from the depth of the well

FROM THE DEPTH OF THE WELL

From the Depth of the Well

An Anthology of Jewish Mysticism

EDITED BY

Ariel Evan Mayse

FOREWORD BY

Arthur Green

Paulist PressNew York / Mahwah, NJ

The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised StandardVersion: Catholic Edition, Copyright © 1989 and 1993, by the Division of ChristianEducation of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States ofAmerica. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover imageCover design byBook design by Lynn Else

Copyright © 2014 by Paulist Press, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

From the depth of the well : an anthology of Jewish mysticism / edited by Ariel EvanMayse ; foreword by Arthur Green.

pages cmIncludes bibliographical references.Summary: “From Abraham Isaac Kook to Zeitlin, Jewish spirituality has a rich

mystical tradition. This volume gathers the most significant and treasured writingsfrom the Jewish mystics”— Provided by publisher.

ISBN 978-0-8091-4879-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-58768-367-1(ebook)

1. Mysticism—Judaism. I. Mayse, Ariel Evan. II. Green, Arthur.BM723.F76 2014296.7`12—dc23

2014012791

ISBN 978-0-8091-4879-0 (paperback)ISBN 978-1-58768-367-1 (e-book)

Published by Paulist Press997 Macarthur BoulevardMahwah, New Jersey 07430

www.paulistpress.com

Printed and bound in theUnited States of America

For my father Mark, exemplar of resilience and determinationAnd for my teacher Stuart, who lived with knowledge in the mind,

strength in the body, and courage and honesty in the heartMay their memories ever be a blessing

Contents

Foreword .........................................................................................00

Acknowledgments ...........................................................................00

To the Reader..................................................................................00

Introduction ....................................................................................00

Chapter 1: The Dawn of Kabbalah ..............................................00Introduction ................................................................................00Sefer ha-Bahir..............................................................................00The ‘Iyyun Circle.........................................................................00The School of Rabbi Yitshak the Blind .......................................00Rabbi Ezra ben Shlomo of Gerona .............................................00Rabbi ‘Azriel of Gerona...............................................................00Rabbi Ya‘akov ben Sheshet ..........................................................00The Kohen Brothers....................................................................00

Chapter Two: The Zohar ...............................................................00Introduction ................................................................................00The Text ......................................................................................00

Chapter 3: The Safed Renaissance and Its Legacy ....................00PART ONE: THE KABBALISTIC WORLD OF SAFED .........00

Introduction............................................................................00Rules of Mystical Piety ...........................................................00

The Pious Customs of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero ................00The Pious Customs of Rabbi Avraham Galante .................00“Come, My Beloved” (Lekha Dodi)....................................00

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The Pious Customs of Rabbi Yitshak Luria........................00Rabbi Yitshak Luria’s Aramaic Invocations for the

Sabbath Eve ...................................................................00The Book of Visions by R. Hayyim Vital ..................................00The Beginning of Wisdom by R. Eliyahu de Vidas ..................00

PART TWO: LURIANIC KABBALAH AND ITSINTERPRETERS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY........00

Introduction............................................................................00The Generations of Adam (R. Yeshaya Horowitz) ...................00The Writings of Avraham Miguel Cardozo .............................00

Chapter 4: Hasidic Spirituality.....................................................00Introduction ................................................................................00Upright Practices by R. Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl............00Me’or Eynayim on Genesis (The Light of the Eyes)

by R. Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl ...................................00Rabbi Nahman’s Tales (R. Nahman of Bratslav).........................00The Book of Secrets of R. Yitshak Yehiel Safrin of Komarno........00

Chapter 5: Modern Mystics..........................................................00Introduction ................................................................................00The Writings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook...............................00The Writings of Hillel Zeitlin......................................................00

Afterword: The Contemporary Renaissance of Jewish Mysticism ..00

Notes...............................................................................................00

Sources............................................................................................00

Contents

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Forewordby Arthur Green

It is now a thousand years since the teachings of Jewish mystics beganto appear in writing. These Traditions, which may stretch back yetanother millennium into the obscurity of Late Antiquity, were passeddown largely by word of mouth as the closely guarded secrets of prac-titioners and their followers. When they were finally committed towriting, the protective shell of esotericism took the forms of ellipticalstyle, unexplained symbolism, and extended treatises emphasizing let-ters rather than words, especially various permutations of the namesof God. Outsiders to the mystics’ circles, both the curious and thehostile, were kept away by these devices. Manuscripts of esoterictexts were distributed cautiously, widening the formerly oral privacy oftransmission at a gradual and controlled pace.

When Hebrew printing began (ca. 1470), mystical texts were notincluded in the output of the presses. It took nearly one hundredyears for this ban to be broken by the printing of the Zohar (Mantua,1558–60; Cremona, 1660), the masterwork of medieval Kabbalah.When it did appear, it was introduced by a legal opinion of RabbiIsaac De Lattes, who, after great hesitation, permitted its publicationonly because messiah was about to be revealed and it was urgent toraise the spiritual quality of Jewish life preceding his arrival. This let-ter of approbation is reprinted in every traditional edition of the Zoharto this day.

Alas, we who select, translate, and comment on Jewish mysticaltexts today—and in English translation, at that!—have no suchexcuse. Indeed, perhaps it is redemption’s long delay rather than itsimminent arrival that motivates us. It is because so many Jews—andothers—are in need of inspiration and comfort that will help us live in

ix

this unredeemed universe and seek motivation to move that redemp-tive process forward inch by inch, that we have come to feel a newurgency to make the secrets available, dressed up in the finery of read-able translations with explanatory introductions and footnotes.

Nothing less than a reclamation of the Jewish mystical tradition istaking place before our eyes. A Western-looking Jewry that two hun-dred years ago created a notion called “mainstream Judaism” mainlyfor the purpose of excising and burying the mystical part of our legacyis now in the midst of a complete about-face. Today we are seeking tounderstand and appreciate our mystical sources, then asking whataspects of their deep and complex teachings might enhance a Judaismof the twenty-first century and what might better be left behind.Different circles within world Jewry have varied answers to thesequestions, but the sense that there is profound wisdom to be learnedfrom the study of these sources is widely shared.

In this effort to rediscover the mystical tradition, Jewry has nobetter friend than the Paulist Press and its Classics of WesternSpirituality series. From the very inception of the series in 1978, itseditors have enthusiastically welcomed volumes of Jewish sources. Inthe early years, when few other publishers, either Jewish or general,saw any profit in publishing such works, the forward-lookingpost–Vatican II Catholics at Paulist Press, inspired by my late friendEwert Cousins, appreciated the importance of spiritual teachingsfrom many traditions and the effort to make them accessible to a newgeneration of seekers.

Perhaps I will be permitted two brief personal stories to illustratemy gratitude for this openness and generosity. During my years as arabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary, I had the greatprivilege of studying closely with my teacher Abraham JoshuaHeschel, of blessed memory. Among the texts he taught was a treatisecalled ‘Amud ha-Tefillah, the collected teachings of the Ba’al ShemTov on prayer. In 1969 my friend Barry Holtz and I translated selec-tions from that text in poetic format, a little book we called Your WordIs Fire. I tried to market it to the three or four well-known Jewish pub-lishers, but could evince no interest. “We don’t publish prayer books,”I was told by one. “Nobody’s interested in this stuff,” said another.Disappointed, I left the manuscript in a bottom drawer. About fouryears later, I received a call from Richard Payne of Paulist, who said

From the Depths of the Well

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they were about to publish a series to be called “The SpiritualMasters,” including brief poetic selections from each of the great mys-tical traditions. Might I know an appropriate Jewish text, he won-dered. “It’s in my desk; I’ve been waiting for your call,” was myresponse. And so began a long and fruitful relationship.

As plans for the Classics developed, I was asked to join an advi-sory board. Richard and I discussed several times the question ofwhether Jews would buy Judaic sources published by a Catholicpress, or whether old fears and suspicions would carry the day. Iassured him that, while some would hesitate at first, the excellentcontent and the names of well-known Jewish editors would counterthe residual bias. But then the first volume of the Classics series,Julian of Norwich, appeared in 1978. As a member of the board, Ireceived a copy. My heart sank when I opened to the verso of the titlepage and read “Copyright by the Missionary Society of St. Paul theApostle,” the legal name of the order that owns the press. I immedi-ately telephoned Richard and told him we had a dilemma. “Paulist”alone we might get away with, I told him. But Jews will surely be sus-picious of anything published by “The Missionary Society….” Sobegan the custom of all Jewish books in the series being listed as“Copyright by the author.” This immediate willingness to give up aclaim to rights and potentially to money in order to include these vol-umes made a great impression on me.

Now, some thirty-five years and 128 volumes later, Paulist Presshas called upon my dear student Ariel Mayse to edit a Jewish mysti-cal reader with contents culled from the rich offerings included in thisseries. He has made wise if difficult choices, having to leave manygreat gems behind, but offering students and seekers a chance to“enter the orchard” of Jewish mystical literature in a rich and diverseone-volume sourcebook. I am confident that it will be widely usedand appreciated, leading some of its readers back to the volumes fromwhich it was culled, from there back to the original sources, and fromthem back to the Source of it all. May God bless the work of thisyoung scholar’s hands, in this and in many more works to come.

Foreword

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Acknowledgments

Finding the words to convey my appreciation concisely and ade-quately has been without a doubt the most difficult part of this book.

It is my pleasure to begin by thanking the translators and editorsof the previous volumes of Jewish thought in the Classics of WesternSpirituality series. Many of them took the time to correspond with mepersonally and offered helpful advice regarding selections and notes.This book belongs to them as well. I owe a great debt to Paulist Press,and to my friend and editor Nancy de Flon in particular, for havingplaced their trust in a young scholar and inviting me to contribute tothis great series.

Several of my students read earlier drafts of this manuscript andstudied the texts with me over the past year and a half. I greatlyappreciate their comments and insights. I must also thank my friendsand colleagues of the Scholem Collection of the National Library inJerusalem, where much of my work was carried out. This uniquereading room is a home for study where the spiritual and academiccan meet.

Thanks are due to the exceptional scholars who have guided meover the years. My undergraduate advisor David Biale gave me mystart in the world of Jewish thought, and my progress since those earlydays is thanks to his continued friendship and support. BernardSeptimus, my advisor at Harvard University, has shown me how rig-orous and felicitous intellectual history grows out of reading textspatiently and attentively. Luis Giron-Negron opened my eyes to thebeauty and difficulties of the study of mystical literature from differ-ent religious traditions.

I can only begin to thank my teacher and mentor Arthur Green.Over the past six years, he has taught me what it means to be anuncompromising scholar and a sensitive theologian. He gave me care-

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ful feedback and criticism on every section of this manuscript, oftenmore than once, and has helped me formulate many of the pointsherein. In addition to my academic training, he has welcomed me as adisciple and made me a part of his lifelong quest to draw forth newinspiration from the sublime wellsprings of Jewish mysticism. The onlyfitting expression of gratitude can be in carrying forward this project.

This volume is dedicated to two of my earliest and most belovedmentors, both of whom died far too young. My father was a mandevoted to science and deeply suspicious of religion. Yet he valuedtruth, honesty, and the human spirit above all, and I know this bookwould bring a smile to his face. My teacher of martial arts, SenseiStuart Quan, taught me the path of the warrior. It was from him thatI learned how a physical discipline can teach the spirit to fly.

To my family: My mother made me aware of the possibility ofspirituality in my youth, and has given me such loving supportthroughout my religious quest across these many years. My father-in-law, Nehemia Polen, has shared his profound wisdom with me oncountless occasions. He has taught me so much of what it means toread and teach the texts of our mystical tradition with integrity andpresence.

Significant portions of this manuscript were written with our dearson, Ezra Elimelech Meir, sitting on my lap. I discerned much criticalinsight in his playful babbling, and bless him with many more years ofjoyful bliss. But our friend Rachel Bickel took care of Ezra duringmany of my working hours, and I could not have completed this workwithout her help.

To you, my loving wife, Adina Ora Naama, I extend my deepest ofthanks. Your constant support and encouragement have carried meforward in every way. Equally valuable has been your practical andsagacious advice throughout the process. This work would haveremained but a smoldering ember without the illumination you bringto every moment of my life.

I conclude with thanks to the compassionate One to whom allthanks are due. No life is certain, especially for those who live in theshadow of illness. Our days are a gift, and we may choose to do withthem what we will. I ask only for the continued strength to write andto teach, to study and to do, and to fulfill all the words of Your Torahwith love.


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To the Reader

This anthology brings together a collection of Jewish mystical textsspanning nearly a millennium. The passages have been selected fromamong the earlier volumes in the Classics of Western Spiritualityseries and were chosen for their historical importance, theologicalrichness, relative accessibility, and potential interest to the contem-porary seeker. Yet reading mystical works is no easy task, even in trans-lation. These texts cannot simply be skimmed; they must be readslowly and studied mindfully. It will often prove helpful to look up ref-erences to biblical and rabbinic citations and read them in their orig-inal context. Be alert to the shared symbolic language of Kabbalah,but remember that each author uses mystical terminology and sym-bols in a unique way. After you have read the text and are satisfied thatyou understand its meaning, think about the deeper existential andreligious questions with which the author is engaging. Some of theseteachings are more theological and others are more focused on actualpractice, but all engage with enduring questions of the spirit. It is myhope that the reader will find them to be a source of both intellectualand personal growth.

The chapter and section introductions provide historical contextand offer some basic guidance to help the reader through the pas-sages. The endnotes refer to important works of contemporary schol-arship and will help clarify some of the more complicated texts, but,for the most part, this book may be studied without recourse to thesepoints. The notes to the selections themselves are those of the origi-nal translators, though in some cases they have been shortened orslightly adjusted to ensure stylistic consistency throughout the vol-ume; my own addenda are designated by square brackets. Most aca-demic scholarship on Jewish mysticism takes place in Hebrew, only asmall part of which is translated. English alternatives have been cited

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whenever possible, and studies in Hebrew are referenced only whenabsolutely necessary. Students who have been inspired or intrigued bya certain selection should return to the volume from which it wastaken. Suggestions for further reading, which represent some of themost important and accessible works in the field, appear at the end ofeach introduction. Together with the original volumes of translations,these works will prove an enriching next step for readers who wish todeepen their journey.


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To the Reader

xvii

KETER

HOKHMAH

HESED

BINAH

GEVURAH

TIF’ERET

HOD NETSAH

YESOD

MALKHUT

“Crown”The Patient One

“Grace”Right Arm

Abraham

“Wisdom”Father

“Understanding”Mother

“Power”Left ArmStrict JusticeIsaac

“Splendor”Trunk of Divine Body

Jacob, Moses

“Glory”Left ThighAaron

“Eternity”Right Thigh

Moses

“Foundation”Phallus

“Kingship”ShekhinahThe FemaleKing David

MercyBlessed Holy One The Irascible One

The Ten Sefirot

Joseph

Introduction

It was once accepted as fact that Judaism had no authentic mysticaltradition. The scholars of the nineteenth-century Wissenschaft desJudentums (“the Science of Judaism”), the pioneers of academic studyof Jewish thought and culture, were deeply embarrassed by Kabbalah.These western European intellectuals hoped to inspire religiousreform and dispel the regnant prejudice against Judaism (and Jews) bypresenting it as a rational tradition of ethical monotheism fully con-gruent with the principles of the Enlightenment. Jewish mysticismdid not fit these criteria, and with few exceptions they caricatured itas backward, superstitious, and aberrant. Heinrich Graetz (1817–91)was among the greatest spokesmen of this school. His landmarkHistory of the Jews portrays mysticism as a peculiar parasite that hadbeen grafted onto the trunk of rational Judaism.1

This claim has been reversed in the twentieth century, and schol-arship has now demonstrated that the mystical tradition has been anintegral part of Judaism’s vital core since ancient times. The paradigmshift was largely the result of the work of the German-born GershomScholem (1897–1982), who rebelled against the patent rationalism ofthe Wissenschaft and chose to become an expert in Kabbalah.Scholem criticized the Wissenschaft scholars for having allowed theiragenda to blunt their analytic tools, and he argued that Jewish mysti-cism had been a living and creative force at the heart of Judaism forthousands of years.2 Throughout his long and influential career inIsrael, Scholem published unknown manuscripts, authored criticaland insightful studies of mystical thinkers that had been previouslyneglected, and painstakingly drew up a detailed history of Jewish mys-ticism from its earliest origins in antiquity until the Hasidic move-ment of the nineteenth century.3 The burgeoning academic interest in

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Kabbalah in the second half of the twentieth century rests firmly onhis shoulders.4

Scholem focused almost exclusively on the historical and philo-logical analysis of mystical texts. He contextualized Kabbalah withinthe diachronic history of Jewish thought and assumed that each majorstage or “trend” was directly related to those immediately preceding it.Scholem trained several generations of important disciples, who con-tinued largely within the boundaries of his methodology. But MosheIdel (b. 1947), another prominent Israeli scholar, has done much todemonstrate the weaknesses of Scholem’s approach by qualifying and,at times, overturning his linear mapping of the history of Kabbalah.Idel’s work demonstrated that the assumption of what he calls “prox-imism,” or the necessary connection between historically contiguousevents, is not always correct. In fact, just the opposite may be true:mystical traditions were often transmitted orally, making their influ-ence very difficult to chart, and therefore two geographically and tem-porally disparate groups might indeed be connected.

Idel has also suggested that the historian must embrace the toolsof phenomenology, or the study of subjective religious experience, inorder to explore the conceptual similarities among mystical texts writ-ten in different times and places. This is indicative of Idel’s belief thatmany important works of Jewish mysticism reflect actual experiences,thus penetrating a level of understanding largely neglected byScholem, who remained an academic less than comfortable in dealingwith such phenomena. It is not up to the scholar to judge the verac-ity of such experiences, argues Idel, but being cognizant of this ele-ment reminds us that Jewish mysticism is not abstract sophistry; it isa theology embodied in devotional practices.5

The structure of the present anthology reflects the methodologiesof these two great scholars.6 The chapters are arranged chronologi-cally, allowing the reader to see that Jewish mystics have continuouslyengaged with certain core themes over the course of many genera-tions. The introductions contextualize the texts within their originalcultural milieus, both Jewish and non-Jewish, since knowing theirprovenance is critical for understanding them correctly. Yet we shouldnot assume that subsequent stages of Jewish mysticism are built ontop of one another like bricks in a pyramid. It may be the case thatmystical groups with little or no direct historical contact share much


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in common, just as there have been mystics who were not influencedby those that preceded them. It should also be remembered that thesereligious texts reflect human phenomena and perceived spiritualexperiences, and should not be analyzed only as literary creations thatmay be reduced into a combination of cultural and historical influ-ences.

We have noted that mysticism is part of the vital core of theJewish tradition, but some discussion of the term mysticism and itsimplications for the study of religion will help us better understandthis claim. To be clear, mysticism does not exist in a vacuum as a reli-gion of its own.7 It is a helpful category that we may use when speak-ing about the similarities between certain types of religiousexperiences, spiritual writings, and theological systems. But theJewish mystical tradition cannot be disentangled from Judaism itself,and treating them as two separate phenomena is misleading. Jewishmystics have been shaped by the cultural environments in which theylived, and their experiences and writings reflect the symbols and val-ues of their religious tradition. The noun mysticism is not an indige-nous Jewish term, nor does it have any precise Hebrew cognate.8 Thewords sod (“secret”) or raz (“mystery”) refer to hidden doctrines or anesoteric interpretation of a particular text, but they do not describe anoverall approach to the spiritual life that parallels the term mysticism.

The term Jewish mysticism refers to far more than a closed body ofesoteric teachings, and it is applied to a wide range of spiritual pathsand religious experiences. The Jewish mystical library includes manythousands of volumes as well as countless smaller works and unpub-lished manuscripts. These represent a broad spectrum of literary genres,including poetry, prose, scriptural commentary, liturgy, law, fictionalstories, spiritual autobiographies, and letters. Given this variety, whatdefines Jewish mysticism as a distinctive subcategory of Jewish piety?What does a withdrawn and ascetic Kabbalist who pores over pages oflabyrinthine theology have in common with the Hasidic mystic whoserves God through the physical world and longs to be fully reunitedwith the Infinite One? What does the Israelite of Late Antiquity, whouses mantra-like hymns to escape the physical world by ascendinginto the heavenly palaces and gazing upon the throne of glory, sharewith a twentieth-century eastern European writer who is conversant

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in modern romantic philosophy and sees nature as saturated withdivine energy?

Surely no single definition of Jewish mysticism can fully describeall texts associated with this literature. In place of an unrealisticpanacea, I propose the following working definition: Mysticism refersto the quest for a direct or immediate experience of God’s presence,and the longing to grasp the mysteries of the human soul and knowthe inner dynamics of the divine realm. These goals lie at the veryheart of Jewish mysticism, and are shared by all of the texts includedin this volume. But the similarities between them extend far beyondthis single axis. Reflecting on the other important elements commonto most, if not all, of the various manifestations of Jewish mysticismwill help us answer a second part of this question: What makes thesemystical texts specifically Jewish?

Jewish mystics are united by their relationship to canonicalJewish texts. First and foremost this means interpreting the Torah andHebrew Bible, and to a lesser extent the Talmud and rabbinicMidrashim. In the eyes of the mystic, the Torah is no mundane bookof wisdom or law. It is a vessel that holds God’s wisdom itself, and theTorah is composed of divine names, expressed in narrative form. Aslater Jewish mystics will put it, Scripture is divinity expressed in thelanguage of humanity. Its words were revealed on Mount Sinai, butthe Torah is a fountain from which all religious truth flows; anyauthoritative teaching must be derived from (or anchored in) its text.Rabbinic laws and lore (aggadah) are open to constant reinterpreta-tion, but only the Torah has truly infinite layers of meaning.9 Evenmystical works that are not primarily exegetical, such as Sefer Yetsirahor the Heikhalot literature, are deeply influenced by the themes,imagery, and theology of the Hebrew Bible.

This unfailing commitment to a common body of sacred literaturehas allowed Jewish mystics to develop a shared symbolic languagerooted in their canonical texts. The writings of Jewish mystics employa rich matrix of associations and symbols inspired by biblical versesand rabbinic teachings, which have been expanded and refined overthe years. Some of these symbols are found in very early mysticalworks, but the symbolic language began to take on a recognizable, rel-atively stable form in early medieval Kabbalah. Starting in the twelfthand thirteenth centuries, the sefirot (sing. sefirah) form the core of this


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language. As will become clear in the following chapters, the sefirotare a series of emanations that bridge between the abstract, unknow-able Deity and the immanent Presence in this world. But the sefirothave also become the anchors to which the vast array of symbolsadhere. This vibrant language of linguistic and conceptual associa-tions is one of the mystical tradition’s greatest contributions to Jewishreligious thought.10

To be a mystic is to struggle with the boundaries of words and thelimited capacity of the human mind to conceive of God. Yet Jewishmysticism has generally maintained a positive view of language, rarelyretreating into purely apophatic or negative theology.11 This is in nosmall part due to the great flexibility and richness of its symbolism,which offers the mystic a way of speaking about divine matters thatextends beyond the literal meaning of words. But Jewish mystics alsobelieve that language itself has a divine origin. God formed the worldby means of letters and words, and the language of human beingsretains this tremendous creative power as well. In many cases, but byno means all, this sanctity is restricted to Hebrew, commonly referredto as the “holy tongue” (leshon ha-kodesh). Nowhere is the positivevision of language more manifest than in the mystical understandingof Scripture and prayer. The Hebrew text of the Torah shimmers withdivine Presence, accessed through reading and intoning its wordscarefully in order to explore their symbolic associations. The words ofprayer also afford an opportunity for mankind to reach out towardGod, an act described as both a spiritual ascent and a contemplativeinner journey. The transcendent divine Being may be ineffable andunknowable, but language is a gift that lessens the gap betweenhumanity and God.12

Jewish mystics also share a commitment to embodying their spir-itual life in religious praxis. For most, this means at least the pro-scriptions of normative halakhah (Jewish law) that provide theconcrete ritual framework for their inner devotional activities. Mysticshave also developed a wealth of supererogatory rituals, pathways forspiritual expression beyond the letter of the law. Prayer and the studyof Torah are often devotional highpoints of Jewish religious life, butall commandments are imbued with deeper cosmic and personal sig-nificance.13 Some mystics argue that humankind’s actions have greattheurgic power, for pious deeds increase the divine glory and draw

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spiritual vitality into the world by aligning the various elements of theGodhead. In an even more daring formulation common in mystical lit-erature, God needs human actions.14 This aspect of their religious livesalmost always takes place in the public arena. With rare exceptions,Jewish mystics are part of communities, though at times they maybelong primarily to highly elite, quasi-monastic fellowships. Theyrarely live alone or cultivate a devotional life in permanent solitude.Occasionally, this proximity puts mystics at odds with more orthodoxelements of the Jewish community, but it has meant that mystics havehad a profound influence on Jewish intellectual and social life.15

Jewish mystics employ symbols of their tradition and are deeplyinfluenced by their cultural heritage and its assumptions. However,they also share much in common with the great spiritual masters ofother religious traditions. The present anthology appears in theClassics of Western Spirituality series, and while this is not the placefor an extensive discussion of the merits and perils of comparativereligion, some brief words on the subject are in order. As noted above,there is no mysticism independent of religious traditions, and thewritings of all mystics are shaped by their own intellectual and spiri-tual contexts. Reading their works in translation masks some of theiruniqueness, which is more clearly visible in the nuances of their orig-inal language. It is hard, however, to ignore conceptual affinitiesfound in the clusters of ideas and experiences that are shared by mys-tics from across different religions.16 In some cases this may be attrib-uted to influence from one mystical tradition to another, yet at othertimes this explanation is unlikely or impossible. Even granted thatthere is no ineffable core common to all mystical experiences, thesimilarities in the poetic outpourings of mystical souls and theiryearnings to draw near to God transcend denominational and religiousboundaries.17 The reader is invited to examine the following texts care-fully, pondering their words and sitting with them, and then to com-pare these teachings of the Jewish mystics with the wisdom of othergreat spiritual classics.


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The Beginnings of Jewish Mysticism:

A Historical OverviewOur volume explores the developments of Jewish mysticism after

the emergence of Kabbalah in early medieval France and Spain.However, important elements of the mystical tradition are found farearlier in Jewish history. Its earliest echoes may indeed already beheard in the Hebrew Bible, where God’s interaction with the physicalworld is taken for granted. Ancient Israelites were not mystics, butthey surely possessed a rich devotional life. The words of the psalmistevocatively articulate the longing of one who seeks to dwell in God’spresence and to gaze upon his majestic glory. In Exodus 40, the divineIndwelling literally fills the tabernacle, and other biblical accounts ofdirect, often anthropomorphic visions of God abound: Moses and theelders’ vision of God and the sapphire beneath his feet (Exod 24);Isaiah’s encounter with God seated on the throne (Isa 6); Ezekiel’s ter-rifying confrontation with the divine chariot (Ezek 1, 10); and Daniel’sapocalyptic fantasies (Dan 7, 9).18

Yet these traditions are complemented by biblical voices claimingthat it is impossible to see God’s face and live (Exod 34), and by strongprohibitions against creating any sort of images of the Divine. Eventhe moment of revelation is remembered by some sources as beingprimarily linguistic rather than visual, with only fire and cloudsaccompanying the pronouncement of the Ten Commandments.19 TheJewish tradition has continued to struggle between the poles ofanthropomorphism and aniconism, and both are given their due, evenside by side, in the later works of Kabbalah.20

The first genre of Jewish literature with recognizable elementsthat may rightly be called “mystical” emerged in the final centuriesbefore the Common Era.21 These works, called apocalypses, describethe ascent of an individual into the heavens. Sometimes the mysticenters into the supernal temple, where he is granted a direct vision ofGod. In some cases, the journey culminates with the mystic beingtransformed into one of the angels, or more rarely, even becoming dei-fied. This ascent on high is often accompanied by the revelation of

Introduction

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strange, symbolic prophecies that require extensive interpretation.Apocalypses were inspired by the great biblical prophets and wisdomliterature, but they also incorporate motifs taken from Hellenistic andRoman culture.

We know nothing about the authors of these texts, since mostapocalypses are pseudepigraphic, purporting to be the work of bibli-cal figures such as Noah, Abraham, Ezra, and Daniel. Enoch, whoappears briefly in Genesis 5:18–24 and is mysteriously “taken byGod,” was a particular favorite; a broad and influential corpus ofascent texts was attributed to him.22 Apocalypses share a set of liter-ary conventions, and their narrative elements seem to have been justas meaningful for those who studied them as the revelatory visionsthey preserve. While scholars debate whether they were based onmystical experiences or are purely literary creations, it is clear thatthey seemed real to many generations of readers, both Jewish andChristian.23 The research into apocalypses has been further enrichedby the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Manuscripts of several well-known apocalyptic texts were found among this priceless collection,and many other Dead Sea works distinctly resemble the apocalypsesin style and content. This has sparked a lively debate regarding theexistence of mystical texts and practices in the Qumran communitynear the turn of the millennium.24

The destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE and the emer-gence of rabbinic Judaism ushered in a time of monumental changefor Jewish piety and theology. The biblical model of God’s indwellingpresence was razed along with the temple, and Jews were forced torethink the concept of divine immanence in light of their new reality.25

For the architects of the rabbinic tradition, God was now to beencountered primarily through the nexus of sacred words. The syna-gogue and study hall superseded the holy space of the temple as thecentral loci of religious devotion, and prayer and the interpretation ofTorah took the place of sacrificial ritual. Thus it was in the rabbinicperiod that Judaism was truly transformed into a scriptural religion.26

Much in keeping with biblical conceptions of piety, the project ofrabbinic Judaism articulated a model of religious service defined byaction and deeds. The rabbinic ideal is the performance of halakhah,a word that may be translated as both “law” and “way.”27 Some haveargued that early Jewish mysticism represents an alternative to the


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ordered legalism and transcendent theology of the rabbis, one thatrecaptured the spiritual dynamism and living creativity of the biblicalmyths.28 Yet recent scholarship has suggested that there are indeedconcepts and experiences described in foundational rabbinic textsthat anticipate later Jewish mysticism. Despite warnings about thedangers of engaging in the study of the esoteric traditions referred toas ma‘aseh bereshit (“Works of Creation”) and ma‘aseh merkavah(“Works of the Chariot”), theological speculations about God andquasi-prophetic visions of the Divine abound in rabbinic literature.29

It is surely no coincidence that it was in this period that the Song ofSongs was reread as a passionate love song between the Jewish peopleand God, setting the stage for the later mystics’ captivation with thisbrilliant work of biblical poetry.30 Early rabbinic reflections on theprocess of studying and interpreting sacred texts are another excellentillustration of this point. Biblical exegesis is perhaps the most funda-mental rabbinic activity, and some early rabbinic texts describe scrip-tural interpretation as a revelatory and prophetic act. The goal is notto achieve a mystical experience cordoned off from their primaryfocus of legal interpretation, but rather to enter into the deepestdivine realms in order to explore and clarify the law.31

The short but influential Sefer Yetsirah (Book of Formation) is byall accounts an inscrutable work.32 This obscure text is very difficultto date, but its overall worldview and finely balanced literary structuresuggest that it was roughly contemporaneous with the Mishnah (ca.200 CE).33 Sefer Yetsirah describes God’s creation of the universe bymeans of the “thirty-two pathways of wisdom;” namely, the ten sefirotand the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This work thusintroduces the term sefirot into the Jewish lexicon for the first time. Inthis context, however, the sefirot refer to something very differentfrom the complex web of symbols they will represent in medievalKabbalah. Here the sefirot are simply the numerical (mispar) elementsused by God to fashion the world. The first four sefirot are divine ele-ments that emanate one from the other, and the latter six correspondto the directions of physical space.34 This account of Creation assuresthe reader that unity and near-mathematical order undergird theapparent multiplicity and chaos of the material world.35

The power of language is one of the central themes of SeferYetsirah.36 God forms the world through speech in the Genesis narra-

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tive as well, but Sefer Yetsirah builds upon this notion by explainingthat Creation was accomplished by combining the Hebrew letterswith one another. Letters are the very foundations of the world as wellas the most basic elements of language. It is interesting to note thatSefer Yetsirah does not examine the shapes of the letters nor theirnumerical values, techniques that were to become quite popular inlater Jewish mysticism.37 Nor does this work assign a special status toHebrew language as the “holy tongue” vis-à-vis other languages. Thiselection may be implied, but nowhere is it stated explicitly, and thereis at least a possibility that Sefer Yetsirah assigns the same creativepower to all languages.38 This positive relationship to language andpreoccupation with the creative power of the letters was one of itsgreatest contributions to the Jewish mystical tradition.39

The elliptical style of Sefer Yetsirah sets this work apart from mostother Jewish mystical texts. It rarely quotes the Bible, though, attimes, its words echo the language of key scriptural passages.40 Unlikethe earlier apocalypses (or the later heikhalot texts), Sefer Yetsirah isnot framed within a pseudepigraphic narrative and devotes relativelylittle space to personal mystical experience. This work does suggest,however, that the secrets of Creation are being revealed in order thathuman beings might be able to emulate them. The biblical figure ofAbraham appears in this capacity at the very end of Sefer Yetsirah.Through his contemplative efforts, he attains divine wisdom, and hetoo is able to create as an act of imitatio Dei.41 This quasi-magical ele-ment of Sefer Yetsirah was embellished in later traditions of theGolem, an inanimate being formed from the earth and imbued withlife through the letters of the divine name.42

Sefer Yetsirah contains the earliest kernels of the symbolic lan-guage that was to become the heart of later kabbalistic works, and thisshort treatise had a great impact on Jewish mysticism. Its traditionswere likely available to the sages of the Talmud in some form,43 and itwas frequently cited by Jewish thinkers beginning in the tenth cen-tury. Sefer Yetsirah was also the subject of a great number of com-mentaries. Later mystics and philosophers interpreted thisepigrammatic work in accord with the religious ideas of their own day,thus giving their ideas great antiquity and authority. These plentifulcommentaries, together with the many other mystical explanations of


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Creation produced by early medieval Kabbalists, constitute a categoryof Jewish mystical literature unto themselves.44

Rabbinic Judaism crystallized at the same time as nascentChristianity. These two traditions have a shared heritage in theHebrew Bible, but their theological connections extend beyond that.Early Jewish and Christian mystical traditions were influenced by acommon pool of ideas and texts circulating in the first few centuriesof the Common Era.45 Also flourishing at this time were the “gnostic”circles, which held that secret knowledge (gnosis) of God had thepower to save one from the inherent corruption of the physicalworld.46 These groups fused ideas from ancient Jewish texts withthose adopted from Greco-Roman pagan religion, especially the pop-ular mystery cults. Some believed in two deities, a beneficent god thatcreated the universe and another, lesser god that ruled over the world.Many believed that God’s divine pleroma (“fullness”) was composed ofemanated divine powers (aeons). The vectors of influence betweenthese groups went in all directions, and one may speak of Jewish gnos-tics, Christian gnostics, and elements of Gnosticism that were incor-porated into both of these religions.

The apocalypses of Late Antiquity have much in common withthe journeys through supernal heikhalot (“palaces”) and visions of theheavenly merkavah (“chariot”) described in a body of Hebrew andAramaic works popular in the post-Talmudic period.47 Ascent texts,both apocalyptic and heikhalot, are predicated on a perceived riftbetween humanity and the Divine, which the mystic hopes to bridgethrough his heavenly journey.48 However, the heihkalot works differedin a number of important ways. In classical apocalypses, individualswere overtaken by a moment of prophetic rapture, but, in these texts,the mystic sought to induce his own experience by repeating namesof God, mantras, and adjurations; fasting; and reciting liturgicalhymns, some of which are similar to the liturgical poems developedfor use in synagogues.49

The goals of the journey in the heikhalot texts are many and var-ied. In some, the mystic descends (yored) before the merkaveh inorder to gaze upon the throne of glory resting upon the chariot, per-haps even glimpsing the divine Figure itself. The most audacious ofthese anthropomorphic visions is found in Shi‘ur Komah (The Measureof the Form).50 The mystic’s journey is quite hazardous, and along the

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way he is confronted by myriads of angels, many of which are terrify-ing specters indeed. The very intensity of his vision of the divinePresence can lead to the mystic’s demise.51 But dangerous though itmay be, this journey offers a unique opportunity to join the heavenlychorus in reciting songs of glory before God. In this the heikhalot lit-erature builds upon a much older Jewish tradition of God’s coronationthrough the hymns of people (and angels).52 In some cases, the ascentis a means of accomplishing more magical or mundane goals. Yet, inmany of these texts, the mystic undertakes his heavenly journey inorder to gain a deeper understanding of Torah; heavenly secrets arerevealed as the mystic steps into the presence of God.53

The early sages Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yishma’el appear frequentlyas the protagonists of heikhalot texts, but these attributions are pseude-pigraphic. Scholem contended that the origins of heikhalot literature arein the early rabbinic period, particularly from circles informed byGnosticism,54 but scholars now believe that heikhalot and merkavahtexts only became a genre of their own sometime closer to the codifi-cation of the Talmud (c. 500 CE).55 The works of heikhalot or merkavahmysticism are linked to one another by their common themes, but theydisplay great variety and are in no way a monolithic literature. In fact,most of the texts are not books in the formal sense. Even classics likeHeikhalot Rabbati and Heikhalot Zutartei (the “Greater” and “LesserPalaces”) are composites of many textual strata, the editing and redac-tion of which continued well into the Early Middle Ages.56

There is no evidence to suggest that mystical texts were studiedwith any great enthusiasm in the Talmudic academies of the Geonim inthe ninth to eleventh centuries, though they were aware of these tradi-tions.57 Some type of mystical creativity must have continued in theNear East, but by the turn of the millennium the center of gravity ofJewish mysticism was shifting to the West. A similar change was takingplace in Jewish intellectual culture more broadly, as the hegemony ofthe Babylonian Geonim started to falter and sages of the IberianPeninsula and Ashkenaz (Germany) began their rise to prominence.Mystical ideas and literature were brought first to Italy, which remaineda kabbalistic center well into the Renaissance, and, from there, theyspread to the Jewish heartlands of the European continent.58

The high medieval Rhineland was the home of the next importantdevelopment in Jewish mysticism. In the twelfth and thirteenth cen-


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turies, small circles of intense ascetics formed around members of theillustrious Kalonymous family, a few of whom are known to us byname. Foremost among them was Rabbi Yehudah ha-Hasid (ca.1150–1217), author of the immensely popular Sefer Hasidim (Book ofthe Pious).59 His student Rabbi Eleazar of Worms (ca. 1165–1230)was a poet and Talmudist as well as a mystic. He was the author ofSefer ha-Roke’ah (Book of the Perfumist), a book of law and ethics.Rabbi Eleazar also wrote many other shorter, more esoteric works, agreat number of which have yet to be published. These fiery mystics,referred to as the Hasidei Ashkenaz (“German Pietists”), were con-sumed by the search for ever more exacting standards for uprightbehavior and devotional expression. The Hasidei Ashkenaz emerged inthe turbulence left in the wake of the Crusades. Their rigorous peni-tential practices were likely informed by the surge of pietism in bothChristian and Jewish circles, as well as by the examples of martyrdomin the massacres at the hands of the Crusaders.60

The German Pietists developed a rich esoteric theology that wasinspired by the Heikhalot literature, neo-Platonism, and early Jewishphilosophical works.61 Like many other mystics, their religious liveswere driven by a longing to draw nearer to God. The Pietists believedthe Deity was utterly transcendent and incorporeal, and their writingssought to purge the tradition of all anthropomorphism. Yet, an inter-esting conception of divine immanence came to them from the teach-ings of Rabbi Saadya in Hebrew paraphrase. God’s essence may beforever unattainable, but the emanated divine glory (kavod, also calledshekhinah) and the intermediary powers that stand between human-ity and God could indeed be known. The writings of the Pietists areperhaps the first to mention the sefirot as creations that bridgebetween the human and the Divine. Their God, though ineffable andunknowable, was also omnipresent. God could be known throughobserving the patterns and machinations of the natural world, an ideasimilar to those found in medieval Christianity.62 Gone was the riftbetween man and God that so defined heikhalot and merkavah mysti-cism. The Hasidei Ashkenaz never attempted to reconcile this per-plexing tension between immanence and transcendence.63

The Pietists believed it was incumbent on humankind to act inaccordance with the divine will (retson ha-Bore) at all times. However,the limits of God’s desires were not expressed in the proscribed legal

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norms of the Torah, the later works of Jewish law, or the Midrashicaggadah. The Pietists must have sensed a disconnect between therequirements outlined in the canonical texts and their own religiousexperiences, and believed that these works must be reexamined inorder to uncover the divine will concealed within them. The will dis-covered by the Hasidei Ashkenaz demanded tremendous new levels ofreligious stringency and higher degrees of moral perfection. Thewicked, and indeed the multitudes of people around them, wereinescapably led into sin by their ignorance of these demands. Butinstead of closing ranks and forsaking the broader Jewish community,the Pietists hoped to save their brethren by enlightening them to thedemands of retson ha-Bore. This quest to reveal and fulfill God’sdeeper will fueled their mystical and social agenda.64

Living in conformity with the divine will meant that the Pietistsadvocated a new set of spiritual values. Dissatisfied with a simplisticmodel of religious observance, they sought mystical rationale for thecommandments.65 Judaism has long venerated the act of learningTorah, but in the teachings of the Hasidei Azhkenaz, sacred study tookon a decidedly mystical valence. For them the Torah was a manifesta-tion of the divine glory and the shekhinah, and its study could eveninduce an ecstatic experience. Scripture is encoded with a host ofdivine names that must be teased forth from amidst the narrative andlaws, and according to some of their writings, the Torah itself is theTetragrammaton, the four-letter divine name. Reading its words aloudwas likened to intoning God’s most sacred name.66 The HasideiAshkenaz emphasized the importance of mystical prayer, whichreplaced the ascent to the throne of glory as the engine of mysticalexperience. They offered complex mystical interpretations of theliturgy, tallying the number of letters in various prayers, or reading itstext as full of acronyms referring to other words.67 The Pietists had nodoctrine similar to the notion of kavvanot (“intentions”) found in laterKabbalah, but their teachings did attribute special significance toone’s inner state while performing on the commandments. The idealHasid was an ascetic who lived with absolute fear of God and servedhim with loving devotion, but not necessarily someone who had per-fected his intellect. It is likely that the Hasidei Ashkenaz were react-ing to the emergence of the Tosafistic school of Talmudicinterpretation. These scholars had replaced traditional modes of


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learning with the flashy methods of dialectics. The Pietists decriedthis new technique as shallow, since it did not require one to undergoyears of ethical refinement through carefully regimented study.68

The theology of the German Pietists represents a crucial step inthe transition from the rabbinic paradigm of Late Antiquity to the newworldview of the Middle Ages.69 The groups around the Kalonymousfamily were small, and the social and religious revolution of whichthey dreamed never came to be. In fact, their bitter critique andattempts at reform were met with significant opposition. But theirideas spread through living teachers and in manuscripts, and they hada subtle impact on Jewish communities in western Europe. As theJews began to move into eastern Europe in the thirteenth century,they brought many ideas from the Hasidei Ashkenaz along with them.Of course, not all later pietists and penitents were inspired by RabbiYehudah and his disciples, but their works are an important stage inthe development of Jewish mysticism.70

Concurrently with the German Pietists, and perhaps even in dia-logue with them, a mystical renaissance was quietly taking place tothe west in Provence. Like the Hasidei Ashkenaz, this new form ofJewish mysticism began in small circles of intensely devoted spiritu-alists. It did not remain esoteric for long, however, and it swiftlyerupted into public discourse, forever changing the face of Jewishmysticism. It was in this dynamic region of southern France that thestory of Kabbalah truly begins.

Further ReadingAriel, David. The Mystic Quest: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism. New

York: Schocken Books, 1988.Dan, Joseph. Jewish Mysticism. 4 vols. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson,

1998/1999.Green, Arthur, ed. Jewish Spirituality. 2 vols. New York: Crossroad, 1986/7.Idel, Moshe. Kabbalah: New Perspectives. New Haven: Yale University Press,

1988.Scholem, Gershom. Kabbalah. Jerusalem: Keter, 1974.Scholem, Gershom. Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. New York: Schocken

Books, 1995.

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from the depth of the well

Documents