosophy" {taalluh, literally, "becoming God") in Walbridge, Leaven ofthe Ancients, p. 176. The intuitive philosopher attains a higher state than the discursive philosopher, but supreme perfection belongs to one who has mastered both. One can apply a similar model to the speculative kabbalah traced to Isaac the Blind. 146. To be more precise, for the most part Plotinus describes the One in apophatic terms as the "what" that is beyond being, thought, and language, but there are places where he describes the One in kataphatic terms (reminiscent of Aristotle's account ofthe first principle) as intelligible and as capable of thought. The inconsistency in Plotinus yielded two different approaches in Neoplatonic thought as it evolved in Islamic and then latter Jewish and Christian philosophy, one emphasizing the transcendence of the One (as in the Plotinian Theology of Aristotle) and the other identifying the One with the intellect and the ground ofbeing (as in the Proclan Liber de causis). See Peterson, "Hamid al-Din al-Kirmanl on Creation," pp. 555-567, esp. pp. 560-561. An extensive discussion ofthe One in Plotinian thought is provided by Bussanich, "Plotinus's Metaphysics ofthe One," pp. 38—65. 147. Plato, Republic 509b 9-10. See also the characterization ofthe One as above being and description in Plato, Parmenides 142a 3. 148. For reference, see chap, i, n. 307. 149. Aristotle, De anima 429a, 13-17. On the appropriation ofthe Aristotehan epistemology by Plotinus, see Inge, Philosophy of Plotinus, vol. i, pp. 137-138; H. Blumenthal, "Plotinus' Adaptation of Aristotle's Psychology," pp. 41-58. 150. Plotinus, Enneads 1.6.8. The passage may be viewed as an interpretation of Plato's Symposium, 2i8e219a. In the context of discussing the distinction between the "semblance of beauty" and the "thing itself," Plato remarks that the "mind's eye begins to see clearly when the outer eyes grow dim." 151. For a detailed study of this theme in late antiquity, see CuUanu, Psychanodia. 152. Blake, Complete Poetry and Prose, p. 225. 153. Plotinus, Enneads 1.6.9. A similar sentiment is expressed in Gospel of Philip 61:21-25, in Nag Hammadi Codex II, 2-7, vol. I, p. 163: In the pleroma, in contrast to this world, when one sees something, one becomes that which one sees even to the point of becoming the Father 154. Plotinus, Enneads 1.6.6. 155. For discussion of divine simphcity in Plotinus, see Kenney, Mystical Monotheism, pp. 93 - i 11. 156. Plotinus, Enneads V.5.6; see also V.3.14, V.4.1-2, VI.7.38. 157. Plotinus, Enncadi V.5.6. 158. Schroeder, "Vigil ofthe One," pp. 61-74. 159. E. Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp. 270-272. 160. Wallis, " N O Y 2 as Experience," pp. 121-153. 161. See Miles, Plotinus on Body and Beauty. 162. Kingsley, In the Dark Places, p. 6. For parallel formulations ofthe mandate to experience death before one dies in Jewish and Islamic traditions, see chap. 8, n. 151. The theme is expressed as well in Meister

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Eckhart, Sermons and Treatises, vol. i, p. 140: "Our Lord ascended into heaven, beyond all light, beyond all understanding and all human ken. . . . Therefore a man must be slain and wholly dead, devoid of self and wholly without likeness, like to none, and then he is really God-like. For it is God's character. His nature, to be peerless and like no man." The theme is rendered in a poem either composed by Eckhart or by one of his disciples, cited p. xxxi: "My soul within / come out, God in! / Sink all my aught / in God's own naught, / sink down in bottomless abyss. / Should I flee thee, / thou wilt come to me; / when self is done, / then Thou art won, /thou transcendental highest bliss!" 163. Hadot, Plotinus, p. 32. The passage upon which Hadot bases his comments is Enneads IV.4.2: "when one contemplates, especiaUy when the contemplation is clear, one does not turn to oneself in the act of intelligence, but one possesses oneself; one's activity, however, is directed towards the object of contemplation, and one becomes this, offering himself to it as a kind of matter, being formed according to what one sees, and being oneself then only potentially." In Enneads VI.8.13, Plotinus expresses the same paradox in volitional terms. The desire of each being is to participate in the Good, but this must be both a freely willed act and reflective of a merging or synchronicity of wills that effaces the ontic independence of the individual will vis-a-vis the will of the Good whence all things emerge and to which they retum: "Observe this also: every being in its desire for the Good wants to be that Good rather than what it is, and thinks that it is in the highest degree when it participates in the Good, and in such a state each being will choose for itself to be in so far as it has being firom the Good; so the nature of the Good is obviously far more worthy of choice for himself, if it is true that whatever share of the Good there may be in something else is most worthy of choice, and is its freely willed substance which comes to it in accordance with its will and is one and the same thing as its will and is estabhshed in existence through its will." 164. Dionysius the Areopagite, Divine Names, chap. 5, 825B, p. 171. 165. Ibid., chap. 7, 872A, p. 179. A similar negative dialectic is affirmed in John Scotus Eriugena, the ninth-century Neoplatonic thinker whose Latin translation of the Corpus Dionysianum had a decisive influence on medieval philosophy and theology. Eriugena's own Periphyseon, which betrays the Dionysian teaching, is presumed to have had a major impact on thinkers in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, including kabbalists. See Moran, Philosophy offohn Scotus Eriugena, pp. 186-187, 208. On Eriugena's influence on kabbahsts in the thirteenth century, see Prologue, n. 34. 166. From another perspective, contemplation on the part of the human mind can be seen as the mirror opposite of contemplation on the part of the One, that is, the fonner has the goal of purging the mind of multiplicity and restoring it to unity, whereas the latter is the process by which the unity becomes a multiphcity. See Plotinus, Enneads VI.2.6, where contemplation on the part of the One is described as being "the cause of its appearing many, that it may think: for if it appears as one, it did not think, but is that One." To be other than one, the other must not be part of the one, but if there is an other that is not part of the one, the one cannot be one. In the effort to explain the one and the many, one is forced logically to posit two aspects of the one, or two ones, as it were, if one adopts an emanationist scheme, such that the one both is and is not, it is one but it is not many, and yet the many could not be unless it were the one it cannot be. In great measure, the speculative trajectory of these matters springs from Plato's dialectical hypotheses about unity in his dialogue on Parmenides. For relevant texts and detailed analyses, see Plato, Plato's Parmenides, pp. 207-339. See also Plato, Plato and Parmenides: Parmenides' Way of Truth, pp. 109-115; Tarrant, Thrasyllan

Platonism, pp. 150—161. 167. The influence of the Plotinian account was quite pronounced in Christian mysticism and occult philosophy. For instance, consider the depiction of the soul's immediate vision of God occasioned by the mental ascent that is consequent to leaving aside cultivation of the body in Ficino, Platonic Theology, p. 185: "Having returned thither, it sees God through what is now the very Hght of God like someone who uses the sun's ray to look at the sun itself and no longer at the colors of bodies." 168. Plotinus, Enneads V.8.11. 169. It lies beyond the scope of this chapter to engage the critical question of whether the mystical vision propounded by Plotinus should be viewed as "monistic" or "theistic." For representative studies, see Mamo, "Is Plotinian Mysticism Monistic?" pp. 199-215; Rist, "Back to the Mysticism of Plotinus," pp. 183-197. 524

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See also Oosthout, Modes of Knowledge, pp. 75-164, and the discussion in Kristeva, Tales of Love, pp. 119-121, on Plotinian ecstasy and the loss of self 170. Plotinus, Enneads V.8.12; on intellect as an image of the first principle, see also V. 4. 2. 171. On the One as everything and nothing, see Bussanich, "Plotinus's Metaphysics," pp. 57-61. 172. 'Plotinus, Enneads Y.2.I. 173. Ibid., V.3.13. 174. Ibid., V.8.6; see Schroeder, "Plotinus and Language," pp. 336-355, esp. pp. 350-351. 175. Plotinus, Enneads V.S.21. 176. Ibid., V.5.7. For a later influence of these Neoplatonic themes in the Colshan-e Raz of the fourteenth-century Persian poet Mahmud Shabestari, explicated in the commentary of Shamsoddin Lahljl, see Corbin, Man of Light, pp. 110-120, esp. p. 116: "The black Hght . . . is that which cannot itself be seen, because it is the cause of seeing; it cannot be object, since it is absolute Subject. It dazzles, as the hght of superconsdousness dazzles. . . . Only a knowledge which is a theophanic experience can be knowledge of the divine Being. But in relation to the divine Ipseity, black light, excludes this correlation" (emphasis in original). 177. A learned treatment of the Westem apophatic orientation is presented by Carabine, Unknown God. 178. Plotinus, Enneads V.$.6; see VI.9.5. 179. Ibid., V.3.17. For discussion of the development of this theme, see Brenk, "Darkly beyond the Glass," pp. 39-60. 180. Hancock, "Negative Theology in Gnosticism and Neoplatonism," p. 180. Hancock's study is important for it provides a model to problematize the schematic polarization of the "two philosophical Hellenistic schools" (p. 167), Neoplatonism and Gnosticism, by demonstrating the affinity of the two with regard to the inabihty to converse or to speculate about the highest God. Hancock suggests, moreover, that respect for the "transcendent goal of moral life" entailed by the negative theology in both schools helps explain the influence of these two trends on medieval Christian apophasis. This approach could prove helpful in understanding the complex interweave of different threads that make up the intellectual cloth of medieval kabbalah in such a manner that one would avoid the radical split between Neoplatonic and Gnostic influences such as we occasionally find in Scholem, for instance in Origins, p. 264. Also apposite is the opinion ofJonas, Cnostic Religion, pp. 91-92, that gnostic imagery has to be contextualized in the history of allegory in Greek philosophy, an exegetical strategy that facihtated the appropriation of concrete tales and figures of mythical lore as a symbohc mode to express abstract ideas. Jonas goes on to distinguish "gnostic allegory" from the more conventional type inasmuch as the fonner is often of a subversive nature and hence does not uphold the primary aim of integration and synthesis. I am not certain of the necessity to contrast subversive and conventional uses of allegory, but what is important for my purposes is the recognition on the part ofjonas that an intrinsic component of the gnostic imagination is the rendering of philosophical ideas in concrete mythic symbols. In this regard, there is once again a striking correspondence between late-antique Gnosticism and medieval kabbalah. For a fuller discussion of Gnosticism and the "classical mind," see Jonas, pp. 239-289. 181. McGinn, Foundations of Mysticism, pp. 118, 141. 182. Compare Gregory of Nyssa, Commentary on the Song of Songs, L331, p. 206: "through baptism the bride has once and for all removed her sandals." On Gregory's interpretation of the blatantly erotic images of the Song as instruments by which carnal desire can be domesticated into the spiritual love of Christ, symbohzed by the male lover, culminating in the discarding of images altogether as one enters the "apophatic space" of the Holy of Holies, which is identified as the Song, to encounter God in the luminal darkness of unknowing, see G. Ward, "Allegoria," pp. 286-287; R- Norris, "Soul Takes Flight," p. 526; Laird, "Under Solomon's Tutelage," pp. 81—88. 183. Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses, 2.19, p. 59. I have availed myself of the Greek text printed together with the French translation in idem. La vie de Mo'ise. All references to Greek marked parenthetically are taken from and refer to the pagination of this edition. For a nuanced gender analysis of Gregory's account of the vision of Moses at the "virginal" thorny bush and his subsequent entry into the cloud of thick darkness, see Bumis, "Begotten, Not Made," pp. 125-129. 525

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184. Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses, 2.24, p. 60 (Gk text, p. 120). 185. Ibid., 2.25, p. 60 (Gk text, p. 120). 186. Ibid., 2.26, p. 60. 187. Ibid., 2.27, p. 61 (Gk text, p. 122). 188. Gregory ofNyssa, Contra eunomium libri, I:ii, 416A; and see discussion on the theme ofthe transposition ofthe image in Balthasar, Presence and Thought, 163-169. See also Pottier, Dieu et le Christ, pp. 233-243. 189. Gregory ofNyssa, Life of Moses, 2.162, pp. 94-95. 190. Ibid., 2.162, p. 95 (Gk text, p. 210). 191. Ibid., 2.163, p. 95 (Gk text, p. 210). Gregory's exegesis ofthe entry of Moses into a cloud of darkness as symbolic of the soul's contemplation of the unseen and unattainable realm, the mystery in which God dwells, is repeated in his Commentary on the Song of Songs, }.iSi, p. 130, and J.322-323, p. 202. See also Gregory's explication ofthe sixth beatitude, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. 5.6), printed in Gregory ofNyssa, Lord's Prayer, pp. 143-153. 192. De mutatione nominum 7-8; De posteritate Caini 14; Degigantihus 54; De vita Mosis I, 158; H. Wolfson, Philo, vol. 2, p. 155; Gregory ofNyssa, Life of Moses, p. 177 n. 192. 193. D. Hart, "Mirror ofthe infmite," pp. 111-131. 194. McGinn, Foundations of Mysticism, pp. 157-182. For other references, see chap, i, n. 61. 195. Dionysius the Areopagite, Pseudo-Dionysius, pp. 49-50. 196. Ibid., p. 53. 197. Ibid., pp. 108-109. The Dionysian perspective is elaborated in less technical terms in the fourteenthcentury anonymous English treatise The Cloud of Unknowing; see Walsh, Cloud of Unknowing, chap. 70, p. 256. 198. Dionysius the Areopagite, Pseudo-Dionysius, p. 54. 199. Ibid., p. 109. 200. Ibid., p. 137. 201. Ibid., p. 109. 202. Ibid., p. 263. 203. For a detailed study of this kabbahstic doctrine, see Idel, "Sefirot above the Sefirot." 204. Scholem, Kabbalah in Provence, Appendix, p. 3. 205. I borrow this richly ambiguous locution from Sells, Mystical Languages. 206. On this important philosophical point, see D. Tumer, Darkness of Cod, p. 35. See also S. Katz, "Mystical Speech and Mystical Meaning," pp. 3-41; idem, "Utterance and Ineffabihty," pp. 279-298; E. Wolfson, "Negative Theology and Positive Assertion," pp. v-xxii. 207. The meaning ofthe expression remez ha-mahshavah is clarified by its use in the commentary on the sefirot by Azriel of Gerona, cited above at n. 64. 208. Kitvei Ramban, 2:409. For further explication of this passage, see Idel, "Sefirot above the Sefirot," pp. 265-267; idem. Absorbing Perfections, pp. 119-120; E. Wolfson, "Beyond the Spoken Word," p. 199. 209. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Yesodei ha-Torah 2:10. 210. Maimonides, Cuidell:6, pp. 262—263. 211. Consider Scholem's sketch. Origins, p. 377: "With Jacob ben Shesheth, the kabbalists appear on the battlefield for the first time, undisguised. The enemy is unmistakable: the radical philosophic enlightenment ofthe adherents of Maimonides." In support of his characterization, Scholem cites one of Jacob's works, Meshiv Devarim Nekhohim, which is an explicit rebuttal of Samuel Ibn Tibbon's Ma'amar Yeqqawu ha-Mayim, a cosmology (ma'aseh bere'shit) based on Maimonidean thought. Scholem himself nuances his argument when he notes that the polemical thrust is directed more at Ibn Tibbon than Maimonides. The heretical views were introduced into the "system" of Maimonides, which in itself was "in Jacob's opinion very close to the true theology and therefore to the Kabbalah, as he frequently and triumphantly notes whenever he believes that he can demonstrate that his adversary misunderstood the views of Maimonides" (p. 378); see p. 381, where Scholem notes that Jacob ben Sheshet sides with Maimonides with respect to the right of each interpreter to devise his own reasons for the commandments. 212. Scholem, Kabbalah in Provence, Appendix, p. 5. 526

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213. My reflections here were inspired by the observations of W. Lowe, Theology and Difference, pp. 79— 80. A similar affirmation of ostensible clashing views is found in the Sufi antinomy ot tanzih and tashbth, the former declaring the incomparabUity ofthe one true entity {wujud), the essence whose existence is necessary, vis-a-vis all other things, which are considered contingent, and the latter declaring the similarity between God and all things. See below, n. 280. 214. See chap, i, n. 263. 215. Zo/iar 3:152a. 216. Liebes, Studies in the Zohar, pp. 45-46. This is one of several attempts in zoharic literature to delineate four levels of meaning in Scripture. Whatever the historical or textual origins of this seminal idea, from the relevant kabbahstic sources it is evident that it was formulated as an elaboration of the principle of dual meaning, the internal and external, esoteric and exoteric. See Bacher, "L'exegese biblique," pp. 33—46, esp. pp. 37—40; idem, "Das Merkwort PRDS," pp. 294—305; Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, pp. 50-65; Tishby, IVisdom ofthe Zohar, pp. 1077-1089; Heide, "Pardes," pp. 147-159; Idel, "Pardes: Some Reflections," pp. 249-268; idem, "Zohar as Exegesis," pp. 89-91; idem, Absorbing Perfections, pp. 429-437; Huss, "NiSAN," pp. 155-181; S. Katz, "Mysticism and the Interpretation of Sacred Scripture," pp. 21-32. Some scholars, including Bacher and Scholem, suggested the kabbalists derived the four levels of meaning from parallel Ghristian modes of interpretation. Regarding the fourfold sense of Scripture in Christian mysticism, see the lucid and relatively recent account in Cousins, "Fourfold Sense of Scripture," pp. 118-137. 217. Zohar 1:20b; 2:75b-76a; Sefer ha-Mishkal, pp. 44, 159. 218. For an insightful exposition of kabbahstic henneneutics against a broader framework of religious culture in the Middle Ages, see Talmage, "Apples of Gold," pp. 313-355. 219. See the language employed by de Leon in the passage fi-om Shushan Edut cited in chap, i, n. 323. Another relevant passage appears in Zohar 2:61b, where the following response is given to the hypothetical question of whether it is really the case that the members of the mystical fi"atemity engaged in Torah study are sustained by the spiritual food that angels eat, the "bread of the mighty," lehem abirim (Ps. 78:25), the overflow of divine wisdom: "No, it is like that very food, for two are balanced on one" (de-shaqit al had terein). The concluding phrase conveys the image ofthe scale upon which two independent things are weighed together and brought into balance. The food consumed by kabbalists is not exactly what is eaten by angels, but it is plausible to say that the former is in the likeness ofthe latter. For extended discussion ofthe motif of eating in zoharic kabbalah, see Hecker, "Each Man Ate An Angel's Meal"; idem, "Eating Gestures," pp. 125-152. The word shaqil in the sense of comparing one thing to another is used in other passages in zoharic hterature. See Zohar 1:153b, where the word is employed in the context of discussing the parallehsm between the mundane and divine spheres, and especially Zohar 3:64a, where the three books traditionally ascribed to Solomon—Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs—are correlated respectively with Wisdom {hokhmah). Understanding (tevunah), and Knowledge {da'at). The description ofthe latter sheds light on the zoharic approach to parables: "Proverbs corresponds to Knowledge. How is this manifest? All ofthe verses have two aspects [terei gawwenei], the beginning and end, two aspects that are disclosed [ithazyyan]. When one contemplates the verses, the [beginning] is contained in the [end], and the [end] is contained in the [beginning]. Thus it corresponds to Knowledge [shaqil laqableih de-da'at]." Interestingly, the author of this passage follows the standard view regarding the twofold structure of the parable, as one finds, for instance, in the introduction to the Cuide of the Perplexed by Maimonides, but there is a shift from the inner/outer orientation to the beginning/end distinction. The nature of parabolic truth illumines one in the wisdom that the one is contained in the other. Finally, it is worth mentioning the title of a treatise composed by Moses de Leon in 1290, Sefer ha-Mishqat, literally the "Book of Balance." The author gave the work another name, Sefer Nefesh ha-Hokhmah, which was used in the edition ofthe work published in Basel 1608. The latter tide signals the main purpose ofthe book, which is to elucidate the kabbalistic mysteries pertaining to the nature of the Jewish soul. The former title, I surmise, relates to the enterprise of speaking about the divine emanations, which by necessity requires the symbolic correlation of disparate realities, the figural representation of the incorporeal God in anthropomorphic terms, an envisioning that makes possible the more specific discourse about the soul and its resemblance to the divine. It is possible that de Leon has this poetic process in 527

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mind when he uses the expression mishqal ha-hokhmah, the "balance of wisdom." See Moses de Leon, Sefer ha-Mishkal, pp. 34-35. It is of interest to recall as well that Moses de Leon begins Sheqel ha-Qodesh, pp. 1-3, with a philosophical discussion (in the vein of Maimonides) on the incorporeahty of God and the meaning of bibhcal anthropomorphism. Perhaps the meaning ofthe title is not "sacred coin" but "holy weight," the imaginal envisioning of God based on the inherently analogical nature of language. For a somewhat different explanation ofthe titles of Moses de Leon's works, see E. Wolfson, Circle in the Square, p. 182 n. 128. In that context, I suggested that the words mishqal and sheqel denote the phallic potency, which is compared to the "tongue" that balances two sides ofthe scale. 220. Zohar 2:98b. For fuller discussion of this passage, see E. Wolfson, "Beautiful Maiden," pp. 169-172. The more typical approach on the part of scholars has been to dichotomize the exoteric and esoteric layers of meaning. See, for instance, the discussion ofsod as "coded meaning" in Rojtman, Black Fire on White Fire, pp. 68-98. 221. See chap, i, n. 260. 222. My analysis finds support in Marion's discussion ofthe paradox ofthe face. In Excess, pp. 113-119, esp. pp. 115-116. 223. Perhaps imphcit in the symbol ofthe tongue when associated with Shekhinah is the kabbahstic understanding of Oral Torah. For an exphcit correlation along these hnes, see Joseph of Hamadan, Sefer Tashak, p. 318. 224. My exphcation is supported by Zohar 1:228a: "The holy spirit is called zo't, which is the mystery of the covenant [raza di-verit], the holy inscription [reshima qaddisha] that is found constantly with the person." The exact formulation recurs in Zohar 2:236b. The gender transposition of Shekhinah is thus related to the fact that the word zo't, the feminine demonstrative pronoun, is identified as the covenantal sign affixed to the male organ. It is in this capacity that Shekhinah assumes the character ofthe holy spirit. Needless to say, the symbohsm is older than the period ofthe zoharic fratemity. See, for instance, Azriel of Gerona, Commentary on Talmudic Aggadoth, p. 49. 225. Zo/iar 3:6ob-6ia. 226. A number of scholars have analyzed this section of zoharic hterature. See Oron, "Place Me as a Seal upon Your Heart," pp. 1-24; Giller, Reading the Zohar, pp. 35-68; D. Abrams, "Knowing the Maiden," pp. lix-lxxxiii; and further references in following note. 227. Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, pp. 55-56; Talmage, "Apples of Gold," pp. 316-318; Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp. 227-229; Tishby, Wisdom ofthe Zohar, pp. 1084-1085; David Stem, Parables in Midrash, pp. 230-231; Liebes, "Zohar and Eros," pp. 87-98; E. Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp. 384-387. On the representation ofthe female body as text, see Scholes, Semiotics and Interpretation, 127-141; and Benstock, Textualizing the Feminine. 228. For instance, see the commentary on "And Adam knew his wife Eve" (Gen. 4:1) in Zohar Hadash, 63c: "'And Adam'—this is the hidden, primordial Adam, engraved in the supemal, subtle engravings. 'Knew'—what he did not comprehended of it before. He knew how to be face-to-face. When they gazed face-to-face for the sake of intercourse, it is written 'knew,' for he knew how to irrigate her, to inseminate her with seed, to produce ofFspring." 229. E. Wolfson, "Beautiful Maiden," pp. 169-170, 185-187. On the twofold task ofthe mask to veil and to reveal, see the study "Die Maske: Verhullung oder Offenbarung?" in Bleeker, Sacred Bridge, pp. 236-249. 230. The point is captured in the Arabic ta'bfr ("interpretation") fi-om 'ubur ("crossing over"). For the enhghtened mystics, the "Folk of Allah," as opposed to the rationahst philosophers and theologians, the crossing over fi'om exoteric to esoteric is not predicated on discarding the former. See Chittick, Sufi Path of Knowledge, p. 245; see also Corbin, Creative Imagination, pp. 28-29. 231. My analysis ofthe zoharic passage accords with the insights of Izutsu, Creation and the Timeless Order, pp. 40-41, regarding the metaphorical undentanding ofthe Sufi use ofthe word nur ("hght"). Izutsu begins the argument by following an Aristotelian interpretation of metaphor as a word with a "double role," "pointing at the same time to two difFerent meanings [A and B], the first being its literal or conventional meaning and the second its non-conventional or figurative meaning" (p. 40). Having established that, he 528

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proposes nur in the Sufi context as an example of metaphor, inasmuch as the term refers concurrently to physical and spiritual light. Izutsu proceeds to show how the Sufi hermeneutic reverses the relationship between hteral and metaphorical—the real, the supreme metaphysical reality, is the hght seen with the "eye of spiritual vision" (ayn al-bastrah), whereas physical light is merely a figure of speech. It follows that the term nur "functions as an immediate sign for the spiritual light and as a mediate sign for the physical" (p. 41; emphasis in original). Finally, it would be instructive to explore in more detail the connotation ofthe term remiza in the zoharic context and the use o£ramz in Islamic esotericism to denote "symbolic speech," that is, speaking through parable or allusion. For discussion of this technical terminology, see Burgel, "Symbols and Hints," pp. 114-132, esp. pp. 117-122; Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, pp. 299-307; Heath, AUegory and Philosophy in Avicenna, pp. 151-155. 232. Consider the comment of Neumann, Origins, p. 53: "The 'bridal veil' must be understood in this sense, as the symbol ofkedesha, the harlot. She is 'unknown,' i.e., anonymous. To be 'unveiled' means to be naked, but this is only another form of anonymity. Always the goddess, the transpersonal, is the real and operative factor." Neumann insightfully grasps that the unveihng ofthe harlot is not a form of exposure but another masquerade, not a disclosure of her name but an ascription of anonymity. But why is this so? How can we conceive of unveiling as masking? That which is real—whose face we seek to expose and whose name we seek to disclose—is the goddess, the transpersonal that is forever beyond the confines of any particular manifestation. To translate Neumann's language into a kabbahstic idiom, every gradation is a mask by which that which has no face appears, the transpersonal, Ein Sof, that which is beyond any and all representation and hence may be considered the catalyst for the multifaceted imaginary representations, the drawing of verbal icons—visual signs—in the poetic imagination of the contemplative kabbahst. 233. The paradox is captured in the Zen maxim, "Face to face a thousand miles away" (Hori, Zen Sand, p. 143), read in correlation with a second dictum, "When you're face to face, it's hard to hide" (p. 147). 234. On the nexus of woman, text, veil, poetry, and the elusive nature of (un)truth, see T. Rosen, Unveiling Eve, pp. 64-82. 235. See Memissi, Beyond the Veil; idem. Veil and the Male Elite, pp. 85-101; A.-E. Berger, "Newly Veiled Woman," pp. 93-119; Hoodfar, "Veil in Their Minds," pp. 420-446; Minces, La femme voilee; Hekmat, Women and the Koran, pp. 181-213. For a similar phenomenon in the case ofjewish women, see Stillman, "Cover Her Face," pp. 13-31. On the connection ofthe veil and scopic desire in contemporary texts, see Hitchcock, "Eye and the Other," pp. 69-81. 236. Knysh, Islamic Mysticism, pp. 311-314. 237. It is worth noting in this context the use ofthe image of garbing on the part of kabbahsts to denote the emanative process, a theme they connect with the midrashic dictum in Genesis Rabbah 3:4 (linked exegetically to Ps. 104:2) that God created the primordial hght by donning a garment and shining forth the brilliance of his splendor. See, for instance, the remark of Ezra of Gerona in Perush Shir ha-Shirim, Kitvei Ramban, 2:493, that the word salmah ("cloak") denotes "the summoning ofthe emanation of wisdom that encompasses everything" {hazmanat hamshakhat ha-hokhmah ha-sovevet et ha-kot). The rabbinic image of God wrapping himself with the garment signifies that "he received the splendor firom this effluence and the hght verily sparkled." In his letter to Abraham ben Isaac, the cantor of Gerona, published by Scholem, "New Document," pp. 157-158, Ezra employs very similar language to depict the emanative process, the "splendor of wisdom, which is his garment" {zohar ha-hokhmah she-hu levusho). The same interpretation is attributed to Isaac the Bhnd, referred to by the honorific title "our master, the pious one" {rabbenu he-hasid) by Azriel of Gerona, Commentary on Talmudic Aggadoth, pp. i i o - i i l . For analysis of this theme and its exegetical trajectory, see Altmann, Studies, pp. 128-139. 238. In hght ofthe qur'anic emphasis on the removal ofthe veil on the day of reckoning, it is of interest to consider the remark in Merhn Swartz, Medieval Critique of Anthropomorphism, p. 277: "I heard the following tradition [from 'Abd al-Wahhab b. al-Mubarak] in which Sahl b. Sa'd reports that the Prophet said: '[On the day of judgment] God will be concealed by seventy thousand veils of hght and darkness. No one will hear even the shghtest sound fi-om [behind?] those veils else he would perish.' " 239. Ziai, Knowledge and Illumination, pp. 155-166; idem, "Hafez, Lisan al-Ghayb," p. 463. On the Sufi 529

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notion ofthe time-atom severed from past and future, see Massignon, "Time in Islamic Thought," pp. 108114, esp. pp. I I O - I I I ; Bowering, "Ideas ofTime in Persian Sufism," pp. 223-225. I have discussed the matter elsewhere (chap. 2 of Alef, Mem, Tau) and thus will not repeat all ofthe intricate details related to this rudimentary Sufi notion. Let me simply state that the atomistic conception of time is the temporal correlate to the ontological paradox oifand' and baqa' the identity of perishing and abiding. To grasp the mystical ideal of passing away and enduring in the oneness of what is, one must take hold ofthe mystery of time disclosed in the moment that endures in its elapsing. Consider Ibn 'Arabi's exphcation ofthe qur'anic verse "Everything will perish except his own face" (28:88) in his Futuhat al-makkiyya, cited in Chittick, Self-Disclosure, p. 156: "The pronoun that modifies 'face' goes back to 'thing' and it also goes back to the Real. You accord with that in which you stand, for you are the companion of a [present] moment [waqt]." See F. Rosenthal, "Ibn 'Arabi between 'Philosophy' and 'Mysticism,' " p. 29. 240. Sells, Early Islamic Mysticism, p. 284. 241. Izutsu, Creation and the Timeless Order, pp. 11-13, 76-77; Sells, Early Islamic Mysticism, pp. 43-45; Abrahamov, Divine Love in Islamic Mysticism, pp. 27 and 61—66. 242. Margaret Smith, Rabi'a the Mystic, p. 121; Abrahamov, Divine Love, p. 27. 243. SeYls, Early Islamic Mysticism, p. 155. 244. For discussion of the different facets of Rabi'a's asceticism, see Margaret Smith, Rabi'a, pp. 40-52, and her account ofthe celibate hfestyle of other women saints in Islam, pp. 195-205. 245. On depictions of Mary in the Qur'an and subsequent Islamic tradition, see Robson, "Stories ofjesus and Mary," pp. 236-243; Smith and Haddad, "Virgin Mary in Islamic Tradition," pp. 161-187; N. Robinson, "Jesus and Mary in the Qur'an," pp. 161-175; idem, Christ in Islam and Christianity, pp. 4-7, 45; Hagemann and Pulsfort, Maria, die Mutterfesu; Ayoub, Qur'an and Its Interpreters, vol. 2, pp. 93-107, 122-135; Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, p. 429; idem, "Jesus and Mary as Poetical Images," pp. 143-157; Schleifer, Mary the Blessed Virgin;; Leirvik, Images ofjesus Christ, pp. 23-27; Austin, "Sophianic Feminine," pp. 243244; Marshall, "Christianity in the Qur'an," pp. 4-7, 11-18; Hammad, Mary, the Chosen Woman. It is worth mentioning in this connection that the affirmation of the Virgin Birth in Islamic tradition was utilized by medieval Christian polemicists, for example, Peter the Venerable, to bolster the claim that Jews are worse than Mushms. On this point, see A. Abulafia, "Intellectual and Spiritual Quest," p. 63. On the reverence for Mary in contemporary Sufi teaching, see, for instance, al-Jerrahi, Blessed Virgin Mary. 246. Margaret Smith, Rabi'a, p. 21. 247. In Q 3:35-36, Maryam is identified as the daughter of'Imran and in 19:28 she is referred to as the "sister of Aaron," indicating that there was a conflation of Miriam ofthe Old Testament, the daughter of Amran and sister of Moses and Aaron (Num. 26:59), and Mary ofthe New Testament, the wife ofjoseph and mother ofjesus. The confiision was noted from a relatively early period by Christians as a polemical strategy to underscore misrepresentations of the New Testament in the Qur'an, although it is possible that the conflation in its inception was not a distortion but reflects a typological interpretation, perhaps traceable to some branch of Syrian Christianity, that hnked Miriam and Mary. See N. Robinson, Christ in Islam, pp. 9, 18-19, and Ayoub, Qur'an and Its Interpreters, vol. 2, pp. 88-92; Bauschke, Je^Mi im Koran, pp. 13-33. 248. In Q 4:156, the people ofthe book {ahl al-kitab), which in this context refers exclusively to the Jews and not to Jews and Christians (for a thorough discussion of this appellation, see Busse, Islam, fudaism, and Christianity, pp. 29-62, and see below, n. 275), are said to be punished for various reasons, including "their disbehef and their imputing to Mary a great falsehood." The nature ofthe falsehood is not specified, but it is hkely that there is an allusion here to one ofthe disparaging ways that Jews cast Mary in order to discredit the Christian narrative, for example, dismissing the belief in the virginal conception by identifying the father ofjesus as a Roman soldier, implying thereby that Mary was guilty of adultery, or depicting Jesus as ben niddah, hteraUy "son of a menstruant," a title that not only challenges the alleged virginity of Mary but also suggests that Jesus was conceived while she was menstruating, an accusation that imphes her failure to observe traditional Jewish purity laws. For select references to these themes, see E. Wolfson, "Re/membering the Covenant," pp. 234 n. 23 and 236-237 n. 39. Along with the sources mentioned there, see as well Y. Deut-

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sch, "New Evidence," pp. 177-197, esp. p. 182. Deutsch raises the possibihty that the designation ben niddah is a later interpolation dating fi-om the fifteenth century, with the earher texts emphasizing that Jesus was the offspring of an adulterous act. The insinuation of sexual immorality on the part of Mary is also imphed in Q 19:28. It is of interest to consider in this connection the exegesis of Q 19:16-17 that hnks the retreat of Mary behind the curtain to her purifying herself from menstrual impurity. See Kisa'i, Tales ofthe Prophets, p. 328; B. Wheeler, Moses in the Quran, pp. 77-79, 120. Finally, it is worth recalling the comment in Q 33:53 about the proper etiquette of requesting something fi-om a woman who is situated "before a screen." 249. Jesus, or as he is referred to in the Qur'an, 'Isa ibn Maryam or simply ibn Maryam, is identified as a prophet {nabfj, servant (abd), messenger {rasut), word {kalima), spirit {ruh), and the anointed one {al-masxh), but there is a categorical rejection of identifying him as the son of God or as a member ofthe Trinity. See Q 9:30, where Jews and Christians are both condemned for identifying a human figure as the son of God, for the former, 'Uzair (that is, Ezra), and for the latter, Jesus. For a representative hst of studies dedicated to the portrayals ofjesus in Islam, see Parrinder, Jesus in the Quran; Wismer, Islamic fesus; Raisanen, "Portrait of Jesus," pp. 122-133; Nurbakhsh, Jesus in the Eyes ofthe Sufis; Busse, Islam, fudaism, and Christianity, pp. 113137; ur-Rahim, JesMs; Prophet of Islam; N. Robinson, Christ in Islam; Leuze, Christentum und Islam, pp. 56-71; Cragg, Jesus and the Muslim; Zebiri, "Contemporary Mushm Understanding," pp. 71-90; Leirvik, Images of fesus Christ; Bauschke, Jesus im Koran. On the question ofthe divinity of Christ from the Mushm perspective, see also Ljamai, Ibn Hazm et la polemique, pp. 103-109. 250. See as well Q 5:116-117, where worship ofjesus or Mary is steadfastly rejected. On the possibility that the presentation of Christian faith in the relevant qur'anic verses reflects some heterodox interpretation, for example, identifying the Trinity as God, Jesus, and Mary (who is sometimes referred to as "Theotokos," the God-bearer), see Goddard, Muslim Perceptions of Christianity, pp. 14-15. Needless to say, the question of the representations ofjesus and Mary in Islamic scripture, tradition, and commentaries is a vast and complex subject that has been discussed by several notable scholars. The view I have expressed is based solely on qur'anic verses and hence does not deal adequately with the phenomenon of Islamic Christology. In addition to the relevant scholarly discussions mentioned in nn. 245 and 249, see Mahmud Mustafa Ayoub, "Jesus the Son of God," pp. 65-81. 251. Cragg, JesMj and the Muslim, p. 32. 252. Leirvik, Images offesus Christ, p. 96. Schimmel, "Jesus and Mary," pp. 143-145, emphasizes the importance ofthe portrayal ofjesus as the ideal ascetic in Sufi sources. 253. On the impact ofthe figure of Virgin Mary on the formation ofthe narrative accounts of Rabi'a, see Baldick, "Legend of Rabi'a of Basra," pp. 233-247. Relevant to this orientation is Ruml's comparison ofthe body to Mary and the spirit to Jesus, as noted by Ridgeon, Crescents on the Cross, pp. 38-39. 254. Qushayrl, Principles of Sufism, p. 143. 255. Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, pp. 167—178. 256. Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, p. 112; Knysh, Islamic Mysticism, pp. 71-72. 257. The paradox is poetically captured by al-Junayd, as cited in Sells, Early Islamic Mysticism, pp. 254-255: "My annihilation is my abiding. From the reahty of my annihilation, he annihilated me fi"om both my abiding and my annihilation. I was, upon the reality of annihilation, without being or annihilation, through my abiding and annihilation, for the existence (wujud) of annihilation in abiding, for the existence of my other is my annihilation. . . . He abides in your abiding, that is, the unity ofthe affirmer of unity abides through the abiding ofthe one who is one, even as the affirmer of unity passes away. Then you are you. You lacked yourself, and then you came to abide insofar as you passed away." See also p. 260: "He annihilated my construction just as he constructed me originally in the condition of my annihilation." 258. Ibid., p. 255. Compare the formulation of al-Qushayri translated by Sells, Early Islamic Mysticism, p. 120: "Whoever is seized by the sovereign power of reality, to the point that he no longer witnesses any vision, vestige, trace, or ruin ofthe others, is said to have passed away fi-om creatures and to endure through the real." 259. Ibid., p. 223. 531

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260. Ibid., p. 121. On the Sufi ideal of extinction in and unity with God, see Ritter, Ocean ofthe Soul, pp. 593-614. 261. Bowering, "Ideas ofTime," pp. 223-225. 262. Nicholson, Kashf al-Mahjub, p. 250. On the distinction between the "veil of covering" {hijab-i raynt), which can never be removed, and the "veil of clouding" {hijab-i ghaynt), which is removable, see Nicholson, Kashf al-Mahjub, pp. 4-5, 391; Chittick, "Paradox ofthe VeO," pp. 65-67. 263. Nicholson, Kashf al-Mahjub, p. 274. 264. Ibid., p. 22. 265. Ibid., p. 149; see also p. 325. On the use ofthe image of being hidden behind the veU to denote ignorance, see Moezzi, Divine Guide, pp. 166-167 n. 197. 266. Nicholson, Kashf al-Mahjub, p. 374. The Sufi terms qabd and bast are reminiscent of two pairs of terms in Lurianic kabbalah, hitpashtut and histalqut (expansion and withdrawal), and gadlut and qatnut (augmentation and diminution). Both pairs denote states ofthe theogonic myth, but they also apply psychologically to the consciousness of individuals. Although the later is more commonly associated with the metamorphosis of Lurianic theosophy in Hasidism, a careful reading ofthe sixteenth- and seventeenth-century kabbalistic sources yields no sound reason to separate the ontological and psychological. As I discussed in chapter i, kabbahsts affinn a consubstantiahty of divine and human, and hence to contemplate the one is to contemplate the other, an idea that I developed on the basis ofthe essay by my teacher, Alexander Altmann (see chap, i, n. 302). If that insight is properly heeded, there is no conceptual basis for the distinction between the theosophical and psychological when one considers the phenomenological orientation of medieval kabbalists. 267. Nicholson, Kashf al-Mahjub, p. 414. 268. Chittick, Self-Disclosure, pp. 106-108. One ofthe most elaborate accounts ofthe revelatory experience of unveihng {kashf) is found in Hikmat al-ishraq, the "Wisdom of Illumination," by the twelfth-century Persian mystic, Suhrawardi. I cannot possibly do justice to Suhrawardl's complex blending of eastern spirituality and Neoplatonic philosophy in this note. Let me simply remark that, in accord with the latter, he affirms the possibility of the soul separating from the body and ascending mentally to the higher realm, where it contemplates by way of "unveiling and intuition" the intelligible hghts without veils linked to the hindrance of corporeahty, culminating in a pure vision ofthe Light of Lights, the formless and imageless source of all being, the "true King" who "possesses the essence of everything but whose essence is possessed by none." See Suhrawardl, Philosophy of Illumination, p. 96; Razavi, Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination, pp. 87-92. 269. I note, parenthetically, as Meier has pointed out in Essays on Islamic Piety and Mysticism, pp. 400-420, esp. pp. 408-409, as early as the ninth century the practice of veiling the face could also symbolize the mystery of sanctity, that is, he who veiled his face was thought to be the incarnation of the hidden and impenetrable hght ofthe divine. Like Moses, according to Hebrew scriptures (Exod. 34:33-35), the holy man in Islam had to veil his face so that the radiance of his countenance would not harm others. See chap. 3, n. 153. On the use of this theme in later Islamic exegesis, see B. Wheeler, Moses in the Quran, p. 32. 270. On the creed that God spoke directly to Moses in Muslim faith, see Merhn Swartz, Medieval Critique of Anthropomorphism, p. 276 n. 480. 271. Nicholson, Mathnawi, 5:233-234. 272. Babylonian Talmud, Yevamot 49b. 273. Sells, Early Islamic Mysticism, p. 80. 274. al-Kalabadhi, Doctrine ofthe Sufis, p. 117. 275. See above, n. 248. 276. For other accounts ofthe sin ofthe golden calf, see Q 7:138-140, 148-153, 20:83-98; U. Rubin, Between Bible and Qur'an, pp. 100-113; idem, "Traditions in Transformation," pp. 196-214, esp. pp. 201-209. The depiction of Jews as idolaters and promoters of anthropomorphic-corporeahst views of God, in part supported by the scriptural narrative regarding the golden calf, continued to be a major ploy in the medieval Islamic polemic against Judaism. See Hawting, Idea of Idolatry, pp. 75-85. For an attenuated reading ofthe golden calf episode that challenges a rigid distinction between idolatry and true worship, see the analysis of Ibn 'Arabi's exegesis in Nettler, Suft Metaphysics, pp. 64-66.

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277. See chap. 3, n. 89. 278. Nicholson, Mathnawt, 1:1435-1436. I note the similarity ofthe imagery used by RumI and the language ofjoseph Gikatilla; for reference, see chap. 7, n. 246. 279. Ibid., 1:3146. On the pohshed mirror as a symbol ofthe "purified heart ofthe lover" that facilitates the "mysterious union" ofthe lover and beloved in Sufism, see Schimmel, "Mawlana Rum I," p. 17. On the emptying of all images from the heart and Rumi's poetics of silence, see Keshavarz, Reading Mystical Lyric, pp. 49-71. 280. Chittick, Self-Disclosure, pp. xxi-xxii; idem, Sufi Path of Knowledge, pp. 68-76; idem, Imaginal Worlds, pp. 23-29. See also Nicholson, Studies in Islamic Mysticism, p. 140; Nettler, Sufi Metaphysics, pp. 7-11, 18-22, 80-88, 116-122. 281. Ibn 'Arabi, Bezels of Wisdom, pp. 74-75. 282. Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, p. 268. On the narrowing ofthe ontic gap between God, world, and soul in Sufi mysticism, see the wealth of material translated and analyzed by Ritter, Ocean of the Soul, pp. 615-636. 283. See chap, i, n. 270. It is of interest to recall the conjecture by Nasr, Sufi Essays, pp. 159-163, that the derivation ofthe "unicity of nature" from the "unity ofthe Divine principle" affirmed by masters of Islamic gnosis, the presumption that unity {al-tawhXct) "pervades all things and all forms of knowledge," is indebted to a basic axiom of Eastem science expressed in Chinese and Japanese traditions in terms of the unity ofthe ten thousand things in the one substance ofthe whole. Nasr suggests, moreover, that just as Islam geographically "covers the middle belt ofthe world, intellectually and spiritually it occupies a position half way between the mental chmate of the Occident and the intellectual chmate of the Indian and Far Eastern worlds" (p. 160). 284. Several interesting traditions conceming the veil are cited in the section on the symbols ofthe throne and footstool in Heinen, Islamic Cosmology, pp. 133—134. 285. Ghazall, Niche of Lights, p. 44. 286. Ibid., p. 51. The boldness of al-Ghazali's text is attested by the fact that some considered it a heretical affirmation of multiphcity within the divine. See Colville, Two Andalusian Philosophers, pp. 9 and 69-70 n. 17. 287. Ghazall, Niche of Lights, p. 52. See Fakhry, History of Islamic Philosophy, pp. 248-249. A similar depiction is given by Ibn Tufayl in his account of the third and final type of mimesis that ends in a vision of the One wherein the self as an autonomous being vanishes; see Hughes, Texture ofthe Divine, p. ioi. 288. Heinen, Islamic Cosmology, p. 133. 289. SeUs, Early Islamic Mysticism, p. 291. 290. Chittick, "Paradox ofthe Veil," p. 83. 291. Chittick, Self-Disclosure, p. 110; idem, "Paradox ofthe Veil," p. 74. 292. Chittick, Self-Disclosure, p. 129; idem, "Paradox ofthe Veil," pp. 81-82. 293. Chittick, Self-Disclosure, p. 156; idem, "Paradox ofthe Veil," pp. 74-75. 294. Chittick, Self-Disclosure, pp. 105, 107-108, 113, 115, 156. 295. Ibn 'Arabi, Divine Governance ofthe Human Kingdom, p. 239. For a detailed rationalist interpretation of Q 28:88, see Abrahamov, Anthropomorphism, pp. 98-109. 296. Ibn 'Arabi, Divine Covemance, p. 239. 297. Chittick, Suji Path of Knowledge, p. 230. The Sufi wisdom brings to mind the poem of enhghtenment composed by the Zen master Tozan Ryokai after having caught a glimpse of his reflection in the water, cited in Jokin, Keizan, and Kennett, Denkoroku, p. 209: "Truly I should not seek for the T R U T H from others/ For then it will be far from me; / Now I am going alone, / Everywhere I am able to meet HIM. / HE is ME now, / 1 am not HIM; / When we understand this, / We are instantaneously with the T R U T H . " 298. On the identity of veil and face, see the relevant texts cited and analyzed in Chittick, Self-Disclosure, pp. 128-135. 299. A similar claim is made for Buddhist phenomenology by Laycock, Mind as Mirror, pp. 49-50. This comparison is worthy of further reflection, but this is not the appropriate context; perhaps one day I shall retum to it. 533

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300. Cited in Ziai, "Hafez, Lisan al-Ghayb," p. 466: "There is no veil bhnding the lover's vision ofthe beloved, / Thou art thyself the veil Hafez! Remove thyself from the midst." Maria Subtelny graciously provided me with an alternative rendering of this passage, which has helped me refine my exposition: "Between [miyan] the lover and the beloved there is no barrier [hayil] I You yourself are the veil [/li/afc] of selfhood, Hafez, remove yourself from this midst [miyan]." 301. Shayegan, "The Visionary Typography of Hafiz," p. 17. See also Glunz, "Poet's Heart," pp. 53-68; my thanks to Maria Subtelny for drawing my attention to this study. 302. The medium for visualization is most often designated as the veil, mirror, or heart ofthe visionary, but in the Persian tradition, it is also associated with the world-reveahng cup of Jamshld. See, for instance, Suhrawardl, Philosophical Allegories, p. 81; Hafiz, Fifty Poems, no. 11 p. 94, no. 15 p. 97; Glunz, "Poet's Heart," pp. 54 and 62. In the poetry of Hafiz, the cup ofthe mythical king seems often conflated with the cup of wine whence the visionary enjoys the ecstasy of intoxication. See, for instance, Hafiz, Fifty Poems, no. 16 p. 100, no. 46 p. 129. In mystical and philosophical works, moreover, the cup is applied allegorically to the Active Intellect, identified as well as the Holy Spirit and the archangel Gabriel. See Ziai, "Hafez, Lisan alGhayb," pp. 454 n. 16 and 465; Ritter, Ocean ofthe Soul, pp. 602-603. 303. Ziai, "Hafez, Lisan al-Ghayb," pp. 467—469. 304. Hafiz, The Gift, p. 148. 305. This is reminiscent ofthe wisdom ofthe "gateless gate" {wu-wen kuan)—the title of a work by the Chinese master Wu-men Hui-hai (i 183-1269)—articulated in the Zen Buddhist tradition: only after having passed through the gate does one know that there is no gate through which to pass. 306. Zohar i:i6ib. The language of annihilation, avaddon, is derived from Job 28:22, where the word personifies a force of destruction, and hence it is paired with mawet, the personification of death. In scriptural context, these forces say ofthe wisdom hidden from all hving beings (Job 28:20-21) that they have heard about it {be-ozneinu shama'nu shim'ah), evidently an inferior form of discernment. God alone comprehends its way and knows its place and thus employs it as the means of creation, a measuring by the way of wisdom, culminating in the instruction to man that wisdom is the fear ofthe Lord and understanding the shunning of evil (Job 28:23-28). The zoharic author obviously interprets avaddon in his own kabbahstic way, using the term to demarcate the mystical passing away into the attribute of the divine that is no/thing that is everything, the emptiness that is full, the fullness that is empty. I have thus taken the hberty to compare this to the Sufi fana' al-fana', the passing of passing. I should note, in passing, that in the continuation ofthe zoharic text (3: i6ib—162a), avaddon and mawet are apphed respectively to the male and female powers ofthe demonic, Samael and his female cohort, the "primordial snake" {nahash qadmdah), the "woman of harlotry" {eshet zenunim), whose "feet descend down to death" (Prov. 5:5). In the fifth chapter of Alef, Mem, Tau, I exegete this tum on the path, which leads the mystic hermeneut, the maskil, in emulation ofjacob, "to draw near truth, the signet ofthe holy king," leitqarva ba-emet hotama de-malka qaddisha {Zohar 1:162a). 307. The identification ofthe heart and throne is a crucial dimension of Sufi piety and is well attested in medieval Jewish philosophic, poetic, and mystical works. See E. Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp. 178-180, in addition to which many more examples could be adduced as illustration of the motif 308. My translation is based on the Hebrew text pubhshed in Idel, Le Porte della Giustizia, p. 482; Italian translation by Maurizio Mottolese appears on p. 424. See also Sha'arei Sedeq, ed. Parush, p. 27. For altemative Enghsh renderings, see Scholem, Major Trends, p. 155; Idel, Mystical Experience, p. 108. 309. The breakdown ofthe inside-outside polarity is also expressed by Abulafia and the author of Sha'arei Sedeq (traceable to earher figures, for example, Abraham Ibn Ezra) with respect to the source of prophetic speech: the divine word is conceived of as originating in the human heart, but the human heart does naught but reflect back the luster and timbre ofthe divine word. See Scholem, Major Trends, pp. 141-142; idem, "Eine kabbahstische Erklamng," pp. 285-290. Some ofthe pertinent sources are cited and analyzed by Idel, Mystical Experience, pp. 84-85, 89-91. It is relevant here to recall as well the discussion of ek-stasis in Buber, Ecstatic Confessions, pp. 2-3, 7, 8. Buber insightfully articulated the view that ecstasy is the turning inward that entails projection outward, indeed, because it is an experience {Eriebnis) ofthe "most inward" it is placed the "flirthest outward," an experience of I cast as an experience of God. See Mendes-Flohr, From Mysticism to Dialogue, pp. 62-66; E. Wolison, "Problem of Unity," pp. 423-444, esp. pp. 424-428. 534

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310. Zimmer, "On the Significance," p. 13. The affmity between Yoga and Abulafian kabbalah, indeed the bold claim that prophetic kabbalah is, in truth, a "Judaized version" of Indian yogic practice, was proffered by Scholem, Major Trends, pp. 139 and 144. Idel, Mystical Experience, pp. 14, 24, notes other interesting similarities between the meditational practice of Abulafia and Yoga techniques of breathing. See, however, Idel's more cautionary attitude, pp. 39-40. 311. My formulation is indebted to Aquila, "Self as Matter and Form," pp. 31-54, esp. p. 44. 312. I translate from the text transcribed by Scholem, "Eine kabbalistische Erklarung," p. 287: "The enlightened sage [he-hakham ha-maskil], his honor, R. Nathan, blessed be his memory, said: Know that the perfection ofthe secret of prophecy for the prophet is when suddenly he sees the image of himself standing before him, and he forgets himself and it disappears firom him, and he sees his image before him speaking to him and informing him of future events. Conceming this secret the sages, blessed be their memory said [Genesis Rabbah 27:1, pp. 255-256] 'Great is the power ofthe prophets for they compare the form to its creator.'" For an alternative Enghsh translation, see idem. Major Trends, p. 142. A version ofthe text was pubhshed in Shoshan Sodot, 69b, noted and cited by Idel, Mystical Experience, pp. 91-92. According to the interpretation ofthe aggadic dictum transmitted in the name of R. Nathan, disciple of Abulafia and teacher of Isaac of Acre (see Idel, Mystical Experience, pp. 91-92; idem. Studies in Ecstatic Kabbalah, pp. 73-89, 98 n. 18, 149 n. 42, 151 nn. 61-62), the peak of prophecy consists ofthe spontaneous dissolution ofthe distinction between inside and outside: the form that the prophet sees communicating information about the future of his own image. It is worth comparing this feature of prophetic kabbalah to the description ofthe final stage of the mystical ideal set forth by Ibn Sina cited by Ibn Tufayl, Story of Hayy ibn Yaqzan, in Colville, Two Andalusian Philosophers, pp. 4-5: "his deepest being becomes hke a flawless mirror facing the truth. . . . At this level, he sees the truth and he sees his own soul—as it is seeing—and looks firom one to the other. He then loses all consciousness of himself, seeing only paradise, and there achieves union." 313. Idel, Le Porte della Ciustizia, pp. 245—250. 314. It is hkely that implied here is the identification of Torah and the Active Intellect, a central idea in Abulafian kabbalah. If this surmise is correct, then the symbol of malbush applies as well to the Active Intellect. A similar notion is expressed by Ibn Latif, Sha'ar ha-Shamayim, fol. 28a, in his description ofthe Active Intellect, based in part on the depiction of Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Yesodei ha-Torah 2:7: "Perhaps this tenth intellect is called '[the man] clothed in hnen' [levush ha-baddim] (Dan. 12:6) on account ofthe fact that it clothes [malbush] form in matter and matter in form." 315. Abulafia, Osar Eden Ganuz, fol. 66b (printed ed., p. 132). 316. On the tension between the apophatic and kataphatic in Abulafia's treatises, see E. Wolfson, Abraham Abulafia, pp. 152-177. 317. Maimonides, Guide 1:26, p. 56. 318. Abulafia, Or ha-Sekhel, fol. 71b (printed ed., p. 70). 319. Abulafia, Or ha-Sekhel, fol. 72b (printed ed., p. 69). 320. Idel, Language, Torah, Henneneutics, pp. 34-38, 79, 163 n. 33. 321. Here I take issue with Scholem's assessment in Major Trends, p. 139, of Abulafia's use ofthe "theory of prophecy" derived fi-om medieval philosophical sources. For an elaboration ofthe difference in approach between Scholem and myself with regard to the relationship between philosophy and kabbalah, see E. Wolfson, "Conceptions of Wisdom," pp. 151-156. For further references, see above, n. 56. 322. Scholem, Major Trends, p. 141. The staying power of this conception is reflected in a comment of the sixteenth-century homihst in Padua, Menahem ben Moses Rabba, Beit Mo'ed, 155a, interpreting the aggadic tradition attributed to R. Simai (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 88a) that when Israel responded to Moses "all that the Lord shall speak we shall do and we shall hsten" (Exod. 24:7) "600,000 ministering angels affixed on each and every Israehte two crowns, one for 'we shall do' and one for 'we shall hsten'": "This teaches us that Torah brings forth the potentiality of man to complete actuality until he is hke an angel ofthe Lord, which is the Active Intellect [sekhel ha-po'el]. And the proof that Israel acquired perfection [sheleimut] by means of Torah is that they became the Active Intellect to the point that even their matter was transformed into the intellectual [maskil], as if the two parts were one alone. . . . Thus they put 'we shall do' first, which 535

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is comparable to matter, to 'we shall listen,' which is comparable to intellect, and as a consequence they were like the angels in complete actuahty." 323. Abulafia, Or ha-Sekhel, fol. 75a (printed ed., p. 72). 324. Here I have followed the reading preserved in the manuscript; the printed version reads siyyurit gashmit, which should be translated as "corporeal image" (see next note for references). 325. Abulafia, Hayyei ha-Olam ha-Ba, fols. 4a-b (printed ed., pp. 48-49). 326. E. Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp. 160-181, esp. pp. 166-167. 327. Abulafia, Hayyei ha-Olam ha-Ba, fols. 4b-5a (printed ed., p. 49). 328. Abulafia, Sitrei Torah, fol. 135b (printed ed., p. 73). 329. On the name YHWA, see E. Wolfson, Through a Speculum, p. 252 n. 264. 330. Corbin, Creative Imagination, pp. 22, 33, passim; see p. 27, where Corbin remarks that the "dominant" aspect of Shi'ite thought is "the idea ofthe Theophany in Human form, the divine anthropomorphosis which fills the gulf left open by abstract monotheism . . . the manifestation of the unknowable God in the angehc form ofthe celestial anthropos." This axiom of Islamic esotericism resonates with the figure of Christos Angelos in the angelomorphic Christology that has been traced to Jewish Christians in the formative period known in scholarly parlance as Christian origins. See Corbin, Paradoxe du monotheisme, pp. 83-96. For other references to angelic Christology, see chap, i, n. 354. 331. Corbin, Creative Imagination, p. 63. On the holy spirit and the anthropomorphic manifestation ofthe angel, see idem, Paradoxe du monotheisme, pp. 50-63, 143-150. On Ibn Sina's al-hikma al-mashriqiya, see Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, pp. 115-130; idem, "Ibn Tufayl on Ibn Sina's Eastem Philosophy," pp. 222-241.

332. Corbin, Creative Imagination, p. 35, cites the exegesis ofjacob's contest with the angel (Gen. 32:2529) by the "Jewish mystic Joseph ben Judah," i.e., Joseph ben Judah Ibn Aqnin, as an example ofthe soul's quest for union with the Active Intellect, personified as the angel in the form of an anthropos. Corbin then makes the foUowing remark: "A whole series ofjewish speculative mystics found the same symbolism in the Song of Songs, where the Beloved plays the role ofthe active Intelligence, while the heroine is the thinking human soul." In a manner far more astute than many scholars of medieval Jewish mysticism, Corbin insightfully discemed that the philosophical interpretation ofthe Song as a figurative account ofthe conjunction of the human and Active Intellect may be demarcated as a form of speculative mysticism. See my discussion below, chap. 8. 333. Corbin, Avicenna, p. 8; for more extensive discussion ofthe process of individuation and angehc epiphany, see pp. TJ-p/ie(/i in the Tents of Shem, pp. 191-201; E. Diamond, Holy Men and Hunger Artists. See also Soloveitchik, "Halakhic Approach to Suffering," pp. 3-24. In line with Maimonides, Soloveitchik offers a Platonic interpretation of the rabbinic distinction between this world and the world-tocome; the loftier telos of commitment to ritual is escape from the physical realm of sensual desire. 26. P. Brown, Body and Society, pp. 223-224, 269; T. Shaw, Burden ofthe Flesh, pp. 161-253. On women ascetics and fasting, see also Bynum, Holy Feast, pp. 78-93. 27. Mishnah, Sotah 3:4. 28. Palestinian Talmud, Sotah 3:4, 19a. 29. See Weinstein, Piety and Fanaticism, pp. 107-144. On the subsidiary role of women as silent partners delegated the exclusive task of bearing children according to the rabbinic construction, see Baskin, Midrashic Women, pp. 88-118. P. Brown, Body and Society, pp. 62-63, perceptively noted that the rabbinic acceptance of marriage as the means to insure survival ofthe community was in part a reaction to expressions of radical asceticism. The attack on women ascetics in rabbinic literature stands in sharp contrast to the portrayal of women by the rabbis as lacking the ability to control their impulses as well as the more negative depiction of women as temptresses and seductresses. See Satlow, Tasting the Dish, pp. 155-159; idem, "Try to Be a Man," pp. 35-36. 30. Sahsbury, Church Fathers, pp. 11-38; H. Bloch, "Medieval Misogyny," pp. 87-117. For a later example of this bias, see the description ofthe "feminine secrets" in the discourse of La Vieille in Roman de la Rose as summarized by Huot, Romance ofthe Rose, pp. 92-93. 31. This image ofthe feminine, which has had an enduring influence on generations ofjewish male exegetes, has its roots in Scripture. See Bach, Women, Seduction, and Betrayal. 32. Boyarin, Dying for Cod, pp. 67-92, esp. pp. 74-78. For an independent discussion ofthe process of feminization ofjacob vis-a-vis Edom in rabbinic thought, see E. Wolfson, "Face ofjacob," pp. 237-238. 33. My fonnulation is indebted to M. Green, "From 'Diseases of Women,'" p. 7, who makes a similar argument with regard to the genre of secrets of women in late medieval gynecological hterature. As Green notes, the adoption of this title by men "did not enshroud women's bodies with a protective barrier to the male gaze; rather, it rendered women's bodies open for inteUectual scmtiny in ways that, quite understandably, may have left certain observers with concem that medical discourse had more power to harm women than to help them." In my estimation, this assessment can be apphed to rabbinic and kabbalistic accounts of the female body. 34. Foucault, Religion and Culture, p. 179. On the nexus between martyrdom and asceticism in early Christian sources, see ViUer, "Martyre et perfection," pp. 3-25; idem, "Martyre et I'ascese," pp. 105-142; Ladner, Idea of Reform, pp. 319-373. These sources are cited in Friedrich-Silber, Virtuosity, Charisma, and Social Order, p. 120 n. 4. See also Binns, Ascetia and Ambassadors of Christ, pp. 140, 230-231. For an exploration of a similar confluence of themes, see E. Wolfson, "Martyrdom, Eroticism, and Asceticism," pp. 171220. 35. See Luke 20:34-40, and discussion in Fletcher-Louis, Luke-Acts, pp. 78-86; on angelomorphic ceh560

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bacy in Qumran, that is, the nexus between the angelic status ofthe ideal human nature and sectarian asceticism, see pp. 193-195; idem. All the Ctory of Adam, pp. 131-134. On the ascetic tendencies in Qumran sectarianism and the desire to overcome sexual pollution, which fostered the anointing of males into angehc perfection and the pledging of select female virgins in a ceremony of immaculate conception, see Sheres and Blau, Truth about the Virgin. On the question of celibacy, marriage, and the place of women in the community reflected in the firagments retrieved from the caves at Qumran, see also Daniel, "Esseniens et Eunuques," pp. 353-390; Baumgarten, "On the Testimony of Women," pp. 125-136; idem, "4Q502," pp. 125-136; idem, "Qumran-Essene Restraints on Marriage," p. 13; idem, "Cave 4 Versions," pp. 268-276; idem, "Celibacy," pp. 122-125; Qimron, "Celibacy in the Dead Sea Scrolls," pp. 287-294; Elder, "Woman Question," pp. 220-234; Talmon, "Community ofthe Renewed Covenant," pp. 9-10; Schuller, "Evidence for Women," pp. 252-265; Stegemann, Library of Qumran, pp. 193-198; Thiede, Dead Sea Scrolls, pp. 28-33; Harrington, "Holiness and Law," pp. 124-135, esp. pp. 126 and 131; and the material evidence adduced to support the view that the sectarian community was predominantly made up of male celibates in Zias, "Cemeteries of Qumran," pp. 220-253; Magness, Archaeology of Qumran, pp. 38, 163-187. The link between celibacy and the original angehc state of humankind seems to be implied in the tradition attributed to R. Meir that after the sin in the Garden of Eden, Adam adopted the life of a pious soul {hasid), which included refraining from sexual relations with his wife. Ascetic renunciation, with a special focus on sexual denial, is thus presented as atonement for transgression. For citation and analysis of relevant sources, see Ginzberg, Legends, vol. 5, pp. 115 n. 106, 148 n. 46. 36. Aspegren, Male Woman, pp. 132-133. 37. See references cited in chap. 2, n. 15; Scroggs, "Paul and the Eschatological Woman," pp. 283-303; idem, "Paul and the Eschatological Woman Revisited," pp. 532-537. The position implied in some of Paul's comments was affirmed more explicitly in the apphcation ofthe expression demuta de-mala'ke ("hkeness of angels") to celibate priests in the Syrian Christian tradition. Inasmuch as angels were thought to be nongendered beings, the monastic life afforded men and women the opportunity to become angehc and thereby transcend gender dimorphism. See P. Brown, Authority and the Sacred, p. 78; idem, "Arbiters of Ambiguity," pp. 123-142, esp. pp. 140-142; idem, "Rise and Function," pp. 353-376, esp. pp. 371-372; Barstad, "Body, Soul, and Image," pp. 262-266. Exhortations to virginity through the Middle Ages continued to focus on the nexus between chastity and purity ofthe angehc hfe. See Mews, "Virginity, Theology, and Pedagogy," pp. 21-22, and the passages from Speculum Virginum in the Appendix, pp. 275, 283, and 290. 38. See Ruether, "Misogynism and Virginal Feminism," pp. 150-183; idem, "Mothers ofthe Church," pp. 71-98; idem. Women and Redemption, pp. 13-43; E. Clark, Ascetic Piety and Women's Faith, pp. 175-208; idem, Reading Renunciation, pp. 95, 127, 345-347; Elm, "Virgins of Cod," pp. 47-51, 106-136; G. Clark, "Women and Asceticism," pp. 33-48; Boyarin, Radical few, pp. 180-200; C. Cooper, Virgin and the Bride, pp. 45-67; Streete, "Women as Sources of Redemption," pp. 347-350; Clack, "Virgins and Vessels," pp. 193-202. On women ascetics and mystical piety in the Christian Middle Ages, see Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast, pp. 82-87, 103-104; idem. Fragmentation and Redemption, pp. 53-78, 131-134; Petroff, Body and Soul, pp. 205-206. 39. MacDonald, There Is No Male and Female, pp. 72-91; Wire, Corinthian Women Prophets, pp. 116-180; Gritz, Paul, Women Teachers, and the Mother Goddess, pp. 79-93; L.Johnson, First and Second Letters, pp. 198211; and Kostenberger, Studies onfohn and Cender. See also Eph. 5;22-24, and the analysis by Dawes, Body in Question. See also 0kland, "Man Is the Measure of all Things," pp. 59-82; Peerbolte, "Man, Woman, and the Angels," pp. 76-92. On the continued impact of Paul's negative assessment of women on the shaping of medieval clerical misogyny, see Gregg, Devils, Women, and fews, pp. 89-91. 40. E. Clark, Jerome, Chrysostom, and Friends, pp. 15, 19, 55-56; idem. Ascetic Piety, pp. 180 and 199 n. 38; Cloke, Female Man of C^d; Brooten, "Paul's Views on the Nature of Women," pp. 61-87; idem. Love between Women, pp. 215-266; Elm, "Virgins of Cod," pp. 108-111; E. CasteUi, "Paul on Women and Gender," pp. 221-235; Aspegren, Male Woman; D Leclerc, Singleness of Heart, pp. 25-59; S. Davis, "Crossed Texts, Crossed Sex," pp. 1-36; Schulenburg, Forgetful of Their Sex, pp. 155-166. For a useful review ofthe attitude toward women promoted by the Church in late-antique Graeco-Roman culture, see K. Power, Veiled Desire, pp. 23-68. 561

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41. The connection between martyrdom, asceticism, and the ideal of becoming male is discussed at length by Miles, Camal Knowing, pp. 53-77. On Augustine's steadfast denial that women bear the image of God, see Power, Veiled Desire, pp. 131-1168. On the anthropological question as to whether women were considered to have been created in God's image, like men, or at best, in the hkeness ofthe image, which is restricted to men, a view hnked exegetically to a reading of Gen. 1:26 in light of i Cor. ii;7, see Borresen, "God's Image, Man's Image?" pp. 192-194; Hunter, "Paradise of Patriarchy," pp. 447-469; N. Harrison, "Women, Human Identity, and the Image of God," pp. 205-249. See also the analysis ofthe patristic topos "she will be called man" in Jantzen, Power, Gender and Christian Mysticism, pp. 43-58. 42. Patrilogiae Latina, edited by Jean-Paul Migne, 26:533, cited in Rapp, "Woman Speaks," p. 4; see also E. Clark, Reading Renunciation, pp. 167, 335, 360. 43. Talbot, "Comparison ofthe Monastic Experience," p. 9; and compare the discussion of "frightful women" in Leyerle, Theatrical Shows, pp. 143-182. 44. Power, Veiled Desire, p. 166. On the persistence ofthe virginal strategies adopted by women saints within medieval Christian societies, see the learned and balanced discussion in Schulenburg, Forgetful of Their Sex, pp. 127-175. 45. Beauvoir, Second Sex, pp. 675-678; and see Gatens, Feminism and Philosophy, p. 55. 46. See Hunter, "Clerical Celibacy," pp. 139-152. 47. McGuire, "Virginity and Subversion," pp. 241-258. On the possible evolution and transformation of this mythical discourse in a later Jewish magical document, see Leicht, "Gnostic Myth in Jewish Garb," pp. 133-140. In this text, the gnostic virgin savior becomes the evil witch who, by rendering men impotent, brings sin and corruption rather than redemption and hberation. On the transformations ofthe gnostic figure of Norea, itself rooted in the ancient Near Eastem Lichtjungfrau, "maiden of hght," in medieval Islamic and Jewish esoteric sources, see the evidence adduced by Wasserstrom, "Jewish Pseudepigrapha in Muslim Literature," pp. 97-99 (my gratitude to the author for caUing my attention to his work). 48. On the roots ofthe dual portrayal of woman as sacred and demonic, see chap. 2, n. 91. For a provocative example in the history of European Christianity of the blurring of gender identity in the visual and verbal representations of a figure who is both masculine and feminine, including the striking image of a bearded woman, see Friesen, Female Crucifix. Friesen is ofthe opinion that the depictions and veneration of St. Wilgefortis are illustrative ofthe Pauhne new order based on transcending gender polarity (pp. 19-33). It is not clear to me that becoming Christhke actually entailed (in historical perspective) the total and unquahfied abohshment of gender difference. It seems to me equally plausible theoretically and perhaps far more accurate historically to view the transvestite saint as an illustration ofthe androcentric bias (promoted as well by the patriarchal ecclesiastic authorities) according to which femininity is itself expressive of the mascuhne rather than interpreting it as an indication of gender ambiguity. 49. Ranke-Heinemann, Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven, pp. 9-152. Regarding the theme ofthe "male virgin" and citation of some ofthe relevant sources, see Ford, Revelation, pp. 242-244. I am reluctant to accept Ford's argument that "virgin" in this context has nothing to do with being unmarried but is a symbol used to express fidehty to God. The ascetic reading in which the metaphoric and hteral meanings would converge seems to be more plausible, and on the face of it the virginal beings are exclusively male. This is not to deny the effort of subsequent exegetes to extend the description in Rev. 14:3-5 so that the "men" denoted women as well. Consider the example of Cyprian discussed by E. Clark, Reading Renunciation, p. 139. 50. Compare the description in Rev. 14:1-5 of 144,000 men standing together with the Lamb on Mount Zion. These men, who had the names ofthe Lamb and the Father inscribed on their foreheads (14:1), are described as having been "redeemed from the earth" since they were virgins who had not defiled themselves with women (14:3-4). Despite the fact that entry into this heavenly realm is offered only to those who are redeemed from the bondage ofthe material world by adopting a celibate lifestyle, the gender identity remains critical, as it is clear that the virgins {parthenoi) referred to are only male since the demonstrative pronoun outoi, "these," is masculine. The angehfication of these male virgins is underscored in the description ofthe new song they utter before the throne, the living creatures, and the elders (14:3). 51. Elm, "Virgins of Cod," p. 123. 562

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52. Horstmanshoff, "Who Is the True Eunuch?" pp. 101-118. For a different approach, see Stevenson, "Rise of Eunuchs," pp. 495-511. For the phenomenon of castration as a gesture of "cutting off desire at the root" in the Buddhist cultural settings of China and Japan, see Faure, Red Thread, pp. 34-37. 53. Ringrose, "Living in the Shadows," pp. 85-109, esp. pp. 87-88; idem. Perfect Servant; Horstmanshoff, "Who Is the True Eunuch?," p. 108. 54. See Herdt, "Introduction," pp. 21-81. 55. Kuefler, Manly Eunuch, pp. 245-282. Also relevant here is the discussion in Foucault, History of Sexuality, vol. 3, p. 121, of authors in late antiquity who viewed abstention, and particularly the retention of semen, as a means of augmenting male potency. 56. Wisse, "Flee Femininity." 57. Coptic Cnostic Library, vol. 4, p. 223. 58. On the "Triple Powered One," see John Turner, Sethian Cnostidsm, pp. 512-531. 59. K. King, Revelation ofthe Unknowable God, pp. 78-81. For an altemative rendering of this text, see Coptic Cnostic Library, vol. 5, p. 193. 60. See K. King, Revelation ofthe Unknowable Cod, p. 29 and sources cited in n. 120. 61. It behooves me to note that in several passages there is an explicit refusal to refer to the invisible, ineffable, unfathomable, and irrmieasurable monad as "god" or "divine" being. See Coptic Gnostic Library, vol. 2, pp. 20, 24-25. 62. Ibid., p. 21. 63. Ibid., pp. 16-19. See Waidstein, "Primal Triad," pp. 154-187. Also relevant for an appreciation of the trinitarian speculation attested in Gnostic sources is the study by Manchester, "Noetic Triad," pp. 207222. 64. Coptic Gnostic Library, vol. 5, p. 275. 65. As noted by K. King, Revelation ofthe Unknowable God, p. 80, note to 45.i7b-22a. See also John Turner, "Time and History in Sethian Gnosticism," pp. 209-211. 66. Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, V.3, p. 56. 67. T. Shaw, Burden ofthe Flesh, pp. 247-252, suggests that the transvestite motif of becoming male is to be quahfied by the fact that female virgins were valorized as brides of Christ. Shaw acknowledges that this metaphor was applied to the souls of men or to the Church, but she contends that in fourth-century ascetic writings it became increasingly the demarcation of female virginity, that is, in virtue of choosing a hfe of chastity, the virgin becomes the spouse of Christ. I am not persuaded by Shaw's argument that the attribution ofthe title "bride of Christ" to women ascetics conveys a positive valorization ofthe female that balances the eschatological transvestitism imphed by the demand that the female become male. On the contrary, virginity itself is a cultural rejection of femaleness, as a number of scholars have argued. 68. See chap. 2, n. 24, and chap. 4, n. 164. 69. J. M. Robinson, Nag Hammadi Library, p. 369: "And do not become female, lest you give birth to evil and (its) brothers: jealousy and division, anger and wrath, fear and a divided heart, and empty, nonexistent desire." 70. LeGoff, Medieval Imagination, p. 83. 71. S. Bell, "Medieval Women Book Owners," pp. 742-768, esp. pp. 762-763. 72. For instance, see Semple, "Male Psyche and Female Sacred Body." 73. Se\ls, Early Islamic Mysticism, p. 155. 74. Margaret Smith, Rabi'a, 19-21; Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, pp. 426-435; idem. My Soul Is a Woman, pp. 34-37; Chittick, Self-Disclosure, pp. 374-376. 75. On the images of Mary in Islamic tradition, see chap. 5, n. 245. 76. Schimmel, My Soul Is a Woman, pp. 77-80. See chap. 2, n. 12. Consider the response of Abida Parvin to the query conceming women having a part in singing Sufi poetry, cited in Abbas, Female Voice in Sufi Ritual, p. 22: "Male and female does not even come to it—what you call Allah is one—God is the mehver [center] of everything—^you make a roundabout and whatever way it goes . . . it will go to it—it really does not matter whether it is male or female—in fact we can really say that in the Sufi's terminology—if someone is not a male—he is called a female." 563

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77. Sells, Early Islamic Mysticism, pp. 161—162. 78. Butorovic, "Between the Tariqa and the Shari'a," p. 144. 79. Schimmel, My Soul Is a Woman, pp. 69-88. 80. Cited in Schimmel, My Soul Is a Woman, p. 76. For a decidedly negative assessment ofthe status of women in Islam, with special reference to issues pertaining to sexuahty, see Warraq, Why I Am Not a Muslim, pp. 290-327. 81. This is not to ignore the fact that there are Sufi sayings that emphasize that in matters pertaining to the worship of God there should be no distinction between male and female and hence no privilege given to one over the other. See, for instance, the comment in Nasafi, Persian Metaphysics and Mysticism, p. 48, wherein one who belongs to the "people of reality" {ahl-i-haqtqa), also identified as the "people of unity" {ahl-i-wahdat), is described as disregarding the ethnic divisions that separate one group from others and thus such a person considers no one an enemy. In light of the ultimate unity in which all differentiation is overcome, all peoples must be deemed the same. For the overcoming of doctrinal differences that leads to a "mystical ideal of tolerance" in Ibn 'Arabi, see Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, pp. 271-272. Needless to say, the dicta proclaiming gender equahty must be scrutinized carefully, but the point I would emphasize here is that there is no account of the transformation of male into female as a sign of spiritual perfection in the manner we find with respect to female becoming male. On the positive symbohc role accorded the feminine in Islamic mystical symbohsm, and especiaUy in the works of Ibn 'Arabi and Rumi, see Austin, "Sophianic Feminine." 82. Smith and Ferstman, Castration of Oedipus, p. 160. 83. Ibid., pp. 160-161; on the authors' notion ofthe "Law ofthe Father," which is depicted as the misogynist foundation of male authority, see pp. 195, 211. 84. Ibid., p. 161. 85. On asceticism in rabbinic sources, see references above, n. 25. The ascetic dimensions of ancient throne mysticism have been noted by Scholem, On the Possibility, pp. 128-129; Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp. 87-88; Michael Swartz, Scholastic Magic, pp. 153-172; Lesses, Ritual Practices to Cain Power, pp. 117160. On the ascetic dimension ofthe medieval philosophical tradition, see Vajda, Theologie ascetique; Lazeroff, "Bahya's Asceticism," pp. 11-38; Schweid, fudaism and Mysticism, pp. 102-116; Kreisel, "Asceticism in the Thought of Bahya and Maimonides," pp. 5-22; Silman, Philosopher and Prophet, pp. 97-98, 233. On asceticism and medieval Ashkenazi pietism, see Scholem, Major Trends, pp. 92-97; Ben-Arzi, "Asceticism in Sefer Hasidim," pp. 39-45; and the comprehensive analysis in Kanarfogel, Peering through the Lattices, pp. 33-92. On the Sufi-like pietism cultivated by the descendants of Maimonides, see Rosenblatt, High Ways to Perfection, pp. 48-53, 66, 82-85; Fenton, Treatise ofthe Pool, pp. 1-24. On Halevi's negative attitude toward asceticism, in part expressed by appropriating Sufi terminology, see Fenton, Treatise ofthe Pool, p. 54 n. 3; Lobel, Between Mysticism and Philosophy, pp. 17, 45-48, 51-53, 67, 78-80, 158, 168. A useful discussion ofthe various shades of asceticism in the rabbinic traditions ofthe classical and medieval periods is found in Sokol, "Attitudes toward Pleasure," pp. 293-314. 86. Safran, "Rabbi Azriel and Nahmanides," pp. 75-106; Tishby, Wisdom ofthe Zohar, pp. 764-765; D. Biale, Eros and the fews, pp. 99-113. Note the perceptive remark of A. Heschel, Earth Is the Lord's, p. 103 concerning the "ascetic obstinacy ofthe Kabbalists." 87. See Scholem, Major Trends, p. 286; idem. On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, p. 146; idem. Kabbalah, p. 245; and references to Werblowsky, Pachter, and Fine cited in chap. 3, n. 56. 88. See Piekarz, Beginning of Hasidism, pp. 37-39, 48-49, 62-63, 74. 78, 113, 153, 157, 168, 230-231, 262, 339-340; A. Green, Tormented Master, pp. 27-28, 35-40; D. Biale, Eros and the fews, pp. 121-148; Rosman. Founder of Hasidism, pp. 30, 33-35, 37-38, 115; Faierstein, "Personal Redemption in Hasidism," pp. 216-217; Nadler, Faith ofthe Mithnagdim, pp. 80-87; Krassen, Uniter of Heaven and Earth, pp. 55, 108-121. On the rejection of extreme asceticism in early Hasidism, which is traced back to the views expressed by Isaiah ben Abraham Horowitz, author of the highly influential kabbalistic-morahstic compendium Shenei Luhot ha-Berit, see Piekarz, "Hasidism as' a Socio-Rehgious Movement," pp. 236-237. 89. Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, p. 153, briefly notes (in the context of discussing the seventeenth-century compendium of kabbalistic piety, Hemdat Yamim) the link between asceticism and mes-

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sianism. On asceticism and Sabbatian eschatology, see Scholem, Kabbalah, pp. 251 and 261; E. Wolfson, "Engendennent," pp. 255-258. 90. See Solomon Rubin, Heidenthum und Kahbala; G. Langer, Die Erotik der Kabbala; Waite, Holy Kabbalah, pp. 377-405; Scholem, Major Trends, pp. 225-229; idem. On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, pp. 138-146; idem. On the Mystical Shape, pp. 183-196; Tishby, Wisdom ofthe Zohar, pp. 300-302, 992-993, 1355-1379; Mopsik, Lettre sur la saintete, pp. 45—219; idem, "Union and Unity in the Kabbala," pp. 223—242; Idel, "Sexual Metaphors," pp. 197—224; Liebes, Studies in the Zohar, pp. 67—71; idem, "Zohar and Eros," pp. 99—103. 91. Scholem, Major Tre/jds, p. 235. 92. Ibid., p. 227. 93. See Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, p. 155: "To the Kabbahsts, the union between man and woman, within its holy hmits, was a venerable mystery, as one may judge from the fact that the most classical and widely circulated Kabbahstic definition of mystical meditation is to be found in a treatise about the meaning of sexual union in marriage." The treatise to which Scholem refers is the anonymous Iggeret haQodesh, which he attributes to Joseph Gikatilla. 94. Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, p. 131. 95. Ibid., p. 153. 96. For a critique of Scholem, see Tishby, Wisdom ofthe Zohar, pp. 991-993. On the correlation of mystical union {devequt) and the theurgical task of rectifying the divine {tiqqun), see Liebes, Studies in the Zohar, pp. 52-55. On the erotic ecstasy ofthe zoharic circle, see idem, "Zohar and Eros," pp. 70-80, 87-98, 104-112. Consider also the insightful, if laconic, remark by Bloom, Kabbalah and Criticism, p. 32: "The Kabbalist encounters the Sefirot only through Malkhut, which makes of Kabbalism necessarily a sexual mysticism or erotic theosophy." 97. See chap. 5, n. 381. The confluence ofthe theosophic and ecstatic in the kabbahstic utihzation of sexual imagery was well understood by Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis. p. 23: "The Cabala develops an elaborate hieros gamos fantasy which expatiates on the union ofthe soul with the Sefiroth ofthe worlds of hght and darkness. . . . Conversely, the Shekhinah is present in the sexual act." 98. See Scholem, Origins, pp. 229—233; idem. Kabbalah, p. 44. On pietistic and ascetic tendencies in the Provencal rabbinic academies, see also Twersky, Rabad of Posquieres, pp. 25-29; and Pedaya, Name and Sanctuary, pp. 26-34. See, in particular, the depiction of the "pious sage," he-hakham he-hasid, by Abraham bar Hiyya, Hegyon ha-Nephesch ha-Atzuvah, p. 49: "They said with respect to the one who is a sage [hakham] and a saint [/laiirf] that when he departs from this world his soul from the aspect of his wisdom [hokhmato] separates from the creation and exists in its form as it was before and from the aspect of its sainthness [hasadah] in its abhorring the ways of this world, will ascend from the lower world to the supemal world and it will be saved from all the created entities below, and it reaches the supemal, pure, and primordial form, and it enters within it and is never separated from it. This is the level ofthe saintly sage [he-hakham he-hasid]." At a later point in this treatise (p. 54), bar Hiyya raises the question regarding who among human beings is worthy of attaining the world-to-come. From his response (pp. 55-57) it is unambiguously clear that the Jewish people are distinguished from all other human beings in virtue ofbeing called by the divine name, whence ensues their obhgation to unify the divine, and of having received the Torah. Yet he also asserts emphatically that he does not beheve the superior level of spiritual attainment is categorically denied the other nations; on the contrary, the gates of repentance {sha'arei teshuvah) are always open, and hence non-Jews can achieve the supreme state of perfection associated with the people of Israel. See Efros, Studies in Medieval fewish Philosophy, p. 197. Notwithstanding this critical difference, the asceticaUy oriented ideal articulated by bar Hiyya, with roots in Stoic and Neoplatonic philosophy (see Efros, p. 174), is phenomenologically on a par with the contemplative ideal alluded to in the bahiric text and developed at greater length by Provencal and Catalonian kabbalists. 99. Scholem, Origins, p. 307. Consider also Major Trends, p. 328, where Scholem describes kabbalists in eighteenth-century Poland "who entirely renounced the more popular aspects of Lurianism and tried to lead Kabbalah back from the market place to the sohtude ofthe mystic's semi-monastic cell." 100. The Hebrew text here hterally should be translated as "If not for" {ilmale), but this reading would not make sense since the clause is not completed. I have translated the word in accord with what I take to be the meaning ofthe passage. Regarding the lacuna in this text, see Scholem, Das Buch Bahir, sec. 66, p. 70 n. 3. 565

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101. Book Bahir, sec. 66, p. 159. 102. Scholem, Origins, p. 178, suggests that terumah here denotes more speciflcally the Shekhinah, who "through asceticism and detachment from the world, must be 'elevated' in prayer. Divine things are indicated by the process of setting aside the offering, tbat is, the detachment of the mystic from the world in order to seek God, as well as by the offering itself, the symbol of that which is to be elevated, that is, the Glory of God that is lifted up." The theurgical explanation of the heave offering as the elevation oi Shekhinah is made explicitly in sec. 72, pp. 161-162 (and not sec. 71 as Scholem suggests). It is probable that this is indeed the intent of sec. 66. 103. See Book Bahir, sec. 95, p. 181: "When the enlightened ones [maskilim] in Israel who know the secret of the honorable name [sod ha-shem ha-nikhbad] Uft up their palms, they are immediately answered." 104. Book Bahir, sec. 100, p. 185. 105. Scholem, Kabbalah in Provence, p. 6, Appendix. 106. Ibid., p. 5. To be precise, these words are used to describe the presumed expansion of thought {harhavat ha-mahshavah) on the part of prophets. I am justified in applying these words to the contemplative exercise more generally, insofar as the content of the experience of enlightenment and prophecy is one and the same, as I have emphasized in many studies on the poetic visualization fostered by kabbalists. 107. Consider the fifth often conditions, delineated by Ibn Gaon, Baddei ha-Aron, p. 16, required for one who wishes to gain esoteric wisdom: "he should despise all the lusts of this world and its desires." By fulfilling these ten conditions, one is rendered worthy to be conjoined to the enlightened master {lehidabbeq le-maskil] so that the teachings one is to receive from him can be inscribed on the "tablet of his heart," an idiom derived from Prov. 7.3 (p. 32). 108. Translated in Scholem, Origins, pp. 256-257. 109. In part, the intensified cultivation of ascetic pietism by the few who belonged to the rabbinic elite in medieval Europe can be explained as a psychological response to the monastic ideal of Christianity. Support for this may be gathered from the fact that in contemporary rabbinic texts, such as Malmad ha-Talmidim of Jacob Anatoli, excessive ascetic practices adopted by Jews are criticized in language that is comparable to the polemic against extreme forms of Christian asceticism. See Saperstein, "Your Voice Like a Ram's Hom," pp. 67-70. On the attack against the monastic ideal in Jewish polemics, see also D. Berger, Jewish-Christian Debate, p. 27; and other sources cited in Kimhi, Book of the Covenant, p. 35 n. 21. 110. Scholem, Origins,, p. 230. For an imbalanced, exaggerated account of the alleged difference between Jewish (with particular emphasis on kabbalah in the late Middle Ages) and Christian mysticism along lines similar to those pursued by Scholem, see Mendel, Vision and Violence, pp. 70-78. 111. Matt. 19:3-12; I Cor. 7:1-9, 25-38. See Rousselle, Pomeia, pp. 129-193; Pagels, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, pp. 78-97; Boyarin, Radical Jew, pp. 158-179; Payer, Bridling of Desire, pp. 42-60, 132-178. 112. S. Krauss, Jewish-Christian Controversy, pp. 102-103, 156. 113. ZoW 2:103a, io8b-io9a. 114. Zohar i:io8b, I77a-b; 2:108b, m a ; 3:128a, 135a, 142a, 292a; Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, pp. 276277, 289-290; Liebes, Studies in the Zohar, pp. 65-68, 149, 190 n. 201; E. Wolfson, "Woman—The Feminine as Other," pp. 168-169, 189-190; idem, "Divine Suffering," pp. 129-133. I have expanded on the role of gender in the zoharic polemic against Christianity in "Re/membering the Covenant." 115. Tiqqunei Zohar, sec. 69, iioa. 116. Vital, Es Hayyim, 8:3, 37b; see also 31:2, 33b-c; Vital, Liqqutei Torah, pp. 116-117 (ad Gen. 49:24). In Sha'ar ha-Cilgulim, sec. 39, 67b, Vital elaborates on the emission of semen in vain in the sefirotic realm that parallels the act below at the hands of Joseph, the symbolic correlate {dugma) to the phallic potency of Yesod. In light of this passage, which follows closely older kabbalistic teaching, including that which is reiterated on numerous occasions in Sefer ha-Zohar, I take issue with the comment on a zoharic homily dealing with Joseph and Potiphar's wife (given the name Zuleikha) offered by Goldman, Wiles of Women, p. 138: "In the Zohar's reading we are no longer in the domain of personal passion and court intrigue. Zuleikha is here demonized, and the seduction attempt symbolizes and foreshadows a cosmic drama, one in which Satan threatens to gain dominion over mankind." A proper understanding of the kabbalistic approach to human behavior and the cosmic drama precludes dichotomizing the historical and symbolic. For a detailed account 566

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of the pernicious effect of the Jewish man's spilling seed in vain, see Sha'ar ha-Kawwanot, 56b-c. According to that passage, casting semen without a (female) vessel to contain it is described as both tarnishing divine thought (a notion that flows naturally out of the widespread presumption that semen originates in the brain) and bringing about the creation of demonic spirits. 117. Cenesis Rabbah 87:7, pp. 1072—1073; Palestinian Talmud, Horayot 2:5, 46d; Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 36b. The author of Tiqqunei Zohar conflates the opinion ascribed to R. Isaac that Joseph emitted the semen on the ground rather than engage in sexual intercourse with the wife of Potiphar and a second opinion in Cenesis Rabbah 87:7, p. 1073, transmitted by R. Huna in the name of R. Mattena, that reinforces the scriptural portrayal of Joseph's steadfast capacity to withstand the sexual advances of Potiphar's wife (Gen. 39:7—12) by emphasizing that at the moment of seduction Joseph "saw the icon of his father and his blood was cooled." For discussion of the biblical narrative and its interpretative embellishment in rabbinic and targumic legend, see Kugel,/« Pofip/iar'i Howie, pp. 106—112; Niehoff, Fi]gwreo/[/oiep/i, pp. 131—134, 149—151; Goldman, Wiles of Women, pp. 84—86. In the Lurianic sources (delineated at the beginning of the previous note), the rabbinic gloss that Joseph was saved by seeing the image of Jacob is utilized to differentiate his spilling semen in vain and his engaging in intercourse with the Gentile woman, the locus of demonic power. Spilling semen in vain, usually viewed by kabbalists as a horrific transgression, becomes the lesser of two evils and hence, in this context, marks Joseph's righteousness. The righteousness notwithstanding, there is a price to be exacted, as is attested by the link made between the seminal drop that came from Joseph and the ten rabbinic martyrs, who are said to be from the same ontic root as the Edomite kings. 118. Midrash Mishle, chap, i, p. 18, and see other references cited in the note to lines 172-174. 119. E. Wolfson. "Divine Suffering," pp. 131-133. Some of the material there is repeated verbatim in this context. 120. MS London, British Museum 10627, fol. 64b. 121. Y. Jacobson, "Aspect of the Feminine," pp. 250-255, suggests that the reason no wife is mentioned in the case of the first seven kings is "not because they were male, but because their fertile femininity was actualized only after their revival and reconstruction." In fact, the Edomite kings are emasculated males and thus they are symbolically equivalent to females without male partners. The underlying issue in this myth is not feminine fertility but rather masculine virility. 122. Zohar 3:292a; cf 1:223b. According to a passage in the Idra Rabba (3:142a), Hadar is identified as the attribute oiHesed, but in that context the rectification of the Edomite kings is depicted as the sweetening of feminine judgment by forces of mercy revealed in the "mouth of the penis" {puma de-amah). For an elaboration of the zoharic symbolism in sixteenth-century Lurianic kabbalah, see E. Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp. 116-119. 123. I have discussed the symbol of the androgynous phallus in a number of studies. See Through a Speculum, pp. 274-275 n. 14, 315-317, 342, 344, 357-359, 371 n. 155; "Woman—The Feminine as Other," p. 187; Circle in the Square, pp. 85-92; Along the Path, pp. 84-88, 175 n. 329, 186 n. 376, 222 n. 172; "Re/ membering the Covenant," pp. 226—231; and discussion above, chaps. 3—4. 124. Scholem, Major Trends, pp. 225-235; Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, pp. 298-302, 1355-1379; Liebes, Studies in the Zohar, pp. 67-71. 125. See chap. 5, n. 220. 126. ZoW 3:37b, 8ia-b. 127. A particularly lucid formulation of this motif is found in Chani, Meah She'arim p. 48a, translated and analyzed by Mopsik, Crands textes, pp. 358-359. 128. Mopsik, "Body ofEngenderment," pp. 56-57; Idel, "Sexual Metaphors," pp. 202-203; Liebes, Studies in the Zohar, pp. 71 and 190 n. 199. 129. Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, pp. 298-300. 130. Cf Zo/iar 1:239b; 3:90b, 145b. 131. Zohar y.$h; cf 1:55b; 2:55a; 3:7a. 132. Zohar i.ijb. 133. Zohar i:49a-5Oa, 55b, 122a, 165a, 182a, 228b, 233a-b; 3:5b, 109b {Ra'aya Meheimna), 145b, 148a, 296a; Zohar Hadash, 50c, 65b. For an earlier rabbinic precedent, cf Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 17a. 567

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134. Mopsik, "Body of Engendemient," pp. 58-59. 135. MS Oxford-Bodleian 1784, fol. 37a. 136. Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 87a; Yevamot 42a. 137. Zohar 1:234b. 138. Zohar 1:21b, 22a, 236b, 239a; 2:5b, 245a; 3:4b, 148a, i8oa. See below, n. 198. 139. The dialectic of which I speak in kabbalistic literature is related to the medieval scholastic notion of the intellectual love of God, expressed, for instance, in the writings of Maimonides (see below, n. 151). For discussion of this phenomenon in medieval Christian sources, see Leclercq, Love of Learning, pp. 212-217. The importance of this dialectic for understanding the erotic characterization of cleaving to God in thirteenth-century kabbalistic sources has been noted by Shokek, Jeu'i's/i Ethics, pp. 219—224. 140. The closest formulation to this dictum, which is cited by other kabbalists in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, for example, the anonymous author of a passage in the Midrash ha-Ne'elam stratum of zoharic hterature (see below, n. 144), Bahya ben Asher, and Menahem Recanati (see below, n. 152), is found in Babylonian Talmud, Shevu'ot i8b: "He who sanctifies himself in time of intercourse will have male children." 141. Jacob ben Sheshet, Sefer ha-Emunah we-ha-Bittahon, Kitvei Ramban 2:395. 142. Zohar 1:90b; see 1:155a {Sitrei Torah); 3:43a, iO4a-b. 143. Babylonian Talmud, Nedarim 20b; Niddah 70b—71a. 144. Zohar Hadash, iia-b {Midrash ha-Ne'etam). In Zohar 3:19a, the task of directing the intention of the heart to the holiness of God in the moment of sexual intercourse is preserved as part of an incantational remedy {asunvata) to protect the couple from the malevolence of Lilith. See Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, p. 157; Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, p. 1364. 145. Palestinian Talmud, Ketuvot 5:8, 30b; Babylonian Talmud, Ketuvot 62b; Bava Qama, 82a; Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, De'ot 5:4; Shabbat 30:14; Ishut 14:1; Jacob ben Asher, Arba'ah Turim, Orah Hayyim, 240; Even ha-Ezer, 25, 76; Joseph Karo, Shulhan Arukh, Orah Hayyim, 240:1; Even ha-Ezer, 76:2. The recommendation that a Jewish man in general fulfill his conjugal obligation on Friday evening is intimated in several other talmudic sources. See Palestinian Talmud, Ketuvot 5:13, 30b; Megillah 4:1, 75a; Babylonian Talmud, Ketuvot 65b; Satlow, Tasting the Dish, pp. 278-280. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, vol. 5, pp. 312313, notes that from the Genizah material one can conclude that the talmudic recommendation that scholars engage in their conjugal obligations on Friday night was extended to the Jewish population more generally. Additionally, Goitein notes the conflict between this Rabbanite view and that of the Karaites, who regarded sexual intercourse as a desecration of the hoUness of the Sabbath. The approach of the Karaites resonates with a pietistic orientation expressed at a much earlier point in history. According to Qimron, "Halacha of Damascus Covenant," pp. 9-15, the prohibition of sexual relations on Sabbath is implied by the injunction at yit'arev ish mi-resono be-shabbat (CD 11:4-5). On the controversy over sexual relations on Sabbath, see also Broshi, "Anti-Qumranic Polemics," pp. 596-597. For discussion of celibacy at Qumran, see above, n. 35. On the connection between observance of the Sabbath and the ascetic renunciation of the physical world, which leads to a vision of God, see Valantasis, Cospel of Thomas, pp. ioo-ioi. 146. Zohar 1:112a {Midrash ha-Ne'elam); Zohar i:$63. 147. The expression "with his wife" {be-ittetteih) is added on the basis of the citation of this zoharic text in Recanati, Be'ur al ha-Torah, 63c (ad Lev. 19:2). 148. Zo/iar 3:82a. 149. D. Biale, Eros and thejews, pp. 105-113; Sokol, "Attitudes toward Pleasure," pp. 305-306. Regarding this text, see also M. Harris, "Marriage as Metaphysics," pp. 197-226; Guberman, "Language of Love," pp. 53-95; Idel, "Sexual Metaphors," pp. 205-206. A similar tension between the use of erotic language and the ideal of sexual abstention in Christian mysticism has been noted by McGinn, "Language of Love," p. 209. 150. Kitvei Ramban, 2:^2^ 151. Kitvei Ramban, 2:334. It is likely that the erotic characterization of the intellectual conjunction of the soul and the divine intelligibles reflects Maimonides' notion oi'ishq, the intellectual love of God, which is identified as the contemplative ideal of prayer, the true worship of the heart. See Maimonides, Cuide, III:5i; Mishneh Torah, Teshuvah 10:6. For recent discussions of this aspect of the contemplative pietism advocated 568

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by Maimonides, see M. Fishbane, Kiss of Cod, pp. 24-30; Benor, Worship of the Heart, pp. 52-53; Peter Gordon, "Erotics of Negative Theology," pp. 1-38. 152. According to the author of Iggeret ha-Qodesh, the ideal Adam was not a disembodied spirituality but a spiritualized body. Regarding these two anthropological approaches in thirteenth-century kabbalah, see Safran, "Rabbi Azriel and Nahmanides." See also Pines, "Nahmanides on Adam," pp. 159-164. On the presumption regarding sexual desire in the Garden of Eden, see Bahya ben Asher, Rabbenu Bahya: Be'ur al ha-Torah, 1:84 (ad Gen. 3:21); on the need for man to purify his thoughts in the act of coitus, see 1:266 (ad Gen. 30:38); 2:521 (ad Lev. 19:2); Recanati, Be'ur al ha-Torah, 30b (ad Gen. 30:37). 153. Ki'fra Rawfcflrt, 2:323-324. 154. Kitvei Ramban, 2:327. Isaac ben Samuel of Acre, a contemporary of the author oi Iggeret ha-Qodesh, put the matter as follows in Sefer Me'irat Einayim, p. 20: on Friday evening the enlightened mystics can "sense" through their "intellectual eyes" the "augmentation of the joy of the heart and the power of reproduction." 155. The utilization of the philosophical locution "rational soul" {nefesh ha-sikhlit) to denote the divine emanation is attested in Catalonian kabbalistic texts. For instance, see Jacob ben Sheshet, Sefer ha-Emunah weha-Bittahon, Kitvei Ramban, 2:386: "This emanation {hitpashtut] corresponds to what is called in the language of the philosophers the 'rational soul' [ha-nefesh ha-sikhlit]." 156. Kitvei Ramban, 2:333. The language of this text is based on a passage in Azriel of Gerona, Commentary on Talmudic Aggadoth, p. 20. 157. Kitvei Ramban, 2:331. For discussion of this philosophical view, see the evidence adduced by Mopsik, Lettre sur la saintete, pp. 300-302 n. 133; D. Biale, Eros and thejews, p. 106. 158. Kitvei Ramban, 2:332. 159. This, too, seems to reflect the influence of Maimonides' characterization of the patriarchs in Cuide 111:51 as being in constant intellectual conjunction with God. The ideal set forth by the author o{Iggeret haQodesh also bears a similarity to the characterization oi devequt in the commentary of Nahmanides to Deut. 11:22. The resemblance between Maimonides and Nahmanides was noted by Scholem, Messianic Idea, pp. 204-205. 160. Kitvei Ramban, 2:333-334; cf pp. 336-337. The kabbalistic perspective elaborates an earlier rabbinic ideal epitomized in the remark in Tanhuma, Naso, 7: "When a woman is united with her husband in holiness, the holy One, blessed be he, causes her to bring forth righteous children." 161. In some zoharic passages, the association of the body and the demonic force necessitates the ascetic life. See Zohar i:i8ob; Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, pp. 764-765. 162. On the Platonic tradition of eros and its impact on the Christian idea of love, see the still useful discussion by Nygren, Agape and Eros. 163. Zo/iar 3:130b. 164. Eliade, Yoga, pp. 200-273; idem. Occultism, Witchcraft, and Cultural Fashions, pp. 93-119. 165. For a wide-ranging study of this imagery, see Horowitz, Seeds of Virtue. It is also important to recall that attested in the long recension of the Theology of Aristotle is the idea that God sows or seeds things in their entirety in the intellect. See P. Walker, Wellsprings of Wisdom, pp. 80 and 167. 166. Horowitz, Seeds of Virtue, p. 28. 167. That is, each of these expressions equals 417. 168. Abulafia, Osar Eden Canuz, fol. 127b (printed ed., p. 280). 169. Vital, Ei Hayyim, $c. 170. For discussion of rabbinic texts where a similar dilemma is raised, see Urbach, The Sages, pp. 478479171. Zevi Hirsch of Zidachov, Sur me-Ra we-Aseh Tbf, p. 47. 172. See above, n. 34. 173. On a similar use of erotic imagery in Christian mysticism, see McGinn, "Language of Love." On the fusion of asceticism and eroticism in medieval women mystics depicted as the bride or lover united with the humanity of Christ through the ecstatic ingestion of the Eucharist, see Bynum, Fragmentation and Redemption, pp. 133-134, 184-186. 569

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174. An excellent example of this phenomenon can be found in the passage from Moses Cordovero cited in Mopsik, "Union and Unity," pp. 234-236. It must be pointed out, however, that Cordovero's elaborate description of the meditational practice linked to conjugal sex is limited to the intercourse of scholars on the eve of Sabbath and does not apply to the general practice of most people, an impression that one gets &om reading Mopsik's analysis of the text. 175. Zohar 2:89a; cf 2:2O4b-2O5a; 3:82a. See Waite, Holy Kabbalah, p. 382; Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, pp. 1232-1233, 1357; Liebes, Studies in the Zohar, p. 15. 176. A similar interpretation of Isaiah 56:4 is found in Moses de Leon, Sefer ha-Mishkal, p. 142; Joseph Gikatilla, Sha'arei Orah, 1:107; idem. Sod ha-Shabbat, 40a; Bahya ben Asher, Rabbenu Bahya: Be'ur al ha-Torah,

2:521-522. It is of interest to recall in this connection the description in Zohar Hadash, 8d {Midrash ha-Ne'elam), oi 3 group of ascetics {perishei alma) who supposedly hid during the week in caves and returned on Sabbath eve to their homes. See Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, p. 1331. One may infer that with respect to the issue of sexual practice, what is attributed to these ascetics matches the lifestyle of the mystical fraternity described in other parts of the Zohar. Regarding those who abstain from wine, cf Zohar Hadash, 22c {Midrash ha-Ne'elam). In Zo/iar2:i87a there is a reference to a band of ascetics {perushim) who meet Simeon ben Yohai. 177. For talmudic references, see above, n. 145. The rabbinic passage figures prominently in the zoharic anthology. Cf Zohar i:i4a-b, 50a, 112a {Midrash ha-Ne'elam); 2:63b, 89a, 136a, 2O4b-2O5a; 3:49b, 78a, 8ia, 82a, 143a; Tiqqunei Zohar, sec. 16, 38b; sec. 21, 57a, 6ia; sec. 36, 78a; sec. 56, 90a. 178. Zohar i:75a-b; Tiqqunei Zohar, sec. 18, 34a; sec. 19, 38a; sec. 21, 6ia; sec. 30, 73a-b; sec. 36, 78a; Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, pp. 438-439, 1226-1227; Ginsburg, Sabbath, pp. 115-116, 292-293; Kimelman, Mystical Meaning, pp. 66-67, 142-145. The Zohar is not totally consistent on this point because it does describe a form of union between the masculine and feminine potencies of the divine even during the week, albeit in a less complete manner than the union on the eve of Sabbath, which is the most appropriate time for the hieros gamos. Moreover, the recommended time for conjugal relations is based on the assumption that at midnight God visits the Garden of Eden, which must be understood as a symbolic depiction of the erotic union of the male and female. Cf Zohar 3:81a; Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, p. 1357. 179. Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, p. 1391 n. ioi. 180. The arousal of the divine phallus by means of the sexual activity of the kabbalist in relation to his earthly wife and to Shekhinah is a recurrent theme in Zohar and related theosophic literature. See Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, p. 301; Liebes, Sections of the Zohar Lexicon, pp. 378-379 n. 92; idem, "Tsaddiq Yesod

Olam," p. 107 n. 171; E. Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp. 371-372 n. 155. In another kabbalistic text that transmits material from the zoharic period, Shoshan Sodot, 79a, the author states that the righteous person engages in conjugal sex on Friday evening not for the sake of his own pleasure but to assist in the conjunction of the supernal righteous one, the phallic Yesod, and the feminine persona of the divine, the attribute of Malkhut. 181. David Biale, Eros and thejews, p. i i i . An interesting application of the kabbalistic ideal of sexual renunciation is found in the teaching of Nahman of Bratslav expressed in Liqqutei Esot, sec. 8. There are two kinds of guarding of the phallic covenant: the lower unity, which refers to refraining from sexual transgression, and in particular spilling seed in vain, for one who engages in sex during the week, and the upper unity, which refers to those who engage in sex only on Sabbath. 182. My formulation is indebted to O'Flaherty's description of a Tantric Sahajiya sect of Bengal in O'Flaherty, Asceticism and Eroticism, p. 261. 183. As has been argued, for instance, with respect to the ideal man in Buddhist societies who acts in this world after having achieved detachment from the world. See Keyes, "Ambiguous Gender," pp. 66-96. 184. On the erotic nature of the contemplative state described in zoharic literature, related especially to exegetical activity, see E. Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp. 16-19; idem, Tiirough a Speculum, pp. 326-392; and see the reference to studies of Liebes at the end of n. 90 above. 185. On the nexus between enlightenment and castration, see Smith and Ferstman, Castration of Oedipus, p. 205. Also worthy of consideration is the explanation of Neumann, Origins, p. 53, regarding why priests of the Mother Goddess had to be eunuchs: "They have sacrificed the thing that is for her the most important— 570

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the phallus. . . . For her, loving, dying, and being emasculated are the same thing. Only the priests, at least in later times, escape being put to death because, by castrating themselves, they have voluntarily submitted to a symbolical death for her sake"; see pp. 59-61. In zoharic literature, the conjunction of kabbalist and Shekhinah is depicted as a simulated death, a motif obviously based on a presumed relation of eros and thanatos, and in some passages, the death experience is linked to the supplication prayer {tahanun) traditionally uttered on Monday and Thursday; the customary gesture of falling on one's face {nefilat appayim) is a way of expressing the death that ensues from union with Shekhinah. See Liebes, Studies in Zoharic Literature, pp. 52-53, 63-65, 184 n. 154; M. Fishbane, Kiss of Cod, pp. 38-39, 104-120; E. Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp. 335-336. Given the fact that the kabbalist is considered a eunuch, it is plausible to apply Neumann's explanation to the Jewish esoteric symbolism. 186. That midnight is the appropriate time for sexual intercourse is implied in a statement attributed to the wife of R. Eliezer in the Babylonian Talmud, Nedarim 20b. This practice is codified in the standard codes ofjewish law. Cf Mishneh Torah, Issurei Bi'ah 21:10; Arba'ah Turim, Orah Hayyim, 240; Even ha-Ezer, 25, 76; Shulhan Arukh, Orah Hayyim, 240:7; Even ha-Ezer, 25:3. On the basis of the zoharic passages (see n. 187) it became a standard theme in kabbalistic literature. On the prohibition of engaging in intercourse during the day, see 2A)har 1:49b. 187. Zohar 1:72a, 82b, 92a, 136b, 231b, 243a; 2:46a, 130b, 136a, 195b; 3:13a, 67b-68a, I93a-b, 260a; Zohar Hadash 13b, i8a, 47d. See E. Wolfson, "Forms of Visionary Ascent," pp. 227-228; idem, 'Through a Speculum, p. 371 n. 154; idem. Circle in the Square, pp. 190 n. 175 and 228 n. 167. 188. On the ritual of midnight Torah study, see Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, pp. 147-148; E. Wolfson, "Forms of Visionary Ascent." For the later development of the zoharic tradition in the sixteenth-century Lurianic kabbalah, see Magid, "Conjugal Union," pp. xvi—xlv. 189. Zo/iur 3:49b. 190. Ibid., 3:81a. My translation follows the version of this passage in Recanati, Be'ur al ha-Torah, iid and 90b. 191. For recent discussion of this theme, see Valantasis, "Constructions of Power," pp. 775—821. The kabbalistic sources iUustrate the "concomitancy of male asceticism and misogyny" noted by Gregg, Devils, Women, and Jews, p. 89, with respect to male clerics in medieval Christian societies. 192. A euphemism for engaging in conjugal intercourse. 193. Zohar 1:50a. 194. Vidas, Re'shit Hokhmah, Sha'ar ha-Qedushah, chap. 7, 149b. 195. This is implied as well in the zoharic description of the union oi Shekhinah and the righteous man who goes on ajourney and separates from his earthly wife. See Zo/iar i:49b-5oa; Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, P- 1357196. Idel, "Sexual Metaphors," p. 206, provides an interesting example of this phenomenon from Isaac of Acre. In my opinion, however, there is no need to explain Isaac's view—that spiritual union with God is achieved only after physical union with one's wife is severed—as a synthesis of the positive valorization of marriage in theosophic kabbalah and the emphasis on the spiritual nature of man's relationship to God in ecstatic kabbalah. One can find the same dialectical overcoming of camal sex through ascetic attachment to the divine in the theosophic material. An interesting example of this phenomenon in Christian mysticism is Margery Kempe, who could not be a bride of Christ while she was still a bride of her earthly husband. Jesus was not only a substitute husband, but he subverted the social function of husbandry. See Beckwith, Christ's Body, pp. 84-86. 197. See above, n. 136. 198. Waite, Holy Kabbalah, pp. 355-356; Scholem, Major Trends, pp. 226-227; Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar, p. 1333; Idel, "Sexual Metaphors," p. 206; Liebes, Studies in the Zohar, p. 15; idem, "Zohar and Eros," p. 102. For references to the relevant zoharic passages, see above, n. 138. 199. For fuller discussion of this motif, see E. Wolfson, 'Through a Speculum, pp. 383-392. 200. E. Wolfson, "Woman—The Feminine as Other," pp. 179-182; Circle in the Square, pp. 60-69; Liebes, "Zohar and Eros," p. 80. See the comment of Neumann, Origins, p. 158: "But the masculinity and ego of the hero are no longer identified with the phallus and sexuality. On this level, another part of the 571

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body erects itself symbolically as the 'higher phallus' or the 'higher masculinity': the head, symbol of consciousness, with the eye for its ruhng organ—and with this the ego now identifies itself" Bracketing the psychoanalytic dimension of Neumann's observations, it is of interest to note that his insight confirms my interpretation of the head and eye as symbolic circumlocutions of the upper phallic potency. 201. See E. Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp. 68-69. 202. E. Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp. 356-357, 389-391; Liebes, "Zohar and Eros," pp. 73-80. 203. On the erotic nature of Torah study, see Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp. 227-229; E. Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp. 16-19; idem, "Beautiful Maiden," pp. 169-170, 185-187; Liebes, "Zohar and Eros," pp. 97-98. 204. The kabbalistic and tantric approaches to human sexuality are compared and contrasted in Patai, Jewish Mind, pp. 134-151; Mopsik, Lettre sur la saintete, pp. 159-160; idem, Crands textes, p. 323 n. 60; idem, "Union and Unity," pp. 238-240; Idel, "Sexual Metaphors," pp. 205-206; Beitchman, Alchemy of the Word, p. 71; McGinn, "Language of Love," p. 221. McGinn perceptively noted that the kabbalistic affirmation of human sexuality as an imitatio dei bears a resemblance to the Latin Hermetic text, Asclepius 21, where the conjunction of male and female is portrayed as a means of imitating the fecundity of the divine androgyne. 205. Regarding this tantric practice, see Eliade, Yoga, pp. 134-135, 245-249; O'Flaherty, Asceticism and Eroticism, pp. 261-277; Chalier-Visusalingam, "Union and Unity in Hindu Tantrism," pp. 195-222; McEvilley, "The Spinal Serpent," pp. 93-113; Brooks, Secret of the Tlxree Cities, pp. 83-129; idem. Auspicious Wisdom, pp. 147-188; David G. White, Alchemical Body; idem, "Tantric Sects and Tantric Sex," pp. 249-270; idem. Kiss of the YoginT; Feurstein, Tantra, pp. 120-183; Goudriaan, "Stages of Awakening," pp. 139-173; R. Davidson, Indian Esoteric Buddhism, pp. 131-153, 194-206, 224-292, 327-330. See further references cited in n. I above. From the perspective of gender, there is an interesting ambivalence in the tantric philosophy. On the one hand, kundalini, which must be drawn up through the different cakras from the base of the spinal column to the top of the head, is identified with sakti, the feminine aspect of the creative force. On the other hand, the most critical part of the yogic meditational practice is drawing up the semen, which leads to enstasis and the reintegration of feminine and masculine. See Srinivasan, "Polar Principles," pp. 106-115, esp. pp. 108—III. Similarly, in Zohar, the vital energy is depicted as a coiled snake that is feminine in nature yet incarnate in the male's semen. On the active nature of the female pole of the ultimate reality in tantric Hinduism as opposed to the passive nature of the male, see Jacobsen, "Female Pole of the Godhead," pp. 56-81. See also Lidke, "Union of Fire and Water," pp. 117-123. 206. See E. Wolfson, "From Sealed Book to Open Text," pp. 149-150; and the text of Cordovero analyzed by Mopsik, "Union and Unity," pp. 240—241. 207. See, for instance, Ezra's Persuh Shir ha-Shirim, Kitvei Ramban, 2:492. According to the formulation of a passage in Ra'aya Meheimna, a later stratum of zoharic Hterature, the casting of breadcrumbs in vain is interpreted as referring to either "drops of semen," which are "crumbs of the brain" that are spilled in vain or placed in an undeserving vessel (a woman in her menstrual period, a prostitute, or a Gentile), or the "crumbs of the bread of Torah," which are the "the strokes and crownlets of the letters," transmitted to one unworthy of receiving them {Zohar 3:244a). 208. Zohar 1:92a; 3:13a. 209. Siklos, Vajrabhairava Tantras, p. 58. 210. See reference to the studies of Mopsik given in n. 204. 211. See E. Wolfson, "Woman—The Feminine as Other," pp. 185-191; idem. Circle in the Square, pp. 92-98. 212. See E. Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp. 80, 195-196 n. 3. 213. Chaher-Visusahngam, "Union and Unity in Hindu Tantrism," p. 207. On the androgynous linga of the Hindu tradition, see O'Flaherty, Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts, pp. 317-318. 214. I have discussed the homoerotic nature of the mystical fraternity in Tiirough a Speculum, pp. 357—377; and Circle in the Square, pp. 107-110. The phenomenon has been discussed independently by Liebes, "Zohar and Eros," pp. 104-112, although he still privileges the heterosexual as the most perfect expression of the erotic orientation. The homoerotic tendencies in zoharic literature should be examined in a larger cultural appreciation of sexual mores in the time and place when this corpus began to take shape. See, for instance, Gonzalez-Casanovas, "Male Bonding as Cultural Construction," pp. 157-192. 572

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215. For references, see chap. 2, n. 122. 216. See references in chap. 2, n. 246. 217. Zohar 1:153b; see parallel in Moses de Leon, Book of the Pomegranate, pp. 138 and 142. 218. Zohar i:66b. 219. Literally, the "sabbatical year," which is one of the names oi Shekhinah in kabbahstic symbolism. 220. Zohar 1:153b. 221. Zohar 1:216a. Cf Gikatilla, Sha'arei Orah, 1:98-99. 222. See Scholem, Major Trends, pp. 165 and 388 n. 44. 223. Zohar 1:50a. Cf Moses de Leon, Book of the Pomegranate, p. 223. 224. See Idel, "Sexual Metaphors," p. 206; idem. Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp. 209-210. The experience of the mystics being female in relation to God, who is male, which Idel associates with ecstatic kabbalah, can be found as well in the theosophic kabbalah. Consistent with other mystical traditions, both theosophic and ecstatic kabbalists portrayed the soul of the mystic as feminine in relation to the male deity. The reversal of gender roles is particularly significant in the Christian mystical tradition, based in great measure on the appropriation of Song of Songs to depict the soul's relationship to Christ: the male mystic assumes the voice of the female beloved, and Jesus, that of the male lover. See McGinn, "Language of Love," pp. 202-203, 207, 211-212.

225. Zo/iar i:5ob-5ib. 226. See chap. 4, nn. 76 and 205. 227. On the zoharic locution ofbeing conjoined to the "body of the king," see Liebes, Sections of the Zohar Lexicon, p. 227 n. 250. In some of the relevant passages (1:219a; 3:294b), the primary concern is the return of the soul to the divine after the death of the body, but in other contexts (1:216a; 223b, 2:86a) the issue is clearly the conjunction of the righteous to the divine, especially the phallic aspect of God. 228. Zo/iar 2:134b. 229. The expression "masters ofjudgment" is used to refer to the kabbalists in Zohar 2:34a. In that context, the specific gnosis that the masters of judgment possess is the secret wisdom of the demonic power personified as the great sea monster (based on Ezek. 29:3). Given the judgmental character of the demonic force, it makes sense to refer to the kabbahsts in this passage as "masters of judgment." For the background of this zoharic text, see Liebes, Studies in the Zohar, pp. 15-16. 230. Zohar 1:82b. 231. On the dual signification of this term, see E. Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp. 69-70, 124-125 n. 6, 189-190 n. 174, 190-192, nn. 175-180. See also Liebes, "Zohar and Eros," p. 81; Magid, "Conjugal Union," pp. xxix-xxxi. 232. Zohar 1:82b. 233. A similar argument has been made by Segal, Poimandres as Myth, pp. 33-34, with respect to a passage in Poimandres regarding God's love of his son's beauty. 234. In E. Wolfion, Circle in the Square, pp. 49-78, I explore the motif of divine autoeroticism in the kabbalistic tradition, principally in zoharic and Lurianic sources, as it pertains to the emanative process by means of which the infinite comes to be in the differentiated world of the sefirot. The autoeroticism of which I here speak occurs on a lower ontic level, but it clearly reflects what takes place in the initial phase of divine creativity. 235. Zohar 1:243a. God's erotic relationship to the words of innovative Torah study is also described in Zohar 1:4b. 236. Zohar 3:59b; and see extended analysis in E. Wolfion, Tiirough a Speculum, pp. 370-372. 237. On the members of the fi-atemity constituting the face oi Shekhinah, cf the zoharic sources cited and analyzed in E. Wolfion, Through a Speculum, pp. 368-369. 238. Zohar y.6i2L. 239. My translation renders the Aramaic de-istakkel; an altemative reading is de-ishtaddei, which should be translated as "one who is engaged in." Both readings are found in the first two printed editions of Zohar (Mantua and Cremona). 573

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240. Zo/wr 3:90a. This passage is cited in the name of a "midrash" in Isaac of Acre, Sefer Me'irat Einayim, p. 6. 241. On this exegetical device, see E. Wolfson, "Beautiful Maiden," pp. 175-178. 242. Needless to say, the correlation of masculinity with penetration and the consequent effeminization of the male who receives is attested in much older sexual ideologies based on an oppositional symbolic. See C. Williams, Roman Homosexuality, pp. 125-159. The homoerotic images in kabbalistic symbolism are also indebted to the bipolar approach implied in biblical and rabbinic sources. See Satlow, " 'They Abused Him Like a Woman,' " 1-25; Olyan, "And with a Male," pp. 179-206. 243. Gikatilla, Sha'arei Orah, 1:205-206. 244. Babylonian Talmud, Hagigah 2a. 245. Based on Ps. 148:13. 246. Gikatilla, Sha'arei Orah, 1:206. 247. See, however, Sha'arei Orah, 1:196, where Gikatilla employs the image of the king and queen to characterize the erotic relationship of the masculine and feminine aspects of the divine. 248. A comparable tendency is prominent in the Christian mystical tradition wherein the relationship of Jesus and the soul of the male mystic, frequently a celibate monk or priest, is portrayed as the erotic union of the bridegroom and bride as described in the Song. See above, n. 224. 249. See E. Wolfion, TInough a Speculum, pp. 368-377. For a similar phenomenon in Islamic mystical piety, see Malamud, "Gender and Spiritual Self-Fashioning," pp. 89-117.

Chapter Eight Coming-to-Head, Retuming-to-Womb: (E)soteric Gnosis and Overcoming Gender Dimorphism 1. For two recent sensitive treatments of the interplay of the sensual and spiritual in the imagery of the Song, see Walsh, Exquisite Desire; David M. Carr, Erotic Word, pp. 109-151. 2. McGinn, "Language of Love," p. 217. See also the comments of Scholem, On the Mystical Shape, p. 31, regarding the restriction of the public study of the Song due to the potential usurpation by the servant, the Church, in place of the mistress, the Synagogue. See the interesting if somewhat oventated contrast between Islam on the one hand and Judaism and Christianity on the other made by E. Bloch, Principle of Hope, p. 1135: "Indeed even real mysticism was never repelled by such so-called crudely sensual depictions of the other world. . . . Because almost more than the Mohammedan, the Christian and Jewish love of God incorporated voluptuous images, without wishful maidens but with Allah himself" 3. In this context, it is of interest to note the characterization of the Song as the "paradigm of cultural change" in ShmueU, Seven Jewish Cultures, p. 65: "Commentaries on the Song of Songs furnish a most revealing illustration for the comparative approach to the study ofjewish cultures and their divergent conceptions of God, man, and the world. No other Bibhcal book so patently exemphfies each culture's unique interpretation of the spiritual and vital forces which fashioned the nation's character." These words are certainly applicable to the variety of interpretations of this bibhcal book in Jewish mystical sources across the generations. 4. See Buzy, "L'allegorie matrimoniale," pp. 77-90; Vajda, L'amour de Dieu, pp. 44-47; Urbach, "Homiletical Interpretations," pp. 247-275; Pope, Song of Songs, pp. 89-132; Kimehnan, "Rabbi Yohanan and Origen," pp. 567-595; E. Clark, Ascetic Piety, pp. 386-427; Hirshman, Rivalry ofCenius, pp. 83-94. See also the reference to Cohen cited below, n. 15. 5. See I. Gottlieb, "Jewish Allegory of Love," pp. i—18. 6. See Loewe, "Apologetic Motifs," pp. 159-196; Alonso-Fontela, "El Targum al Cantar," pp. 2-24; P. Alexander, "Tradition and Originahty," pp. 318-339, esp. pp. 336-338. 7. The allegorical reading of the Song as a reference to Christ and the Church was doubtless inspired by Eph. 5:21-33. Especially relevant is the use of the term "mystery" in verse 32 to refer to the relationship between husband and wife, which symbolically alludes to Christ and the church. The mystery (in the fuU sacramental sense of the word) of the Song was read in an analogous fashion. For the possibility that the word 574

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"mystery" here denotes primarily an exegetical secret that is related more specifically to the Christological interpretation of Gen. 2:24, see Bockmuehl, Revelation and Mystery, pp. 204-205. 8. For a review of the relevant scholarly Hterature, see Pope, Song of Songs, pp. 145-153. 9. See Boyarin, "Two Introductions to the Midrash," pp. 479-500, esp. pp. 480-491; idem, Intertextuatity, pp. 108-110. For a somewhat different perspective regarding the rabbinic and patristic allegorical approaches to the Song, see D. Biale, Eros and thejews. p. 59. Biale recognizes the obvious fact that Christian thinkers took a much more radical stance vis-a-vis human sexuahty than did the rabbis, and he also notes that the midrashic reading of the Song "did not efface the eroticism of the text," although he insists that it did not fully embrace eroticism on the human plane. My own sense is that the erotic nature of allegory affirmed in the rabbinic texts is predicated on a full embrace of human sexuahty, albeit one that is infused with semiological significance. The real issue at stake is not eros, but the construction of body. 10. EUiott, Song of Songs, p. 12. 11. See Matter, Voice of My Beloved, pp. 20-48; Astell, Song of Songs, pp. 2-5, 18-19. 12. P. Miller, " 'Pleasure of the Text," pp. 241-253. See also Cameron, "Sacred and Profane Love," pp. 10-12; V. Harrison, "Allegory and Eroticism," pp. 113-130, esp. pp. 123-124. 13. My remarks reflect the critique of Miller in Matter, Voice of My Beloved, p. 33. Compare Dawson, "Allegorical Reading," pp. 26-43. See also Asiedu, "Song of Songs," pp. 299-317. 14. E. Clark, Ascetic Piety, pp. 401—405. 15. See G. Cohen, Studies in the Varieties of Rabbinic Cultures, pp. 3-17, esp. p. 13. Cohen distinguishes two kinds of allegorical reading of the Song of Songs in the classical rabbinic period: the public exposition of the book, which emphasized the different stages ofjewish history and the contacts between the collectivity of Israel and the divine, and the innermost allegory, which involved the erotic relationship of the individual and God, an interpretation limited to the select few who entered the chambers of mystical knowledge in solitude. For an elaboration of the two allegorical readings, see M. Fishbane, "Song of Songs and Ancient Jewish Religiosity," pp. 69—81. 16. Babylonian Talmud, Shevu'ot 35b. In that context (see n. 17), I cited Babylonia Tahnud, Shabbat 152a, as a rabbinic source that attests to the use of the term shalom as a euphemism for the penis. See also Leviticus Rabbah, 18:1, p. 396, where the idiom of placing peace in the house is interpreted as sexual desire of a man to cohabit with a woman. 17. See E. Wolfson, Along the Path, pp. 204-205 n. 71. On the possibility of a hypostatic theosophy underlying the rabbinic reading of the Song, related especially to the symbol oi kenesset yisra'el ("community of Israel") see the prehminary remarks by Idel, "Rabbinism versus Kabbalism," pp. 286-288. Regarding the use of the symbol kenesset yisra'el in rabbinic and kabbalistic sources, see also Liebes, Studies in Jewish Myth, pp. 42-5418. The linkage between the overtly anthropomorphic theosophic speculation of the Shi'ur Qomah texts and the mystical reading of the Song has been affirmed by a number of scholars, including, most prominently, Adolf Jellinek, Gershom Scholem, and Saul Lieberman. For a critical review of the relevant literature, see M. Cohen, Shi'ur Qomah, pp. 19-31, 111-112. Lieberman's view regarding a mystical midrash on the Song, which is related to the Shi'ur Qomah tradition, is also criticized by Boyarin, "Two Introductions," pp. 492500. 19. It is of interest to note the following remark made by Vulhaud, Cantique des Cantiques, p. 116, in the context of comparing the treatment of the Song in Zohar and in Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah: "Encore une fois, comparant Midrasch et Kabbale, je ne constate dans la Kabbale qu'une systematisation et une plus complete exposition des enseignements du Midrasch. Memes theories, memes symboles, memes regrets et memes aspirations, la force de l'exaltation mystique est toutefois plus vivement entretenue et surexcitee par l'ecole kabbahstique, tandis qu'elle rattache ses doctrines au systeme qui lui est particulier et qui forme la theosophie sephirothique." Although Vulliaud does not focus on the specific traditions that figure prominently in my own analysis, I share his assumption regarding the relationship of the theosophic kabbalah and earher midrashic theology. 20. Mishnah, Yadayim 3:5. Here it is worth noting the Islamic tradition, "The entire Koran is a symbohc, 575

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allusive [ramz] story, between the Lover and the Beloved, and no one except the two of them understands the truth or reality of its intention," and the interpretation offered by Corbin, Creative Imagination, p. 251: "Clearly the entire 'science of the heart' and all the creativity of the heart are needed to set in motion the ta'wit, the mystic interpretation which makes it possible to read and to practice the Koran as though it were a variant of the Song of Songs." 21. Agadath Shir Hashirim, p. 5. The original Hebrew of this passage is somewhat enigmatic: iitu lo nitnah ba-torah shir ha-shirim keda'y hayyetah linhog et ha-olam. My rendering presumes that the word ba-torah is a

corruption of ha-torah, a reading that is confirmed by the passage cited by the thirteenth-century kabbalist, Isaac Ibn Sahula, in his commentary on the Song, which is mentioned by Schechter in Agadath Shir Hashirim, p. 49. See also Lieberman, Midreshei Teiman, p. 14 n. i. Lieberman suggests that the correct reading is iltu lo nitnah ba-torah ela shir ha-shirim, which should be translated as "Had nothing been given in the Torah except for the Song of Songs." 22. See Lieberman, "Mishnath Shir ha-Shirim," pp. 118-121. The influence of this rabbinic tradition is reflected, for instance, in a hturgical poem for Pentecost composed by Eleazar bi-R. Qillir that is organized around verses from the Song. See Ehzur, "On the Role of the Yo:zer," pp. 351-394. 23. See E. Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp. 4-7. 24. See David Stem, Parables in Midrash, pp. 63-67. 25. Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah, 1:8, p. 5. Many of the pericopae included in this anthology are predicated on the implicit identification of the Song and the Torah. Only such an assumption can account for the specific apphcation of verses from the Song to the Torah. An early articulation of the essential parabolic nature of Torah hnked to Solomon's hterary productions, and especially the Song of Songs, is found in Abulafia, Osar Eden Canuz, fols. 59b-6oa (printed ed., p. 120): "Thus Solomon [proceeded] from parable to parable, and from word to word, until he understood the words of Torah. Hence, they acknowledged that Proverbs was first, and then the words of Ecclesiastes, and subsequent to the two of them the parables [that illumine] the clarity of Torah, which is the Song of Songs." Abulafia goes on to say that this is the order of study that must be followed by one seeking perfection: initially one must attain moral excellence (Proverbs), and then one must master matters pertaining to nature (Ecclesiastes), and finally one attains metaphysical fehcity in the "secret of the poem," be-sod ha-shir (Song). 26. This idea, which occupied a central role in rabbinic readings of the Song, is expressed in a particularly poignant way in David ben Hayyim, Shirah te-Dawid, id: "King Solomon cherished the holy Torah even though he was a great wise man, as it says, 'He was the wisest of all men, he composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered one thousand and five' (i Kings 5:11-12). Notwithstanding all of this, the holy Torah, which was given from heaven, is better, for the Torah is also referred to as 'song,' as it says, 'Therefore, write down this song' (Deut. 31:19). This is the 'Song of Songs' [shir ha-shirim], the five books of Torah, 'by Solomon' [asher li-shetomo], ioi by means of the holy Torah one can acquire perfection [sheleimut], by means of Torah and the commandments one can be conjoined to the holy One, blessed be he. This is the import of what is said, 'Oh, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth,' for by means of Torah one is conjoined to the holy One, blessed be he, in one moment." 27. Rosenzweig, Star of Redemption, p. 201. For discussion of this passage, see E. Wolfson, "Facing the Effaced," pp. 77-78. 28. Many examples could be cited to prove the point thatjewish interpreters through the ages have been keenly aware of the struggle between Church and Synagogue over the Song. Here I will mention briefly one example. In the introduction to his commentary on the Song, Sefer Sar Shalom, 3b-4a, Samuel Aripul affirms the standard allegorical reading of the scroll as a dialogue between God and the community of Israel, but he also emphasizes that the true meaning of this text can be ascertained only by Israel, whereas the other books traditionally ascribed to Solomon can be understood by other nations. I assume that the metaphorical comparison of the Song to the pure flour of which only Israel can partake is a veiled allusion to the fact that Christians cannot penetrate the inner depths of this poem. See ibid., i6a, where Aripul reiterates the point that the hidden secrets of the Song, which are connected to the amorous imagery, can be known only by Israel.

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29. An interesting case study along these lines is found in Saltman, "Jewish Exegetical Material," pp. 421-452. 30. Leclercq, Love of Learning, p. 84, thus distinguishes between the medieval Christian scholastic approach and the monastic approach to the Song: the former was basically collective in nature, emphasizing God's relations to the entire Church, whereas the latter was individualistic in orientation, focusing primarily on God's relations with each soul. I am deliberately ignoring the Marian interpretation of the female persona of the Song, which is also attested in the history of Christian exegesis and hturgy, beginning with Origen and Gregory of Nyssa in the East and Ambrose in the West, eventually becoming a formal part of the commentary genre, especially in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In particular, the bibhcal text was used to extol the virtue of Mary's virginity as the Mother-Bride (an important verse in this regard was Song 4:12). See Beumer, "Die marianische Deutung," pp. 411-439; Ohly, Hohelied-Studien, pp. 124-134; Perella, Kiss Sacred and Profane, pp. 70-73; Wechsler, "Change in the Iconography," pp. 73-93; E. Clark, Ascetic Piety, pp. 405-407; Pope, Song of Songs, pp. 188-192; Matter, Voice of My Beloved, pp. 151-177; Astell, Song of Songs, pp. 15-16, 42-50, 60-72, 138-143, 168-176; Hamburger, Rothschild Canticles, pp. 71, 88-104; Fulton, "Virgin Mary and Song of Songs"; idem. From Judgment to Passion; Ebertshauser, Haag, Kirchberger, and SoUe, Mary, pp. 175-176. For a later reflex of this exegetical tradition, see Engammare, Qw'i7 me baise, pp. 260-266; and for an interesting devotional application of the symbol, see Winston-AUen, Stories of the Rose, pp. 88-92, 145-146. 31. On the description of the Song as a "contemplative text" {theoricus sermo), expressive of the eschatological desire in medieval monastic culture, see Leclercq, Love of Learning, pp. 85-86. 32. Perella, Kiss Sacred and Profane, p. 40. The importance of the kiss in the history of Christian spirituahty should not be hmited to exegetical support for the mystical imagination. On the contrary, there is evidence that the kiss as union with Christ was part of the communion ritual. See Taft, "Byzantine Communion Rites," pp. 307-345. esp. pp. 337-34233. See McGinn, "Language of Love," pp. 202-203, 207, 211-212. See also Moore, "Song of Songs in the History of Sexuality," pp. 328-349. The gender reversal imphed by the portrayal of the soul as feminine vis-a-vis the divine or the earthly incarnation of God depicted as male is also found in Islamic esotericism. As a representative study of this phenomenon, see Asani, "Bridal Symbohsm," pp. 389-404, esp. pp. 398399. See also Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, pp. 152-155, who notes that the use of feminine images to depict the soul of men in their yearning for the deity imaged as masculine in some Islamic mystical sources reflects the influence of Hinduism, in contrast to other Sufi authors for whom the soul is masculinized and God, the object of yearning, is feminine. 34. For discussion of the process of homosocial bonding with God through exegesis of biblical texts in a fourteenth-century hterary setting, see Keiser, Courtly Desire, pp. 165-200. Keiser's insight that the celebration of the homosocial bonding between God and men rests upon an unequivocal rejection of homosexual deviance corresponds to my view that the homoerotic relationship of the male kabbahst with the masculine God is predicated on an abnegation of camal sexuahty. See E. Wolfson, Circle in the Square, pp. 107-110, 223-224 n. 145. 35. Bernard of Clairvaux, On the Song of Songs I, 1:11, pp. 6-7. 36. Ibid., 3:1, p. 16. The emphasis placed on experience is repeated on many occasions in Bernard's sermons; for example, see 6:9, p. 37, where Bernard refers to experience as a "teacher." See idem. On the Song of Songs II, 22:2, p. 15: "In matters of this kind, understanding can foUow only where experience leads, and I shall be the last to intrude rashly where the bride alone may enter"; idem. On the Song of Songs II, 39:3, p. 193: "I have no doubt that some of you understand what I am saying from your own experience, which enables you even to anticipate my words"; idem. On the Song of Songs II, 41:3, p. 206: "The things we speak of are divine, totally unknown except to those who have experienced them." See also idem. On the Song of Songs in, 51:3, p. 42: "I am telhng you of what comes within my own experience"; idem. On the Song of Songs IV, 68:1, p. 17: "Hear now what I held over from yesterday; hear of the joy which I have experienced. . . . I experienced this joy in just one word of the Bride. . . . The Bride has spoken, and has said that the Bridegroom inclines himself to her; who then is the Bride, and who is the Bridegroom? The Bridegroom is

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our God, and we, I say in all humihty, are the Bride—we, and the whole multitude of captives whom he acknowledges"; idem. On the Song of Songs IV, 74:5, pp. 89-90: "I want to tell you of my own experience. . . . I admit that the Word has also come to me . . . and has come many times. But although he has come to me, I have never been conscious of the moment of his coming." 37. Jantzen, Power, Cender and Christian Mysticism, p. 126. See idem, "Mysticism and Experience," pp. 295-315. On the theme of mystical union in the writings ofBemard, see Gilson, Mystical Theology, pp. i o i 118. The manner in which the circular process of writing and reading construct the monastic site according to Bernard is explored by Pranger, Bernard ofClairvaux, pp. 47-84. On the role of experience and the spiritual senses in Bernard's mystical orientation, see McGinn, Crowth of Mysticism, pp. 185-190. On the kiss as a symbol for the union between the soul and the divine in Bernard's reading of the Song, see Perella, Kiss Sacred and Profane, pp. 52-57; Astell, Song of Songs, pp. 17-20. 38. Bernard ofClairvaux, On the Song of Songs I, 9:3, p. 55. 39. Bernard ofClairvaux, On the Song of Songs IV, 85:14, p. 210. For discussion of the various nuances of mystical union in Bernard's rehgious philosophy, see Tamburello, Union with Christ, pp. 64-83. 40. Bernard ofClairvaux, On the Song of Songs II, 23:3, p. 28. 41. On the meditational practice of Bernard as it relates especially to his sermons on the Song of Songs, see Carruthers, Craft of Thought, pp. 84-87. 42. Bernard ofClairvaux, On the Song of Songs I, 2:6, p. 12. 43. Ibid., 3:2-5, pp. 16-20. See McGinn, Crowth of Mysticism, p. 166. 44. Bernard ofClairvaux, On the Song of Songs I, 2:2, p. 9; see 3:5, p. 20: "and he who is joined to him in a holy kiss becomes through his good pleasure, one spirit with him." Bernard's words are based in part on I Cor. 16:17. 45. On the role of asceticism in the Cistercian spirituahty appropriated by Bernard, see Gilson, Mystical Theology, pp. 68-69. 46. Bernard ofClairvaux, On the Song of Songs I, 1:3, p. 2. 47. Ibid., 5:8, p. 30. 48. Ibid., 7:3, p. 39. 49. Bernard ofClairvaux, On the Song of Songs IV, 71:10, pp. 56-57. 50. Ibid., 83:4, p. 184. The emphasis on mystical union in Bernard's sermons is not to foster unmitigated withdrawal from the world. On the contrary, the monastic ideal of the Cistercian and Franciscan orders was socially oriented. The spiritual program of Bernard in particular was to restore God's love to its origin so that it might overflow again with a revitalized strength. The effect of union with God is augmentation of charity in the world. The contemplative ideal is seen as part of the process by means of which divine love is disseminated. See Bernard ofClairvaux, On the Song of Songs II, 23:2, p. 26; commenting on the verse "The king has brought me into his chambers" (Song 1:3), Bernard remarked, "Even though I alone seem to have been introduced, it is not for my sole advantage. Every preferment I enjoy is a joy for you all; the progress that I make is for you, and with you I shall divide all that I shall merit above your measure"; idem. On the Song of Songs III, 57:9, p. 103: "It is characteristic of true and pure contemplation that when the mind is ardently aglow with God's love, it is sometimes so filled with zeal and the desire to gather to God those who will love him with equal abandon that it gladly foregoes contemplative leisure for the endeavor of preaching"; idem, OM the Song of Songs IV, 68:1, p. 17: "Hear now what I held over from yesterday; hear of the joy which I have experienced. Yet it is your joy also." See J. Wimsatt, "St. Bernard, the Canticle of Canticles, and Mystical Poetry," pp. 77-95; McGinn, Crowth of Mysticism, pp. 207-215. 51. Bernard ofClairvaux, On the Song of Songs IV, 83:6, p. 186. The utihzation of the kiss as symbolic of spiritual fellowship is attested in the ritual kiss of peace affirmed by Dionysius the Areopagite in his The Ealesiastical Hierarchy in conjunction with mystery oi synaxis or communion; see Pseudo-Dionysius, pp. 211 and 218. 52. Based on i Tim. 2:5. 53. Bernard ofClairvaux, On the Song of Songs I, 2:9, p. 15. 54. Ibid., 8:2, p. 46. 578

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55. Ibid., 2:7, p. 12. 56. Ibid., 2:3, p. 10. 57. The matter is expanded in ibid., 11:7, pp. '1\-Ti- See also Bernard ofClairvaux, On the Song of Songs IV, 69:6, pp. 32-3358. Ps. 22:15. 59. Bernard ofClairvaux, On the Song of Songs I, 15:4, pp. 108-109. 60. Bernard ofClairvaux, On the Song of Songs III, 56:1, pp. 87-88. 61. Jantzen, Power, Cender and Christian Mysticism, p. 129. 62. This is not to say that Bernard does not at times adopt the more conventional view that would deny the hteral ascription of anthropomorphic images to God. For instance, see the apophatic orientation affirmed by Bernard, On the Song of Songs I, 4:4, pp. 23-24. 63. Ibid., 20:4, pp. 149-150. 64. Ibid., 20:7, p. 153. 65. A particularly important application of this is Bernard's explanation of the iconic image one must have in prayer of God as human; see ibid., 20:6, p. 152: "The soul at prayer should have before it a sacred image of the God-man, in his birth or infancy or as he was teaching, or dying, or rising, or ascending. Whatever form it takes this image must bind the soul with love of virtue and expel camal vices, eliminate temptations and quiet desires. I think this is the principle reason why the invisible God willed to be seen in the flesh and to converse with men as a man. He wanted to recapture the affections of camal men who were unable to love in any other way, by first drawing them to salutary love of his own humanity, and then gradually to raise them to a spiritual love. . . . So it was only by his physical presence that their hearts were detached from camal love." 66. Ibid., 1:1, 4, pp. 1-3. 67. See Borgen, Bread from Heaven. 68. John 6:25-59, esp. 33: "For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives hfe to the world." And ibid., 51: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he wiU hve forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the hfe of the world." On the hidden manna, see Rev. 2:17. 69. Bernard ofClairvaux, On the Song of Songs II, 34:1-4, pp. 160-164, 45:3-4> PP- 234-235- The emphasis on humility can be traced back to the exhortation attributed to Jesus, "He who is greatest among you shall be your servant; whoever exalts himself wiU be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted" (Matt. 23:11-12). In the reworking of the statement attributed to Jesus in James 4:4-10, an explicit connection is estabhshed between humihty and denial of worldly pleasures. See also Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, 3.12, in Dionysius the Areopagite, Pseudo-Dionysius, p. 222. 70. Hollywood, Soul as Virgin Wife, p. 21. See also Hamburger, Rothschild Canticles, pp. 1-7, 23-26, 71-72, 105-117. 71. See E. Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp. 119-124, 326-332. 72. Although a number of scholars in this century have adopted the contextuahst approach in one form or another, the most outspoken and oft-cited champion of this position has been Steven Katz; see the two collection of essays edited by him: Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis, and Mysticism and Religious Traditions. For a response to the contextualist argument, see the essays in Forman, Problem of Pure Consciousness; see also Forgie, "Hyper-Kantianism," pp. 205-218; and Evans, "Can Philosophers Limit," pp. 53-60. For a modified contextualism, see my own discussion in Tiirough a Speculum, pp. 52-73; see also the studies by Sells and Kripal in the following note. 73. On the phenomenon of apophatic imagery, which embodies the dialectic of revelation and concealment, see Hamburger, Rothschild Canticles, pp. 133-142. This dialectic is at the foundation of the richly nuanced analysis in Sells, Mystical Languages of Unsaying. See also the pertinent remarks of Kripal, Kali's Child, pp. 17-21. 74. Hollywood, Soul as Virgin Wife, p. 22. 75. The point is made quite profoundly in a passage &om the Midrash ha-Ne'elam, a relatively early stra579

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tum of zoharic literature, in Zohar 1:98b. According to the narrative setting of that passage, on a particular Friday when the health of Ehezer ben Hyrcanus was faihng, several sages of the generation came to pay him a visit. Amongst those sages was Aqiva, who requested Eliezer to teach some Torah. The master began to expound the account of the chariot, as a result of which a fire surrounded those who were gathered about his bed. After the others departed from the room, Ehezer continued to instruct Aqiva in nine hundred legal decisions {halakhot pesuqot) and 216 explanations {te'amim) for the verses of the Song. However, when Ehezer reached the verse, "Sustain me with raisin cakes, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love" (Song 2:5), Aqiva could no longer endure the experience. He wept and he cried out, and no more was said "out of respect for the Shekhinah who was there." Ehezer's exposition of the mysteries embedded in the Song led to Aqiva's ecstatic experience, depicted primarily by his weeping in the face of the fiery presence of the divine. See the interesting use of this zoharic passage in the comments by David ben Samuel Halevi, Turei Zahav, on the marginal gloss of Moses Isseries to Joseph Karo, Shulhan Arukh, Orah Hayyim, 288:2. According to Isseries, if one derives pleasure from weeping, then it is permissible to weep on Sabbath. Commenting on this, David ben Samuel Halevi writes, "As it says in the Aggadah, the disciples of Aqiva found him weeping on Sabbath, and he said, 'I have pleasure in this.' It appears that out of the abundance of his cleaving to the holy One, blessed be he, his eyes shed tears. Thus we find in Zohar Hadash that Aqiva would weep intensely when he uttered the Song of Songs, for he knew where these matters reached." On the nexus of weeping and ecstasy, see Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp. 75-88; and E. Wolfson, "Weeping, Death, and Spiritual Ascent," pp. 209-247. For a nuanced analysis of the motif of weeping in zoharic literature, see also E. Fishbane, "Tears of Disclosure," pp. 25—47. 76. D. Turner, Eros and Allegory, pp. 19-21. 77. On the use of erotic images and the centrahty of the body in the case of Christian women mystics in the later Middle Ages, see Bynum, Holy Feast, pp. 26, 246-276. The more positive role accorded the body and sexuality in theological discourse is echoed in contemporary feminist theory. See Sands, "Uses of the Thea(o)logian," pp. 7-33; Gudorf, Body, Sex, and Pleasure; Cooey, Religious Imagination and the Body. 78. Jantzen, Power, Cender and Christian Mysticism, pp. 90-92, 126, 133-146. Weber, Teresa of Avila, pp. 114-122, suggests that the language of erotic spirituality in Teresa's Las Moradas des Castillo interior was enhanced in great measure by a reading of the Song distinctive to women exegetes. For the suggestion that the nuptial mysticism of Teresa and John of the Cross betrays the influence of kabbalists' utilization of erotic images of the Song, see Swietlicki, Spanish Christian Cabala, pp. 169-171. 79. Jantzen, Power, Cender and Christian Mysticism, pp. 236-238. For a later development of this motif, see St. J. Flynn, "Saint of the Womanly Body," pp. 91-109. 80. See Thornton, Eros, pp. 128-134. For a presumed challenge in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to the equations between femininity and camahty, on the one hand, and mascuhnity and the spiritual, on the other, see Kay, "Women's Body of Knowledge." 81. Bynum, Holy Feast, pp. 217-218. See also the balanced account in P. Johnson, Equal in Monastic Profession. 82. Bynum, Holy Feast, pp. 262-269, 290-294. 83. See Hollywood, Soul as Virgin Wife, p. 7. For discussion of the adoption of the ascetic ideal on the part ofearly Christian women and the subversion of the social order of the Roman Empire based on marriage as the proper role assigned to women, see E. Clark, Ascetic Piety, pp. 175-208; G. Clark, "Women and Asceticism in Late Antiquity," pp. 33-48; C. Cooper, Virgin and the Bride. 84. To avoid potential misunderstanding, let me make clear that I am not saying that Jewish women in the Middle Ages were not capable of interpreting the Song in erotic terms that may have occasioned mystical experiences of an ecstatic nature. The difficulty lies in finding the sources for the historian to construct a methodologically sound argument. 85. The range of exegetical strategies in reading the Song can easily be gauged from even a cursory glance at Walfish, "Annotated Bibhography," pp. 518-571. 86. See Kamin, Jcwi and Christians, pp. 13-61. The rendering of Rashi's historico-allegorical approach to the Song as the hteral sense {exposito hystorica) in the thirteenth-century Latin commentary on the Song is 580

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described in Smalley, Study of the Bible, pp. 352-355; see also Signer, "Thirteenth Century Christian Hebraism," pp. 89-100; Kamin and Saltman, Secundum Salomonem. On the historical approach to the allegorical reading of the Song, referred to as the concealed meaning {nistar), in contrast to the literal or revealed sense {nigleh), see Tamakh, R. Abraham b. Isaac ha-Levi Tamakh, pp. 39-42. In this chapter I am deliberately ignoring the utihzation of verses from the Song in the formulation of the mystical theosophy articulated by the Jewish Pietists of the Rhineland in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as we find, for instance, in their articulation of chariot speculation in terms of the image of the secret of the nut {sod ha-egoz), which is derived from Song 6:11. See references above, chap. 4, n. 13. In my various attempts at decoding the Pietistic esotericism, which involved the attribution of an erotic drama to the divine realm, I have noted the central role played by key passages from the Song. See, in particular, the comments in E. Wolfson, Along the Path, pp. 185-186 n. 364. See also Marcus, "Song of Songs," pp. 181-189. 87. J. Katz, Exclusiveness and Tolerance, p. 21. 88. Frank, "'Voice of the Turtledove." My brief summary is indebted to the author's skilled textual analysis. See idem, "Karaite Commentaries," pp. 51-69. 89. Frank, "Shoshanim," pp. 199-245, esp. pp. 200-201. 90. See, by contrast, A. Green, "Song of Songs," p. 49: "With the contraction of midrashic thinking in the Middle Ages and its displacement by philosophical theology as the dominant Jewish way of speaking about God, the traditions of sacred eros, scandalous to the philosophers, became virtually the unique legacy of the mystics." I see httle evidence to support the surmise concerning a "contraction of midrashic thinking" in medieval Jewish academies nor do I think it valid to speak of "philosophical theology" as a dominant mode of discourse about God, but what I find most objectionable in Green's statement is the notion that the philosophers would have been scandalized by the "sacred eros" articulated in kabbalistic literature. On the contrary, the sacred eroticism so pronounced in works of kabbalah is related to and in a measure derived from the idea of an intellectual eros that informed the medieval philosophical conception of conjunction {devequt). The contrast between the approach of Maimonides to the image of the kiss in the Song as a metaphor for the union between the rational soul and the Active InteUect and the erotic spirituality of kabbahstic symbolism (especially as it may be excavated from the various strata of Zohar) is also drawn too sharply by Perella, Kiss Sacred and Profane, pp. 75-83. By contrast, Rosenberg, "Philosophical Hermeneutics," pp. 133151, proposes a typological distinction between the philosophical exegesis of the Song as a figurative dialogue between the individual soul and the divine, on the one hand, and the kabbalistic exegesis that reads the Song as a description of the relationship of the male and the female attributes of the divine, on the other, but he readily acknowledges that the philosophical interpretation appears in works that would be classified as kabbalistic (p. 134). 91. See Vajda, L'amour de Dieu, pp. 142, 144-145, 168-169, 179-180, 242-247, 254-255; Corbin, Creative Imagination, p.35. An interesting departure from the norm is found in a passage in some versions of Sha'arei Sedeq, for example, MS Leiden 24.3, Cod. Or. 4762 Warner. A translation of the passage into Italian appears in Idel, Le Porte delta Ciustizia, p. 449, but the original text is not provided. I translate from the Hebrew version edited by Parush, Sha'arei Sedeq, p. 38, adding parenthetical remarks to exphcate the text: "Your name will be called Israel [yisra'el = 541] in accord with my name, which numerically is the Active Intellect [sekhel ha-po'el = 541], for I and you are one thing [ani we-atah davar ehad]. Moreover, he joins the name of twenty-six [i.e., YHWH] with Rebekah and the name of twenty-six with Jacob, and when he joins the four of them they equal yisra'el [the sum oi rivqah is 307 and ya'aqov 182, to which one adds 52, that is, 2 X YHWH, and the sum of all four is 541, the numerical value oi yisra'el]. The secret is 'Rebekah loves Jacob' (Gen. 25:28), the matter is the conjunction [hibbur] of the soul [nefesh], which is the mother, with her true son, whose intellect, by means of the names, is together with the Active Intellect, and they are one thing, for 'Jacob the son of Rebekah' [ya'aqov ben rivqah = 541] is 'Israel' [yisra'el = 541]." According to this text, the intellectual conjunction of the human soul and the Active Intellect is cast in the mold of the relationship of Rebekah and Jacob, the mother associated with the Active InteUect and the son with the human soul. 92. Scholem, Major Trends, p. 226. 581

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93. Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 206. 94. Ibn Paquda, Sefer Torat Hovot ha-Levavot, 10.i, p. 412. 95. See Vajda, L'amour de Dieu, p. 115 n. 6. 96. The relevant passages are cited by Rosenberg, "Philosophical Hermeneutics," pp. 136-137. See also Hughes, Texture of the Divine, pp. 38, 61, 121-122. 97. See Scheindlin, Cazelle, pp. 49, 128-129; and the poem by Judah Halevi translated and analyzed in T. Rosen, Unveiling Eve, p. 89, and the comments of the author, p. 221 n. 20. 98. Reif, "Abraham ibn Ezra on Canticles," p. 247. 99. Pseudo-Bahya, Reflexions sur I'ame, pp. 38 and 40; see also p. 35; Rosenberg, "Philosophical Hermeneutics," p. 137. 100. Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Teshuvah 10.3. 101. Maimonides, Cuide, III:5i. On the reappropriation of the language of eros in the thought of Maimonides (and other philosophical thinkers influenced by him) as the most compelling metaphorical expression to depict the intellectual conjunction of the soul and the divine, see M. Fishbane, Kiss of Cod, pp. 24-30; and the philological-historical analysis by S. Harvey, "Meaning of Terms Designating Love," pp. 175-196. See also the study of Gordon cited in chap. 7, n. 151. 102. Rosenblatt, Highways to Perfection, p. 395. 103. Saadya Gaon, Kitab al-AmSnat wdl-I'tiqadat, 10:4, pp. 300-303, discusses individuals who are dedicated to passionate love (ishq), which serves as the model for their relationship to God. For the social and intellectual background of Saadya's use of this term, including the possibility that it is borrowed from Islamic mysticism, see Goitein, Mediterranean Society, vol. 5, pp. 317-320. On the use oi'ishq in Sufism to connote the passionate love of the soul for God, see Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, p. 137; Massignon, Passion of alHallaj, vol. i, pp. 340-343, 523 n. 64; vol. 2, pp. 412; vol. 3, pp. 102-104; Wafer, "Vision and Passion," pp. I l l , 122, 128 n. 4; Abrahamov, Divine Love in Islamic Mysticism, pp. 18-23, 32. On the discrediting oi'ishq on the part of Islamic philosophers, see Giffen, Theory of Profane Love, pp. 64-65. 104. Babylonian Talmud, Baba Batra 17a; Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah, 1:16, p. 16. On the description of the kiss of death as the "union of the soul in the root," see Zohar i:i68a. 105. See Rawidowicz, Studies in Jewish Thought, pp. 291-298; and other references cited in chap. 7, n. 151. The influence of Maimonides is clearly discernible in Bahya ben Asher's description in Kad ha-Qemah of hesheq, intense desire, which he contrasts with ahavah, love. See Bahya ben Asher, Kitvei Rabbenu Bahya, pp. 34-35: "The intense desire [hesheq] is the conjunction of thought [devequt ha-mahshavah] to the great and powerful love, for the thought of the one who desires is not at all separated from that which is desired. . . . The book of the Song of Songs is based on this level of intense desire, as it begins 'Oh, give me of the kisses of his mouth' (Song 1:2), and the rabbis, blessed be their memory, explained that all of Scripture is holy, but the Song of Songs is the holy of the holies, for the desired goal of human beings is to conjoin the thought to the holy of holies. The word 'kiss' [neshiqah] has the meaning of conjunction [devequt]. . . . Concerning the one whose death is by the kiss oi Shekhinah, his body is pure and his soul is pure." 106. Maimonides, Cuide, 1:5; 111:51. On the origin of the expression "intellectual love" in Plotinus, see Ivry, "Neoplatonic Currents in Maimonides' Thought," p. 125. 107. In the introduction to his commentary to the Song, Moses Ibn Tibbon states that his explanations will be based on the teachings of Maimonides related to select verses from the book and on the more extensive explication of his father, Samuel; see Ibn Tibbon, Perush al Shir ha-Shirim, 3b (Fraisse, "HoheliedKommentar," pp. 103-104). The reference to what his father said concerning the literary production of Solomon in Perush al Shir ha-Shirim, 5a (Fraisse, "Hohelied-Kommentar," pp. 127-130) corresponds to a comment in Samuel's commentary on Ecclesiastes, as noted by Fraisse, p. 128 n. 80. For a more comprehensive dehneation of the parallels between the commentary on Ecclesiastes by Samuel and the commentary on the Song by Moses, see James T. Robinson, "Samuel Ibn Tibbon's Commentary," pp. 482-488. In his comments on Song 8:10, Perush al Shir ha-Shirim, 23a, Ibn Tibbon refers to what "my master, my uncle, the sage wrote in the commentary" {we-adoni dodi he-hakham katav be-feirush). But see the variant reading from MSS Vatican ebr. 549, fol. 30b, and Oxford heb f 109, fol. 39a, recorded by Fraisse, "Hohehed-Kommentar," p. 582

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332, we-katav adoni avi ("my master, my father, wrote"). The question of Samuel Ibn Tibbon's approach to the Song is comphcated by a comment he makes in his Perush Qohelet, MS Parma 272, fol. 20b, cited by Fraisse, "Hohehed-Kommentar," p. 12 n. 27: "the words [of Solomon] in [the Song of Songs] were not by way of wisdom [derekh ha-hokhmah] but by way of the words of two lovers, one to the other [derekh divrei shenei hoshqim zeh la-zeh]." 108. Ibn Aqnin, Divulgatio Mysteriorum, pp. 18-19. See Halkin, "Ibn Aknin's Commentary," pp. 389-420; Vajda, L'amour de Dieu, pp. 144—145. 109. Ibn Aqnin, Divulgatio Mysteriorum, pp. 14-15. n o . Ibid., pp. 24-25. 111. Ibn Tibbon, Perush al Shir ha-Shirim, 4b (Fraisse, "Hohehed-Kommentar," pp. 125-126); see also 6a, 6b (Fraisse, "Hohelied-Kommentar," pp. 129-131). 112. Ibn Tibbon, Perush al Shir ha-Shirim, 5a (Fraisse, "Hohehed-Kommentar," pp. 127-128). 113. Ibn Tibbon, Perush al Shir ha-Shirim, 7b-8a (Fraisse, "Hohelied-Kommentar," pp. 169-170); see Vajda, L'amour de Dieu, pp. 179-180. 114. Ibn Tibbon, Perush al Shir ha-Shirim, $a (Fraisse, "Hohelied-Kommentar," pp. 129-132). 115. Ibn Tibbon, Perush al Shir ha-Shirim, 6a (Fraisse, "Hohelied-Kommentar," pp. 137-140). 116. Subsequent philosophical and mystical authors continued this allegorical approach. See, for instance, Ravitsky, "Immanuel of Rome"; Narboni, Epistle on the Possibility of Conjunction, p. 96, English section, pp. 128-129, Hebrew section; Kellner, "Gersonides' Commentary," pp. 81-107; idem, "Gersonides on the Song," pp. 1-22. 117. For a similar process in Christian authors, see C. S. Wright, "Influence of the Exegetical Tradition"; Bruckmann and Couchman, "Du 'Cantique des cantiques,'" pp. 35-50. 118. My brief analysis of the use of the Song in medieval Hebrew poetry is indebted to Scheindlin, Cazelle, pp. 20-21, 37-41, 48-49. See also Vajda, L'amour de Dieu, pp. 86, 91, 99, 115. 119. I have borrowed this term from McGinn, "Language of Love," p. 217, who bases his own remarks on the formulation of Idel, "Sexual Metaphon," pp. 199-200. 120. See Hoter ben Shelomo, Philosophic Questions, pp. 72-73. In his introduction, Blumenthal cites several examples from the so-called "eastern school of Maimonidean interpretation" (see p. ix), represented by Zekharya ha-Rofe and Sa'id Ibn Da'ud, who interpreted the Song as affirmation of the ideal of conjunction typical for medieval philosophical mysticism. 121. Idel, "Sexual Metaphors," pp. 200-201; idem. Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 206. 122. See Scholem, Major Trends, pp. 126, 138-139, 144, 383 n. 76; idem. Kabbalah of Sefer ha-Temunah, pp. 87-90, 107, 127-128, 151-152, 161, 164; idem. Kabbalah, p. 54; Idel, Mystical Experience, pp. 16-17, 22-24; idem. Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp. 98-101; idem, "Contribution of Abraham Abulafia's Kabbalah," pp. 1^4-125. 123. See, for instance, Abraham Abulafia, Osar Eden Canuz, fol. 130b (printed ed., p. 288). In addition to the studies of Idel cited above, n. 122, see Idel, Mystical Experience, pp. 180-187, 203-205; idem. Kabbalah: New Perspectives, p. 151. See also M. Fishbane, Kiss of Cod, pp. 39-43. 124. A thorough account of Gikatilla's rehgious philosophy stiU remains a desideratum. In the meantime, one may consult E. Gottlieb, Studies in the Kabbata Literature, pp. 263-279; Weiler, "Studies in the Kabbalistic Terminology," pp. 13-44; idem, "Kabbahstic Doctrine," pp. 157-186; Blickstein, "Between Philosophy and Mysticism," for the specific assessment of the influence of Maimonides, see pp. 48-49. See also Farber, "On the Sources," pp. 67—96; and idem, "Traces of the Zohar," pp. 70—83. 125. Gikatilla, Cinnat Egoz, pp. 280-281. It is of interest to note that in his later work on the symbohsm of the sefirot, Gikatilla reaffirms the contemplative ideal oi devequt that is consequent to the passionate love of God, but in that context it is related to knowledge of the names, which is interpreted in a theosophic way as a reference to the divine attributes. See Gikatilla, Sha'arei Orah, 1:47: "When one contemplates these names one will fmd that all of the Torah and the commandments are dependent on them, and when one knows the intention of each and every one of these names, one will discern and know the greatness of the One who spoke and the world came into being, and one will have fear and awe before him, and one wiU desire, yearn, and long to cleave to him through knowledge of his names, blessed be he"; see p. 83. 583

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126. This has been duly recognized by McGinn, "Language of Love," pp. 217-218. McGinn, following Idel, contrasts the mystical orientation to the Song in the two branches of kabbalah, the ecstatic and theosophic, on the grounds that in the former the mystic, hke the Christian saint, is conceived of as female in relation to the mascuhne divine lover, whereas in the latter the mystic is male in relation to the female aspect of the Godhead. I take issue with this depiction insofar as there is sufficient proof that in theosophic kabbalah there is a gender metamorphosis whereby the male mystic is feminized in relation to the divine. See below (especiaUy n. 134), and the discussion in the previous chapter. 127. See VuUiaud, Cantique des Cantiques, pp. 118-133, 183-185, 191-204, 219-225; Pope, Song of Songs, 153-179; A. Green, "Song of Songs," pp. 48-63; Le Zohar: Cantique des cantiques, pp. 18, 20-21. It should be noted that the theosophic interpretation of the male and female personae of the Song as referring respectively to the mascuhne and feminine potencies of the Godhead is already imphed in several sections of the Bahir. See reference in chap. 4, n. 50. 128. Joseph of Hamadan, Sefer Tashak, p. 33. See ibid., pp. 7-8, 27, 50-51, 60-61, 103. In the formulation of Shem Tov Ibn Shem Tov, Sefer ha-Emunot, 28b, "We have learnt that the book of Song of Songs in its rhetoric and figurative speech is a symbol [mashal] for the hidden and revealed glory [ha-kavod ha-ne'elam weha-nigleh], and in it is the secret of existent beings, and it is the secret oi shi'ur qomah." The hidden and revealed glory refer respectively to Tif'eret and Malkhut, and hence the Song is essentially a symbohc depiction of the dialogue between the mascuhne and feminine personifications of the divine, which are referred to by the technical idiom that denotes the measure of the bodily stature of God, shi'ur qomah. 129. Kitvei Ramban, 2:485, corrected in part by MS Vatican ebr. 211, fol. 13a. 130. To a degree this is imphcit in A. Green's comment on this passage in "Song of Songs," p. 57: "The 'Glory' here is the devoted bride whose longings for union with her spouse also represent the longing of the worshipper's soul for reunion with God." Green does not, however, pay attention to the gender revenal imphed in the apphcation of the verse to the soul in relation to the divine potency. The merging of the symbolic and ecstatic ways of reading the Song in Ezra's commentary is also noted by Pedaya, " 'Possessed by Speech,'"pp. 594-595. 131. The theme is reiterated in Ezra's commentary on the vene "He brought me into the banquet room" (Song 2:4), in Kitvei Ramban, 2:489: "This alludes figuratively to the elevation of the glory [mashal le-hifallut ha-kavod], and the abundance of joy and pleasure in the supernal Ught." On the elevation of the glory, see also Ezra's commentary on "where do you rest them at noon" (Song 1:7), in Kitvei Ramban, 2:486: "This alludes figuratively to the disappearance of the glory and its elevation to the supernal heights" {ha-mashal at silluq ha-kavod we-hifalluto le-marom meromim). 132. Cf Ezra's comment on "Your ointments yield a sweet fragrance" (Song 1:3), in Kitvei Ramban, 2:485: "[Scripture] calls the influx that overflows to the glory, which is the gateway to the words, 'fragrance,' and from [the glory] it increases and descends upon the seventy branches that surround the median line, and together with it they are seventy-one." From this text it is clear that kavod is Shekhinah, which is also portrayed as the median line, an expression that is more often associated in kabbahstic hterature with the masculine gradation of Tif'eret. 133. Kitvei Ramban, 2:480. Scholem, Origins, pp. 377-378, surmised that Ezra is referring to a commentary on the Song reportedly penned by Samuel Ibn Tibbon. For a recent discussion of the historical background, intellectual profile, and hterary achievements of this figure, see James T. Robinson, "Samuel Ibn Tibbon's Commentary," pp. 2-54. 134. The contrast between theosophic and ecstatic trends of kabbalah along these hnes is the position adopted by Idel, "Sexual Metaphon," p. 206; idem. Kabbalah: New Perspectives, pp. 209-210. 135. A. Green, Keter, pp. 161-162 n. 35, argues that the hypostatization oi Shekhinah as the Community of Israel as an entity distinct from the earthly community ofjews is a "key part of the Kabbalistic promulgation of a feminine divinity who is both the spouse of the male deity and the object of the Kabbahsts' own devotions." Green suggests, moreover, that there is a relationship between this theosophical development and changes in the interpretation of the Song in the twelfth century in both Jewish and Christian circles. Green contends that in the case ofjewish readers, the "interposition of a new feminine divine self" was 584

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occasioned by the "erotic (and potentially homoerotic) pressures" brought about by reading the Song as referring to the "individual soul's love of God rather than that of the historical community." Although this is not the place to enter into a lengthy critique of Green's remarks, let me note two flaws in the argument. Firstly, there is no reason to dichotomize the individualistic and communal appHcation of the symbol of the community of Israel employed in the Song. That is, for kabbalists, the Song is read simultaneously on both planes. Secondly, the so-called "feminine divine self" to which Green refers is an overly simphstic interpretation of the engendered symbol oi Shekhinah in medieval kabbalistic sources. Shekhinah is indeed portrayed in feminine terms, but she can be transvalued as masculine in relation to the soul of the male mystic who becomes female in relation to her. I do not, of course, deny the obvious fact that the relationship of the male kabbahst to Shekhinah is portrayed in standard heterosexual terms. The essential point, however, ignored by Green, is that this relationship results in the transformation of Shekhinah, a transfonnation that entails, as I have argued, the ontic restoration of the feminine to the masculine (particularly as the corona of the phallus). As a consequence of the destabilization of gender boundaries, the heterosexual terminology must be transmuted into homoerotic discourse. See E. Wolfson, Through a Speculum, pp. 357-368; idem. Circle in the Square, pp. 80-110. The wishful attempt to avoid homoeroticism by reifying the feminine quality of the divine will not work, for in the contemplative visuahzation Shekhinah is masculinized, and kabbahst, feminized. 136. See Vajda, Commentaire d'Ezra, pp. 141-144. 137. The reading proffered by Ezra, which is reiterated by any number of other kabbalists, has a striking resonance with the philosophical mysticism, particularly as it has been expressed in Sufi-influenced authors. As a way of illustration, see Fenton, "Daniel Ibn al-Mashita's 'Taqwlm al-Adyan,' " p. 79. 138. See Vajda, L'amour de Dieu, pp. 233-235; Ibn Sahula, "Rabbi Isaac Sahula's Commentary," pp. 396397; A. Green, "Song of Songs," p. 57. 139. Ibn Sahula, "Rabbi Isaac Sahula's Commentary," pp. 408-409. For more on the background of this passage, see Idel, Mystical Experience, pp. 59-60. 140. Ibn Sahula, "Rabbi Isaac Sahula's Commentary," p. 409. 141. Ibid., p. 410. See A. Green, "Song of Songs," pp. 57-58. 142. E. Gottheb, Studies, pp. 128-131. 143. Kitvei Ramban, 2;469. For a different interpretation of this passage from the one I proffered, see E. Gottlieb, Studies, p. 131. 144. See above, n. 128. The centrality of the Song in shaping the theosophic worldview of the zoharic anthology was also duly noted by S. Katz, " 'Conservative' Character," pp. 9-10. As one might expect, Katz focuses on how the rehgious imagination of the zoharic kabbalist "was saturated with this structural architectonic and the sexual-anthropomorphic imagery that was interwoven with it." The "secret doctrine" that "lay at the heart of Zoharic Kabbalah" involves the portrayal of the drama of divine unity in the exphcitly erotic terms of separation, yearning, and copulation. 145. Vajda, L'amour de Dieu, p. 210. Schimmel, As through a Veil, pp. 152-155, noted the depiction of the souls of men as feminine in their yearning for the male God in the Indo-Muslim tradition. In her opinion, this reflects the influence of Hinduism in contrast to other forms of mystical expression within Islam (for example, Ibn al-'Arabl), wherein the soul is depicted as male and the divine as feminine. 146. Zo/iar 2:124b. 147. On the use of the kiss to symbolize the union of Tif'eret and Malkhut, male and female spirits, in the divine realm, see Zohar 1:44b, 70a; 2:124b, I46a-b, 253b-254a, 256b; 3:287a; Zohar Hadash, 51c, 63c-64a. 148. Zohar Hadash, 6},i. 149. See Maimonides, Cuide, III.51, p. 628. In Zohar 1:137a {Midrash ha-Ne'elam) the desire for the kiss expressed in Song 1:2 is interpreted as the yearning of the soul to derive sustenance and pleasure firom the splendor of the Shekhinah. See, by contrast, M. Fishbane, Kiss of Cod, pp. 38-39. Although Fishbane readily acknowledges that in Zohar, as in the case of Ibn Sahula, there are two explanations for the kiss, ecstatic and hypostatic, he concludes that the "zoharic tradition of ecstatic death by divine kiss is not affected by philosophical notions or vocabulary, which distinguishes it from the Maimonidean reworking of the talmudic 585

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tradition, as well as from the mystical adaptation of Maimonides by Abraham Abulafia . . . and his disciples." I do not concur with this observation and contend that the Maimonidean influence is detectable in the relevant zoharic passages as well. On the apphcation of the motif of "death by a kiss" in the sixteenth-century circle of Luria, see Fine, Physician of the Soul, pp. 350-353. 150. Joseph of Hamadan, Sefer Tashak, p. 34. The characterization of death as the occasion for the soul to behold Shekhinah is a theme repeated often in kabbahstic hterature, based on earlier midrashic sources. For instance, see Zohar 1:98a, 126b; 3:53a, 88a. 151. On this hadtth and its impact on Sufi piety, see Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions, pp. 70 and 135; Sviri, Taste of Hidden JTiings, pp. 210 and 230 n. 94 (en passant, the author makes an interesting and important claim that the tradition attributed to Muhammad "can be traced back to even older Jewish sources," but she offers no textual support; see, however, the passage firom the rabbinic tractate Derekh Eres cited by Jonah Gerondi, Sha'arei Teshuvah 2:17, mut ad shelo tamut ("die before you die"), as noted by M. Fishbane, Kiss of Death, p. 22); Elias, Death before Dying, p. 3; Ritter, Ocean of the Soul, p. 601. 152. Joseph of Hamadan, Sefer Tashak, p. 37. The same imagery is used to describe the relationship between male and female potencies within the divine. See ibid., pp. 51, 55, 66. 153. One is reminded here of the technical Sufi terms fana' and baqa', annihilation and perdurance; according to the formulation of many masters, the two states are related cychcally, coexisting in their confluence, diverging in their convergence, converging in their divergence. See brief discussion in chap. 5. 154. The reading ofjoseph of Hamadan that I have presented—and a plethora of collateral examples firom the oeuvre of this kabbahst and others could have been supplied—challenges the claim of S. Katz, " 'Conservative' Character," pp. 13-14, that the "pre-conditions" and "pre-conditioning" ofjewish experience precludes the possibility of a Jewish mystical reading of the Song that would proffer union with God in an intimate and absorptive manner known, for example, from Christian mysticism. The nexus of love and death, inspired scripturally, points to the very possibility of a unitive experience on the part of kabbalists vis-a-vis God that Katz emphatically and categorically denies. 155. In a number of studies, Yehuda Liebes has explored the nature of eros in the kabbalah in general and in the zoharic Hterature in particular. See, for example, "Zohar and Eros." 156. Zohar i:6ob. The zoharic attitude is well captured in the brief remark of Gikatilla, Sha'arei Orah, 2:51: "This is the secret of the conjunction of the tenth emanation in the ninth without any doubt, for he who causes the Community of Israel to be united with the emanation of Yesod is himself conjoined to her, and she is conjoined to Yesod, and the two of them as one are conjoined to YHWH." 157. E. Wolfson, Circle in the Square, p. 97 and references given on p. 213 n. 91. 158. Calya Raza, p. 20. 159. On the author's use oi Sefer ha-Qanah, see the comments of Ehor in the introduction to her edition of Calya Raza, p. 14. I have not been able to locate the citation in the printed versions oi Sefer ha-Qanah, although Sefer ha-Peli'ah begins with Moses asking questions of Metatron related to the creation narrative in the context of his ascent to receive the Torah. The passage cited by the author of Calya Raza would seem to fit into this section, but I have not found an exact parallel. On the textual complications of the beginning of this text, see Oron, "Introduction oi Sefer ha-Peli'ah," pp. 273-295. 160. Calya Raza, p. i. 161. The point is weU expressed in the interpretation of Song 1:2 found in Ibn Gabbai, Tota'at Ya'aqov, p. 91. For translation and analysis of this passage, see Ginsburg, Sabbath, pp. 293-294. 162. An interesting example of the reversal of gender is found in a passage in Zohar 2: 553nni2i-i23, nni25-ni26, ni29.

Allogenes, 157, 303

Altmann, Alexander, 244 Ambrose, 335 Ami, Rabbi, 52ini35 Amora, Rabbi, 164, 277 Amrani, Azariah Hai, 484ni53 al-Amull, Abu 1-°Abbas, 227 al-FayyumI, Nathanel Ibn, 5i7-i8n89 Anatoli, Jacob, 566niO9 Anaxagoras, 212

Bahya ben Asher, 32, 425n296, 594ni76, 5o6n2i3, Barbelo, 303, 304 Barnabas, 50 Barthes, Roland, 113 Basil of Ancyra, 302 Bataille, Georges, 297 Baudelaire, Charles, 41-42 Beauvoir, Simone de, 302

An Essay on Man, 6

Beit Mo'ed, 535n322 Beitrage zur Philosophie (Vom Ereignis), 13

Antigonus, 247

Ben Azzai, 369 Benjamin, Walter, 9, 11, 12, 26, 119, 123; affinities with Wittgenstein, 4o6n85; and Heidegger, 4O7n89, 4i6ni89; impact on Scholem's understanding of mystical language, 4O5n74; relationship ofhis theory of language to the kabbalah.

Apocryphon ofjohn, 157, 303

Aqiva, Rabbi, 253, 335, 348, 359, 369, 370, 58on75 Aripul, Samuel, 576n28 Aristotle, xix, 32, 108, 268, 303 Asclepius, 572n2O4 Asher ben David, 172, 428n324, 445n98,

Ben Zoma, 161, 264, 369 716

INDEX

OF NAMES AND BOOK

Berachiah, Rabbi, 308 Bergson, Henri, xvi, xxvii Bemard of Clairvaux, 338-44, 577nn35, 36,

TITLES

Celan, Paul, 4i8n2o6, 43i-3 Chevalier, Jacques, 89 Christ: androgynous nature of, 49in36; aura encircles body of, 543n436; baptized in, 49, 50; beyond being, 422n248; born from a virgin, 5O3ni72; bride of, 301, 302, 344, 563n67, 569ni73, 57lni96; and the Church, 166, 334, 335, 337, 344, 5OOni27, 574n7; circumcision a sign to receive, 486ni8o; communion with, 343; depicted as a Lamb, 89; divinity of from a Muslim perspective, 53in249; elevation ofthe body in the glorified spirit of, 343; Eucharistic presence of, 190; glorified flesh of, 5i3n2; head of man, 51 icon ofthe image of God, 478n75; image of God embodied in, 217; incamate body of, 216, 256, 340; Jesus transfigured into, 5O4ni72; joins male and female in the bridal chamber, 166; kiss of, 338, 339, 340; 577n32; love ofthe body of, 342; meeting of divine and human in, 334; men passive in the presence of, 301; name of poured like oil, 340; one in the body of, 301; overcoming of sexual difference in body of, 51, 438n22, 439n35, n44; perfect Adam symbolized by, 52; portrayed as the Lamb, 89; production of womanfromthe side of, 49in36; putting on, 50; radiance of in body of Scripture, 342; soul's ascetic yearning to unite with, 334; spiritual love of, 525ni82, 573n224; symbol of mother ascribed to, 45657n23i; task of to repair union of male and female, 166; unified body of, 50; union with, 341, 344; virgins of, 299; wisdom of, 341; worship of, 299. See a/io Jesus Chrysostom, John, 301 Cixous, Helene, 87 Clement of Alexandria, 52-53, 215, 498n98 Cohen, Abraham Henera de, 154, 4O2n5O, 508-

n6o, n62, n63, n64, n65, n66, n69 Betti, Emilo, 114 Be'ur al ha-Torah (Bahya), 548n29, 569 Be'ur al ha-Torah (Recanati), 568ni47, Bezalel, and Moses, 458n239 Bhaskararaya, 559ni7 Bistami, Abu Yazid al-, 227 Blake, William, 212, 297 Blanchot, Maurice, 113, 287, 288-89, 292 Bloom, Harold, 42, 45 Boethius, 547n28 Bohme, Jacob, xvi, 8, 103, 197, 4O2n49, 5i4n45; affinity with Jewish esotericism, 392ni, 393n2, 42in24i; affinns a nexus between circumcision of the flesh and revelatory experience of divine embodiment, 485-86ni8o; conception ofthe androgynous Adam affinned by, 47in435; influenced by Christian kabbalah, 468n392 Book of Mirrors, 425n3O2, 45Oni57, 492n38, Book ofthe Covenant, 566niO9 Book ofthe Pomegranate, 426nn3O5, n3o8, n3O9,

573n2i7, n223, 594n43. See also Sefer haRimmon Borges, Jorge Luis, 114, 473ni5, 539-4On38o Bourdieu, Piene, 79 Brermer, Althalya, 187 Buddha, 56-57, 44in66, 442n72; maternal images attributed to, 456n231 Burrus, Virginia, 299

"Commentary on Idra Rabba," 5i2n278

Bustan al-'uqul, sijn&g

Commentary on Talmudic Aggadoth, 425n3oo,

Bynum, Caroline Walker, 81, 344

67n356, 52oni2O,

Cacciari, Massimo, 116-17 Cain, 80; associated with the attribute of the feminine that comes forth from the power ofjudgment, 459n250; identified symbolically as the Tree of Knowledge on the leftm 5O5ni95; progeny of Samael and Eve, 444n86; root of, 548n38, 59On2 Cassianus, Julius, 52 Cassirer, Emst, 6, 7

546ni2, 552niio, niii, nii8, nii9,

Corbin, Henry, xii, xviii, 28, 29, 30, 39, 49, 221, 239 Cordovero, Moses, 179-80, 374, 4O2n5O, 443n8i, 8, 447nii8, Corrington, Robert, 205 Cozbi the Midianite, 267 Critchey, Simon, 86 717

INDEX

OF NAMES

AND BOOK

Cusanus, Nicholas, xix, 30—31, 96, 100, 424nn279— 84, 42 Dainton, Barry, xviii Daly, Mary, 136 David, 221, 377; conjoined to the three patriarchs, 353, 367; conjoined to Yesod, 138; praise of, 275, 278; song of, 356; symbolic of Shekhinah, 84, 138, 353, 458-59n250; throne of, 377, 378 David ben Hayyim, 576n26 David ben Yehudah he-Hasid, 178; 425n3O2, 45oni57, De apice theoriae as posse ipsum, 96

de Certeau, Michael, 42 de Leon, Moses, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 48, 71-72, 75, 82, 84, 177, 183, 204, 222, 381-382,

56on32; kings of, 180, 309-310, 311, 385, 386, 387, 567nu7, ni2i, ni22, 596n59; land of, 311, 386; power of from the hands, 265; symbolic of Roman Christianity, 386 Ehrenburg, Rudolf, 88 Einfiihrung in die Metaphysik, 13

Einstein, Albert, xvii, xxx Eleazar, Rabbi, 257, 258, 266, 354, 379, 587ni79 Eleazar of Worms, 144, 276, 557ni89 Eliade, Mircea, xviii, 49, 261, 263 Eliezer ben Abraham ha-Levi, 475n46 Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, 58on75 Elijah, 248, 251, 358, 587-88ni79 Elijan ben Solomon (VUna Gaon), 5ion249 Elimah Rabbati, 447nii8, 5o8n243 Emerald Tablet, 7, 61

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 114 Empedocles, 33, 40, 212

, 45ini66, 451 ni84,

TITLES

Encyklopddie der philosophischen Wissenschaften im Orundrisse, i o i Enoch, xii, 80, 248, 251, 459n25O Enneads, 423n254, 467n362, 523ni5 3, ni66, ni68,

588ni83, 592-9 De docta ignorantia, 30 De interpretatione, 32 Derekh ha-Qodesh,

Derrida, Jacques, xxviii, 3, 90-93, 113, 116, 158-60 Descartes, Rene, 194 De semine, 303

Desmond, WiUiam, 268 De uita Moysis, 216 Der Wille zur Macht, 44 Dialogue ofthe Savior, 54 Die frohliche Wissenschaft, 44 Die Philosophie der Symbotischen Formen, 6 Die Wehaher, 102

Dilthey, Wilhelm, 4, 5 Divine Names, 217-18, 558ni2 Dionysius the Areopagite, 10, 97, 122, 124, 213, 217-18, 271-72, 4O3n6i, 479n87,

Donnolo, Sabbatai, 274, 275, 55on8i Dorje, Garab, 537n352 Dzogchen, Eckhart, Meister, 42, 298, 4i8-i9n2ii, 426n3io, 2, 472n6, Eco, Umberto, 37, 205 Edom, 258; feminization ofjacob in relation to.

Ephraim, 132, 273; identified as the female ofthe arrayments o{Shekhinah, 459n25O Epstein, Qalonymous Qalman ha-Levi, 5o8n242 Eriugena, John Scotus, 395n34, 466n345, 524ni65, 54411436 Es Hayyim (Hayyim ha-Kohen of Sativa), 422n245 Ei Hayyim (Hayyim Vital), 483ni53, 5O2ni43, 508n24i, 5ion254, n257, 5iin2o8, n28i, n286, 549n62, 566nii6, 59On243, n244, n245, 596n63, n64, n65, n67, n68 Esau, 258; hands of 265 Esmail, Aziz, 127 Esther, 72, 187; name of Shekhinah, 484ni64 Eudorus, 7 Eugnostos the Blessed, 157

Eve, 53, 80, 248, 270, 302, 459n25O, 493n45; and Adam created androgynous, 173; and Adam engaged in contemplation of inteUigible matters, 315; contained within Adam, 165; corresponds to matter, 547-48n29; corresponds to Nuqba in the divine realm, 185; created from the virgin Adam, 492n36; daughters of, 554ni4o; desired to be equal in stature to Adam, 61; emerged from Adam, 47On43i, 594n4o; garments of, 248; Hebrew spoken by, 203; inseminated by the ser718

INDEX

OF NAMES

AND

pent, 58, 59, 444n86; Mary rectifies the transgression of, 595n53; replaces the Virgin, 47in435; responsible for original sin, 53; seductive nature of, 302; separated from Adam, 166, 5iin263; superiority to Adam, 594n4O; weakened position of, 62 Even ha-Shoham, 447nii8 Everson, William, 285, 553-54ni4O Exodus Rabbah, 5Oini37, 5O2ni4i, 55in96, 557ni88 Expository Treatise on the Soul, 155-57, 166 Ezekiel, xiii; chariot vision of, 73, 382 Ezra, identified as son of God, 53in249 Ezra ben Solomon of Gerona, 33, 34, 95, 96, 169, 246-48, 250, 263, 264, 280, 281, 288, 346, 34950, 351, 352, 376, 389, 427n3i4, 498n332, n333.

, ni22,

, ni25.

52onii4, 573n22i, 574n243, n246, 583ni24, ni25, , ni87, ni9i, 586ni56, 58 , 583ni26 Ginnat Egoz, 348, Goethe,J. W., 8 Gold, Penny, 77 Gold, Thomas, xviii Gospel according to the Egyptians, 52, 304 Gospel of Mary, 54 Gospel of Philip, 165-66 Gospel of Thomas, 50, 53-54, 55, 165, 304, 373 Gospel of Truth, 272 Green, Monica, 134 Gregory of Nyssa, 53, 215-18 Gross, Rita, 56, 58 Grosz, Elizabeth, 87, 146 Guide ofthe Perplexed, 88, 220, 239, 346, 443n83,

Fano, Menahem Azariah of, 186-87, 5i2n285, n287 Fausto-Sterling, Anne, 80 Ferstman, CarlaJ., 306 Foucault, Michel, 3, 80, 85, 300 Freud, Sigmund, 119, 126, 129, 298 Fusus al-hikam, 229 Futuhat al-makkiyya, 232

486ni84, 526n2io, 527n2l9, 535n3l7, 546ni5, 9, 568ni5i, 569ni59, 582niO2, niO7, Gulshan-e Raz, 29 Hadar: corresponds symboUcally to Yesod, 311; eighth ofthe Edomite kings, 310, 387; identified as the attribute of Hesed, 567ni22; only Edomite king whose wife is mentioned, 311 Hafiz, Muhammad Shamsuddin, 233 Halevi, David ben Samuel, 58on75 Halevi, Judah, 203, 204, 469n396, 486ni84, 5i7n84, n85, n86, n87, n88, n89, 5i8n92, 5i9nioi, niO2,

Gabriel, 226, 231; identified as the Active Intellect, Gadamer, Hans-Georg, 10, 12, 112, 113 Galante, Abraham, 446nii5, 553ni37 Galen, 107-108, 269, 303, 353 Calya Raza, 353-54 Garlands of Light, 558nio Gate of Heaven {Puerta del Cielo), 5o8-5O9n244 Genesis Apocryphon, 444n9i Genesis Rabbah, 274, 445niO4, 45ini73, 457n236,

Hamnuna Sava, 38, 361 Harpham, Geoffrey, 115 Haver, Yishaq Isaac, Hayyat, Judah, 121, 484ni6o Hayy ibn Yaqzan, 346 Hayyei ha-Nefesh, 537n347 Hayyei Olam ha-Ba, 237-38, 240, 4o8n2io, 536n325,

54in4Oi, George, Stefan, 16, 20 Gerad, Rene, 160 German Pietists, 144, 348. See also Rhineland Jewish Pietists Gerondi, Jonah, 199, 586ni5i Ghazall, Abu Hamid al-, 27-28, 230, 533n285, n286.

256, 331, 332, 348, 351, 358-59, 371. 427n32O,

TITLES

n2O5,

n384, n385, 541 546ni2, ni4, 16, 552niio, ni20, i, ni32, ni33, 8

Gikatilla, Joseph, 63, 137-40, 149, 203, 207-208,

BOOK

Hegel, G. W. F., 101-102, 104, 129; and the idea of system, 89; and the identity of identity and nonidentity, 26; and the logic of identity of difference, IOI Hegyon ha-Nephesch ha-Atzuvah, 565n98 Heidegger, Martin, xiv, xvi, xxix, xxx, 3, 6, 10, 12— 23, 25, 32, 98, 103, 111-12, 191, 195; and Benjamin, 4O7n89, 4i6ni89; and Nazism,

719

INDEX OF NAMES AND BOOK TITLES 420-2in24i; and the rabbinic mode of midrashic hermeneutics, 4i5-i6ni84; and Wittgenstein, 4ionni27-29, 4i3ni73, Heidenthum und Kabbala, 3 Heikhalot Rabbati, 143

Ibn Sayyah, Joseph, 447nii8 Ibn Tabul, Joseph, 184 Ibn Tibbon, Judah, 5O7n232 Ibn Tibbon, Moses, 347, 582ni07, 583niii, nii2, nii3, nii4, nii5

Helios, 66

Ibn Tibbon, Samuel, 526n2ii, 582-83nio8,

Hemdat Yamim,

Heracleon, 498 Heraciitus, 114, Hermes, 66

Idel, Moshe, 81, 204, 346 Idra Rabba, 76, 179, 180-81, 183, 316, 4O2n55,

Hesed le-Avraham,

Idra Zuta, 8-9, Iggeret ha-Qodesh, 314-16,

Hezeqiah, 48, 49 Hikmat al-ishraq, 532n268

Hildegard of Bingen, 344, 456n23O, 457n23i,

Iggeret Hay ben Meqis, 346 Iggeret le-Burgos, 556ni84 Iggeret Sod ha-Ge'ullah,

Hilkhot ha-Kavod, 276

Hillman, James, 126 Hippocrates, 353 Hippolytus, 304, 498-99niO2 Hisda, Rabbi, 284 Hiyya, Rabbi, 257 Holderlin, F., xiv, 16 Hollywood, Amy, 343 Hovot ha-Levavot, 346, 582n94 Horkheimer, Max, 125 Horowitz, Isaiah ben Abraham, Horowitz, Maryanne Cline, 317 Hoter ben Shelomo, 583ni20

Ihde, Don, 6 Imrei Shefer, 203,

, 488n2ii,

Irenaeus, n o , 498n98 Irigaray, Luce, 80, 86, 87, 134 Isaac, 37, 69, 83, 265; attempted sacrifice of, 160 Isaac, Rabbi, 59, 257, 310, 313, 328, 355 Isaac ben Hayyim ha-Kohen, 422n245 Isaac ben Todros, 198 Isaac ha-Kohen, 497n83 Isaac of Acre, 61-62, 124-25, 133, 291 Isaac the BHnd, 33, 120, 168, 199-200, 208, 210-11,

House of Divinity (Casa de la Divinida), 5o8-5O9n244

Howells, Christina, 91 al-HujwIrl, 'All al-Jullabi, 227-28 Husserl, Edmund, xxiv, xxvi, xxviii, xxix, xxx, 6, 7, II, 90, 91, 192 Ibn Adret, Solomon, 121, 198 Ibn al-'Arabi, Muhyiddin, 28, 206, 207, 221, 222, 229, 231-32, 239,

218-19, 220, 249, 263, 264, 280, 285, 291, 308, 309, 5i9niO2, 596n6o

Ishmael, Rabbi, xii, 253, 255; school of, 236 Israel ben Eliezer, Ba'al Shem Tov, 388 Isserles, Moses, 58on75 Izutsu, Toshihiko, 29-30 s, Edmond, 4i8n2o6, Jacob, 8, 33, 37, 38, 123, 124, 132, 258; and the attribute of mercy, 37, 5O5ni95; and the attribute of truth, 33, 534n3o6; blessings of bestowed on Ephraim and Menasseh, 132; contest with the angel, 536n332; designation o{Malkhut, 537n344; did not die, 251; feminization of in relation to Edom, 56on32; granddaughter of, 597n83; and the holy spirit, 69; icon of engraved on the throne, 143, 144, 145, 426n3Q6, 489-9Onni7-i8; identity of blurred with the throne, 145; and the image ofthe sun, 360; Joseph saved by seeing the image of, 567ni 17; journey from Beersheba to

Ibn Aqnin, Joseph ben Judah, 347, 350, 351, 536n332, 583nio8, niO9, niio Ibn Ezra, Abraham, 346, 452ni90, 486ni84, Ibn Gabbai, Meir, 41, 43in356, 586ni6i Ibn Gaon, Shem Tov, 198, 282, 5O2ni43, 566niO7 Ibn Latif, Isaac, 535n3i4 Ibn Malka, Judah ben Nissim, 294 Ibn Paquda, Bahya, 346, 582n94 Ibn Sahula, Isaac, 350, 351, 352, 576n2i, ni39, 720

INDEX OF NAMES AND BOOK TITLES Haran, 123, 124; metamorphosis of into Israel, 33; mystery of, 5O5ni95; mystical hermeneut in emulation of, 534n3o6; and the name YHWH, 58in92; never separated from the supemal hght, 316; perennial struggle with Esau, 258; Rebekah kissed by, 586ni62; relationship with Rebekah, 58in9i; secondary divine/angeUc power depicted as the bride-throne, 143; stone lifted by, 377; vision of contrasted with Moses, 38; voice of, 124, 265 Jacob ben Asher, 568ni45 Jacob ben Sheshet, 33, 39-40, 60, 99, 154, 197, 220, 264, 280-81, 285, 313, 314, 425n3Oi, 43On35i, i, 546ni8, 552nii3, nii4, nii6, nii7, nii9, 554ni43, 568ni4i, 569ni55

Ja'far al-Sadiq, 228 Jakobson, Roman, 4, 6, 89 James, WiUiam, 398nii6, 4i8n2O7 Jantzen, Grace, 338, 341, 343, 344 Japeth ben Eli, 345 Jerome, Saint, 301, 335 Jesse, 362 Jesus, 55, 207, 302, 304; admonition to shun marriage, 47in435; androgyny of, 49in36; angelic form of, 43On354; attribution of spirit to, 53in253; bom by the womb of Mary, 55, 49in36; breaking the bread, 342; characterization of in the Qu'ran, 53in249; circumcised penis of, 305; contrasted with Adam, 503—5O4ni72; death of, 486ni8o; depicted as ben niddah, 538n248; depicted as generative mother, 82, 456-57n23i; depicted as male lover in relation to the soul, 350, 573n224, 574n248; dicta of, 200; embodiment of

within, 422n248; ofSpring of an adulterous act, 531 n. 248; on a par with Adam, 226; portrayed as feminine, 51; provides an androgynous model of personhood, 457n23i; relation to the Church depicted figuratively in the Song, 334, 337; representation of in female images, 438n28; response to the Sadducees, 302; response to Salome, 52; response to Simon Peter, 53-54, 165; self-deprecation of, 341; son of God, 498n97; suffering of, 300; uncreated Word of God, 5i9nio8; union of female with, 344; unites with virgin in the bridal chamber, 498n98; unity of all baptized in, 49-50, 301; virginal conception of, 444n86, 53on248; word incamate, 31, 40, 424n279; worship of 53in250; zoharic fraternity compared to the circle of, 259 Jewel Brocade, 56 John, 342 John of Sahsbury, 10 Jose, Rabbi, 256, 379, 427n3i5 Joseph, 132, 453n367; blessing bestowed upon, 132; designated the righteous one, 132, 380, 459n25O, 5i2n28o; drops of his semen and the ten martyrs ofthe kingdom, 310, 387, 567nii7, 596n66; embodies the phallic potency, 459n25o; emission of semen in vain, 566nii6, female spouse of, 593n3o; marked ofthe masculine, 459n25O; occluded nature of, 132; placed in a coffin, 593n37; saw the icon ofjacob, 567nii7; sold into slavery, 310; sons of, 132; wife of 53on247; withstood the temptation ofthe wife of Potiphar,

Joseph, Rabbi, 59, 436n8 Joseph of Hamadan, 72-73, 178, 243-45, 256, 349, 352, 383-84, 447ni22, 5, ni76, ni77, , n367, n372, 586ni5O, ni54, the coincidentia oppositorum, 424n279; emphasis on 5, 588ni98, 589n2O7, 594n48, n49, n5i, humility of, 579n69; emptying himself, 340—41; 594-95n52 emulation of, 341; erasure of sexual difference in Joshua, 252 the unity of, 301; female disciples of, 438n27; Joshua ben Levi, 273, 274, 384, 594n4i feminine images of, 457n232; firstborn of God, Judah, Rabbi, 257, 258, 377, 378 156; gaze of, 424n282; husband of Margery Judas, 54-55 Kempe, 57ini96; ideal of ascetic practice in Juhan of Norwich, 82, 457n23i Sufism, 53in252; identified as glory of God and Junayd, Abu 1-Qasim al-, 227 divine name, 43On354; icon ofthe invisible God, Jung, Carl G., 49, 67; description of poetry as the 478n75; identified as wisdom, 43On354, 457n23i; conflation ofthe visual and verbal, 4iini34; on in the Qu'ran, 53in249; incamation ofthe Word the nexus of asceticism and eroticism, 558n6; on in the person of, 191, 243, 260, 305, 342; issued the role of quatemity in Western alchemy, 154 from womb of a virgin, 167; kiss of, 339, 340; love of, 341—42; maternal representations of, Kabbata Denudata, 103, 154 456-57n23i; mother of, 305; mystery embedded Kad ha-Qemah, 582ni05 721

INDEX OF NAMES AND BOOK TITLES

Kafka, Franz, 92, 93 Kant, Immanuel, xxx, 67, 195 Karo, Joseph, 58on75

Ma'arekhet ha-Elohut, 121, 172, 477n6i, n64.

Keizan, 423n255 Kempe, Margery, 57ini96 Kerouac, Jack, 432n366 Ketem Paz, 176-77, 465n32i, Kierkegaard, Soren, 160, 432n366 Kimhi, Joseph, 566ni09

Mahakasyapa, 56 Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon), 88, 198, 203, 220, 236, 237, 238, 240, 252, 264, 307, 346, 348, 352, 425n297, 443n83, 486ni84, 5i9niO2, 526nn2O9-2ii, 527-28n2i9, 535n3i7, 546ni5, 547-48n29, 56on25, 564n85, 568ni39, ni45, ni5i, 569ni59, 58in9O, 582nioi, niO5, nio6, niO7, 583ni24, 585-86ni49

Kitab al-ahadiyah, 232 Kitab al-mawaqif 225 Kumin, Seth Daniel, 48

Major Trends injewish Mysticism, 47, 388 Malmad ha-Talmidim, 566niO9 Ma'or wa-Shemesh, 5o8n242

Kashf al-mahjub, 227

Lacan, Jacques, 128-32, 135-36, 148, 269, 278, 279; exphcit reference to kabbalah made by, 482nii9 Lao-tzu, 107 Laozi, 107 Lavi, Simeon, 94, 176, 284, 465n32i, 5O7n227 Leah, 270 Lekhah Dodi, 5o6n3O7 Lemaire, Anika, 129 Levinas, Emmanuel, 113, 287, 4O3n6o, 432n362 Leviticus Rabbah, 490ni9, 492n39, 495n63, 538n356, 548n34, 55in96, 575ni6, 59On248 Liebes, Yehuda, 36-38, 48 Lihth, 59, 568ni44; and Mary, 68, 137; and Samael, 137; and Shekhinah, 60, Liqqutei Esot, 57Oni8i Liqqutei Halakhot, Liqqutei MoHaRaN, 106, Liqqutei Raza de-Malka Qaddisha, 5iin267 Liqqutei Shikhehah u-Fe'ah, 4O3n6i, 452ni92, 54ln39i, n396 Liqqutei Torah, 458n247, 465n325, 566nil6, Lotus Sutra, 44in66,

Lovejoy, Arthur, 221 Luke, 342 Luria, Isaac, 76, 77, 79, 80, 95, 105, 118, 120, 181, 182, 270, 310, 368, 386, 388, 392n2, 4i2ni55, 454n2i2, 458n24i, 476n59, 5iin264, 5i2n28o, 586ni49, 589n2i7, 59on2 Lusthaus, Dan, xvi Luzzatto, Moses Hayyim, 75-77, 95, 105, 375, 388, 392, 452ni87, ni88, 453ni96 i, 59inio, n i i

Maria the Prophetess, 154 Marion, Jean-Luc, 9 Marsanes, 304 Martyrdom of Peter, 50 Mary, 55, 68, 81; and the body ofthe Church, 302; Christological symbol of, 157; devotional imagery, 259; iconographic depictions of, 77-78; identification with Eve, 595n53; occlusion of behind the curtain, 226; portrayed as a sealed garden, 485ni66; rectifies transgression of Eve, 5951153; and representations o{Shekhinah, 435n2, 455-56n224, 545n454; virginity of emulated by brides of Christ, 344; virgin status in the Qur'an, 226

Maryam, 225; included in the ranks of men at the time ofthe resurrection, 305 Mary Magdalene, 53-55; transformed into a male, 165 Mathnawt, 228

Matthew, 54 Mavo She'arim, 5i2n286, 596n 63, 70 McGinn, Bemard, 333 McGuire, Anne, n o Mehetabel, 311 Meir, Rabbi, 56in35 Meir ben Simeon of Narbonne, 255 Me'irat Einayim, 125, Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, 55in9i

Menahem Mendel, 589n2i8 Menahem Mendel of Shklov, 589n226 Menasseh, 132 Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, xxi-xxx, 24, 25, 190, 191-96; and Eastem philosophy, 396n69, 42on229, 5i3n9; and Wittgenstein on language and embodiment,

Ma'amar al ha-Asilut ha-Semo'lit, 497n83 Ma'amar Yiqqawu ha-Mayim, 526n2ii Ma'amar al Penimiyyut ha-Torah, 351

Metaphysics, 107

722

INDEX

OF NAMES

Metatron, xii, 354, 487n2O9; assumes the firgure of Torah, 241; anthropomorphic personification of the Active Intellect, 240; depicted as an infant, 5550137; desire of Moses to behold, 487n2O9; identified as the angel ofthe presence, 240; identified as Moses, 240, 487n2O9; opposites cohere in, 536-37n344; represented symbohcally as the high priest, 239; and the Tree of Knowledge, 537n344; visuahzed either as young or old.

AND BOOK

TITLES

Muhammad, 224, 228, 231, 5i7n84, 586ni5i Mysterium Magnum, 485—86ni8o. Mystical Theology, 218, 4O3n6i, 466n346 Nadab, 266, 267; death of atones for the sins of Israel, Nagarjuna, Nahman ofBratslav, 106, 469n4O9; 57Oni8i Nahmanides (Moses ben Nahman, Ramban), 121, 198, 199, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 282, 452ni92, 494n53, 539n362, 542nn4ii-i8, 543nn42O-24, 426, 428-430, 433, 569ni59 Narcissus, myth of, 272 Nasafl, 'Aziz ibn-Muhammad-I, 29 Nathan of Gaza, 5iin267 Nathan of Nemirov, 106 Neumann, Erich, 67, 105, 126-27, 141. 272 Nietzsche, Friedrich, xxiii, xxviii, 14, 15, 32, 42-45, 114, 297 al-Niffari, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Jabbar, 225, 231 Noah, 377, 380, 382 Norea, 302 Numbers Rabbah, 466n347, 487ni8o, 5Oini37,

Midrash ha-Ne'elam, 549n43, 568ni4O, ni44, , ni77, 579-8on75, 585ni49, 588nl88 Midrash Mishle, 567nii8 Midrash Tanhuma, 5Oini37 Midrash Tehillim, 389, Miles, Margaret, 136 Miller, Patricia Cox, 335 Minhat Yehudah, 484ni6o Mishkat al-anwar, 230 Mishnah, 299; masters of, 365; secret of 146, 266 Mishneh Torah, 220, 346, 425n297, 526n2O9, 535n3i4, 568ni45, ni5i, 57ini8o, 582nioo Moi, Toril, 79 Molitor, Franz Joseph, 4o6n78 Oetinger, Friedrich Christoph, 103 Mopsik, Charles, 148, 312 Olat Tamid, 477n69 Moses, 38, 39, 41, 50, 173, 354; alludes figuratively "On Language as Such and On the Language of to Metatron, 240; beheld the ineffable and mysteMan," II rious illumination, 216; and Bezalel, 458n239; Orha-Sekhet, 236-37, 535n3i8, n3i9, 536n323, body of materiahzed and sustained through the 537n344 splendor ofthe presence, 254, 255; celibacy of, Origen, 215, 334, 335, 341 313, 321; comprises the souls of all the Israelites, Orr, Leshe, 79 4310357; and the covenant ofthe tongue, 139; Or Zaru'a, 427n32O denied comprehension of the fiftieth gate of Osar Eden Ganuz, 139-40, 236, 241-42, 487n2o8, understanding, 188; denied vision of God's face, 488n2io, n2i2, 5i8n95, n99, 52oni23, 228; desire of to behold Metatron, 487n2O9; divested himself of the body, 216; entered into a dark cloud, 217; inability to gaze upon the face Osar Hayyim, 124 of 385; inaugural vision of, 353; interminable Oserot Ramhal, 59inio exodus initiated by, 116; letters of transposed into ha-shem, 139; name ehyeh asher ehyeh revealed to,Pardes Rimmonim, 447nii8 196; plunged into the darkness of unknowing, Parmenides, 65, 66, 221 218; removed sandals from his feet, 216; saw the Parmenides, goddess of, glory through the speculum that shines, 228; sees Pascal, 195 the divine without any screen, 228; separated Patocka, Jan, 159 from his wife, 313, 321; song of, 356, 362; staff Pattai, Raphael, 72, 142 Paul, 49-51, 126, 165, 166, 301 of, 59on244; Torah of, 200; united with ShekhiPeach, Lucindajoy, 57-58 nah, 313, 321, 389. See also mosheh Peirce, Charles Sanders, 115 Moses and Monotheism, 119 PereUa, Nicholas, 337 mosheh, decoded as metatron sar ha-panim, 240 723

INDEX

OF NAMES

AND

Peratae, 49

BOOK

TITLES

Quispei, Gilles, 7 Qushayri, 'Abd al-Karim al-, 226, 227, 53in258

Perush Eser Sefirot (Azriel of Gerona),

515064 Ra'aya Meheimna, 48, 426n3o Perush ha-Merkavah, 557ni89 n40, 567ni33, 572n2O7, 589n22O, n225, Perush ha-Tefillah (Azriel of Gerona), 466n337, n348. Rabba, Menahem ben Moses, 535n322 Rabi'a of Basra, 225-26, 305; celibate renunciation Perush ha-Tefillot (Ibn Malka), 556nni85-86 of, 225; deputy of Maryam, 225-226; veiled in Perush Ma'aseh Bere'shit, 5O5ni9O the veil of sincerity, 225; the second, spotless Perush Shir ha-Shirim (Ezra of Gerona), 466n332, Mary, 226 5O5ni9i, 529n237, 54On382, 546ni4, ni6, Rachel, 38, 325; weeping over her children, 376 59ini2 Perush Sifra di-Seniuta, 79, 182, 454n2i2, 465n329, Ragland-Sullivan, EUie, 129 Raphael, Mehssa, 85 5i2n28o, 549n6o Rav, 254, 49on2i Perushei ha-Torah (Ibn Ezra), 452ni90 Rava, 52ini35 Perushei ha-Torah (Nahmanides), 452ni92, 539n362, Rebekah, 325, 58in92 Recanati, Menahem, 251, 256, 426n3O5, 568ni47, Pesiqta de-Rav Kahana, 5Oini37 Pesiqta Rabbati, 52ini34 Peter, 50; crucified in inverted position, 51 Phaedo, 65 Phanomenologie des Geistes, i o i Phenomenologie de la perception, xxii, xxv, xxix

Philo, 8, 200, 217, 334, 44O-4in57 Philosophische Untersuchungen, 100

Phinehas, 266; emblematic ofthe androgynous phallus, 267; Nadab and Abihu reincarnated in the person of, 266-67, 548n38; upholds the covenant by uniting male and female, 267; zealous with respect to the covenant, 379, 549n4i Pirani, Alix, 86 Pistis Sophia, 157 Pithei She'arim, 465n322

Plaskow, Judith, 85 Plato, xvii, II, 65, 66, 126, 212, 221, 268, 302, 334, 344 Plotinus, 100, 212-15, 218, 221. SeeflkoEnneads Poimandres, 573n233 Porphyry, 212 Porta Coelorum, 154

Rehumai, Rabbi, 308 Republic, 66 Re'shit Hokhmah, Reuchiin, Johannes, i, 4O4n69, 43in36i, Rhineland Jewish Pietists, 120, 144, 276, 489ni7, 495n62, 58in86 Ricoeur, Paul, 17, 112 Rilke, Rainer Maria, 43 River-Root, 553-54ni4O Risala at-Qushayriyya, 226 Rogers, WiUiam Elford, 115 Roman de la Rose, 547n28, 56on3o Rosen, Tova, 78 Rosenroth, Christian Knorr von, 103 Rosenzweig, Franz, 10, 88-89, ii3. 202-203, 336; affinity with kabbalistic gnosis, 202; his notion of system dependent on the later philosophy of Schelling, 463; and the new thinking, 113 Rubin, Solomon, 3, 4 Rumi, Jala! al-Din, 228, 432-33n367 Ruth the Moabite, 438n23 Ryokai, Tozan, 533n297 Sabbath Songs of Sacrifice, 295

Power, Kim, 301 Prajna, 47 Proclus, 34, 65-66

Sadducees, 302 Sa'id Ibn Da'ud, 583ni2i Salome, 52 Samuel, 60, 534n3o6; archon of Edom, 258; Cain the progeny of Eve and, 444n86; and Lihth, 137; portrayed as the castrated male, 309; progenitor of idolatry, 258. See also Satan Sarah, 83, 325 Sarug, Israel, 5o8n244

Protevangelium of fames, 444n86

Pythagoras, 107 Qatina, 64 Qillir, Eleazar bi-R., 576n. Qol Bokhim, 553ni37 724

INDEX

OF NAMES AND BOOK

Satan, 258, 309 Saussure, Ferdinand de, xxi, 5, 89 Schelling, Friedrich W. J., xvi, 6, 43, 100-104, 105. 119; affinity to kabbalah, 100, 392-93n2, 4O7n9O, 42in24i, 469n369, 475n49, 55in99; Rosenzweig's notion of system and the later philosophy

TITLES

Sefer ha-Yihud (Asher ben David), 445n98, 492n38, Sefer ha-Zohar, 8, 9, 31, 34, 37, 38, 47-48, 58, 59, 69,

70, 71, 82, 83, 104-105, 118, 123-24, 132, 134, 145-46, 147, 169, 171-72, 173, 176, 188, 204, 221, 233, 243, 245, 256, 257, 284, 291, 292, 29495: 307, 313, 314, 320, 320-21, 325, 326, 328, 329, 330, 354-62, 376, 379-82, 385, 4O2n52,

of, 463 Schimmel, Annemarie, 117, 206 Scholem, Gershom, xi, i, 2, 4, 8, 12, 26, 35, 36, 47, 48, 59, 60, 68, 71, 74, 75, 81, 82, 94, 104, 123, 286, 287, 307-308, 388 Schopenhauer, Arthur, 42 Scott, George Ryley, 127, 261 Scott, Joan, 85 Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, 50 Second Treatise ofthe Great Seth, 304 Seder Avodah le-Yom ha-Kippurim, 274 Sefer Gerushin, 374 Sefer ha-Bahir, 139, 146-67, 169, 188, 197, 257, 269, 271, 276-79, 282, 283, 308, 377, 428n333, 67n358, 47on422, 48inii7, 6, 49in3O, n3i, n33, n34, n35, 4n48, n5i, n57, 495n6o, n6i, n64, n67, n68, n72, n73, 496n8i, n82, 497n83, n84, n85, n86, 498n87, 5Oini32, ni33, ni34, ni35, ni36, ni38, 5O2ni40, ni4i, ni45, ni46, ni50, ni5i, ni53, ni55, 5O3ni59, ni6o, ni62, 6, ni77, ni78, 5i2n29O, 5i5n47,

355, n357, n358, 436n8, 445n97, n98, niO2, niii, 6, ni57, ni59, ni6i, ni62, ni63, 45ini83, 453ni95, ni97,

i67, ni68, nl77, 49On22,

, ni55,

, 5ooni27, 5O2ni54, 2O4, n2io, n2i5, n2i6, , n220, n222, n225, n iin264, n268, , n88, , n2i9, 528n22O, n224, n225,

554ni47, 556ni72, ni73, ni74, ni88, ni92, 566nii3, nii4, 567ni22, ni26 ni30, ni3i, ni32, ni33, ni37, 568ni38, ni42, ni44, ni46,

3, 547ni9, 549n57, 55in97, i, 566ni03, niO4, Sefer ha-Derushim, 454n2i 5ion26o, 5i2n28o, 549n6o, Sefer ha-Emunah we-ha-Bittahon, 60, 45ini76, 467n36o, 5O5ni9O, 5i5n5i, 546ni8, nii6, 554ni43, 568ni4i, Sefer ha-Gilgulim, 455n2i Sefer ha-Hezyonot, 446nii5 Sefer ha-Kelatim, 5 9 i n i i Sefer ha-Kuzari, 203, 469n39 n87, n89, 5i9nioi, niO2 Sefer ha-Mishkat I Mishqal, 36, 425n299, 426n3O5,

6 i 6 i , ni63, 57Oni75, ni76, ni77, 8, 57ini86, ni87, ni89, ni90, ni93, ni95, 572n2O7, n208, 573n2i7, n2l8, n220, n22i, 3, n224, n228, n23o, n23 8on75, 582niO4, ni49, 586ni5O, ni56, ni62, 587ni65, ni69, ni70, ni74, ni78, 588ni82, ni86, ni88, ni90, ni92, ni93, ni95, n20i, 589n2O9, n2i4, n2i5, n2i6, n220, n225, 59on23i, n232, n233, n235, n237, n238, 59in5, n6, ni3, ni4, ni5, ni9, n26, 592-9 596n58, n6o, n6i,

595n27; symbohc meaning ofthe title, 52728n2i9 Sefer ha-Qanah, 354, 444n87, 586ni59 Seferha-Peh'ah, 107, 108-109, 586ni59 Sefer ha-Rimmon, 36. See also Book ofthe Pomegranate Sefer ha-Temunah, 256 Sefer ha-Yihud, 256, 539n37i

Sefer Meshiv Devarim Nekhohim, 425n3Oi, 45on35i, 45ini76, 458n24O, 467n36o, 5l5n5i, 526n2ll

Sefer Sar Shalom, 576n28 Sefer Tashak I Tashaq, 73, 244, 45ini7i, ni72, ni75, ni76, ni77, 8 6 O , ni52,

Sefer Yesirah, 3, 64, 98, 99, 120, 139, 140, 144, 151,

725

INDEX OF NAMES AND BOOK TITLES 152, 161, 178, 179, 197, 198, 201, 203, 204, 207, 208, 210, 218, 220, 241, 242, 250, 271, 274, 276, 281, 282, 283, 294, 309, 326, 352, 367, 400ni2, 425n292, 425n294, 427n3i3, 427n32O, 448ni28, 448ni3O, 466n33 499niO2, 5Oini3i, 9, n66, 5i8n89, n92, n95, 52onii6, 536n339, 537n344, 542n4ii, 55on66, 55311124

Sein und Zeit, xxix, 6 Semah, Jacob, 137 Sevi, Sabbatai, 62 Shdar ha-Gemul, 252, 254 Sha'ar ha-Gilgulim, 457n23i, 459n25O,

5ion254, 548n38, 566nii6, 59On2 Sha'ar ha-Haqdamot, 5 i i n 2 7 i , Sha'ar ha-Kawwanot, Sha'ar ha-Niqqud, 207 Sha'ar ha-Pesuqim, , n6i Sha'ar ha-Shamayim (Ibn Latif), 34 Sha'ar ha-Shamayim Qacob ben Sheshet), Sha'ar Ma'amerei Rashbi, 549n6o Sha'ar Ruah ha-Qodesh, 477n69 Sha'arei Sedeq, 234-35,

Shulamit, 346 Shushan Edut, 34, 84, 426n3O5, 427n32i, 452ni84, 458n248, 5iin264, 588ni83, 592n27, 593n33> 594n44 Sifra de-vei Rav, 538n356 Sifra di-Seniuta, 180, 309, 386, 453ni97 Silesius, Anegelus, 4i7n2oo, 482nii9 Simeon ben Yohai, 37, 70, 146, 222, 266, 291, 326, 330, 364, 384, 388, 445niO4, 57oni76, 587ni79, 597n83; fraternity ofbased on Jesus and his disciples, 259 Simlai, Rabbi, 539 Simon Peter, 53, 165 Simon, Rabbi, 202 Siphre ad Numeros, 466n347, 556ni88 Sisera, 590n2 Sitrei Torah (Abulafia), 88, 238, 240-41, 423n257, i Torah (Zohar), 123-24,

, 5i2n28o,

Smith, J. C , 306 Smith, Margaret, 305 Socrates, 65 Sod Es ha-Da'at, 248 Sod ha-Hashmal, 149

Soho, Takuan, 297 Solomon, 63, 153, 313, 347; all of his wisdom equal to the Torah, 335; bears the name God, 163, 335; bestowing of wisdom upon, 155; bestows the bread ofthe Song, 342; built the Temple, 356; by means ofthe holy spirit uttered the Song, 360; coronation of, 366; elevated to wisdom, 357; estabhshes his rule, 378; holy chariot for, 367; the king to whom peace belongs, 163, 367; made handles for theTorah, 336; personified as the son in the divine triad, 155; seated upon the throne ofDavid, 377, 378; song of, 356; wearing the crown given to him by his mother, 162, 366, 389 Solomon ben Isaac (Rashi), 345; 426n3O5, 495n63, 5ion263, 52ini35, 58on86 Solomon benjeroham, 345 Song of Songs, 333-71; allegorical application to God's relationship to Israel, 334; allegorical depiction ofthe relationship of soul to God in medieval Jewish philosophy, 345-48; ascends to the world ofthe mascuhne, 362; ascetic renunciation prerequisite for study of, 339; begins with shin to signify the mystery ofthe chariot, 588ni8i; celebrates the great Sabbath beyond the division of night and day, 367; contemplative

Sha'arei Sedeq (Gikatilla), 447ni22 Sha'arei Qedushshah, 120, 121, 476n57, 477n6o, n63, n65, n66, n67, n70 Shabastari, Mahmud, 29, 30 Shaddai, 240 Shakti, 47 Shariputra, 442n72 She'elot u-Teshuvot, Sheila, Rabbi, Shelomo ha-Bavh, 275 Shemen ha-Sullam, Shenei Luhot ha-Berit, 564n88

Sheqel ha-Qodesh, 426n3O5, 45ini66, 528n2i9, 545n452, 557ni92; symbohc meaning ofthe title, 528n2i9 Sheshet the Bhnd, Rabbi, 556ni88 Shirah le-Dawid, 576n26 Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah, 336, 5Oini37, 55in96,

575ni9, 576ni9, 576n25, 582niO4 Shir ha-Shirim Zuta, 335 Shi'ur Qomah, 121, 122, 144 Shiur Qomah (Cordovero), 447nii8 Shoshan Sodot, 535n3i2, 57oni8o

726

INDEX

OF

NAMES

AND

BOOK

TITLES

Sutra ofSagara, the Naga King, 56 interpretation in medieval monastic culture, Sutra on Changing the Female Sex, 57 336-45; custom to chant on Friday evening, 587ni64; depicted as the book of experience, 342; dialogue refers to the relationship of God to Tabula Smaragdina, 7 Tahafut al-Falasifa, 27 the soul or Jesus to the Church, 334, 337; Tahafut al-Tahafut, 27 embodies the convergence of language, eros, Talbot, Alice-Marry M., 301 being, 334; epitomizes the mystery ofthe Word Tamakh, Abraham ben Isaac ha-Levi, 58in86 made flesh, 342; equivalent to the Torah in its Tao-te Ching, 107, 108 entirety, 335-36, 359, 361; erotic yearning of Targum, 334 depicts the exile, 354; esoteric meaning relates to The Ascetic Imperative in Culture and Criticism, 115 the gender transformation of Shekhinah and her "The Nature of Language," 20 elevation to Binah, 357-58; expresses poetically Tiqqunei Zohar, 133, 310, 365, 366, 383, 384, 4O2n5O, the desire of mind to be conjoined to the intelligible world of incorporeal hght, 349; heterosex553ni27, 566nii5, ual imagery transposed into a male 589n22i, n223, n225, homoeroticism, 337-38; identified as the holy of n56, 596n66 hohes, 335, 359; identified symbohcally as the Told at Ya'aqov, 586ni6i supenal phallus, 589n2O7; figurative depiction of Toledot Adam, 5O7n23O the soul's ascetic yearning to unite with Christ, Torat ha-Adam, 252 334; identified as the Tetragrammaton, 361, Torat ha-Nefesh, 346 588ni97; messianic significance of lies in the gen- Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 289-91, 4O9n85, der transposition of Shekhinah occassioned by her 555nni62-63, 556ni65, ni67-7O restitution to Binah, 359, 360; and the mystery of Trauerspiet, 11 revelation, 335; paradigm of paradigms, 336; Trimegistus, Hermes, 7 principle of: account of creation, coronation of Trimorphic Protennoia, 157 the name, exile of Egypt, expulsions of Israel and Tiirei Zahav, 58on75 Turner, Denys, 343-44 their redemption, resurrection of the dead, the Torah, 360; recitation of on the day ofthe dedication of the Jerusalem Temple, 355, 360; related Vidas, Elijah de, 321, 57ini94 to the supemal chariot constituted by four names Vimalakirti Sutra, 442n72 that correspond to Shekhinah, Yesod, Tiferet, and Vital, Hayyim, 80, 94, 120-22, 132-33, 137, 179, 181-85, 270-71, 310, 317-18, 368-70, 386-87, Binah, 360; theosophic and ecstatic elements in 446nii5, 454n2i2, 455n2i9, 457n23i, 458n247, the zoharic interpretation, 351-56; theosophic 57, n58, 476interpretation based on the sacred union between the male and female, 349, 362; utterance of 5o8n24i, 5ion25 3, n254, n255, n257, n26o. attributed to Elijah, 358; utterance of located at 5iin268, n27l, n 272, 5i2n274, n276, n28i. Sinai, 336; weeping and the utterance of 58on75 n282, n283, 548n 38, 549n58, n59, n6o, n6i, n62 Sophia, 68, 157, 5O2ni52; demiurgical potency, 566nii6, 569ni6'9, 59on24O, n24i, n243, n244. 494niO2; double doctrine of in Valentinian n245, 59on2, 596n63, n64, n67, n68, n69, n7o; Gnosticism, 155, 5o6n2Oi; myth ofthe fallen, fivefold path enunciated by, 120 153; and Shekhinah, 455n2i8 Sophist, 66 Weyl, Hermann, xvii Speculum Virginum, 56in37 Whitehead, Alfred North, xviii Spinoza, 8, 96 Whitman, Walt, 127, 48inio8, 595-96n57 Sprache und Mythos, 6 Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 15, 16, 289-91; affinities with Steiner, George, 117, 118 Benjamin, 406n85; compared with Derrida, 4064O7n85; and Heidegger, 4ioni27-29, 4i3ni73, Suhrawardi, 239, 392nii, 4Oini8, 4i9n2ii; and Merleau-Ponty, 4i9n227; mystical 522ni36, 532n26 dimensions ofhis thought, 555-56ni63 Sultam ha-Aliyyah, 477n62 727

INDEX OF NAMES AND BOOK TITLES Woods, Gregory, ii8 Wu-wen kuan, 534n3O5

Zevi Hirsch of Zidachov, 317-18 Zimmer, Heinrich, 235 Zimri, 267 Zizek, Slavoj, 130, 279, 297 Zohar Hadash, 426n3o8, AZOXI^XQ,

•^^"°' " ^ -^ , Yael, 59On2 Yannai, 275-76 Yesod Mora, 486ni84 Yinnon, 165, 166 Yonat Etem, 5i2n287 Yoni 126 Yose ben Yose, 274 Yose, Rabbi, 328

'^^^"^°^' ^^^""^' ^ ^ ^ " 3 " ' ^49"«' ^^7ni33. 568ni44, 57Oni76, 57ini87, 585ni47, ni48, 587ni67, ni7i, ni75, ni77, 587-8811180, ni82, ni86, ni87, ni9i, ni96 589n2O3, n2O5, n207, n2o8, n2i4, n225 •2"'""' ha-Raqia, 59on2 Zosimus the Panopolitan, 154 Zostrianos, 55, 303 Zupancic, Alenka, 297 Zwelling, Jeremy, 244

Zaehner, Robert C , 298-99 Zekharya ha-Rofe, 583ni2O

728

INDEX

OF

SUBJECTS

Abba, i8i Abba, four facets of consciousness: Hokhmah, Binah, Hesed, and Gevurah, 369 abgrund, 23, 102, 123 absence, present, 243; visible, 196 abstention, form of symbohc castration, 302-303; and the obhteration ofthe autonomy ofthe feminine, 301-302 abstinence, facilitates reintegration ofthe feminine into the mascuhne, 327, 365 abyss, of formlessness, 123 abyssal thinking, 42 Active Intellect, 554ni42; angehc presence of 241, 535n322; anthropomorphic personification of, 240, 536n332; associated with the image ofthe mother, 58in9i; assumes the shape of an anthropos in the imaginative faculty, 238; configured in the imagination as an angel, 238; conjunction with, 241, 58in9i; and the cup of Jamshid, 534n3O2; designated "Assembly of Israel," 240; desire of soul to become one with, 347; encounter of prophet with, 241; engendered as mascuhne in relation to the soul, 345, 348; figurative account ofthe conjunction ofthe human with, 536n332; and the Holy Spirit, 239, 534n3O2; identified as Gabriel, 534n3O2; identified as Metatron, 240, 487n2O9; identified as Torah, 237, 239, 240, 241, 535n3i4; identified with one ofthe sefirot, 476n52; interpretation of the Song as a dialogue between the soul and, 350; imagina] form of, 239; hnguistic nature of, 241; matrix of providence, 241; mother of governance, 240; Moses the personification, 487n2O9; and the name Israel, 58in92; and the symbol of matbush, 535n3i4. See also sekhel ha-po'el

AND

TERMS

Adam Qadmon, 35, 154, 5o8-5O9n244 Adonai, 69, 71 afisat ha-mahshavah, 389 agnosia, 214, 218 ahadiyyat al-ahad, 29, 230 ahadiyyat al-kathra, 29, 230 ahdut ha-shaweh, 99 'atam al-mithal (mundus imaginatis), xviii, 189, 39in3, 538n353. See also imaginal world alchemy, 47, 108 alef, broken orthographically into yod, waw, and yod, 282-83, 365; comprises all the sefirot, 553nni26-27; demarcates the supemal world of mascuhnity, 354; denotes the primary sefirah, 196; in the word anokhi, 99; name hidden within, 283; semiotic encoding ofthe triune unity, 283; symbohc ofthe father, 279; yod in the head of, 282, 283 aletheia, 19; and the concealment of conceahng, 4i3nl73; contrasted with correspondence theory of truth, 408n93; philologically registen the belonging-together of untruth and truth. al-lawh al-mahfuz, 206 allegory, 40; eroticization of 334-36

729

alma be-hippukha, 31—32

alma de-nuqba, 82, 83. See also world ofthe feminine alma di-dekhura, 82, 187. See also world ofthe mascuhne alterity, and the Levinasian I'autre, 287, 5O7n22i; linked to the emergence and constitution of the feminine, 285; ontological problem of, 5ooniii amen, hturgical response of greater than uttering the blessing, 281, 284; signifies the unity of everything, 284; unites wisdom at the beginning with

INDEX

OF SUBJECTS

wisdom at the end, 284; utterance of augments the source of blessing, 281 amr ilahi {inyan elohi), 203

analogical discourse, 220, 221 analogical exemplarism, 224 androcentrism, 47, 55, 56, 57, 58, 61, 78, 81, 109, n o , 186, 304, 306, 373; and phalhc aggression, 307 androgyne, 3, 55, 145; created in one body, 176; female, 68, 45oni53; male, 68, 94, n o , 146, 148, 149, 155, 165, 173, 180, 183, 267, 323, 366, 373, 375, 376, 387, 44in57; 447-48ni22; 449ni37, ni50; 465n327, 47in435, 5ion26l; mystery of, 73, 145, 388; realized in the mystical bonding of the male fraternity, 388; severance of, 356; status ofthe soul, 156. See also du-parsufim androgynous male, 162, 184, 374, 592ni6; sphntering of into male and female, 109, 162 androgynous phallus, 131, 135, 146, 151, 169, 388, 567ni23, 592ni6; embodied in the figure of Phinehas, 267; ritually embodied in the circumcised penis, 311; reconstituted in the eschaton, 384, 388 androgyny, 49, 64, 67, 144, 146; androcentric character of, 139; apphed to the Great Mother, 68, 456n23i; characteristic of each ofthe sefirot, 63; imphes the containment of each gender in the other, 362; locus of in the phallus, 169; and the metaphysical principles of bestowal and receptivity, 145; masculine nature of, 171, 176; ofthe divine signified by the complete name, 169, 180; ofjesus, 49ln36; ontic status of Adam, 168; phallomorphic nature of 140, 146; predicated on the containment ofthe female in the male, 55, 139; reconfiguration ofthe primordial state of 166; reconstitution of 165; represented by the straight nun, 166; spiritual nature of 52 angel, 38; androgynous nature of 69; bread eaten by, 253; correspond to Israel below, 221; emblematic of transfigured mascuhnity beyond sexual desire, 302; garbed in the garment of this world, 221; good, 247; imaginal form ofthe Active Intellect, 238, 239; individuates itself, 239; masculine nature of 55, 302; ministering, 54on384; mystic transfonned into, 240; of death, 247; of God, 240; ofthe presence, 239; ontically composed ofthe Hebrew letters, 241; personification of Shekhinah, 69; redeeming, 69; serves as a guide on the way of gnosis, 239. See also mal'akh; mal'akh haelohim; mal'akh ha-go'el; mal'akh ha-panim; mal'akhei ha-sharet 730

AND

TERMS

angelification, consequent to renunciation ofthe carnal body, 299-300; ofthe mystic, 121, 240; and the incorporation into Torah, 241 angelophany, the form of every theophany, 239 angelus interpres, imaginal form of 239 annihilation, and abiding, 227, 228 anointed one {meshiah yhwh), mystic transformed

into, 240, 241 anthropomorphism; 39, 40; and letter symbohsm, 118; in kabbahstic interpretation, 246 anthropos, conduit connecting divine and mundane, 209; divine and human, 173, 209; form imagined in the prophetic vision, 239; identified as the circumcised malejew, 209; lower and upper, 121; ofthe divine configured in the quaternity of father, mother, son, and daughter, 312; prophetic, 238, 239; sefirot configured in the imagination as the form ofthe primal, 200, 209 apophasis, and kataphasis, 219, 343; and mystical envisioning, 215; not-speaking by speaking rather than speaking by not-speaking, 220 apophatic, 195; interplay of with the kataphatic, 119, 291; juxtaposed with the kataphatic, 215, 217 apophaticism, xxvii, 289; interweaving of anagogy and, 217 aqedah, 160 arafel, 217

Aramaic, the mundane language in contrast to the holy language of Hebrew, 203; semantic kinship to Arabic and Hebrew, 203 archetype, 67 Arikh Anpin, 76, 316; aspect o£ Malkhut within, 184; messianic state marked by the reign of, 368; homoertoic conjunction of Ze'eir Anpin and, 368; realm of complete mercy, 368; right side is mascuhne and left side feminine, 183; single eye set in the forehead of 181, 375; unites with Ze'eir Anpin on the day of Sabbath, 368; without a female counterpart, 181, 183, 184. See ako Atiq Yomin asarah harugei malkhut/melukhah, 310, 387, 596n66

asceticism, 42-43; and the angelmorphic transformation ofthe camal body, 299-300; anticipates the condition ofthe eschaton, 364; and construction of gender, 299; and the contemplative ideal, 308; and cleaving to the divine phallus, 327; counters passions with a surplus of pure passion, 297; cultivated by kabbahsts in Provence, 308; dialectically related to phallomorphism, 135; and eroticism, 136, 296-99, 319, 322, 363, 558n6, 559ni7,

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS

569ni73; escape from the femaleness of somatic desire, 44in62; expression of a primal narcissistic impulse, 135; encratic nature of, 52, 55; erotic nature of 86, 118; escape &om femaleness of somatic desire, 44in62; and fasting, 247, 299, 300, 479n59, 559n24, 56on26; a form of mimetic participation in the incamational kenosis, 341; form of veiling the female, 302; homoerotic underpinnings of 328; in ancient throne mysticism, 306; in the classical rabbinic corpus, 307; in Christianity attacked by Jews, 309; injewish Sufism, 307; in medieval Jewish pietisic treatises, 307; and kabbalistic piety, 246, 255, 307, 363, 477159; lustful, 136; mascuhnization ofthe feminine, 55, 306; and martyrdom, 300, 56on34, 56in4i; on the part of women and an internalized misogyny, 344; purification ofthe imagination by means of 235; on the part of women in early Christianity and rabbinic Judaism contrasted, 299-300; and redemption, 364; and Sabbatian eschatology, 564n89; and social disengagement, 559n2i; and spiritual marriage, 299; subjugation ofthe body, 120-21; and textual interpretation, 115 asilut, 33; configurations of 5O9n244; world of 270,

autoeroticism, and the construction ofthe other, 5iin267; homoeroticism as aspect of 329; and the initial arousal ofthe Godhead, 182, 271, 283, 285, 5ion26i, 55inioo, 573n234 autogenesis, 26, 77; of divine wisdom and the texture of temporality, 281 avodah zarah, 243, 258

axis mundi, identified as the linga, 323 Ayin, 97, 314; bestowing and receiving unified in the depths of 176; brings forth beginning and end, 105; distinguished from Ein Sof, 104; knows and does not know Ein Sof 105, 368; identified as the name of Keter, 179, 368; threshold to the place that is no place, 233-34, 375. See also Keter baptism, 49-50; and becoming male, 55; erasure of gender difference, 51 baqd, 227, 228, 232, 234; and the annihilation of nafs, 227 bat ayin, 383

beginning, 13; characterized by division, 277; concealment within Thought, 105; distinguished from origin, 196; doubling of 102; end in the, 99; locus of memory yet to be remembered, 279; made possible by the phallic impulse to bestow, 285; marked by the obsessional drive ofthe male to reiterate, 279; of salvation, 156; of thought, astral body, xiv 173; ofthe work, 113; origin of, 187; paradox Atarah, 61; designation of Shekhinah, 254, 452and duplicity of, 91; perfect symmetry between 53ni92; elevation to Keter, 263; symbohc ofthe end and, 388; second that is first, 196; signified emanation of the blessing and surplus from the by the letter beit, 277, 383; and the sphntering of spirit ofthe living God, 389; symbohzed by the the androgynous male, 109; supernal point, 105; second he of YHWH, 125 textual nature of 90; thought ofthe, 187; unity ateret bdlah, 72, 80, 185, 186, 376 characteristic of 104 ateret berit, 73, 186, 453ni99; designation ofthe chto- being, chain of 210; fleshliness of 195;fragmentof ris, 77; elevation of and transformation into feeder 194; grammar of 194; indistinguishable from malkhut, 271; female assimilated into, 389; object not-being, 100; language and, 193, 197; and of vision, 137 nothing, 27 ateret sevi, 254 beit, comprised of three sides, 257, 258, 294; denotes ateret tiferet, 72, 365 the beginning, 196, 277; embodies the totahty of ateret yesod, 75, 76, 77, 133, 184, 453ni99 Torah in three knots of faith, 257; and the femiAtiqa, characterized by one eye, 179; entirely right nine, 353, 354; first letter of Torah, 257, 354, without any left, 179 587ni79; marks the mystery ofthe threefold Atiqa de-atiqin, 76 unity, 258; opened on one side and closed on three sides, 257; signifies the beginning, 277, 383; Atiqa Qaddisha, 221, 5O9n244, 5iin267; banquet of signifies the dual Torah, 257; symbolic ofthe 368; illumines Ze'eir Anpin, 368 daughter, 279; symbolic ofthe fullness of divine Atiq Yomin, 368; above the five configurations, 184; blessing, 277; symbohc of Hokhmah, 383; three spirit awakened by, 316; transcends gender differsides of allude symbohcally to three holy, superentiation, 183. See also Arikh Anpin nal hghts bound as one, 257, 258; and the word Aufhebung, 129 bayit, 294 autoaffection, 284 731

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS bilddenken, 119

Binah, 69, 72, 74, 81, 83, 138, 178, 197, 258, 270; corresponds to the tongue, 173; covenant of, 138; demarcated as the faint silent voice {qol demamah daqqah), 294-95; depicted as king, 84, 358; divested of all images and garments, 294-95; emblematic ofthe mother, 196; fifty gates of, 188; identified as tohu, 294; name of Solomon ascribed to, 358; place ofthe hidden wine, 360; secret of the jubilee, 371; supemal Sabbath that transcends the division of Sabbath into day and night, 360, 371; and the symbol of the great Sabbath, 367, 371; the mother, 154, 358; Yom Kippur, 364, 371; teshuvah, the place of retum, 367, 368; transposition from vessel that contains to spring that overflows, 83; united with Malkhut on Yom Kippur, 364, 371; upper mother, 83; upper world, 292; womb ofbeing, 70, 83; womb that bears the seed-thought of Hokhmah, 196, 286; womb ofall-that-is-to-come, 367; world ofthe mascuhne, 82, 367; world that is coming, 367; world-to-come, 292, 358, 360, 367, 371 binyan elohi, 248 binyan ha-nuqba, 285

blessing, before the blessing, 265; bestowed only in place where mascuhne and feminineare united, 266; rests only on the man who is married, 312 blindness, true insight, 217; vision ofthe incomprehensible, 96, 230; vision ofthe invisible, 556ni79 bodhidtta, 322

body, aligned with the feminine, 51; as hved presence in contrast to physical mass, 245-46; consciousness of, 24; constructed from the letters, 241; correlated with the book, 191; dual role as stigma ofthe fall and instmment of redemption, 190; ecstatic and enstatic, 197; garbing the soul, 248; ethereal, 191; image of Christ's humanity, 51; intertext of world and, 194; like the existence ofthe soul, 253; linguistic nature of 118, 201, 248, 250; hnked to the demonic potency, 246; hteral, 191; locus of evil, 247; luminous, 191, 248; natural as opposed to angelic, 251, 255; negative view of adopted by kabbalists, 246, 307; of engenderment, 148, 312; ofthe text, 223, 241, 335; openness of 192; phenomenology of, 191; purification of 121; reflexivity of 193; restored to the first matter, 241; ritualized, 250; sexualized nature of, 81; socially constructed, 81; spiritual, 248; spiritualization rather than abrogation of 251; text ofthe, 335; textual nature of, 118, 191, 246, 248, 259, 285, 330 732

book, correlated with the body, 191; idolatry of, 206; mother ofthe, 206; of concealment, 95; ofthe heart, 191; of nature, 8, 202, 206; speculum of nature, 202; three books by which world was created: sefar, sippur, and sefer, 204; weighed on the balance, 95; world compared to, 206 bosina de-qardinita, 137, 321 brahmarandhra, 323

brain, of consciousness, 270; ontic root of mercy and judgment contained therein, 270; semen originates in, 269, 271; site ofthe phaUic potency, 270 bride, nakedness of 181; of Christ, 301, 302, 344 bridal chamber, identified as the womb ofthe Virgin Mary, 5O3-5O4ni72; king alone with the bride within, 229; male and female joined within, 166; and the restoration ofthe androgynous image, 437ni5; spiritual marriage of son and daughter within, 156 Buddhism, 42, 47, 56; status of women in, 437ni5, 44in66,44i-42n7i, 456n23i burning bush, epiphany at, 216; foreshadowing of the mystery ofthe incarnation, 216 burnt offering, 82 castration, child's fear of hnked to the phallus the mother lacks, 131; combined with fertihty, 67; contrasted with circumcision, 134; and the cutting of desire at the root, 562n52; and enhghtenment, 57oni85; fostered model of manhness in unmanliness, 303; and heterosexual lovemaking, 131; mystical, 302; of penis to erect the phallus, 136; of Samuel contrasted with the circumcised malejew, 309; phallus covered by, 129; resistance to writing, 485 n. 173; sexual renunciation viewed as a symbohc form of, 306, 319; symbohc substitute for circumcision, 485ni73 catharsis, 26, 387 Cause of Causes {causa causarum, illat ha-iltot), 178,

179, 4O3n6i celibacy, 52; ambivalence toward in rabbinic and kabbalistic texts, 309; at Qumran, 56o-6in35; form of emascuhnization, 386; kabbalistic polemic against the Christian monastic ideal of 312, 385; on the part of kabbalists depicted symbohcally by the image ofthe righteous wearing crowns on their heads, 366; and the role of martyr in formative Christianity, 300; of Moses, 313, 321; on the part of women, 300 chain, four links on: marked, hewn, engraved, and measured, 211; holy and pure, 245; ofbeing, 210, 221, 229; of tradition, 236

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS

chariot, xii, xiii; androgynous nature of 63; four legs of, 84; and the image ofthe nut, 144; made by Solomon, 63 chastity, 134 cherubim, 63-64; Shekhinah rests upon, 69-70 chiasm, 25 childbearing, antidote to the punishment of death, 53; commandment of incumbent on Jewish men, 59 Christian kabbalah, i, 256 Christian Platonism, 42 Christianity, associated with the image of mascuhne impotence, 311, 385-86; attitude of zoharic kabbahsts towards, 258-59; and the seduction of magic and sexual temptation, 259; viewed as idolatry, 243, 258 Christos Angelos, 536n33O

circle, begins and ends with wisdom, 280; circulation of, 158; considered in conjunction with the hne, 38; contained within the square, 188; everlasting, 272; feminine identified as the nucleus of 382; hermeneutical, i o - i i , 112, 472n2, 549n64; infinite, 100; Iyyun, 99; noetic, 214; of concepts, 268; of contemplation, 269; of divine thought, 283; of divine unity, 453ni99; of economy, 158; of exchange, 499nio8; of expression and of being-expressed, 17; of kabbahsts in Gerona, 8; ofLuria, 586ni49; of mastery, 42; of mystics, 388; ofthe Special Chemb, 489ni7; of thought thinking itself, 271; of transcendence, 268; oneness and infinity coincide within, 429n336; squaring of 5i2n29i; unity of beginning and end within, 284, 55on66; of wisdom, 283; quadrant of xvi; zoharic, 63, 72, 137, 266, 317, 318, 321, 324, 364, 366, 565n96 circumcision, 46, 82, 435n4; abrogation of sexual desire, 135; affirmation of phalhc desire through its negation, 141; androgynous nature of 140; baptismal overcoming of 50; and the bearing of the divine seal on the flesh, 276; and castration, 134, 434n39i; and contemplative envisioning, 135; covenant of 133,139, 331; and the dissimihtude of esotericism, 134, 135; eight days of, 147; embodies the dialectic of concealment and disclosure, 141; and the enigmatic, 135; and feminization ofthe male body, 436n4; induces seeing the unseen, 382; mark of 380; mark ofthe simulacrum, 434n39i; marker of ethnic identity, 135; midpoint of 373, 382; the mystery revealed to Israel, 135; and the name, 128, 137; of Abraham,

82, 135; paradigm for an esoteric hermeneutic, 135; and the paradox of visualizing the hidden in hiding the visual, 382; point enclosed in the center of 382; and redemption in inverse relationship, 382; ritual embodiment of androgynous phallus, 311; secret of and the four beasts, 140; and sexual renunciation, 486ni84; sign of phallic empowerment, 486ni88; and the study of Torah, 137, 144; two parts of milah und pen'ah, 140 citron, symbohc ofthe feminine, 150; corresponds to the heart, 151. See also etrog coincidence, xxiv, xxv, 192; distinguished from indifference, 467n35i; in contrast to coherence, 536n344; ofbeing and nothing, 27; of coincidence, 193; of concealment and disclosure, 595n53; of darkness and light, 422n245; of language and embodiment, 42; of opposites, xx, 27, 29, 98, 106, 261, 262, 422n245, 447nii8, 456n23i, 469n396, 53in99; of opposition, 100; ofthe optic and verbal, 10; of planes of vision, 233; opposition of, 100; without transcendence, xxiv coincidentia oppositorum, xix, 30, 97, 467n35i; and the character of truth, 403 n5 8; dialectic logic of, 96; in Ehade, 262, 545-46n5; and Ke(er, 97; ofthe absolute and contracted maximum, 424n279; of the hidden and manifest, xii; ofthe hmited and unlimited, 30; of unity and multiphcity, 29; and the overcoming of gender dimorphism, 174; and time's other, xix coitus, androcentric explanation of 148; considered a form of imitatio dei, 312; intention ofthe kabbalist in the act of 319; means to participate in the sacred marriage that anticipates the redemption, 308; sanctifying oneself in the act of, 267; symbolic depiction by the image ofthe crown, 389 conjunctio oppositorum, 373

commandments, configured as the holy and pure body, 248; constitute the mystery of Adam, 259; equated with hght, 247; identified as the attributes, 248; identified as the glory, 249; means by which soul separates from body, 247; reward of 247; tissue ofthe body and fiber ofthe soul, 250; yoke of 309 complex infinity, envisioned from infinite complexity, 211 concealment, confluence of disclosure and, 384; demarcated as the invisible ofthe visible, 195; letter of 237; lower world revealed in the conceal733

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS

ment ofthe upper world, 292; and unconcealment, 17, 18, 19, 26, 27; within the mystery of mysteries, 292, See also Verborgenheit confluence, ofthe visual and verbal, 293, 4iini34 conjunction, 32, 35, 120; incorporation into the body ofthe text, 241; incorporation into the name, 237; mystical intent of prayer and study, 209; and negative theology, 218; of secret to secret, 593 n. 37; ofthe soul, 122, 209, 251; of thought, 209, 549-5on64; and prophecy, 209; patriarchs in constant state of 316; sublation of fleshy passion, 267; to nothing, 264; union with Torah, 237; with the Active Intellect, 241; with the Shekhinah, 251. See also devequt consciousness, xxii, 5, 12, 24, 30, 68, 79, 112, 279, 532n266; ascending and descending, 315; and being coincide, xxix; between wakefulness and sleep, 226; bodhi, 57; brain of 270; circularity of 55on64; compounded with body, xxvi; datum of xxx; confluence of speech and perception in, 4O4n7o; contemplating self as other, 279; embodied state of 25, 190, 192, 193; entangled with language, 4i8n2O7; erotic, 261; facets of, 369; fount of 270; gaze of 24; imaginal configuration of God in, 127; immanent and transcendent, xxvi; immanent of, xxx; impressional, xxv; intentional stmcture of 6; intemal, 6; internal time, xvi, xxviii, 4O4n65; linguistic, 5i8n9o; loss of 535n3i2; matriarchal, 68; messianic, 316; mirror of 121, 141; modules of 126; mystical, xix, 122, 287; mystified, 79; mythological, 141; Neumann's analytical notion of, 127; noematic presence within, 235; of body, 24; of eros, 261; ofthe Father, 370; of God, 477-78n72; ofthe masculine, 184; ofthe oneness of all being, 305; ofthe presence of God, 478n72; of thought, 349; of women, 46on26o; phenomena, 42on23o; philosophy of 546nii; pure, 192, 215, 343; ofthe present, xxv, 5; orgasmic in nature, 271; prerefiective, 42on229; protentional nodes of xxi; reflexivity of 269; self II, 278; silence of 24; and symbohc making, 4Oin34; time, xxiv, xxvii; time, being, and, 396n69; transcendental, xxviii; two forms of 270; unitary, 141; and world, xxi, 25 consecrated host, 255 conservation, and innovation, 88 contemplation, by way of allusion, 219; correspondence between contemplative ecstasy and seminal emission, 316; culminates in vision, 214; depicted in apophatic terms,i23, 216; erotics of 734

268; ladder of, 123; of one thing from another, 210; path of 214; phallic nature of 138; poetic envisioning wherein words are seen as images and images heard as words, 293; predicated on ascetic renunciation of sensual desire, 308; process of purification and emptying the mind, 214; progression to what cannot be contemplated, 217; self-enclosed circle of 269; that has no substance, 210; way of 212. See also hitbonenut contemplative envisioning, xii, 118, 119, 133, 263, 268, 294, 322, 366, 399nii; coincidence of optic and verbal, 210; nexusbetween circumcision and, 135; occasioned by the iconoclastic breaking of all form, 213; and the phallic potency, 48inii7; spiritual eros of 269 contemplative prayer, 209 conversion, a crossing of ontic boundaries, 223, 243; mystery of 222, 223, 438n23; and the overcoming if difference embodied in the messianic figure, 438n23 copulation, after the sin of Adam, 185; between Shekhinah and Yesod, 362, 5i2n28o; copula and, 118; first, 182, 271; and the material world, 5O9n244; means to join left and right, 95; of male and female waters, 95; ofthe mind, 270, 322; of the soul in relation to the divine, 298; referred to as knowledge, 549n58; sanctity of 370; secret of 270, 553ni37; and the secret doctrine of kabbalah, 585ni45; seminal drop of 270, 549n58; and shdashua, 553ni37; spiritual, 267; source of 317; supemal, 270, 549n58; and the tmth of duphcity, 196. See also ziwwug; ziwwug ruhani coronation, of Solomon, 366; and the overcoming of gender dimorphism, 74; reciprocal nature of in relation to the Shekhinah and kabbalists, 366; understood symbohcally as cleaving to the corona ofthe male organ, 388; symbolic of coitus, 389 corporeal intentionality, 24 corporeality, hnguistic conception of 208, 285 corpus astrale, 251 corpus glorificationis, 255

cosmic semiotics, 201 cosmos, constituted by the multiple veils through which God is manifest, 231 covenant, identified as the Community of Israel, 381; of Binah, 138; of circumcision, 139, 140; of the foreskin, 139, 144, 208; God's remembering the, 380, 381; ofthe lips, 139; ofthe living God, 139; ofthe master, 139; ofthe mouth, 139, 144;

INDEX

OF SUBJECTS

of oneness, 144; of peace, 139; ofthe rainbow, 139; of Sabbath, 139; ofthe sacred language, 140; ofthe tongue, 139, 144; of Torah, 139; of unity, 64; sign of 137; three kinds of 138-39; symbolically identified with Torah, 138; uplifting of, 381; and the letter yod, 379 creation, account of 168; balance ofjudgment and mercy, 270; identical withredemption, 94; identified as emanation, 33; process with the divine, 94; versus eternity, 88 crown, feminine assuming the posture of 365; of royalty, 271; on the head ofthe righteous, 365; on the Torah scroll, 365; premature elongation of 369; transformed from a vessel, 94 cutting the shoots, 199 ddat elyon, 253; in the pattem ofthe phaUus, 270 day, side of light on the right, 175 death, 52, 53, 264; angel of 247; before one dies, 213, 352, 523-24ni62, 586ni52; caused by the separation of Eve from Adam, 165; by the kiss of Shekhinah, 582nio6; ecstatic experience of conjunction compared to, 346; ensues from union with Shekhinah, 57ini85; eros of 353; erotic undertones of 352; and the feminine, 106, 354; kiss of 346, 582niO4, 586ni49; linked to the supplication prayer, 57ini85; nexus oflove and, 352, 586ni54; ofthe body, 587ni62; ofthe body of Moses, 43in357; ofthe Edomite kings, 311, 386, 387; of eros, 353; ofjesus, 486ni8o; oflanguage, 48inii4; ofthe martyrs of Caesarea, 310; of Nadab and Abihu, 266-67; ofthe righteous a means of atonement, 548n36; personification of 534n3o6; and the philosophical hfe, 213; simulated, 121, 240, 57ini85; vision ofthe divine presence occurs at the moment of, 352, 586ni5O; wisdom of 498n88; world of 354 deconstmction, 90, 93; as clotural reading, 86 dehiscence, 196 demonic, 60; impurity associated with nations ofthe world, 223 demut, xii, 109; secret ofthe forms in Malkhut, 149 denegation, 160 archaic derekh ha-shemot, 234

desire, abohtion of in the eschatological Sabbath, 371; abrogation of 52, 296, 314, 350, 364; advent of 129; and asceticism, 558ni; and the ascetic ideal ofthe artist, 42-43; axis of 131; Buddhaland divested of, 57; beyond desire, 267, 313; castration and the cutting off of 562n52; chain of. 735

AND

TERMS

325; circumcision and the abrogation of 135; consummation of 359; contrasted with love, 582niO5; culmination ofthe vision of God, 352; death ofjesus and the overcoming of 486n486; dependent on the construction of a feminine to receive, 285, 376, 381; and the depiction of Shekhinah as bride, 376; detachment from, 119; distinguished from will, 166; domestication of in Gregory of Nyssa's intepretation ofthe Song, 525ni82; economy of, 449ni37; empty of 121; for intellect as the efficient cause in the universe, 554ni44; for invisibihty, 192; for the kiss, 585ni49; for lost unity, 288-89;forthe other as other, 129, 130, 269, 287, 288; for the other as self, 324; for self-representation, 284; for system, 92; for transcendence, 289; hamessing of, 42; hermeneutics of 442n7i; and homoerotic bonding, 327; imaginary object of 131; increased by dehght and joy, 182; intelligible in contrast to sensible, 351; and the interior experience of poetry, 292; in the Garden of Eden, 569ni52; lacking in Ein Sof 368; and hght, 317; hnked to the female, 52, 53, 55, 304; manhness attained by the ascetic renunciation of 306; and mental activity, 278; not to be understood, 91; not to desire, 136, 232, 269, 297, 298, 558 nio; ocular, 135; of angels to push away Aqiva, 369; of ape to be hke man, 203; of Christian men to become brides of Christ, 301; of Eve to be equal to Adam, 61; ofthe father for the daughter, 497n83, 58687ni63; ofthe female for the male aroused by supemal waters, 353; ofthe feminine to receive, 188, 386; ofthe four spirits, 361; ofthe glory to ascend, 349; of God for the phalhc potency, 378; of God for the righteous, 328; of God for Shekhinah, 329, 330; ofthe male to copulate, 182, 271; ofthe male to ejaculate without female, 310, 386, 387; ofthe male to project, 77, 183, 378; ofthe male to restore what has been taken from him, 148, 323, 376, 493n4O; ofthe man to arouse the woman, 314; ofthe man to be contained, 381; of the masculine above aroused by Shekhinah, 324; ofthe mascuhne to amass power, 49, 173; ofthe mascuhne to overcome duahty and separation, 323; ofthe mind to be conjoined to the intelhgible world, 349; of Moses to behold Metatron, 487n2O9; ofthe rational soul for God, 346; of renunciation, 297; ofthe Shekhinah for the righteous man, 325; ofthe soul for the divine, 298; ofthe soul to become one with the Active Intel-

INDEX

OF SUBJECTS

lect, 347; of woman directed to man, 61, 171; of Yesod, 362; originating in the imagination, 347; overcoming of 302; overcoming of as a prerequisite to attain esoteric wisdom, 566niO7; paradox of 288, 298; personified as temptress, 300; phallic nature of 136, 141, 378, 553-54ni4o; and the poetic gesture, 432n362; primordial, 14; procreation the rectification of 267; psychic landscape of 458n24i; rational, 269; and rectification, 311; reflective nature of 297; renunciation of 297; renunciation of and the contemplative ideal, 269, 308, 318, 364; resonating in the Song of Songs, 336, 337, 343, 355, 361; resurrected body and the celibate conquest of 47in435; righteous void themselves of 70; ritual as escape from, 56on25; root ofthe ascetic impulse, 296; satiation of 297; scopic nature of and the veil, 529n235; sensible and intelligible, 351; severedfromits metaphysical basis, 315; signifier of 128, 129; space of 132; surplus of 130; and temporahty, 396n67; and thought, 55lnioo; to consummate union, 336, 343; to contain, 95; to desire or not to desire, 297; to envision the invisible and to utter the ineffable, 293; to know the wisdom of holy unity, 326; to participate in the Good, 524ni63; to see God, 229; to surrender the phallus, 306; virihty the conquering of 264; without an other, 269; and the yearning to transcend otherness, 389 devarim ruhaniyyim, 247, 248

devequt, 32, 35, 39, 122, 237, 267, 288, 477n7i, 569ni59; consequent to love of God, 583ni25; David's longing for, 377; ecstatic separation of soul from body, 477n67; erotic dynamic of 354, 58in9O, 582niO5; of male and female, 59in5; of the soul, 264, 347, 349, 350; of spirit with spirit, 361; of thought, 209; to nothing, 264; and sexual cohabitation, 315; and the theurgical task of tiqqun, 565n96; with the Presence, 389; and worship ofthe heart, 234; and visualization, 377. See atso hitdabbequt devequt ba-ayin, 264 devequt ha-neshamah, 350

dharma, neither male nor female, 56 dhikr, 226

differance, 3, 86; hermeneutical condition of 160; indifference of 102; writing as, 87 difference, identical, 374 dimyonot, 203, 242

Din, 64, 68, 181 736

AND

TERMS

disclosure, concealment of 160; paradoxically identified as occlusion/concealment, 17, 31 discourse, extending beyond language, 197-98 dissemination, 91 dissimulation, ofthe secret, 160 diyoqna, 9, 38

donkey driver, discourse of, 222 dugma, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 336, 426n3O5 du-parsufim, 145, 167, 176, 5O5ni96 duphcity, and the beginning, 91; feminine, 59; hermeneutical, 133; of meaning, 336; of revealing and concealing, 224; of secrecy, 2, 160, 262; tmth of, 196 dyad, 196 ecstasy, experience of 261; of contemplative envisioning, 268; ofmystical union, 299, 322; and textual engagement, 322; and theurgy, 209 Edomite kings, 180, 385; archetypal representation ofthe emasculated power of Christian celibate priests, 309-310, 386; come forth from the aspect of malkhut, 311; death of signifies the purification ofjudgment and the production of Malkhut, 311, 386; engendered as female, 311; female waters without a mascuhne counterpart, 311; forces of impurity in the Godhead, 386; identified as the female points, 596n59; lack of balance between male and female, 386; and masturbation, 386; no correlation between the impulse to bestow and the desire to receive, 386; nulhfication of due to the fact that Adam was not arrayed as a unity of male and female, 310, 387; swayed to ejaculate with no female vessel to receive the seminal discharge, 385; unbalanced forces ofjudgment, 180, 311. See also primordial kings efes, designation ofthe Infinite, 96; space betwixt matter and form, 97 egoity, the will to overflow, 102 Egypt, symbohc ofthe camal realm, 156 Ein Sof 27, 29, 64, 67, 68; beyond all names, 124; cannot be known, 105; cleaving to, 288; collapse of polarity within, 97; delineated as divested of all garments, 4O4n69; demarcated as the place that is no place, 233; depicted as fonnless, 123, 200; described as the world of masculinity, 187; distinguished from Ayin, 104, 179; does not produce end or beginning, 105; equanimous nature of 104; the head-that-is-no-head, 269; the hyperessence ofthe inessential, 269; and the image ofthe abyss, 43in36i; indifference of 105; initiating

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND

TERMS

epoche, 6, 9 1

268, 286, 316, 328; noetic quality of 271; of consciousness, 261; ofthe impossible, 289; ofthe kiss, 362; of mystery, 261; ofmystical experience dependent on the renunciation of camal eros, 298; of perplexity, 268; of sha'ashu'a, 281; ontology of 117; personified as female, 53; phallus the focalpoint of 373; pitched in the human body, 118; Platonic, 288; play of 269; of selfcontemplation, 182; poetic nature of 46; reversal of 367; spiritualization of 318; and the striving ofall being for ontic unity, 118; subjugated to the mle of logos, 306; suffering of 374; texture of shaped by the sexual desires and anxieties of men, 373; and thanatos, 352, 57ini85; totahty of and the striving for self-actuahzation, 269; worldly and spiritual, 128 eroticism, and asceticism, 86, 136, 296-99, 319, 322, 352, 363; and esotericism, 269, 399n6; and martyrdom, 318; of knowledge, 269; oflanguage, 118; ofthe Song expressive ofthe movement betwixt the pull of attraction and the push of deferment, 355; sacred nature of 297; spiritual, 333, 363; subsumed under the body ofthe text rather than the text ofthe body, 335; and the texture ofmystical experience, 308 eschaton, angelmorphic state of 300-301; ascetic renunciation of camal sexuality anticipates the spiritual eros of 364, 367; marked by the overcoming of gender dimorphism in the repairing of the male androgyne, 366, 390; ontic restoration ofall divine grades, 389; retrieval ofthe primordial beginning, 364; signifies the reintegration of the feminine as part ofthe masculine, 387

ereignis, 18

eshet hayyil, 80

eriebnis, 4

esotericism, 143, 197; dialectic of 17; dissimilitude of 134; and eroticism, 261, 399n6, 474n33, 489ni3; hermeneutical dilemma of 222; and hermeneutics, 399n6; Islamic, 30, 225, 422n247, 529n23i, 536n330, 577n33; ofkabbalah and the symbol ofthe veil in Sufism, 224; origins of in Ancient Greece, 469n4i4; phallomorphic nature of 46, 75, 128, 144, 146; philosophical, 4ioni3i; popularization of 446nii6; stmcture of exhibited by the veil, 233; veritable deception of 16; wisdom of encoded in rabbinic dicta, 59 etrog, 150, 151; 494n47 eshet hayyil, 80, 185, 186, 459n25O, 495n7i, 59inii etemal recurrence, 44 ethereal body, 38, 251 Eucharist, 190, 5i3n2; and the breaking ofthe bread.

gesture mirrors transgression of Adam, 182; hght that is above Keter, 181; musing that comes from, 199; nondifferentiated oneness of 95, 99; ontically inseparable from Keter, 179; otherwise-thanbeing, 125; possibihty ofbeing absorbed in, 269; prayer situated within, 281; pure mercy with no admixture ofjudgment, 105, 181; resolution of opposites in, 104; root of indifference, 98; sefirotic edifice unites with and ascends to, 389; soul cleaving to, 125; source ofall being, 198; trace of the hght of 186; transcends all enumeration and demarcation, 179; and the uroboric union of father and mother, 105 Elohim, the aspect ofthe male, 180; the attribute of judgment, 95; conjoined to YHWH, 170 emanation, progression from silence to thought, voice, and speech, 286 emasculation, characteristic ofthe primordial kings of Edom, 310; mark ofthe demonic, 266 embodiment, 24, 46; conscious, 192; cultural and biological aspects of 80; erotic nature of 119; and language in the poetic symbol, 42; and the image ofthe garment, 248; linguistic comportment of 246, 259; oflanguage, 194; ofthe splendor of Shekhinah, 255; semiotic nature of 136, 201; taxonomy of 201; textual, 191, 211, 240, 246, 260, 263 engenderment, bodily, 302; body of 148, 312; chain of 53. 356; human sexuality, 363; hne of 106, 188; ofthe human body, 267; symbols of 80 enthronement, ofthe celestial king, xii; portrayed as sacred union, 143, 356, 378; and worship, 39in5

eros, ascetic transformation of, 318; articulation of the flesh, 118; awakening from the left, 285; beyond the psychosexual, 126; camal an image of the tme, 271; closed circle of thought thinking itself 271; convergence of erotic and noetic, 269; death of 353; eschatological transmutation from bisexual to monosexual, 324; and the fantasy of the male to attain psychosomatic wholeness, 373; and gnosis, 269; identified as the phallic potency, 287; and the image ofthe rose, 63; intellectual, 267, 286; and language, 118; and the hbidinal drive, 118, 126; hnked to man's desire to be contained by the woman, 381; merging ofbody and word, 45; metaphorical nature of, 336; mysterious nature of 63; mystery of 261; and noesis.

737

INDEX

OF SUBJECTS

AND

TERMS

342; ecstatic ingestion of, 569ni73; mystery of, end, 284; the opening created by the three closed 543n433; sacrament of, 342 sides of beit, 258; secret abode of, 258; selfeunuch/s, 67, 136; demarcates the members ofthe enclosed circle of wisdom, 283; technical desigzoharic fraternity, 319; designation ofa third kind nation of Shekhinah, 318, 319; three festive meals of gender that is neither male nor female, 303; of 368; three knots of 257, 258 erotic and phallic nature of 320; ideal ofthe fana, 30, 227, 228; al-fana, 227, 232, 234; effacement manly, 302; for the sake ofthe kingdom of of the distinction between perceiver and perheaven, 302; an emasculated male, 303; priests of ceived in the supreme mystical state of 230 the Mother Goddess, 570-7ini85; signifies the fear, 109 state of an imphed phalhc potency, 265; symbol fearful asymmetry, 177 of mascuhne fecundity, 321; who keep the Sabfemale, adorned hke a bride entering the nuptial bath, 318-19 chamber, 376; assimilated into the corona ofthe evil inclination, 59; corresponds to the lower Shekhiphallus, 389; assumes the form ofthe encirchng nah, 595ni95; creation of and the arousal of line that crowns the point, 180; assumes the pos443n84; filth of 121; harnessed together with the ture of the crown on the head of the righteous, good inclination, 169; purpose of ritual to sub365, 387; and the attribute ofjudgment, 69, 80, due, 247; symbolized by the serpent, 548n29 95. 181. 379; becoming male, 301, 437ni5, 440exile, characterized by sexual dimorphism, 373; con4in57; comprises the thirty-two paths of mascujugal mating of male and female rectifies the hne wisdom, 161; conceived as the vessel that ontological separation of 381;fragmentationof delimits the hmitlessly overflowing potency of 165; marked by the seeing of what should be the male, 385; contained in the male, 105, 156, concealed, 382; overcome by sexual union, 367; 164, 174, 175, 176, 188, 376; constituted by the and the nature of commentary, 117; and prophalhc energies ofthe masculine, 161; crown of phetic envisioning, 383; of Shekhinah, 308, 319, the male, 389; and the demiurgical role of cre355. 374. 5931135; Shekhinah compared to a bride ation, 150; demonic character of portrayed as entering the nuptial chamber when she comes rageflil warrior and alluring Gentile woman sexout of 376; and the separation of masculine and ually baiting the male, 374; demonization of feminine aspects ofthe divine, 354, 380; vision expressed in the image ofthe effeminate male, indicative of, 382 385; depicted as wife who is the crown of her eye, apple of 383; evil, 132; fashion eyes in place of husband, 387; depicted as a vessel to receive the an, 50; gaze of 593n33; ofthe inteUect, 176, 384; seminal discharge, 376; derivation from the male, ofa fish, 375; ofthe Lord, 181; ofthe mind/ 52, 72, 75, 150; derives from the brain ofthe heart, 196, 212, 214, 523ni5O; of spiritual vision, male, 94; duplicitous nature of, 60, 154; encir529n23i; on the right not complemented by eye chng crown on head of male, no; encompassing on the left, 179-82; open, 179, 375; single, 375, the male, 187; eschatological restoration to the 5o8n242; spiritual, 194; symbol for female genitamale, 85, n o , 365, 376; exclusive worship of ha, 5o8n242; that sees is the eye that is seen, 214; 171; and the image ofthe fHnge, 385; impotent that sees with bhndness, 42; third, 5o8n242; and male has the same status as, 385; inferior status to the upper phallus, 5o8n242, 572n2oo; what is the male, 66, 164; life-bestowing qualities phalperceptible to, 32 hcally transforms, 151; masculinized in the moment of sexual union, 389; memorialization face, disclosed as veil, 224; euphemism for the phalof 374; the not-all that sets the hmit to the all, lus, 136; of God beheld by means of Shekhinah, 130; ontic root of in the corona ofthe phallus, 377; of Shekhinah, 137; to-face, 108, 175, 177, 180, 375; ontically restored to the membrum virile, 185, 223, 224, 228, 313, 352, 355, 376, 386, 381, 382; ontological locus in the male, 311; pri528n228, 529n233, 555ni5i, 59ini4; unmasking mal garment, 108; reification of as an autonothe, 223; unveiling of 225 mous force considered to be idolatrous, 385; faith, harmonized with thought, 263; mysteries of sexed rather than gendered, 187; sexual instability 64; mystery of, 146, 324, 361; mystical import of associated with, 53; surrounding the male, 376; and the paradoxical identity of beginning and transposed into the corona ofthe phallus, 311, 738

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS 323, 365; two aspects of 75; who provides space to enclose the male becomes thereby the encirchng part ofthe male, 381; womb and ground of being, 150 female/feminine waters {mayyin nuqvin), 76, 77, 182, 183; and the corona ofthe phallus, 184; Edomite kings arose in the secret of 310-11; incite male waters to overflow, 311 femaleness, bondage of 55, 303 feminine, adulation of 49, 72; aligned with the left, 58, 59, 64, 76, 95, 104, 105, 107, 108, 169, 171, 175. 177-78. 179. 180, 181, 183, 285, 353, 354, 375, 443n84, 44711118. 47On4i9, 493n4O, 5 " I2n272; alleged autonomy of obhterated, 301302; ancillary position of 62; arrayment of 376, 587ni78; associated with naturey^i50; associated with the world of death, 354; attached to yet separate from the mascuhne, 152; and the attribute of speech, 362; attribution of excess and justice to, 60; beginning of its existence in the corona, 76, 184, 186; body and sensuality aligned with, 51, 54, 299, 304, 363. 595n53; capacity to receive, 104, 169, 183, 277, 279, 284; capacity to withhold, 95; characterization ofthe lower glory vis-a-vis the upper mascuhne glory, 145; characterized as darkness, 353; characterized as receptive, 75; comprised in the male, 174; constitution of 285; contained in the male, 176, 188; and constriction, 83, 108; crowning part ofthe male, 187; demarcated as the dweUing place of the phalhc potency, 373; and the demonic, 81, 302; and the demiurgical role of creation, 150; depicted as the nucleus in the infinite circle, 382; depicted as a single point, 375; depicted at the beginning as the point occluded within the ether, 383; desire to receive, 188; and disclosure, 132; duphcitous nature of, 154; Edomite kings characterized as, 310, 311; elevated to the mascuhne, 301; encompasses the male, 187; enfolded in the masculine, 105, 176; eschatological restoration to the masculine, 85, 365-66; and the figure ofWisdom, 143, 163, 277; force of gestation, 189; garment that reveals the hght it conceals, 384; gender transformation of 186, 365; glory ofthe mascuhne, 150; and the heart, 151, 161, 495n62; idolatry identified as the exclusive worship of 154, 172; and the image ofthe mirror, 595n53; and the image ofthe veil, 224; in the position of the crown on the head ofthe male in the beginning and in the end, 365-66; incorporated in the

masculine, 183; inferior or weakened male, 164; inscripted on the corona ofthe phallus, 311; integration of in the mascuhne, 152; integration of in the phallus, 324; and interiority, 134; Jewish collectivity portrayed as, 300; znd jouissance, 130, 279; and judgment, 64, 66, 80, 95, 105, 106, 168, 172, 173, 311, 325, 353; hght of diminished, 62; liminal status of 153; hnked epistemically to the feminine, 385; male who ejaculates without a female transvalued as, 310, 387; masculinization of 55, 167, 327; and materiahty, 265, 326; mirror that veils the unveihng ofthe veil, 384; and negative commandments, 266; ontic root of in the male androgyne, 180, 366; ontically derived from mascuhne, xiv, 174; ontically inferior status of 170; ontologicaUy containment of in the mascuhne, 149, 164, 165; ontologically contextualized as the corona ofthe phallus, 151, 366; and the Oral Torah, 133, 139, 257; phaUicization of 324; point hidden in the ether, 383; portrayal ofjesus as, 51; reabsorbed into the mascuhne, 105; reintegrated into the mascuhne, 175, 323, 327; restitution to the phallus, 324; restoration to the mascuhne, 107, n o , 311, 324, 325, 387; restored to the corona, 324; ring that envelops the glory it exposes, 384; root of in the primordial kings who died, 386; and the second he ofthe Tetragrammaton, 154, 172, 326; saintly, 302; Shekhinah imaginally configured in the language of 46; shelter that reveals the masculine potency concealed therein, 385; sheltered in her boundaries hke a point enclosed in the center ofthe circle, 382; signified by the letter beit, 353; site of impurity, 353; subordination of 49; subservience of 265; subsidiary to the mascuhne, 86; surrounds the male in the image ofthe corona, 76; symbohc ofthe resistance to symbohc identification, 130; symbohcally depicted as the citron, 150, 151; and the textual arti&ct, 304-305; textual body of consituted by male community of kabbalists, 330; throne characterized as, xii, 143; three images of; sister, daughter, mother, 161; Torah portrayed in images of, 143, 274; transformed into an aspect of the mascuhne, 71, 323; transposition of male mystic in relation to God, 350; two aspects of, 75-76; union of mascuhne and, 312, 319, 325; and the vital soul, 306; vihfication and veneration of 59; world of 82; yeams to be the space to contain the phallic potency, 355 femininity, and the aspect of disclosure, 132, 133;

739

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND

TERMS

capacity to withhold, 95; correlated with body/ neutic of walking, 374; ZoW produced by, 48, sexuahty, 54, 57, 304; and the demonic, 59, 81; 207, 334; zoharic, 82, 133, 243, 257, 320, fleeing from, 303; and the figure of Cain, 80; and 528n224. See also havrayya interiority, 134; liminal status of 153; hnked to matter, 265; related to division, 76; represented as Garden of Eden, 61, 73, 74; Adam adopted celibacy the membrane ofthe ether ofthe supernal wisafter the sin in, 56in35; at midnight God enters dom, 76-77; subordination to the mascuhne, 49; into, 320, 57Oni78; condition of Adam and Eve and the symbohc state of poverty, 164; symbolprior to the sin in, 315; fruits of 248; God takes ized by the hly, 67; and the textual artifact, delight in the souls ofthe righteous in, 328, 329; 304-305 righteous sit in, 73, 74, 320; sexual desire in, field, connected to yet separate from the garden, 569ni52; sin of Adam and Eve in, 166, 369, 164; symbohc ofthe feminine, 154, 161 548n29 first copulation {ziwwug n'shon), autoerotic arousal of garment, 8, 9, 10, 37; body compared to, 222; exothe male, 182 teric meaning of text, 221, 222; God's donning First Principle, 66 symbolic ofthe emanation of wisdom, 529n237; fish, eye of, 375 hides and reveals the name, 208; image of in kabflesh, 25; adhering to place and time, 194; articulated balistic literature, 225, 234; incarnation ofthe by language, 118, coiling over of visible and tanglory in anthropomorphic form of an angel, 254; gible, 194; enfolding of 193; incamation ofthe in which the dead are attired, 54; medium that word into, 191, 194, 216; midway between reveals by concealing and conceals by revealing, object and subject, 194; ofthe visible, 193, 194; 225; the mirror that overcomes the inside/outontology of 191; semiotic, 262; textual nature of side dichotomy, 234; mystery of, 200, 234; the 262; thomy, 216; transfiguration of into word, name that reveals the nameless it conceals, 219; 191, 194; word made, 194 oflight, 248; of males, 597 n. 83; of skin, 248; of food, symbohc ofthe divine overflow, 330 Torah, 221; putting Christ on as, 50; rabbinic, foot/feet, of Moses, 216; sandals removedfrom,216; 251; second, 251; secret seen through, 222, 223. See also levush / levushin, levusha, and malbush symbohc ofthe phallic potency, 257 footstool, 39 gaze, xii, xxii, 141; center of 293; contemplative, foreskin, 137; removal of diminishes the sex drive, 198; eroticism of 274; face to face, 175, 528n228; 486ni84 fixed on Noah's rainbow, 382; no longer focused forgetfulness, 17 on Shekhinah as an autonomous female persona forgiveness, 367 but as the diadem that encircles the head ofthe four, levels of meaning in Scripture, 221, 223; mysmale, 375; of consciousness, 24; of imagination, tery ofthe, 360 145; ofjesus, 341, 424 n. 282; of God, 329, 379; fourfold, 35, 36; bom from the union ofthe spirit/ of God upon the rainbow to remember the sign ofthe covenant, 378; ofthe male, 56on33; on the breath ofthe male and the spirit/breath ofthe diadem, 377; on King Solomon, 162, 366; on the female, 362; expressed in the word shabbat, 84; in rainbow prohibited, 593 n, 33; phallic, 133, 135, Heidegger's thought, 20, 21, 4i6ni88, 4i7ni95 137; phallocentric nature of 136; phallomorphic, fraternity, 37, 41, 132, 222, 314, 319; ascetic hfestyle 378; transforms the feminine, 378; upon a candle, of 57Oni76; bonding of comprises mystery ofthe 326; upon the face of Moses forbidden, 385; androgyne, 388; constitute the face of Shekhinah, upon the iconic manifestation of God, 244 573n237; engaged in Torah study and sustained by spiritual food ofthe angels, 527n2i9; homoGelassenheit I Gelazenheit, 42, 432n364, 472n6 erotic nature of 388, 572n2i4; male members Genealogy, 2-3 constitute the feminine Shekhinah, 329, 355; gender, dynamic nature of 94; dimorphism, 56, 360; members of constitute the male body of God, correlative nature of 177; eschatological over327; of male mystics rise at midnight, 330; mysticoming of 49, 58, 74, 84, 94, 174, 332, 360, 366, cal bonding of 388; of Simeon ben Yohai, 259, 390; function of difference, 177; not a function 364; prolepsis of eschatological transformation of correlation but of self-actualized singularity, anticipated by, 324; and the redemptive herme178; transformation of 49; transposition of 107 740

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND

Gevurah, 37, 178, 367; corresponds to the left arm, 174; on the left, 181 gift, 21, 23, 33, 155; and absence of reciprocity, 158; bestowed by father upon his daughter, 58687ni62; daughter given to the son as, 157-61; defies the hmits of temporal possibihty, 159; denotes an intentional transgression ofa sexual norm, 161; Derridean explanation of 158-60; and the impossible, 158; oflove, 339; ofthe perfect, 65; opens the circle of economy, 158; and secrecy, 159; and the temporahzation oflanguage, 158; time of in the present, 159 gimmel, symbolic ofthe son, 279 ghayb, 228, 230 glory, xiii, 34, 39, 73; angelic nature of 43O-3in354; appears in the likeness ofa human form, 209; assumes tangible shape, 253; commandments identified as, 249; crowning vision of 353; desires and yearns to ascend to the supemal hght, 349; face of envisioned through mask ofJacob's visage, 145; feminine status of, 153, 172; male virginal, 303; mascuhne nature of, 143; phalhc connotation of 163; receive image of 55; rendered most conspicuous in the occlusion of its sign, 383; upper and lower: masculine and feminine, 145. See also kavod Gnosticism, n o , 389-90 God, absent from the text in which he is present, 257; bemuses himself with Torah, 273, 278; composed of negative and affirmative forces, 104; conceals esoteric matters in Scripture, 243; contemplates intelligible world, 220; diadem of made from the prayers of Israel, 389; elevated as a heave offering by the spiritual ehte of Israel, 308; face of beheld through Shekhinah, 377; feminization of male mystic in relation to, 350; homoerotic bonding of with kabbahsts, 329-32, 350; hides secrets in garments of Torah, 223; and his name, 249; identical with Torah, 247; identified with Israel and Torah, 245; imaginal body of 119, 246; infinity of, 138; linguistic evolution of 284; looked into Torah and created the world, 274, 285; male body of constituted by kabbalistic fraternity, 327; mystical body of 243; relation to circumcised Jewish males, 276; seven holy forms attributed to, 147, 149, 164, 49in29, n33; sons of 302; takes counsel with angehc retinue, 220; textual body of 249; threefold unity of 245, 283; took dehght with Torah two thousand years prior to creation, 277, 281; vision of 331; visits the

TERMS

souls ofthe righteous in the Garden of Eden at midnight, 320, 328; and world identical in their difference, 230 good inchnation, corresponds to the upper Shekhinah, 595ni95; hamessed together with the evil inchnation, 169; 247 govemance, 250 Great Mother, 67; androgynous nature of 68; and ritual copulation, 126 gufei torah, 243, 249 halakhah, 58 hanhagah, 250

harmony, 104 hashwa'ah, 98, 99, 104 hashwa'at ha-ahdut, 104 hatha yoga, 322 havrayya, 37, 314 hawwayot, 285

heart, book of 191; contemplation of 362; directed toward heaven, 314; focus of 291; identified as the woman, 327; permutation of letters contemplated in the, 238; pledging of to be removed from the world, 308-309; pohshing of 433n367; rendered metaphoriocally as the cup of cosmic vision, 233; reveals the veil, 233; righteous direct the will to the supemal king, 327; mmination of 199; screen/veil through which the intemal is extemahzed and the extemal intemalized, 235; site of spiritual vision, 226, 233; symbohc ofthe feminine, 161; tablet of 566niO7; and the throne, 234, 534n3O7; wise ofthe, 223. See also qalb heavenly tablets, 202 Hebrew, the Adamic language to which all other languages may be traced, 197; angels composed of 241; body composed of 240, 251; comprises all other languages, 204; constituitive element of all that exists, 209, 285; contained in the yod, 282; derives from the Holy Spirit, 5i8n92; divine language that God taught to Adam, 203; first language created by Adam, 5i9niO2; form and name of divinity, 244; the holy language, 203, 5i8n92; hylomorphic substance of Torah, 240; images of divinity, 244; instrument of creation and revelation, 202; language spoken by God and the angels, 203, 5i7n88; letters of comprise seedthought of Hokhmah, 196, 285, 286, 321; material by which the human body, Adam, the tabemacle, and the Torah is constituted, 259; material ofthe astral body, 251; matrix language of creation, xiii.

741

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS 5, ii8, 197, 200, 204, 294; most perfect of all languages, 203; natural as opposed to conventional, 203, 207, 5i8-i9n99; permutation ofthe letters of, 235; prime matter by which Torah is composed, 241; revealed and concealed through the veil of matter, 201; semantic kinship to Arabic and Aramaic, 203; seventy languages contained within, 203; twenty-two letters comprised in the Tetragrammaton, 10, 128, 139-40, 196, 197, 207, 208, 240, 244; twenty-two letters comprised in the yod, 282. See also leshon ha-qodesh Heikhalot literature, 292 henosis, 218 heresy, 172; linked to the female, 5O5-5o6n2oi hermeneutic, circle, 112, 114; duplicity, 133; reflexivity, 262; unendingness, 117 hermeneutical, inseparable from the ontological, 223 hermeneutics, ascetic discipline, 115; nihilistic vocation, 114; of secrecy exemplified by the veil, 232; radical, 116-17 Hesed, 37, 41, 61, 64, 181, 367; corresponds to the right arm, 174 hierogamy, 165, 175 hieros gamos, and the endogamous tendency, 160; occurs with the sparial confmes ofthe holy of holies, 355; of enthronement, 356; ofthe King and Matrona, 357 hierophany, 262 hieroglyphs, 214 high priest, 238 hijab, 27, 226, 227, 228, 532n262 hikmat al-ishrSq, 239 Hinduism, 47 hitbodedut, 120, 121, 346, 475n46 hitbonenut, 210 hitdabbequt, 120 Hod, 61, 64, 178; corresponds to the left foot, 174 Hokhmah, 63, 69, 178, 197, 258, 270, 286, 365; beginning ofthe lower nine sefirot, 105; bridge that connects Keter and Binah, 197; corresponds to the brain and palate, 173; emblematic ofthe father, 196; and the image ofthe father, 154, 358; seed-thought of, 196; seminal fluid of, 83; supernal point, 105; signified by the beit, 383; signified by the yod, 125; upper and lower: symbolic of father and daughter, 282 hokhmat ha-seruf 240 hohness, priestly ideal of, 250 holy One, blessed be he, 34, 70; crowned from above and below, 70; in the future will be a crown on the head ofthe righteous, 73 742

holy spirit, 50, 69; by means of Solomon uttered the Song, 360; comprehension of, 120; enlightened kabbalist gains knowledge ofthe letters by means of, 282; identified as Shekhinah, 528n224; illuminates the soul by virtue ofthe song, 350-351; in Shf ite belief, 239; gift of, 340; vision of, 545n452. See also ruah ha-qodesh; ruh alquds; ruah qudsha holy unity {yihuda qaddisha), 169 homoeroticism, 312, 322; between father and son in the divine, 368, 370; and the bonding ofthe righteous man below and the phallic gradation above, 593037; carnality of celibate renunciation, 324, 367; climaxes in the highest manifestation ofthe divine, 368; framed in heterosexual language, 331-32, 366-67, 388; heterosexual eros gives way to, 324, 327; heterosexual imagery ofthe Song transposed into, 337-38, 350; and mystical ecstatsy, 388; of the mystical experience distinguished from homosexuality, 367; realized in the mystical bonding ofthe male fratemiy, 388; and the texture of messianic unification, 370; underpinnings ofthe heteroerotic symbolism, 370 homoousios, 40 Horizonthaftigkeit, 195 humility, the means by which the soul participates in the mystery of incarnation, 342 hyperousios, 10, 289 icon, ofthe invisible God, 122; ofjacob, 143, 144 identity, and indifference, 102, 104; difference of, 98, 104, 284, 373; differentiating by identifying difference, 117; indifferent, 374; of difference, 64, 66, 98, IOI, 104, 270-71, 284, 373; of opposites, 27; of opposition versus opposition of, 98; realized through difference, 232 idolatry, and the desire to see God, 229; impulse for, 122; ofthe book, 206; worship ofthe female as autonomous, 154, 172, 374 illicit sexuality, mystery of, 159; secret of, 299. See also sitrei/sod arayot image, comprises male and female, 146, 312; configured in the imagination, 119; and thecorrespondence of human and divine limbs, 147; lacking in the holy of holies, 292; ofan anthropos, 121; of God, 35, 36, 50, 55, 121, 122, 164, 312; ofjacob, 144, 145; of negation, 219; of the One, 214; and sound, 210; symbolic representation ofthe invisible and inaudible, 127; and word converge, 287, 293 imagelessness, refuge ofall images, 123

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS

infinite, beyond predication and negation, 98; imaginal body, 35, 39, 42; of God, 119, 122, 125, beyond temporal emplacement, 105; circular 246, 249; incamate form of YHWH, 128, 240; nature of, 100; coincidence of opposites within, and the supemal Torah, 41, 219 98; non-differentiatedness of, 99; originary imaginary, feminine and masculine, 86; and the real, arousal and the phallic yeaming to become other, 279 270; semiosis, 205; shapeless abyss, 123; speaking, imagination, xii, 4-7, 10, 18, 25, 29, 32, 39; camal 197; will to create and sexual autoexcitation, 182; desire originates in, 347; cleansed by ascetic conword in the, 218 trol of body, 119, 121; configuration of time and space in, 38; depicted as the flame ofthe encirintellect, image ofthe One, 214 cling sword, 235; divine element ofthe soul, 120; intentionality, corporeal, 197; essence of corporeity, draws a veil between this world and the world192; required ofjewish male at the time of interto-come, 476n55; endows the formless with course, 313. See also kawwanah form, 384; exegetical nature of, 88; gaze of, 145; intercorporeality, 25, 192 hermeneutical function of, 120; human cognition intercourse, means by which female is restored to intractably dependent on, 236; image ofthe sefirot male, 148, 175, 267; midnight the propitious time conjured within, 124, 200; and the imaging of to engage in, 320; mimetic rite that facilitates the imageless, 120; linked to the feminine, 384, conjunction in the Godhead, 308; rectification of 5951153; locus of in the heart, 120, 122, 125; mirthe male androgyne, 149, 175, 267; sanctity of, ror of, 178, 235; and poetic fabrication, 44; and 317; spiritual as opposed to physical, 321 the role of deformation, 476n55; site of tempointerflesh, 193 rality, 23; spiritual entities assume corporeal form interpretation, 111-12; arises from the confrontation within, 122; symbols located within, 120; throne of text and reader, 115; play of, 91; translation a upon which Shekhinah dwells, 122; vehicle by mode of, 112, 223 which soul merges with Torah, 239; wordintertext, of body and world, 194 become-image configured therein, 40 inverted world, 31 imago terrae, and the Sophianic potency, 153 invisible, chasm between subject and object, 196; imitatio Christi, 300 contrasted with non-isible, 195; presence, 196 Imma, 181, 369 invisibihty, at the heart of all that is visible, 42on24O; immanence, 31 depth ofthe visible, 4i4ni8i; renders visible the incamation, 30; convergence of semiotic and invisible, 195-96; visibility ofthe medium consomatic, 40; and the image ofthe bread that is sists of its, 233 broken, 342; and the identification of God and 'ishq, 346, 568ni5i, 582nio3 Torah, 243; kenotic intepretation of, 340-41; and ish zar, 243 the mystical intent ofthe kiss of Christ, 340; of Israel, 33, 258; Aaron blessed people of, 152; and the the divine form in the revealed text, 205; ofthe Active Intellect, 58in9i; aligned with the holy flesh in the word, 191, 260; ofthe name in the right side of mercy, 243; angelic status of, 203, body of Torah, 255; ofthe Word in Jesus, 243, 205, 210; angel of God sent before, 241; and 257, 260, 305, 340; ofthe Word in theflesh,191, angels balanced on one scale, 221; Assembly of, 260; poetic, 191, 197, 211, 246, 260; understood 240, 241; banishment ofJews from the land of, docetically, 243 374; bearers ofthe sign ofthe covenant, 275, 305; incest, 48, 183; attributed mythopoeically to God, blood of covenant binds God and, 334; body pol160; between father and daughter, 162; figurative itic of, 327; bride of, 587ni64; capacity to condepiction of divine unity, 160 template to the infinite from the measure incomprehensible, measured in the comprehension visualized in the heart, 211; children of, 41; ofthe immeasurable, 219 Christian triumphalist claims regarding God's indifference, 98, 99; in ScheUing's thought, 100; rejection of, 354; cleave to God, 273, 275, metalogic of, 99-100; ontological, 196; rendered 55in87; collectivity of, 575ni5; community of, indifferent, 377 60, 82, 145, 320, 321, 326, 329, 330, 348, 349, ineffability, mystical claims of, 219; of language, 352, 353. 355, 381. 445niO4, 575ni7> 576n28, 42on24O; of the name preserved by the epithet, 584-85ni35, 586ni56, 59in5; condition below 291; paradox of uttering a statement of, 343 743

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS reflects status of divine above, 354; configured as one supemal pattem, 245; conjoined to Shekhinah, 326; constitute the hmbs ofthe chariot, 245; contemplate wisdom, 497n83; correspond to the angels above, 221; correlated with divine purity, 223; corronation of God by the prayers of, 4531199; covenantal bond of, 334; crown of God made from the prayers of, 389; depicted by the image ofthe lily, 593 n3 5; designated by the term na'arah, 327; designated the firstbom of God, 156, 200; desolation ofthe land of, 376; distinction between nations and, 58; distinguished from the nations, 58; distinguished linguistically, 204; elders of, 257; enlightened of, 211, 309, 566niO3; ensouled with a higher body on Yom Kippur, 364; erotic relationship between God and, 275, 276; exile of, 323, 335, 360, 374, 376, 378, 435n2; expulsions of, 360; faithful household in, 265; form ofthe primal anthropos, 200, 238, 243; future of, 257; glorious form seated upon the throne, 145; God appears before, 331; and God circumscribed in monopsychic unity, 210; God of. 75, 95, 142, 305, 484ni6o; God's love for, 162, 496n8i; go out &om exile, 378; guardians of the cosmic language, 205; homolgy between Torah and, 41; house of, 275; ideal pohtic of, 41; identity of God, Torah, and, 245; land of, 153, 276, 374, 376, 5Oini36, 5i9niO2; lift God through their prayers, 308; linguistic distinction of, 204; love between God and, 336, 345, 587ni65; mercy of Shekhinah in relation to, 455n224; metamorphosis ofjacob into, 33; miracles performed to save, 356; monotheistic ideal of, 142; Moses placed Torah before the sons of, 58; mystery of circumcision revealed to, 135; name of Keter, 537n344; name ofthe hving creature, 45ini4, 489ni7; people of, 291; power of derived from the voice, 265; prayers of ascend heavenward, 263; prophets of, 557ni93; prophets reveal secret to, 5i8n95; received the Torah, 257; response to Moses, 535n322; referred to as the people ofthe book, 229; request to know the name, 263; righteous and pious of, 308, 332; root ofthe souls of, 43in357; sacred history of, 334, 588ni64; Shekhinah ascends by means ofthe benevolent acts of, 592n24; sinners oppress Shekhinah and, 593n35; sojourn of in the desert, 291; sons of God, 328; special status of, 55in88; spiritual elite of, 308, 332; splendor of, 41; supreme state of perfection associated with, 565n98; sym744

bolic identification of God, Torah, and, 245; symbolic import ofthe land of, 153; Tabemacle constructed by, 5O7-5o8n234; Tetragrammaton united with, 332; title adam applies exclusively to, 245, 258; Torah revealed to, 336;; Torah transmitted to, 41; transformed from masculine to feminine, 327; transformed into the Active Intellect, 535n322; two houses of, 5O5ni95; united with Shekhinah, 326; utter doxology, 143, 145; virgin of, 589n225; wisdom mediates between God and, 496n8i ishshah perushah, 299

iterabihty, xxviii, 90, 92; and the gesture of naming, 92 Iyyun circle, 99 jouissance, ascetic response to displeasure, 297; contemplative ideal of, 55On72; ecstatic state of orgasmic unity, 278; feminine supplementary to the phallus, 130, 279; of submission, 306; phallic nature of, 131, 132, 135, 279, 359; renunciation of beyond phallic desire, 136, 269, 306, 482nii9; and shdasKua, 278; spiritual eros in kabbalistic lore, 273; and the supplement of mystical ejaculation, 130 judgment, acts in consort with mercy, 168; amelioration of by mercy, 382; capacity to receive, 65, 104; changes into and contained within mercy, 60, 169, 173; characteristic ofthe female, 95, 104, 106, 168, 379; containment of in mercy, 170; depicted as a pregnant woman, 69; destructive consequences of, 69; the final he that completes the Tetragrammaton, 172; joined together with mercy, 173; kabbalists identified as masters of, 327; and the name Elohim, 168; and nothingness, 96; ofthe male in contrast to the female, 180; shells come forth from, 80; side of magic, 59; sweetened by mercy, 95; symboHzed by gold, 162; transformed into mercy, 373; women cleave to, 58 Kabbalah, androcentrism of, xiv, 47, 108; chain of, 86, convergence of theogony and cosmogony, 35; ecstatic, 3, 204; evolved in highly literate circles, 78; genealogy of, 2; and hermeneutic dissembhng, 27; imparts meaning to suffering, 42; influence upon Schelling, 43; and the language of poetry, 42in242; Lurianic, 26, 76; monolithic nature of gender symbohsm promoted by, xiv; morphology of, 2, 36; phallomorphic dimensions of, 46, 47, 87; phenomenological resemblance of

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS

keterelyon, 152, 173, 178, 179 Christianity and, 256; poetic nature of, xi, 45; polymorphous nature of, 263; prophetic, 88, 120; kiss, conjunction of spirit and spirit, 361; denotes union oi Binah and Malkhut, 359; eros of, 362; proximity of Christian faith and the gnosis promfrom the mouth of Christ, 338; gift ofthe Holy ulgated by, 257; pure mercy with no admixture Spirit, 340; in Christian mystical interpretation of of judgment, 105; reified androcentric hegemthe Song, 337; identified as Jesus, 339-40; of ony, 79; repository of feminist images, 85; resodeath, 346, 352, 582niO5; oflove divides into nance of with Spinoza; 96; secret gnosis of, 103; four spirits, 361; ofthe mouth distinguished from secret side ofthe feminine, 46-47; site for femikiss ofthe feet and kiss ofthe hand, 339; possibilnine imaginary, 80; speculative theosophy, xiii; ity of soul receiving dependent on the humbling symbol and metaphor in, 36; symbohc orientaof self, 340; signifies the mystery ofthe incamation of, xiv, 9, 25; tendency to radicahze sexual tion ofthe Word in theflesh,340, 341, 343; symdifference, 58; theosophic, 3, 120, 204; threefold bol for the joy ofthe conjunction ofthe soul in chord enfolded within, 2; typological distinction the source of life, 349-50; symbolic ofthe combetween theosophic and ecstatic, 399nii; zoharic prehension that arises from the soul's passionate form of, 48 love for God, 346; symbolic ofthe conjunction kamakaladhyana, 559ni7 ofthe human soul and the Separate Intellect, 347; kashf, 226 symbolic of the soul's pleasure as it cleaves to the Karaites, 345. See also Moumers of Zion name, 264; symbolic ofthe union that is holy and kavod, phaUic connotation of, 163 chaste, 339, 350; theosophic and ecstatic explanakawwanah, 95, 120, 122, 209. See also intentionality tions of, 350, 351; union of spirit to spirit, 352 kelal, fonnal principle of inclusion and expansion, Kol Nidrei, rectification ofthe covenant ofthe 284 tongue, 589n2i7 keti, material principle of exclusion and constriction, knowledge, about sexual difference, 85; archaeology 284 of, 2; by presence, 225; camal, 549n56; constitukenesset yisrdel, 60, 61, 221, 240 tive understanding of, 141; contextualist kenosis, and the impulse to empty oneself of approach to, 343; and copulation, 549n58; disimpulse, 368; ofthe image, 556ni79; and the cursive, 212, 213; etemal light of, 303; erotic mystery of incamation, 340-41 nature of, 269; gods of, 295; esoteric, 327; experiKeter, 29, 63, 186, 197; above gender differentiation, ential, 337; inferential, 521 n. 135; ladder of self-, 64, 178; absolute simphcity of, 64; cannot be 213; locus of in phallic potency, 370; mediated comprehended, 179; characterized by one eye, nature of, 5; mystical, i, 575ni5; mystical illumi180, 182; concealed ofthe concealed, 360, 368; nation cannot be reified as an object of, 212; of coterminous with infinity, 196; corresponds to the divine names, 124, 583ni26; of faith, 30; of the head, 173; demarcated as efes, 97; depicted as God, 227, 282; of God, self, and cosmos, 32; of the place that is no place, 233-34, 375; displays the Last Things, 260; ofthe name, 140, 234, 263, no potentiality for duality, 178; distinguished 264, 52ini28, 542n4o6; ofthe real, 279; of from the Cause of Causes, 179; entirely right, secrets, 399n3; of secrets of Torah, 477n59; of 180, 447nii8; exclusively male, 178, 448ni25; self, 213; of truth, 211; of Ze'eir Anpin, 370, fullness of being beyond being and nonbeing, 97; 59on245; and the phallus, 270; relativization of, identified as ayin, 179, 368; has no feminine xx; replaced by sight, 96; rupturing of, 270; salother, 184; identified as ether, 383; included in vific, 55; scientific, 395n3i; and the secret of the enumeration ofthe sefirot, 179; indistinguishcopulation, 260; seeds of, 317; and the Son, able from Ein Sof, 63-64, 178; initially a single 5371352; spring of, 270; stripping mind of, 218; point comprised of ten, 181; luminous dark of, supemal, 253, 270; and supemal copulation, 270; 180; and the name ehyeh, 196; a pure and refined and theophanic experience, 525ni76; Torah vessel, 181; supernal will, 368; symbolized by the imparts cosmological and anthropological forms tip ofthe yod, 125, 447ni2i; the will that empties of, 202; Tree of, 248, 5O5ni95, 537n344; triad of itself of will, 368; the will that expands infinitely, wisdom, understanding, and, 527n2i9; and 97, 314, 368; the will of wills, 368 unknowing, 218; and the veil not unveiled, 231; keter malkhut, 76, 271, 375 745

INDEX

OF SUBJECTS

visionary, 39in3; women deficient in, 549n55. See also yedi'ah

AND

TERMS

linga, androgynous nature of, 323, 572n2i3 lingam, 126, 48oniO2

Kopulation, 195 kulayaga, 323 kundalinX, 322,

lisan al-ghayb, 233

logocentrism, 305 Logos, 17; and the penis, 306 logos spermatikos, 317

ladder, of contemplation, 124; of self-knowledge, 213; Tetragrammaton depicted as, 125, 291 language, 10, 11, 12, 14, 25; and being, 13, 14-17, 21, 24, 193, 197, displays the interplay of oral and graphic, 287; distinguished from speech, 25, 194; embodied, 194; embodiment in the poetic symbol, 42; emerges at the intersecting point between oral speech and written text, 286; eroticism of, 118; expresses the impulse to overflow, 284; natural versus conventional, 203; silence the source of, 4ioni32; simultaneity of oral and written, 287; temporahzation of, 158; and thought, 289

luminous darkness, 217 ma'amarot, 147

mdaseh bere'shit, 168. See abo creation, account of macroanthropos, imaginal body of, 219 Madhyamika (middle way), 403n6i, 4O4n62 magic, act of reflection and the secret of, 204; spiritual enticement of Christianity in the guise of, 259 mahshavah ha-deveqah, 264, 292 mahshevet ha-remez, 219

matakh, 38, 69, 70, 238, 253 mafakh ha-elohim, 240, 241, 45oni56, 452ni92 Lebensformen, 16 mafakh ha-go'el, 69, 450ni56, left, contained in the right, 177 mafakh ha-panim, 239 leshon ha-qodesh, 201, 203, 222, 294, 5i6n78 mafakhei ha-sharet, letter/letters, body composed of, 208, 241; branches malbush, 225, 234, 235, 252, stemming from the tree inscribed with YHWH, male, assumes the nature ofthe female, 301; and the 208; combination of, 234, 240, 274; comprise the attribute of mercy, 379; carrier of memory, 187; seed whence the sefirotic emanations come to be, contains the female, 178; crowned by the female, 321; constitute the bodies of Torah, 243; of con389; effeminate, 264; engendered as the veiled cealment, 237; ofthe veil, 260; permutation of, face in contrast to the female who is the exposed 238; veil of, 260; vestments through which the back, 385; and female one and the same, 50; ineffable name is woven, 200; signposts that lead characteristic of mercy, 95, 104, 105; contained from the revealed to the concealed, 198 in the female, 188; surrounded by female, 376; levirate marriage, secret of, 493n4O virginal glory, 303; without a complementary levush / levushin, 9, 225, 251, 379, 529n237, 535n3i4 female, 179 levusha, 9, 222, 597n83 male androgyne, 68, 94, n o , 146, 148, 149, 155, libido, associated with Platonic eros, 126 165, 173, 180, 183, 267, 323, 366, 373, 375, 376, Lichtung, 18, 19 387, light, appears as Immortal Androgynous Man, 157; beyond light, 122; commandment identified as, male/masculine waters {mayyin dukhrin), 75, 76, 77, 247; constitutes the texture of desire, 317; 95, 182, 183; drop of, 185 crowned by, 256; efficient cause ofthe sense of maleness, salvation of, 303 sight, 317; encompassed from within {orpenimi), male virgin, 303, 304; androgynous nature of, 304; 284; encompasses from without {or maqif), 284; designation of Barbelo, 304 ineffable, 157; inteUectual, 218; magnet for the Malkhut, 72, 178, 258, 267, 286, 322, 351; ascent of soul, 247; of life, 247; retum of to be hidden, 177; to Keter, 375, 376; ascent of to the rank of ateret ways of, 247 bdlah, 376; assuming the posture ofthe female Lihth, malevolence of, 568ni44; and Mary, 68; and surrounding the male, 376; the celestial daughter Samael, 137; and Shekhinah, 59, 60, 444n95 of Zion, 174; the celestial Jerusalem, 174; conlimb, strengthens hmb, 246 figured in the countenance of David, 84; craftshmit-experience, 289 man ofthe lower world, 84; designated by the hnear circularity, 38; 428-29n336 term kol, 174; elevation to the rank of crown, 72, 746

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS

109; final point ofthe sefirot, 105; fourth leg of the chariot, 84; the glorious house, 174; identified as the house of God, 174; kingly mother, 84; lower mother, 83; masculine nature of, 84; ontic root of in the corona ofthe phallus, 185, 187; portrayed as the heart, 174; providential nature of, 84; praise of God revealed through her, 375; referred to as the soul, 174; rendered holy when she receives from the father, 365; root of darkness and evil, 375; sof davar, 105; stretches from the upper to the lower point of emanation, 365; united with Binah on Yom Kippur, 364; the will by which the supemal will is manifest, 174; world ofthe feminine, 82 man, androgynous, 157; bom from woman, 51; comprised of all the spiritual matters, 247, 248; yearns to cohabit space of woman, 148 mandorla, 543n436

manna, 253; identified as wisdom or Torah, 342 marginalia, 116 mdrifa, 28, 225

marriage, precondition for one to be bound to Shekhinah, 312; symbolic reahzation ofthe union of God and Shekhinah, 307

mascuhnity, and the ascetic subhmation ofthe erotic, 321; and the aspect of secrecy, 132, 133; and the attribute of mercy, 69, 95, 105; and the attribute ofthe voice, 362; before the division into female and male, 179, 304; blessing linked to, 354; correlated with mind/spirit, 54, 57, 265, 304; demarcated by alef, 354; linked to form, 265; phallocratic order, 87; and the potency to overflow, 95, 104; proportionate to impulse control and Torah study, 264; and the world of life, 354 mashal, 346; interplay of inner and outer, 336; and peshat converge, 336. See also metaphor maskil I maskilim, 95, 133, 137, 138, 238, 263, 282, 317, 353, 52Oni23, 534n3o6, 535n3i2, 535n322, 552ni2O, 566niO3, 566niO7, 595n55 maskilei yisrdel, 211, 309

masturbation, 183, 386; and the Edomite kings, 386-87; expressive of phaUic enjoyment, 279, 483ni4O; first copulation in the Godhead rendered symbohcally as, 271; identified as the primal transgression, 386; pietistic works dedicated to the rectification of, 5iin264; symbohcally feminizes the male, 387; and the transvulation of male as female, 310 matqela, 95, 176, 222, 5ion249, 596n6o Matrona, 72, 73, 153; adornment of, 356; beauty of.

357; cleaves to the King, 176; encompasses and covers the righteous, 73; holy covenant pours fine oil upon, 73; illumination ofthe face of, 357; image of Shekhinah, 375, 5Oini34; intercourse with, 319; in the king's chamber, 153; and the mystery ofthe androgyne, 73; phaUic joy of, 106; revealed in garments of royalty, 379; sits with the King, 175; situated undemeath the bridal canopy, 356; united with the King, 72, 318, 319, 357, 359, 370 meaning, four levels of: remiza, derasha, hiddah, and razin setimin, 223

meditation, 120; stripping away of aU things corporeal, 121. See ako hitbodedut mem, open and closed, 166—67 membrum virile, focal point of contemplative visualization, 128; ontic source of mascuhnity and femininity, 184 menstruation, 60 mercy, acts in consort with judgment, 168; aligned with matter, 97; changes into and contained with judgment, 60, 169; designation ofthe penis, 181; joined together with judgment, 173; judgment transformed into, 373, 379; and the male, 379; on the right, 181; potency to bestow, 65, 69; symbolized by silver, 162; and the Tetragrammaton, 168, 172 merkavah, xii

Messiah, androgynous aspect of, 167; coming of, 360; feet of, 378; of David and Ruth the Moabite, 438n23; proper name of, 165; transgression of Adam not rectified until the arrival of, 183, 369; virgin birth of, 545n454 messianic enhghtenment, characterized by a tension between seeing and unseeing, 382 messianicity, 92 metaphor, 36, 127; disclosure of tmth through the apperance of image, 336; duphcity of meaning, 336; erotic nature of, 336; and hteral coincide, 223; material sphere of, 150. See also mashal metaphysical idolatry, 39 metempsychosis, 222 middah, 210 middat ha-emet, 33

mind, ascent of, 213; beyond mind, 217; expansion of, 211 mirror, xiii, 6, 9, 24, 25, 30, 32, 33, 35, 43, 119, 204; depicted as a garment, 234, 242; God compared to, 426 n. 310; heart purged of images compared to, 229, 235; the image of creative redoubhng. 747

INDEX

OF SUBJECTS

425n293; mind compared to, 538n352; and mirrored in causal reciprocity, 74; mirroring the mirror, 213, 283; nature identified as, 427n3io; of appearance, 336; of consciousness, 121; ofthe feminine, 150, 595n53; of God's beauty, 595n53; of imagination, 178, 235; ofthe infinite, 217, 229; ofthe invisible world, 233; ofthe mirror, 90; of mirroring, 224; ofthe text, 246, 262; reflecting the mind that mirrors, 235; soul compared to, 122, 432n367; thought compared to, 213; translucent, 234, 235; the veil through which the face is seen as veil and the veil as face, 232; veils the unveUing ofthe veil, 384 misogyny, 53, 54, 56, 57, 81, 134 modesty, 133, 135 moment, abides in its passing and passes in its abiding, 227; novelty of, 89, i i i ; singularity of, 92. See also waqt Monad, assumes the hkeness of Father, Mother, and Son, 303 monasticism, and mascuhnity, 303; depicted as a vita militaris to strengthen male virility, 303; in Catholic clergy and Cathar perfect, 309; in Christianity portrayed demonicaUy by kabbahsts, 309 monosophism, 283 monopsychic union, 309 monopsychism, 283 moon, desired to shine with same brilHance as the sun, 61; face of turned to the face ofthe sun, 177; feminine nature of, 151, 168; iUumination by light ofthe sun, 356, 360; hght of diminished, 168, 177; liturgical blessing of, 168; shining from one's own bosom, 228; and sun made use of one crown, 177; world of, 358 morphology, as opposed to typology, 209 mother, and daughter reunion, 358; images of applied to Buddha and Jesus, 456-57n23i; king loves princess as, 161-62; of governance, 240 motherhood, phallic nature of, 82-84, 456n23i; symbol of in Tibetan Buddhism, 458n249 Moumers of Zion, 345 mundus imaginalis, xviii, 189

mystery, disclosed to the humble, 135; erotic nature of, 63; of Adam; male and female, 259; of Adonai, 45oni63; ofthe amehoration ofjudgment by mercy, 173; ofthe androgyne, 73, 171; of beit, 196; of Christ and the Church, 166; of circumcision, 135; of conversion ofthe Gentile, 223; of the covenant, 528n224; ofthe crown, 74; ofthe divine anthropos, 260; of eros, 261; of faith, 146, 748

AND

TERMS

171, 324, 361; of the four names ofthe four splendors, 360; ofthe garbing of angels as men, 252; ofthe garment, 200; of iUicit sexual relations, 159; ofthe incamation, 216; of one body, 259; ofthe patriarchs, 360; of providence, 250; of reflection, 145; of reincarnation and impregnation, 457n23i; of Sabbath, 74; of sex within God, 307; of Shekhinah, 358; of spiritual marriage, 344; ofthe supemal chariot, 588ni8o; ofthe tabemacle, 259, 45oni63; of transubstantiation, 190; of the Trinity, 100; ofthe two kings sharing one crown, 168; of unity, 259; of wisdom, 69, 243; of the wisdom ofthe supemal, inscribed name, 361; ofthe world of unity, 176; of worship, 377; unfolds in its enfolding, 262; world of, 166 mystical agnosticism, 218 mystical nihihsm, 123 mysticism, expressed in the threefold path: purgation, iUumination, and union, 218; in Christianity, 122 myth/mythic, and the conception of wisdom, 16364, 277, 282, 497n83; and the construction of gender, 78; construction of in the guise ofthe imaginal symbol, 141; cosmogonic, 77, 182; cultural forms of, 67; defined as a semiological system, 4O4n7O; engendering, 156, 167, 169, 279, 387, 553ni4O, 592ni6; import of Yom Kippur, 367; incamational, 245; kabbalistic, 145, 146; logic of, 143, 183; ofthe androgyne, 146, 176, 283, 390, 44in57, 448ni22, 469n4i3, 47in435, 493n45; ofthe androgynous phaUus, 131, 387; of the ascent ofthe crown, 453ni99; of catharsis, 26; of cosmic reversal, xvii; of creation, 147; of creation as a paradigm for ethical praxis, 48iniO5; ofthe creation of woman out of man, 149, 170, 304; ofthe descent of personified wisdom, 5i6n74; of divine unity, 388; ofthe division of the androgynous male, 162; ofthe Edomite kings, 310, 386, 567ni2i, 596n59; ofthe engenderment ofthe ineffable name, 294; ofthe faUen Sophia, 153; of the female Torah, 274; of God bemusing himself, 273; of God engaged in contemplative activity of an erotic nature, 276; of God taking delight with righteous souls in the Garden of Eden, 328; ofthe heavenly tablets, 202; ofthe image ofjacob engraved upon the throne, 489ni7; ofthe incamation ofthe Word, 257; ofthe narcissistic nature of divine eros, 279; of Narcissus, 272; of reciprocal coronation, 366; and the secret of iUicit sexual relations, 365; of

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS

noesis, erotic quahty of, 271, 328

the self-enclosed circle of wisdom, 283; of shdashu'a, 279; ofthe uroboros, 271, 279, 283; ofthe virgin birth of messiah, 545n454; ofthe zoharic fratemity, 364; rabbinic, 278; and representation of God, 58; ritual and, 86, 313; Scholem's reversal of in study ofjudaism, 48oniO5; semiotic understanding of, 4O4n7o; somatic imagery of, 107; structure of theosophic, 135; and symbol, 7, 3739, 188; and the symbolic triad, 155, 157, 499niO2; theogonic, 182, 285, 288, 532n266; Torah understood in Hght of, 256 mythos, logic of, 157; and logos, 60

noesis noeseos, 268 nogah, 73

nothing, the force of overflowing and the force of receiving unified in the depths of, 94, 284; superessentiality of everything that is, 97; uppermost sefirot replication of, 197 nothingness, difference between identicals, 196 nun, bent and straight, 165 Nuqba, 75, 80, 181, 185, 375; on Sabbath eve couples with Ze'eir Anpin, 367; emanated from the crown of strength, 185 nut, characterized as hermaphrodite, 144; secret of, 144

name, cleaving to, 241; conjoined to, 240; equated with the divine body, 257; expressive ofthe inexpressible, 220; identification of Torah as, 257; incorporation into, 237; knowledge of, 234, 308; garment by which the nameless is revealed, 219; mystical essence of Torah, 250; seventy-two-letter, 240, 244, 536n344; shibboleth of, 243; that is spoken, 240; vocalization of, 236 nameless, ascent to through the name, 291; concealed in the garment ofthe name by which it is revealed, 219; name of embodied in Scripture,

omniscience, 220 One, transcendent to and immanent in aU things, 221 ontological'chain, 198 ontological horizon, 23; monomorphism, 49 ontology, inseparable from language, 118 ontotheology, 103, 221 Oral Torah, 252; depicted as lower waters, 133; and the Shekhinah, 528n223, 588ni87, 589n226; symbohc ofthe feminine, 139, 140, 141, 257 Oriental philosophy, 239 origin, 13, 20; distinguished from beginning, 196; nondual state prior to the beginning, 94 original sin, 53

205

namelessness, 197 narcissism, 129, 193; and anthropomorphic representationalism, 46in264; and autoeroticism, 182, 279; characteristic ofthe bond between God and the righteous, 329; and the divine eros, 279; Freud's account of mystical experience as an iUustration of, 55On72; and God's wisdom, 284; and the image of uroborus, 279; marriage as a domestication of, 47in432; and metaphysical monism, 288; phaUic nature of, 135, 272, 367 nations ofthe world, aligned with the unholy left side ofjudgment, 243; correlated with demonic impurity, 223 nature, book of, 8, 202, 206; primordial beginnings of, 102; semantic character of, 202; speculum of the book, 202

Pahad, 61

palaces, 291-92 palm branch {lutav), symbolic ofthe mascuhne, 150, 151

palm tree {tamar), comprises male and female, 151, 169 panenhenic / panenhenism, 30, 35,

Natursprache, 197

necessary of existence, 231 neelemet, 210

negation, of images, 219 negative theology, xxvii Neopiatonism, 22, 33, 35, 122, 255, 268, 307 nervure, 194 Nesah, 61, 64, 178; corresponds to the right foot, 174 night, side of darkness on the left, 175

panentheism / panentheistic, pansemioticism, 37 pantheism / pantheistic, 4O2n5O, 424n289, 428n325, 428n3O2 parable, history transmuted into, 394n24; and the hermeneutics of secrecy, 499niii; in Bahir. 149, 150, 158, 159, 160, 162, 164, 276-77, 278,

749

n38, 5O2ni4i, n52, 5O4ni78; in Islamic esotericism, 529n23i; in Zohar. 223, 379, 527ni9; ofthe beautiful maiden without eyes, 223-24; and the Song of Songs, 346, 348, 576n25; speaking

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS

through, 529n23i; twofold structure of, 336,

its absence, 132; mediates alterity, 129; object of visionary contemplation, 129, 134, 138; ofthe paradise, attainment of union in, 535n3i2; depiction supemal pure and holy form, 383; ontic source of women in, 447ni99, 456n227, 597n83; retum of androgyny and sexual difference, 311; ontoto facilitated by ascetic renunciation, 300 logical root of masculinity and femininity, 146; paradox, of newness and repetition, 92 the place that must be hidden, 380; potency of in Pardes, 348, 369, 370 the brain, 77; presence of determined by its absence, 131; prohibited from looking at, 382, participation, 66 383; rectification of, 589n2i7; representation of patriarchs, crowned by Shekhinah, 85, 379; represent the nonrepresentational, 131; represented by the the three central sefirot: mercy judgment, and minus sign, 132; river that comes forth from compassion, 379; symbolized by shin, 84 Eden to irrigate the garden, 75; semiotic inscrippatriarchy, Greco-Roman image of, 265; and rabtion, 128; sign that embodies the law that forces binic culture, 87 renunciation, 132; signification ofthe feminine peace, name of God, 163; phaUic connotation of, lacking signifier, 131; signifier of castration, 132; 370; renders opposites equal, 98 signifier of desire, 128, 129; signifier that cannot pelaggufa, 175, 266, 312 be specularized, 131-32; signifier without a signipenis, comprises virility ofthe whole body, 128; disfied, 128, 483ni44; supemal, 137; site of androgtinguished from phallus, 128-29; extension of, yny, 140; and the symbol ofthe window, 162; i8i; and the logos, 306; measure ofthe mouth symbolic organ defined by negation, 131,'tool of of, 180; necessity to conceal, 135; of God, 144 writing, 79; ultimate mark of signification, 128; peridat ha-nefesh, 240, 241 veiled disclosure of, 141; veiled object of mystical perishut, 250 vision, 128; veiling of, 129; withholding the ejacpeshat, 223 ulation ofthe, 316; and the womb, 83, 188, 359 peshatei di-qera, 223 Pharisee, 50 phallic monism, 130 philology. III phallocentrism, 74, 109, 146; and the activity of writing, 78; narcissistic character of, 129-30; and philosophers, contrasted with kabbalists, 40 sexual symbolism in kabbalistic sources, 125, 127; philosophy, double bind of, 93 Platonic idealism, 200 and the visionary gaze, 136 pleasure, intellectual, 347; noetic, 267; of no pleaphallomorphism, 47, 144; and the covenant of sure, 136; ofthe body contrasted with pleasure of Torah, 140; dialectically related to ascetic denial the soul, 264 of sensual pleasure, 135 plentitude, and negativity, 403 n5 7 phallus, absent presence of, 141; androgynous, 131, pleroma, depicted in the image of four nodules, 286; 133, 146, 151, 169, 267, 311, 384, 388, 567ni23, triadic structure of, 157 592n6; attributed to God, 127; body of, 147; poetic, dwelling, 27i,4iini35; envisioning, 32, 293; called "covenant" when manifest as mercy and incamation, 191, 197, 211, 246, 260, 263; meta"rainbow" when manifest as judgment, 384; phor, 233; nature of Torah, 336; orientation, cloaked, 134; concealed nature of, 132; consecra25-26; sensibility and the paradoxical identification of, 196; corona of, 75-76, 133, 137, 180, tion of opposites, 422n245; thinking, 17, 46, 184, 185; correlated with the tongue, 64, 139, 4i6ni88 140; differential mark of sexual identification, poetry, 4, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22; assault on language 129; distinguished from the penis, 128-29; focus through language, 42in244; communication of of divine unity, 144; forbidden to gaze upon, 135; the ineffable, 42in244; disclosure of what must gender construed therefrom, 68; and the identity be concealed, 4i8n2o6; experience of, 292-93; of sexual difference, 130; imaginary signifier, 136; and kabbalah, 45, 42in242; and Iovemaking, 131; imaginary symbol, 128; impulse to bestow, 285; and the mystery of incamation, 4iini39, 5i3n7; insignia that appears when all the veils are lifted, revolt against language, 293; and thinking, 98 129; invisibility of, 131; and jouissance, 131; locus poiesis, xiv, 10, 42, 47; as construction of narrative of androgyny, 169; locus of secrecy, 132, 133, form, 39; erotic nature of, 46; makingimages in 593137; marker of absence present in presence of time, 43; noetic, 262; originary word of, 128 750

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS

depiction ofJesus in, 226; hypostatic personification of, 207; identified as the mother of the book, 206; identified as the well-preserved tablet, 206; images of Mary in, 226; inscripted text of revelation, 206; the fore/script that comprises the forms of all that exists, 206; virginal conception affirmed in, 226

pornography, and religion in dialectical conjunction, 306, 486ni9i

prayer, and the annihilation of womanhood, 55; cast in visionary terms, 377; elevation of word to silence, 97; extending the measure to the immeasurable, 97; and the iconic representation of the divine in the imagination, 229, 579n65; and the imagination, 39in5; imageless, 123; mystical intentionality of, 95; and seeking God's face, 229; situated in Ein Sof, 281 presence, and absence, 16, 18, 23, 131, 133, 135, 337, 4O3n57; absent, 195, 243; metaphysics of, 141; of the world, 192 primordial kings, 31Q, 386, 387. See also Edomite kings procreation, actualizes the continuous self-becoming of God, 312; ascetic understanding of, 266; failure to fulfill necessitates reincarnation, 266; rectification for sexual desire, 267; spiritual nature of which engendered as male, 55 prophecy, 120; breath of, 362; cant of, 205; cast in terms of the wisdom of kabbalah, 211; conjunction of rational soul and Active Intellect, 348; conjunction with the intelligible world of incorporeal light, 348; and the contemplative ideal of conjunction, 209, 234; expansion of mind, 211; and imaginative representation of the divine as an anthropos, 121; intellective and imagjnal component of, 209; of all prophets but Moses through a speculum that does not shine, 228; and the poetic sensibility to image what has no image, 122; progression from image to speech to intellect, 241—42; role of the imaginative faculty, 237 prostration, and the ascetic debasing of the body, 309 protention, xxviii, xxix providence, 250 psychology, and religion, 125—26 puja, Hindu form of Yoga, 235 qalb, 226 qelippot, 80 qeshet, 380. See also rainbow qol gadol, 196

quatemity, encoded semiotically in the Tetragrammaton, 154, 258; feminine completes the, 326; imaginal anthropos configured as, 312-13; superior to the Christian trinity, 286 Queen of Heaven, 143 Qumran, 200, 295 Qur'an, 205; book of envisioned as the son, 207;

Rahamim, 37, 367

rainbow, adorned in colors of the bride when Israel goes out from exile, 378, 379, 381; androgynous nature of, 593n34; attired in the garment of the patriarchs, 379; and the attribute of judgment, 384; covenant of 139, 383; demarcates transition from exile to redemption, 380; disclosure of and exposure of the corona, 487ni96; elevation to the position of the crown, 380; exposed corona compared to, 137, 487ni96; female aspect of the phallus, 384; gender transformation of, 381-82; God's gazing upon, 378, 381; liminal symbol, 380; material body transferred into hghts of, 538n352; memory engendered by God's looking upon, 381-82; messianic secret of, 377, 378; necessity to conceal, 383; of Noah, 382; not seen in the days of R. Joshua ben Levi, 384; phallic transposition of, 382, 593n32; physical expression oiShekhinah, 379; prohibition to look at, 380, 382, 593n353; and the radiance that surrounds the glory, 382; revealed when there is no righteous man, 379; secret of the holy covenant, 380, 382; seen in glorious garments of royalty, 379; seen in luminous colors at the time of prayer, 592n24; Shekhinah appears in the guise of, 382, 383; sign of redemption, 382 raza di-meheimanuta, 171, 361, 5O5ni95 raza di-verit, 389, 502, 528

reading, erotic nature of 114; and the flow of temporality, 113; interpretative nature of, 113; as (re)writing, 113 reason, ahgned with the masculine, 51; erotic nature of, 268 redemption, 55; accomplished through the power of Arikh Anpin, 375; all the feminine forces united in the aspect offee(ermalkhut in the time of, 375; and asceticism, 364; anticipated in the sacred marriage, 308; and the assimilation of the other to the same, 373; brought about through unification of mascuhne and feminine, 165, 172, 354, 380; characterized by the paradox that the glory is rendered most conspicuous in the occlusion of

751

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS

the sign, 383; correlated with Shekhinah, 281; heterosexual eros characteristic of the first phase of, 311, 376, 381, 389; holy union on Sabbath an anticipation of, 319; in inverse relation to circumcision, 382; intial phase entails envisioning Shekhinah as female other but final goal is integration of female into male, 376; marked by the union of the lower and upper worlds, 359; and the occlusion the glory that was exposed, 382; and the overcoming of sexual dimorphism, 374; reconfiguration of the male androgyne, 165, 323; and the reconstitution of the androgynous male, 374; restoration of the feminine to the masculine, n o , 165, 311, 390; restoration of the spiritual order and the obliteration of the feminine as an autonomous power, 301-302; re/tum of daughter to mother, 359; and the securing of the feminine as the nucleus in the infinite circle, 382; and the sheltering of the feminine like the point enclosed in the circle, 382; and the task of making the female male, 54, 57, 165, 373; transformation of the female into the male, 55, 165; transposition of Shekhinah fi-om feminine other to the sign of the covenant, 311; unseeing the seen, 382 reflective redoubling, 194 reincarnation, 266 remembrance, 17, 20, 21 remez ha-mahshavah, 199, 219 remiza, 223

renunciation, and belonging, 117; an emulation of incarnation, 342; means to restore primal androgyne, 55; and the masculinization of the female, 301; phaUic empowerment of, 70; pneumatic integration facilitated by, 364; of carnal eros and the mystical experience of eros, 298; of physical pleasure and sensual gratification, 252; of sexuality and pornographic lasciviousness, 307; and participating in the suffering ofjesus, 300; and the prohibition to images, 119 repentance, 156; associated with Binah, 367, 368 representation, 11, 12 resurrection, 156, 251, 252, 360; eradication of all individuality and difference at the time of, 305; in the thought of al-Ghazali, 54in4OO; sons of, 302

retention, xxviii, xxix revelation, and creation, 202 Rhineland Jewish Pietists, 120, 144, 58in86 right, contained in the left, 177 752

righteous, ascetic renunciation of, 366; bound homoerotically to God, 328; cause the divine phallus to be erect, 324; crowned by a diadem, 73; crowned by the letter zayin, 73; depicted as the covenant to uphold the covenant, 369; designated "Israel," 328; garbed in the supernal light, 328; impoverished in the ways of the world, 70; light hidden for, 73; sitting in the Garden of Eden with crowns on their heads, 74, 254, 365, 366; sons of God, 328; souls of ascend at midnight to the Garden of Eden, 328; stands between two females, 324; wings of, 595n52 ritual, 49, 59; androgynization, 165; ascetic understanding of, 250; copulation, 126; endowed with magical efficacy, 308; means by which the corporeal body is textualized and the textual body corporealized, 248; and mystical transfiguration, 246-55; theurgical implications of, 245-46 rose, and the demonic potency, 445n97; and the nature of eros, 63; red and white, 60; sexual intent of, 445n97; symbolic oi Shekhinah, 60, 63 mah ha-qodesh, 222, 264, 349, 492n38; designation of the sekhel ha-po'el, 240; identified as the mother, 499niO2 riih al-quds, 239 mah qudsha, 69,

Sabbath, 61, 175; covenant of, 73, 139; crown and diadem of the days of creation, 73; decoded into shin and bat representing the three patriarchs and Shekhinah, 367, 379; eunuchs who keep, 318-19; fourfold unity of, 84-85; liturgical rhythm moves fi:om sacrality of sexual union to ascetic denial of sexual gratification, 367, 370; mate of the community of Israel, 445niO4; mystery of, 74; mystical significance of the third meal of, 368; of Sabbaths, 367; and the phallic gradation, 61; proper time to engage in intercourse, 314, 315, 319, 320, 321, 332; secret of and circumcision, 140; Shekhinah liberated on, 319; supernal, 359, 360; time of the afternoon service called the propitious time of the supernal coupling on the eve of, 314, 367; union o£ Arikh Anpin and Ze'eir Anpin occurs on the day of, 368; union of King and Queen occurs on, 108, 367; the world-tocome, 360; and zayin, 73-74 sacrifice, of the self, 300 saddi, decomposed into yod on top of nun, 151 saddiq, 71; attribute of, 73, 74, 151; corresponds to the divine phallus, 388

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS

entities, 207; of ruddiness, 311; oi shamor, 140; of the supernal will that is entirely masculine, 182; of the supplement, 375; of textual embodiment, 211; of the Tree ofKnowledge, 248; ofTorah, 139; of the wine that gladdens, 182; of worship, 169; oi zakhor, 140; persists as secret, 159; preserved by speaking what cannot be spoken, 160; revealed in the concealment of its revelation and concealed in the revelation of its concealment, 233; seen through the garment of the text, 222; symbolized by fingers of the hand and toes of the feet, 250; wisdom of kabbalah, 211

sahasrara, 323

sakti, 323, 572n2O5 salvation, beginning of, 156; marked by the restoration of female materiality to male spirituality, 304; moment of demarcated by seeing the sign secreted in the restoration of the female to the male and the androgynous phallus reconstituted, 384 sar ha-panim, 240, 487n2O9, 536n344 scale, 35; meaphor for the process of symbohzation, 427n322, 527-28n2i9; supernal and lower worlds balanced on, 221, 222; symbolic of the malefemale binary, 176 secrecy, 2, 27; double arc of projecting and withholding, 224; double bind of, 2, 160; and exposure, 195; and the gift, 159; hermeneutic of, 196, 232; and the male organ, 128, 133; and the role of the symbolic, 399n5; of secrecy, 261; play of 262; and sexuality, 46; and Yesod, 132 secret, 9, 27, 38; beyond spatial demarcation, 210; cannot be revealed, 159; communicated by means of a whisper, 52ini35; denial of 160; disclosed in the hteral meaning, 223; doubling of, 261; duplicity of, 160; and erotic imagery, 399n6; esoteric method of transmitting, 294; exposed only to one willing to receive it, 272; and female genitalia, 134; hermeneutic bridge that binds text and interpretation, 133; and the hermeneutical condition oi differance, 160; hidden beneath the veil, 336; ineffability of 159; of Adonai, 140; negation that negates itself, 160; of the androgyne, 145; of the bridegroom and bride, 108; of the cherubim, 63-64, 349; of communion and the perfect intention, 120; of circumcision, 135; of conjunction, 120; of the covenant, 380, 502; of the covenant of circumcision, 139; of the covenant of the tongue, 139; of denial, 160; of the drops ofJoseph's semen, 310; of El Hai, 140; of the equilibrium, 180; of equanimity, 120; of faith, 264; of the female waters, 311-12; of the feminine, 137; of the feminine encompassing the male, 187; of the high priest, 238; of the holy covenant, 379; of illicit sexuahty, 288; of incarnation of the glory, 252; ofjudgment, 95; of levirate marriage, 493n40; of magic, 204; of mercy, 76, 95; of meditation, 120; of the Mishnah, 146, 266; of the mysteries ofTorah, 384; of the nut, 144, 58in87; of permutation of the alphabet, 207; of poetic incarnation, 260; of prophecy, 241; of the property of all letters, 207; of the rotation of all

sedeq, 71, 377 sefirot, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 26, 32, 34, 68, 84, 140, 161, 359; amen denotes the unity of, 28; androgynous nature of 63, 67, 178, 311, 447ni22; anthropomorphic form of, 64, 107, 121, 122, 173-174, 198, 209; ascend to Keter, 180; boundary that emanates fi-om Ein Sof 199; bowing down before God's word, 309; by which heaven and earth were sealed, 152; characterized by terms derived firom sense experience, 326; circumscribed within the circle that begins and ends with wisdom, 280; completed by the creation of Adam, 169; comprise the unity of the name and its epithet, 280; concealed in the disclosure of their concealment, 220; configured as a spiritual body, 200; contained within YHWH, 124, 138, 154; correspond to the ten fingers, 144, 152; correspond to the first ten letters of the alphabet, 282; correspond to the ten upper potencies, 218; correspondence between ten divine utterances and the, 256; demarcated as spiritual matters, 247; depicted as depths, 98; designated by the term devarim, 208; disclosure of the hidden wisdom of the Primordial Torah, 220; divided into four quarters: natural, sensible, intelligible, and concealed, 198; efHux of compared to oil, 74; emanation of depicted as proliferation of wisdom, 284; finite power that is unlimited, 199, 288; gender hybridity, 60; identified as the separate intellects, 476n52; imaginal forms, 39; in Sefer ha-Bahir, 152; inclusion of in the letter akf, 553nni26-27; inner vitality of 187; the intelligible reahties contemplated by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, 315; limited in comparison to the Hmitless commandment, 220; mandate to investigate, 120; manifest visibility of the invisible Ein Sof 67; measure often that are infinite, 285; mixed fi-om alef mem, shin, 64; paradox of the tenfold unicity. 753

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS

200; principle for everything bounded, 199; understood as a projection of the unconscious archetype of Self, 479n96; unification of, 326; unified in Ein Sof, 95, 125; unified in the root of unity, 180; unified like a flame bound to the coal, 263, 352; union of the sixth and tenth, 169; unity of 99, 280; uroboric depiction of, 271, 281; vision of 210 sekhel ha-po'el, identified as: angel of the Lord, 535n322; holy spirit, 240; name of Israel, 58in9i; Torah, 237n24O. See also Active Intellect selem, 109; secret of the forms in Yesod, 149 selem elohim, 147, 169

selfhood, the propensity to withdraw, 102 semen, ascetic practice of retaining the discharge of, 271, 316, 322; constituted by the Hebrew letters, 285; corresponds to hght-seed of the brain, 316, 322; elevating back to the brain, 316, 322; originates in the brain, 269, 271, 316, 322 semiotics, 115; convergence of with the somatic, 40; and the encoding of the erotic impulse, 118; inseparable from cosmology, 5; and neuroscience, 89 serpent, 53; inseminated Eve, 58-59; seductive snare of 303 Sethian gnosticism, 303-304 setima de-khol setimin, 360 se'udatei di-meheimanuta, 368

sexual difference, erasure of 301 sexuality, abnegation of 370; abrogation of, 366; allegorical depiction of spiritual union, 344, 345; androcentric and gynocentric perspectives on, 299; and asceticism, 307-318, 344; ascetic renunciation of 299, 364; as a cultural marking, 81; associated with the woman, 54; confluence of the theosophic and ecstatic, 565n97; detached fi-om spiritual intention, 315; dialectically related to the ascetic impulse, 313, 363; displaced by spiritual eroticism, 363; encratic rejection of 52, 341, 344; and the engenderment of the divine image, 312, 363; and the eroticism of the Song of Songs, 333, 344; and the feminine body, 299, 344; genital nature of, 126; holiness of proportionate to eradication of carnal gratification, 317; illicit form of 288; images of in ancient Egyptian mythology, 126; in rabbinic Judaism and the kabbalistic tradition, 309; and the inversion of the imaginary and real, 279; Jewish women's renunciation of 300; kabbalistic approach to distinguished fi-om medieval Christian mystics, 313, 363; kabbalists' 754

abstaining from, 135, 319-20, 324; and knowledge, 269; and the love of God, 297; of ancient Christian ascetic women, 299; of the male in Lurianic kabbalah, 310, 387; positive value accorded to, 312; and procreation, 265, 332; and religion, 117, 261; sacrality of 307; sacralization of and the ascetic impulse, 313; sacrament that celebrates union of male and female in the divine, 312; and the sacred, 298; and secrecy, 46; and the semantic, 118; and speech, 118; and spirituality, 261-62; theurgical significance accorded to, 109, 312, 313; transformed into a spiritual act, 313 shdashua, 182, 257, 273-285; and the act of writing, 278; autoerotic arousal of the male, 285; denotes mental activity and sexual desire, 278; division within the indivisible, 285; incessant compulsion to repeat anew, 279; and the LacanianJoHiwance, 278; and the primal dialectic of bestowing and receiving, 277; and temporality, 278 shem ha-nikhbad, 251

shalom, designation of the phallus, 163 shame, 156, 297; associated with the sensual, 297; caused to Shekhinah, 380, 382; integument of identified as the body, 52; of Adam and Eve brought about by the sin, 315 Shekhinah, 38, 39, 46, 47, 48, 49, 83, 108, 352; above and below, 164; accompanies Israel in exile, 374; androgynous angel, 72-74; androgynous nature of 67, 69, 73, 74; ark of the covenant, 71; ascent of, 292, 367; associated symbolically with the heave offering, 565-66niO2; assumes the demiurgical characteristics oi Binah, 357-58; assumes the name malkhut when the king is enthroned, 378; and the attribute oi sedeq, ijj; body of 251; bride comprised of the All, 108; called the "crown of splendor" when she receives fi-om Keter, 365; compared to a bride entering the nuptial chamber when she exits from exile, 376; compared to the moon illumined by the sun, 360; composed ontically by male kabbalists, 329; correlated with redemption, 281; crown of her husband, 72, 375; crown on the Torah scroll, 365; demarcated as the glorious name, 251; demiurgical character of 84, 155; denoted by zo't, 377; depicted as the blue-black flame, 326; depicted as daughter fallen into captivity and as mother weeping over her children, 374; depicted as a house, 384; depicted in male symbols, 69; designated Community of Israel, 82, 352, 355, 381; diminished status of 62; doubling of 154; dons

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS

the demiurgical cloak of Binah, 84; dual prism of, 61; dwells upon the heart, 122; earth that yields the living creature, 75; effluent state signified by the letter he, 70; elevation to crown the patriarchs, 85, 365, 367, 379; embodied as the angel of the presence, 239; entrusted with divine providence, 71; envelops the righteous like a crown, 74, 365; eschatological restitution to Binah, 358, 359; eschatological transformation into ateret ba'lah, 375; exile of 308, 319, 355, 374; face of 137. 329; face of constituted by members of the mystical fraternity, 573n237; and the figure of David, 84, 138; and the figure of Esther, 72, 484ni64; fluctuation and ambivalence of 60; footstool of throne elevated to crown on head of king, 373; forbidden woman whose feet go down to death, 374; foundation stone rejected by the fathers, 377; gateway through which the worshipper enters to reach God, 377; gender transformation of 382; glorious crown, 72; hidden and revealed, 484ni64; house ofjudgment below, 132; identified as the angel of God, 45Oni56, 452ni92; identified as the seventh palace, 292; image of Adam, 384; imaginal representation through which the invisible God is visually apprehended, 385; immanent in the physical universe, 153; indwelling of 312; investiture of in the attribute oimalkhut, 379; and Ishtar, 455n2i8; kabbalists mimic the indigenous virginal state of 366; kabbalists referred to as those who receive the, 389; liberated on Sabbath, 319; lifted firom the dust, 381; light that does not shine, 84; light that emanates from first light, 164; impoverished state signified by the dalet, 70; in relation to Eve, 62; in the garb of an angel, 38; and Lilith, 59, 60, 444n95; lower wisdom, 71; and Marian imagery, 435n2, 455-56n224, 545n454; masculinization of 359, 373; mascuhnized as a consequence of the erotic encounter with the righteous, 354; mirrors the activity oi Binah, 358; mounting of in the form of the ascending throne, 357; mystery of 358; object of conjunction, 239, 251; ontological assimilation of male mystics into, 330-31; ontological elevation of, 356; phallic potency of 222; phallic transmutation of 71-72; portrayed as daughter, 84, 155, 258, 367; portrayed as goddess, 72; positioned as midpoint of the circle, 373; positioned between two righteous males, 324, 325; prism through which all prophetic forms are manifest, 384-85; redeeming angel, 69, 45Oni56,

452ni92; rests only on the married man, 312; righteous souls constitute an abode for, 252; rooted in and displaced from the pleroma, 153; the single dark point, 357; signified by the second he of the Tetragrammaton, 258, 326, 357, 358; speculum that does not shine, 61, 71; splendor of 253, 254; suffering of 376; suffering of portrayed in the image of Rachel weeping over her children, 376; supernal light of, 253; symbolically linked to Rachel, 38; symbolized by the dalet, 164, 326; symbolized by the dove, 329; symbolized by the fiery ever-tuming sword, 45oni57; symbohzed by the red and white rose, 60; twofaced character of 63; transposed firom cistern to well, 70; transformation from passive receptacle to active force that overflows, 358; transposition from female to male, 70; transposition firom feminine other to the sign of the covenant, 311, 373; unseeing of in the guise of an autonomous feminine imaginary, 374; upper and lower, 71, 154; uroboric nature of, 68; virginity of depicted in images of the locked garden and sealed spring, 366; voice of, 329; wedded to, 389; and wisdom, 155; woman in the pattern of 109; woman of valor, 72; women located in the mystery of, 48-49 shem ha-esem, 238 shem ha-to'ar, 238, 239

sight, 194; hght the cause of 317 signa data, 205 signa naturalia, 205

signifier, discloses nature of signified, 221 silence, 14, 21, 22, 23, 25, 42, 97; absence of word, 196; bears speech as flesh, 194; clamor of 294; fecund negative of, 196; fount of speech, 4i4ni8i; horizon of sound in human discourse, 4i8n2ii; the margin that demarcates the center of language, 289; of not-speaking contrasted with unsaying, 215; realized in unsaying as opposed to not-speaking, 219; speech comes to and as, 196; tissue of speech woven from the thread of 4i4ni8i simsum, 26; and Heidegger's notion oi Lichtung, 4i2ni55. sitrei I sod arayot, 159, 365. See also iUicit sexuality siva, 323

snake, circular nature of 67; feminine vital energy configured in the form of 322; symbolic of the male, 67 sod, contained in the peshat, 223

755

INDEX

OF SUBJECTS

sod ha-egoz, 144, 58in86

soul, ascent of 292; compared to a clear and bright mirror, 122; enclothed in the body, 248; etemality of attained in being annihilated in the divine, 353; feminization of 298-99; five aspects of nefesh, mah, neshamah, hayyah, yehidah, 80, 181; fi-uit

of, 248; infinite expansion of 211; of the Jew entrapped in the body of a Gentile, 243; of the righteous ascend at midnight to the Garden of Eden, 328; portrayed as feminine in relation to the divine, 337, 350, 352; separated fi-om the body, 121-22, 240, 241, 247; stripped of its fleshly encasement, 251; transmigration of 266; united with supernal knowledge, 253 space, apophatic, 525ni82; between dark and hght, 376; character of cylindrical, xvii; configured in human imagination, 38; contraction of the infinite to create, 26; correlated with the femininity, 83, 355, 357, 374, 381, 482 n. 125; devoid of all content, 5oonii6; dissolving into, 538n52; fantasy, 279, 552ni05; fissures in, 43; for the feminine imaginary, 80; four-dimensional, 395n37; from which Ein Sof vacated its hght, 186; hollowing of 278; imaginal, 124; intergalactic, xxviii; into which to project, 188; measurable, 150; of desire, 132; of the horizon, 23; of inescapable difference, 115; of temporal emplacement, 20; of the relations of words, 292; of time, 393n5; of transcendence, 90; of a woman, 148; only a married priest can enter sacred, 266; opened by translation, 46in27O; phallus marks the signification of empty, 152; phallic desire to project into, 378; primal narcissistic impulse to expand phallically into, 135; primordial, 275, 5iin267; sacred, 266, 335; suspended betwixt matter and form, 97; that differentiates, 292; three-dimensional, 287; topological, 195; women provides, 83 spacetime, xxviii; continuum, 201; gravitational arrangement of, 201 speculum: that does not shine, 61, 71, 228; that shines, 71, 124, 138, 247 speech, distinguished firom language, 25, 194; leads to unsaying as opposed to silence, 289; and the unspoken, 26, 42, 287, 4i8n2o8 spermatogenesis, 284, 321 spirit, materiahzation of 211 spiritual, discerned through the physical, 222 spiritual marriage, 339, 48inio6, 559ni9; and ascetic behavior, 299; and the denial of camahty, 344; mystery of 344; of the kabbalist and the divine. 756

AND

TERMS

318, 321; of son and daughter, 156; reconstitution of original androgynous state, 166; restoration of the female to the male, 157; with Christ, 341, 344 sprachdenken, 113 Sprachspiele, 16

square, contained within the circle, 188 Stoics, 317 structure, and heterogeneity, 93 suffering, 44; emulation of the mystery of incarnation, 341; of God, 2; oi Shekhinah in exile, 376 Sufism, affinity with medieval Jewish mystical piety, 229; attitude to Arabic analogous to kabbahstic approach to Hebrew, 206; and the cultivation of the ideal of the female becoming male, 305-306; and the eradication of the feminine through the ascetic denial of the body, 306; eschatological conception of the moment embraced by, 225; exclusively male nature of 305; Jewish, 307; influence on: Ibn Paquda, 346, Halevi, 203, kabbahsts, 477n7i; masters of, 222; and the status of the feminine, 436-37ni2, 493n4O, 563n76; unitive vision affirmed by, 229, 305 summum bonum, 301

sun, face of turned to the moon, 177; and moon made use of one crown, 177; personified as male in relation to the moon, 168; sunySta (emptiness), 57; eyes of 56; 4O3n6i supernal will, entirely masculine, 271 symbol, 6, 7, 12, 31, 36, 67, 119; as bridge, 37; communication of the incommunicable, 26; and conceptual indeterminacy, 145; and the construction of myth, 141, 4O2n42; diaphonous nature of 39; distinguished from icon, 34; embodied nature of 127; fusion of opposite equals, 127; iconic nature of 122; imaginal realm of, 150; Jungian theory of 67; the means by which the form of divine embodiment inheres in the imagination, 127; of the paradigm, 220; paradigmatic, 220; polychromatic nature of 4O2n57; referential and performative aspect of 248; reveals and conceals concurrently, 127; uroboric and pleromatic nature of 67; verbal prism, 188 symbohc, form, 141; images, 119; and magical, 36; and mythical, 36—37, 39 synesthesia, 10, 210, 400-40ini8, 522ni36, 555ni5i system, interruption of order by chaos, 88; novelty of interpretation, 88; and unpredictability, 93 y. 145,156,164 tabernacle, arrayment of 259; the body in which God's will becomes tangible, 244; built by means

INDEX

OF SUBJECTS

of the letters, 259; constructed in the shape of an anthropos, 259, 260; in the pattern of what is above, 259; mystery of 259; of the gods of knowledge, 295; of the pact, 291; textualization of 260 Tabernacles, 150 tamar, 151. See also palm tree

tanzlh, 229, 527n2i3 Taoism, 108 Tantrism, 261—62, 271; affinity to kabbalah, 316, 322-24; and the nexus of asceticism and eroticism, 559ni7; Sahajiya school of 263 tashbih, 229, 527n2i3

AND

TERMS

textuality, ascetic disciphne, 115; bodily nature of 246; in the thought of Derrida, 90, 158; openended nature of, 87 theogony, and cosmogony, 3 5 theomonism, 28, 221 theomorphism, 39 theophanism, 239 theophany, 29, 31; at Sinai depicted in matrimonial language, 336; in the form of an angelophany, 239 theosis, 218

theurgy, and ecstasy, 209; ecstasy, and theosophy: intertwined branches on one tree, 308; and tawhxd, 28 human sexuality, 312; and the kabbahstic undertemira di-temirin, 76 standing of ritual, 246 temporal bend, 197 thinking, conceptual versus symbolic, 119 temporality, and desire, 396n67; and language, 158; thought, allusion of 199, 219; as unthought, 269; and the eternal, 37; and the hermeneutic circle, circle of 549-5on64; concretization of 211; con112; texture of and the autogenesis of divine wisstituted as seeds of hght, 317; dysfunction of, 92; dom, 281 expansion of, 566nio6; extending of to that ten martys of Caesarea, correspond to the seminal which thought cannot comprehend, 309; foetus drop cast in vain by Joseph, 310; sacrificial substiwill be in accord with, 313; leads to the tutes for the ten brothers who sold Joseph into unthought as opposed to the unthinkable, 289; slavery, 310. See also asarah harugei malkhut nothingness of, 389; of allusion, 219; of the Tent of Meeting, 250 unthinkable, 288; of what cannot be thought, terumah, 171, 244, 245, 565-66niO2 123, 288; pathway of, 116; subtle essence in teshuvah, the second sefirah symbolized by the he, 125 which there are ten sefirot, 219; that thinks more Tetragrammaton, xiii, 10, 34, 70, 71; configured as than itself 287; thinking itself 268-69, 283; human form, 40, 122, 124; depicted as a ladder, thinking that which will not let itself be thought, 125, 291; and the encoding of the sefirotic quat289; unthinkable, 288; unthought of 195 emity: father, mother, son, and daughter, 154; throne, 235, 275, 533n284; ascent of 357; borne by identified as Torah, 40, 124, 128, 138, 219, 242; four beasts, 489ni7; blurring of the difference and the inherently symbolic nature of language between glory and, 489ni7; celestial beast that to express the inexpressible, 4O2n57; model to sits upon, 489ni7; chamber of 234; consisting of convey the paradoxical confluence of the hidden light, 550n77; depicted as a bride, 143; feminine and revealed, 291; and the mystery of the Song, character of xii, 70, 72, 143, 145, 488n6, 49ini3, 361, 588ni97; not pronounced as written, 237; 497n83; four legs of 84; icon ofJacob engraved numerical value of forty-five, 183; numerical upon, 143, 144, 145, 489ni7, 489ni8; and the value of fifty-two, 183; originary word of poiesis, image of the nut, 144; and the imagination, 122; 128; root-word, 128; symbolic significance of and the heart, 534n3O7; land of Israel corresponds 172; ten sefirot contained within, 154; trunk of to, 276; hturgical worship directed to, 557ni94; the sefirotic tree, 138; ultimate datum of mystical lower anthropos, 121; of David, 377, 378; of experience, 555ni5i; ultimate signifier, 219; glory, 84, 238, 239, 326, 356; and the open mem, world-to-come and this world created by the first 5O4ni78; prophets identified as, 238; rising to be two letters of, 207. See also YHWH crown, 373; sefirot bow down before, 210; song text, as body, 259; as homeland, 117; boundary of, uttered before, 562n5o; symbolic of Tiferet, 39; 117; compared to a changing river, 114; encounthrone to the, 5O2ni43; to be conjoined to, 39 tered by reader face-to-face, 223; internal hetero- Tibetan Buddhism, Nyingmapa school, 537n352 geneity of 93; hteral embodiment of 223; mirror Tiferet, 39, 41, 60, 64, 69, 109, 258, 267, 286, 322, of 246; pleasure of 113 351, 352, 369; and the image of the son, 154, 358; 757

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS

corresponds to the extension of the body, 173; depicted as the white flame, 326; positioned between Binah and Malkhut, 83, 324; speculum that shines, 124, 138; symbohzed by the waw of YHWH, 125; voice ofjacob, 124

with God, 247; identified as the book of nature, 202; identified as the name, 40, 124, 128, 137, 138, 208, 219, 237, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 248, 249, 250, 256, 257, 258; identified as wisdom, I55> 277; inherent parabohc nature of 336; imagtiferet adam, 385 inal form through which the formless is enviTiferet Yisra'el, 221 sioned, 236; incarnate in the Active Intellect, 237, time, xv-xxxi, 20, 21, 23; abolition of in the thought 241; infinity of 138; inscripted as black fire upon of Ehade and Corbin, 394n25; and the characterwhite fire, 252, 543n42O; instructs about the patistic of looping back, 201; and the coming to be tern of God, 244; in the pattern of the holy and of the beginning of emanation, 285; asymmetries pure chain, 245; locus of imaginary forms in and of 394n28; at once circular and hnear, 372; circuthrough which the imageless God is made acceslarity of 159; curve of, 197; curve of and the sible, 242; materiahzation of in the body of the symbolic imagination, 394n23; four modes of in name, 255, 260; medium through spirit is zoharic narrative, 37-38; and hermeneutics, embodied and the embodied spiritualized, 242; 396n65; hierophanic, 394n23; instant of novel mystical intent of the study of 209; mystical reiteration, 88; and interpretative activity, 393n4; understanding of 223; and the name YHWA, and language, 44; linked to the beginning, 277; 239; nocturnal study of 328-30; object of divine reversibility of xxi-xxv, 49, 306, 294n25; singumusing, 143, 257; Oral and Written, 133, 139, larity of each moment, 92; trajectory of 372 140-41, 257; pattern of the supernal form, 244, time-space, 23, 37, 4i9n22O 245; poetic nature of 336; portrayed as God's tiqqun, 148; only in the place oi qilqui, 372; phallofeminine playmate, 143; primordial, 220, 252, morphic texture of 370 274, 277, 281, 282, 543n42o; prototype of all tiqqun ha-berit, 5iin264 books, 202; rested in the bosom of God, 277; generations prior to the creation of the world, tiqqun ha-nuqba, 376 550n76; secret of 139; the shadow of God, 244; tiqqun hasot, 376, 59i-92ni6 sitting in the lap of God, 143; Song of Songs tiqqun ha-yesod, 589n2i8 equated with, 335-36; speaks in the language of Torah, xiii, 26; Adam made in the image of, 208, man, 236; strapped on the arm of God hke a phy260; androgynous nature of 139, 260; begins lactery, 143; study of hmited to circumcised Jewwith beit, 257, 354, 587ni78; bodies of 243, 249; ish male, 137, 144; symbohc identification of and body of intermediate between matter and form, the covenant, 138; textual body of 252; threefold senses and reason, 241; composed entirely of the unity of God, Israel, and, 245; totality of, 257, names of God, 252; conceals in the charade of 258; written black fire on white fire, 252, revealing, 222; configured imaginaUy as the ideal 55On76; world created by means of, 200; woven anthropos or Israel, 243; crowns of 258; fi-om the names of God, 138 dehghted in the lap of God for two thousand years, 277; demarcated as a divine structure hewn touch, 194 fi-om the name, 248; depicted as a garment, 235, Tower of Babel, 12 242; depicted as the spring of hving water, 277; tradition, in Judaism, 116; writing of continuous disthe divine form that assumes the shape of an placements, 116 anthropos, 244; embodiment of the divine glory, transgression, 93; and the hypertrophy of the femi244; envisioned in the heart of the kabbahst as nine, 82; primordial nature of and the spiUing of the imaginal body, 219; equated with the essences seed in vain, 385-86; separation of the masculine of divine wisdom, 220; equated with Song of and feminine, 154 Songs, 335-36; erotic relationship between the transcendence, 31, 90; accessible through a web of wise of heart and the, 223; exposes herself to her symbohc deflections, 127; desire for, 289; dualism lover, 223; given exclusively to men, 59; given to of corporeality and, 200; experience of elicited Moses, 252; garbed in the garment of this world, by the symbol at the hmit of the temporal hori221; God looked into before creating the world, zon, 127; noetic, 304 220; iconic manifestation of God, 244; identical translation, an act of interpretation, 223 758

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND TERMS

transubstanriation, 255; noetic, 269 Tree of Life, 41 tremendum mysterion, 262

trinity, 207 truth, 19, 23, 25, 114; and appearance, 200; attribute of, 33; beyond language, 219; comes forth as unveiling the unveiling of the veil, 231; conflated with untruth, 19, 26, 4i3ni73, 4i4ni75; contrasted with that which is bom of woman, 54; depicted as a coincidence of opposites, 262, 4O3n57; directly mirrored in the mirror of appearance, 336; dissimulating nature of and the image of a woman, 434n39i; meaning that appears through questioning the text, 114; novel and erstwhile, 88; of the veil seen in the veil of the truth, 230; polysemous and dissimulating nature of, 224; uncovered in enfolding of noetic poiesis unfolding poetic noesis, 262; unmasking of and the simulacrum of the woman, 44; uttered by a woman, 54 umm al-kitab, 206; envisioned as mother, 207 Umwelt, 195 Unendlichkeit, 195

Ungrund, 100; Bohme's depiction of, 103; indifference of, ioo-ioi unio mystica, 209

union, beyond mind, 218; occasioned by psychic transport, 209; with the intellectual light, 218 unity, of three: father, daughter, and son, 279, 365 unknowing, 217; darkness of, 218; God most truly known through, 218 unnameable, 197 unrepresentability, conditioned by representational forms, 129 unsaid, 20, 22, 25 unsaying, heard in the infmite speaking, 197; mystical language of, 219; of the mystical utterance distinguished from the silence of not-speaking, 215

unspoken, and the concealed, 294; everything spoken stems from, 20; intersection of language and, 20; and mystical silence, 291; persists in the saying of the poet, 19, 26, 293, 48on97; speech originates from, 287; speech that is, 286, 4i4ni78; spoken in speaking the unspoken, 48in2o8; subverts all forms of language, 4iini32; and the influence of Taoist philosophy in Heidegger,

227; erotic implications of, 229; of the beloved, 225; of the truth manifest in the heart, 226; of the veil in veiling the unveiled, 374; state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep, 226; the veil before the face, 230; and the veil equal, 231; to be veiled from the, 231. See also kashf uroboros, 67, 271; in zoharic literature, 55on65 Ursprache, 9 Urspmng, 13

vagina, depicted figuratively as the holy of holies, 134; and the nucleus of the date, 151 veil, 9, 10, 13, 17, 27, 30, 133, 262; abolished in the passing away of passing away, 232; ascetic selfannihilation a form of veiling the, 302; conceals the face it reveals by revealing the face it conceals, 229, 291; conveys both the incomparability and similarity of the face and its image, 229; disposing of, 231; exhibits the structure of the esoteric hermeneutic, 224, 233; face beyond the, 206, 222; and face identical in their difference, 224, 232; function of to disclose by hiding, and to hide by disclosing, 206; goal of the path to rend, 229; letter of, 260; lifting of to uncover truth, 224; manifests qualities engendered as feminine, 224, 302; of absence, 135; of clouding, 532n262; of covering, 532n262; of the letter, 260; of matter, 201; of the other, 287; of otherness, 206; of presuming there is an unveiling, 242; of Rab'ia, 225, 305; of selfhood, 534n3oo; of sincerity, 225; of the text, 113, 242; of thinking there is no veil, 232; of the truth, 230; paradoxical mystery of, 231; renders the face spectacular, 222; renders the invisible visible and the visible invisible, 205; revelation implies the possibility of a, 227; and scopic desire, 529 n. 235; secret hidden beneath, 336; seventy veils of light and dark, 29, 230, 231; seventy veils of light between Allah and Gabriel, 231; site of disclosure and concealment, 225; symbol of in Sufism, 27-29, 224-33, 484ni53; text of, 242; to see the face behind, 231; truth of, 230; unveils the veiling of the veil, 263; vision of God through, 232; worn by Arab men as a sign of being desert warriors, 224; worn by women as mark of modesty and subservience, 51, 224, 225. See also hijab Verborgenheit, 195 uia negativa, 238, 4O3n6i

virginal spirit, male untainted by female otherness, 303; to become an emasculated bridegroom through, 304

unveiling, denotes mystical awakening of the heart. 759

INDEX

OF SUBJECTS

virginity, 53; combined with fertility, 67; image of used on the part of rabbis to describe the ascetic male, 300; in early Christianity, 299; marked by putting on the veil, 302; masculine nature of, 303-304; Shekhinah described in the image of, 366; signifies the pneumatic overcoming of physical appetite, 304 visio intellectualis, 339

vision, ambivalence with respect to, 382; double, 192; identified as bhndness, 230; indicative of exile, 382; liberation of through vision, 242; of God, 339; of the invisible, 214; of unseeing, 217; persists as the impossibility of not seeing, 293; sustained by blindness, 293; three levels of: cosmological, anthropological, and theophanic, 216 vita angelica, 301

void, 24 wahdat al-wujud, 28, 206, 221, 225 waqt, 225, 227, 53on239 wheel, of be/coming, 367; self-rolling, 182; within wheel, 194, 262 will, coetemal with Ein Sof, 104; concealed of all concealed, 105; of wills, 105; opposites unified within, 99; supernal, 105 wisdom, androgynous form of, 155; at the head and at the end, 283; bestowed upon Solomon, 155; circle of, 283; compared to a daughter the father bestows upon the son, 158, 365; depth of, 218; and the divine glory, 153; emanation from undifferentiated unity to unified differentiation, 285; envisioned as garden and spring, 277; essences of, 285; feminine and masculine manifestation, 277; feminine figure of, 59, 143; first of God's creations, 200; flux of, 282; gifting of, 158; God's female playmate, 202; human thought united with, 288; idealized as woman of valor, 200; identified as Torah, 155, 200-201, 277; mystery of, 69, 243; of the holy unity, 326; of illumination, 239; personified as father and daughter, 155; primordial, 200; splintering of into principles of bestowing and receiving, 279; textuahzation of, 202; thirty-two paths of, 151, 161, 243; upper and lower, 164 woman, ascetic, 299, 300; and the aspect of death, 106; as truncated man, 130; concealed from the phallic gaze, 133; constructed as sexual object, 300; created from man, 51, 62, 108, 109, 147, 151, 304, 373; defined as negativity or lack, 130; depicted metaphorically as a house, 83, 134; 760

AND

TERMS

derives from left side, 58; excluded from kabbalistic fraternities, 78; exempt from commandments, 58; idealized versus degrading, 200; in the pattern oi Shekhinah, 109; in the service of Christ called a man, 301; and melancholy, 106; mirror of God's beauty, 595n53; occlusion of, 134; of valor, 80, 185, 186; personified as the temptress, 300; portrayed as hidden, 133; serpentine nature of, 59; phallic definition of as taxonomic exception, 131; and sorcery, 58-59; speculum to reflect the male glory, 61; subservient to man, 170; vessel to receive seminal discharge, 61 womb, designated by the term yesod, 77; oiBinah, 138; of the body contrasted with womb of the soul, 156; of the soul compared to male genitals, 156; of the virgin symbolized by the closed mem, 167; phallic nature of, 83, 167, 188; and the point of Zion, 270; return to denotes overcoming of heterosexual eros, 365; sterile, 167; virginal nature of, 55 word, and image converge, 26, 287 world, that is concealed, 363; that is exposed, 363; of chaos, 596n59; of death, 354; of the feminine, 354. 357. 359. 3^3; of life, 354; of the masculine, 357. 359. 360, 362, 363; of the moon, 358; of separation / differentiation {olam ha-perud; alma di-peruda), 198, 358; of unity {olam ha-yihud; alma di-yehuda), 198, 358

world-to-come, 139, 221, 251, 292, 358, 360; characterized rabbinically as a state beyond sensual joy, 364; the great Sabbath not measured by alternating nocturnal and diurnal rhythms, 367; a plane of being beyond gender bifurcation, 367 worship, 251, 264; asceticism and sexuality, 344; conjunction the true mystical intent of, 209, 263; directed exclusively to Allah, 205; essence of, 263; false nature of, 243, 258; iconic form of, xiii; and the iconoclastic ban on images, 120; ideal of intellectual, 346, 348, 52ini3i, 568ni5i; in ancient Israelite mythology and the image of enthronement, 39in5; in Hindu Yoga, 235; mystery of, 377; mystical form of, 123; of Christ, 299; of a female counterpart to Yahweh, 143; of the female and idolatry, 154, 171-72, 374, 5O5n2OO; of goddesses, 142; of the golden calf, 229, 532n276; of the heart, 234, 568ni5i; ofjesus, 430-3 in3 54, 53in25o; of Mary, 437ni3, 53in25o; phallic nature of, 127; and poetic composition, 557ni94; quest for reunion with God, 584ni3o; ritual, 39; and the restoration of every-

INDEX

OF SUBJECTS

thing to nothingness, 97; secret of, 169; spiritual act of, 55; Sufi nature of, 564n8i; task of to unite thought and faith, 263; theurgical and mystical significance of, 145; and the vision of God, 228 writing, as differance, 87; in the margin, 116; phallocentric nature of, 78 Written Torah, depicted as the upper waters, 133; the masculine potency, 139, 140, 257; secret of, 41; symbolic ofTiferet, 588ni87 yanuqa, 38, 69, 132 yedi ah, connotes both cognition and conjugal intimacy, 315 yedi at ha-shem, 234

AND

TERMS

final mem, 188; corona of the phallus, 73; four worlds contained therein, 186; inclusion of everything, 282; Keter demarcated by the jot on top of, 447ni2i; placed in the head of alef, 282, 283; of the covenant that emergesfromthe supernal yod, 379; the point that comprises the ten sefirot, 282, 283; primary point of wisdom, 284; sealed with primary wisdom, 282; sign of the covenant, 137, 186, 267, 365, 379; tip of, 63, 282; two sides of: Keter and Hokhmah, 282; twentytwo Hebrew letten contained within, 282 yoga, erotic nature of, 262 Yom Kippur, 134; and the abrogation of physical pleasure, 364; and affliction of the soul, 364; bonding of mother and daughter, 364; designated the Sabbath of Sabbaths, 367; Jewish souls absorbed into Shekhinah, 364; on this day the moon receives illumination of the ten sefirot in the form of one hundred lights, 364; and sexual purity, 589n2i8; and the Shekhinah, 364; symbolically hnked to Binah, 364; theosophic explanation for prohibition of sexual intercourse on, 364-65; time of return to the womb, 367; union of Binah and Malkhut, 364

yehidah, gradation of soul that corresponds to Arikh Anpin, 181 Yesod, 41, 61, 64, 82, 137; composed of male and female, 133; corresponds to the phallus, 174; David conjoined to, 138; designated: el hai, 138, zohar hai, 362; disclosed as the locus of concealment, 133; hidden and concealed place, 132; and knowledge, 270; locus of secrecy, 132; mystery of Torah, 133; place whence all blessings disseminate, 132; speculum that shines, 71; window through which King and Queen are united, 108 YHWH, 8, 26, 41, 63, 69; and the name adam, 384, 385; attribute of mercy, 95; comprises all the let- zayin, broken into yod atop waw, 74, 589n225; symbolic of Sabbath, 73 ters of the Hebrew alphabet, 208; configured as Zeeir Anpin, 181, 185; comprises mercy and judgan anthropos, 124, 128, 137, 246; conjoined to ment, 179, 368; coupling on Sabbath eve Elohim, 170; conjoined to the letters of, 264; between Nuqba and, 367; emanated from the four chariots of, 555ni5i; inscribed on the trunk crown of mercy, 185; head of, 270; mind of, 369; of the Tree, 208; letters of correspond to the four six crowns of, 316; twenty-two letters of, 354; faces of Ezekiel's chariot vision, 384; letters of two eyes ascribed to, 180; union with Arikh correspond to the four letters of the word ahavah, Anpin on the day of Sabbath, 368; unites with 361; mystical essence of Torah, 128, 137, 138, Leah, 270 208, 246; perfection of all aspects, 124; root word and origin of all language, 208; symbolic of the Zion, 34; point of, 270 aspect of the male, 180; transmitted only to one ziw ha-shekhinah, 253, 254 who is circumcised, 139. See also Tetragramziwwug, 95, 148, 182, 267, 270, 271, 313, 314, 317, maton 320, 321, 549n58 ziwwug ruhani, 267

yin and yang, 107—108 yod, comprises two as one, 266; contained in the

Zoroastrianism, 103

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