Hekhalot Literature in Translation

Transcription

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2 Hekhalot Literature in Translation

3 Supplements to The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy Edited by Elliot R. Wolfson (New York University) Christian Wiese (University of Frankfurt) Hartwig Wiedebach (University of Zurich) VOLUME 20 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/sjjt

4 Hekhalot Literature in Translation Major Texts of Merkavah Mysticism By James R. Davila LEIDEN BOSTON 2013

5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Davila, James R., Hekhalot literature in translation : major texts of Merkavah mysticism / by James R. Davila. p. cm. pages cm. (Supplements to the Journal of Jewish thought and philosophy, ISSN ; volume 20) Includes index. ISBN (hardback : alk. paper) ISBN (e-book) 1. Hekhalot literature History and criticism. 2. Merkava. 3. Mysticism Judaism. 4. Heikhalot rabbati. 5. Heikhalot zutrati. 6. Ma'aseh merkavah. 7. Kitve-yad ha-genizah. 8. Cairo Genizah. I. Title. BM525.A2D dc This publication has been typeset in the multilingual Brill typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see ISSN ISBN (hardback) ISBN (e-book) Copyright 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhofff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper.

6 CONTENTS Acknowledgements vii 1. Introduction Hekhalot Rabbati: The Greater (Book of the Heavenly) Palaces Introduction Text Sar Torah: The Prince of Torah Introduction Text Hekhalot Zutarti: The Lesser (Book of the Heavenly) Palaces Introduction Text Ma#aseh Merkavah: The Working of the Chariot Introduction Text Merkavah Rabba: The Great (Book of the) Chariot Introduction Text Some Shorter Macroforms Introduction Text Geniza Fragments Introduction Text Indices Index of Modern Authors Index of Foreign Words and Phrases Index of Primary Sources

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8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The production of this translation has been a long-term project, extending, with stops and starts, over more than twenty years. I am grateful to the following for their help and support. Central College in Pella, Iowa, provided a research and development grant in 1992 which allowed for the purchase of books that made this one possible. The Biblioteca Mediceo Laurenziana and the Rijks Universiteit Leiden kindly granted permission, respectively, for me to publish material from manuscripts Florence Laurentziana Plut. 44/13 and Leiden Or Microfijilm copies of the manuscripts were provided by the Institute of Microfijilmed Hebrew Manuscripts of the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem. Use copies of microfijilms of the manuscripts were also lent to me earlier by the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center in Claremont. The University of St. Andrews provided me with a semester of research leave in 2008, followed by a year of research leave in during which I was able to fijinish the project. Passages from this translation have appeared in my article 4QMess ar (4Q534) and Merkavah Mysticism, Dead Sea Discoveries 5 (1998): ; in my book Descenders to the Chariot: The People Behind the Hekhalot Literature (Brill, 2001); and in my article Melchizedek, the Youth, and Jesus, pp in The Dead Sea Scrolls as Background to Postbiblical Judaism and Early Christianity: Papers from an International Conference at St. Andrews in 2001 (ed. James R. Davila; Brill, 2003). The reprinted material has been heavily revised and is presented here for the fijirst time with a full critical apparatus. I am grateful to Brill for permission to republish the earlier material. The Divinity School of the University of St. Andrews paid for the preparation of the indices for this volume, which were produced by Mr. Garrick Allen. Brill s production editor, Michael Mozina, and his team handled the very complex and difffijicult manuscript of this book with meticulous care and caught many small errors during its typesetting. Any errors of any kind that remain are my responsibility alone. This book is dedicated to my son, Ted Davila, and to the memory of my mother, Lois A. Davila. St. Andrews 28 March 2013

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10 chapter one INTRODUCTION 1. The Hekhalot Literature The Hekhalot literature is a motley collection of textually fluid and often textually corrupt documents in Hebrew and Aramaic which deal with mystical themes associated especially with visions of God s throne-chariot (the merkavah or chariot, hence Merkavah mysticism ), control over angels, and detailed descriptions of the heavenly realm. 1 The texts are rambling and often incoherent. Each paragraph is normally attributed (pseudepigraphically) to a Tannaitic rabbi, almost always R. Akiva, R. Ishmael, or R. Nehuniah ben HaQanah. 2 Broadly speaking, the Hekhalot literature focuses on two main themes. The fijirst is how a practitioner may ascend (or, frequently and paradoxically, descend 3 ) to heaven in order to be transformed, at least temporarily, into a being of fijire; to join in the angelic liturgy in the divine throne room; and to sit enthroned, sometimes on God s lap, and be granted theurgic power. The second is how the practitioner may gain control over angels, especially the Sar Torah or Prince of Torah who can grant expertise in rabbinic Torah lore without the need for the normal arduous study. These texts are fijilled with descriptions of the seven-tiered heaven that contains seven hekhalot ( palaces, hence, Hekhalot literature ), 1 For basic orientation to the Hekhalot literature see Peter Schäfer, The Hidden and Manifest God and James R. Davila, Descenders to the Chariot, chapter 1. For reservations about the use of the term mysticism for these texts, see ibid., chapter two, and Schäfer, The Origins of Jewish Mysticism, chapter one. Ra#anan S. Boustan has a recent discussion of the current state of the question in Hekhalot studies in The Study of Heikhalot Literature: Between Mystical Experience and Textual Artifact. The main editions of the texts are Schäfer et al., Synopse zur Hekhalot-Literatur and Schäfer, Geniza Fragmente zur Hekhalot- Literature. All citations below are given according to the paragraph and text numbering in these editions. 2 The Tannaim were Palestinian Jewish sages from the fijirst to early third centuries ce whose sayings are quoted in the Mishnah. 3 Various explanations of this odd idiom have been proposed, none of them fully convincing. See Annelies Kuyt, The Descent to the Chariot; Christopher R.A. Morray-Jones, The Temple Within, esp. pp

11 2 chapter one concentrically arranged, with the centermost, and evidently the largest, containing the celestial throne room, with God seated on his throne-chariot surrounded by attending angels who sing the celestial liturgy. But for the most part the texts are not simply descriptions of the heavenly realm, they are instruction manuals on how to carry out the two main goals, the heavenly ascent or descent to the chariot and the acquiring of power over angels, especially the Prince of Torah. The instructions consist of detailed accounts of the ritual practices to be performed, along with the texts of numerous songs and adjurations to be sung and recited. These songs and adjurations are often beautiful and carefully crafted poetic pieces, but these are interspersed and interlarded with long lists of divine names, nonsense words (nomina barbara), and names of angels, all of which are, again, intended for recitation in the rituals. Unlike the Second-Temple-era and later apocalypses (see below), the focus of the Hekhalot literature is on this instructional material rather than on stories involving the adventures of its protagonists. Nevertheless, one narrative about the Tannaitic rabbis that also appears in the rabbinic texts is found in the Hekhalot literature and has received a good deal of attention in both Jewish tradition and the scholarly literature. This is the Story of the Four Who Entered Pardes (the garden or paradise ). It is found in the Hekhalot Zutarti ( , , 348; G7) and Merkavah Rabba ( ) and is alluded to in 3 Enoch (chapter 16 = 20) and an independent fragment at 597. (For these documents, see the next section.) According to the story, the four sages, Akiva and three others, usually named as Ben Azzay, Ben Zoma, and Aḣer ( the Other Elisha ben Avuyah), entered pardes. In the Hekhalot version, this is identifijied with the celestial Paradise. When each arrived at the entrance to the sixth palace, they perceived the alabaster stones there as though they were myriads of waves of water about to swamp them. Ben Azzay asked what the nature of these waters was and was promptly killed by the angels in that palace. Ben Zoma refrained from asking this, but the efffort cost him his sanity. Aḣer cut the plants, an obscure term, interpreted in diffferent ways, but amounting to saying that his experience in the sixth palace led him to become the arch-heretic of Jewish tradition. The original meaning of the Story of the Four is debated, with some scholars arguing that it was originally a parable involving proper exegesis of scripture, with the context of heavenly ascents being a later reinterpretation, and others taking the position that it involved heavenly ascents from the beginning. The so-called water test also appears on its own in both the Hekhalot Zutarti ( ) and the Hekhalot Rabbati ( 259) as one of the tests facing any descender to the

12 introduction 3 chariot who wishes to pass through the sixth palace and into the divine throne room The Texts Broadly speaking, there are two sources for the texts of the Hekhalot literature. First, there are some forty-seven manuscripts dating from the High Middle Ages onward which contain mostly complete copies of the larger compositions. 5 Second, the Cairo Geniza (an important cache of manuscripts recovered in the late nineteenth century from the geniza 6 of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo) has preserved numerous early medieval fragments of Hekhalot texts, some of documents known from the later manuscripts and some otherwise unknown. The boundaries and contents of the individual larger compositions are frequently difffijicult to defijine, inasmuch as the basic unit of these documents, as is noted above, consists of single paragraphs ( microforms in Schäfer s terminology) which frequently stand on their own. The larger compositions or macroforms consist of collections of these microforms and a given macroform often appears in the manuscripts in multiple recensions that contain more or fewer microforms in somewhat diffferent orderings. Thus, although it is convenient to group the Hekhalot literature by its macroforms and these groups tell us something about the transmission history and interpretation of the traditions, the fullest understanding of the material comes only through careful attention to the individual microforms. Schäfer s synoptic edition of seven important Hekhalot manuscripts has made the textual fluidity of the macroforms abundantly clear, and this edition, along with his edition of the Hekhalot Geniza fragments, now provides the textual foundation for the study of the Hekhalot literature. 7 4 For the state of the question regarding the Story of the Four, see the discussion and bibliography later in this chapter and in chapter four. For the water test and the entrance test (Hekhalot Zutarti 407 and Hekhalot Rabbati 258) see Joseph Dan, The Entrance of the Sixth Palace (cf. idem, The Ancient Jewish Mysticism, chapter vi) and J. Maier, Das Gefährdungsmotif bei der Himmelsreise. 5 These manuscripts are surveyed by Schäfer in Handschriften zur Hekhalot-Literatur and by Klaus Herrmann in Massekhet Hekhalot, A geniza is a repository for worn manuscripts on which the name of God is written. The manuscripts are retained in a geniza until they can be disposed of in an acceptable manner according to Jewish tradition. Over a period lasting a millennium the Cairo Geniza was used to discard a vast number of old manuscripts, not all of which contained the name of God. 7 Schäfer et al., Synopse. For an important critique of Schäfer s editorial methods in the

13 4 chapter one The following macroforms are found in the complete medieval manuscripts. Hekhalot Rabbati ( , , ), the Greater (Book of the Heavenly) Palaces, is the longest and most textually stable macroform. Along with numerous Merkavah hymns about the glories of both the celestial realm and of the descenders to the chariot, it includes a version of the Story of the Ten Martyrs, which is known elsewhere in Jewish tradition in various forms; an instructional account of a descent to the chariot by R. Nehuniah in the company of his disciples; and a description of the water test. 8 Sar Torah 9 ( ), the Prince of Torah, gives instructions on how to summon and control the Prince of Torah so as to compel him to reveal knowledge of Torah to the practitioner. This macroform almost always is appended to the Hekhalot Rabbati and there are signifijicant manuscript variations in the last third of it. Hekhalot Zutarti (approximately , ), the Lesser (Book of the Heavenly) Palaces, survives in somewhat varied manuscripts and contains adjurational material; the above-mentioned Story of the Four Who Entered Paradise; and a set of instructions for the descent to the chariot. 10 Ma#aseh Merkavah ( ), the Working of the Chariot, is a collection of adjurations and rituals for controlling angels and ascending to heaven; descriptions of the heavenly realm; and Merkavah hymns. The manuscripts survive in three recensions. 11 Synopse, see Daniel Abrams, Critical and Post-Critical Textual Scholarship of Jewish Mystical Literature, esp. pp and idem, Kabbalistic Manuscripts, 37 47, A German translation of the texts in the Synopse is found in Schäfer and Herrmann et al., Übersetzung der Hekhalot-Literatur I 1 80; Schäfer et al., Übersetzung der Hekhalot-Literatur II ; idem, Übersetzung der Hekhalot-Literatur III ; idem, Übersetzung der Hekhalot- Literatur IV The Geniza fragments are published by Schäfer in Geniza Fragmente. Another crucially important tool for the study of the Hekhalot literature is Schäfer with Gottfried Reeg et al., Konkordanz zur Hekhalot-Literatur. 8 See also Schäfer, Zum Problem der redaktionellen Identität von Hekhalot Rabbati ; Davila, Prolegomena to a Critical Edition of the Hekhalot Rabbati. 9 I italicize the phrase Sar Torah when it refers to this particular macroform and write it in Roman type as Sar Torah when it refers either to the angel with that name or to other ritual practices involving this angel. 10 Rachel Elior published an earlier edition in Hekhalot Zutarti. See also Schäfer, Aufbau und redaktionelle Identität der Hekhalot Zutarti. 11 Alexander Altman published excerpts of the Ma#aseh Merkavah in Shire Qedushah be-sifrut ha-hekhalot ha-qedumah. Gershom G. Scholem published an earlier edition of the complete text in Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition,

14 introduction 5 Merkavah Rabba ( ), the Greater (Book of the) Chariot, is a compendium of instructions for Torah-memory practices and Shi#ur Qomah traditions. It survives in a long and a short recension. 12 Sefer Hekhalot ( 1 79), The Book of the Palaces, is also known as 3Enoch (after [Ethiopic] 1Enoch and [Slavonic] 2Enoch). This text comes in the form of an apocalypse, a revelatory discourse granted to R. Ishmael, who ascends to heaven and there meets the angel Metatron (the patriarch Enoch transformed into an archangel). Metatron relates the history of his own exaltation and enthronement, as well as of his dethronement when Elisha ben Avuyah ascended and mistook him for a second god (see on the Story of the Four Who Entered Paradise above). Metatron then takes R. Ishmael on a long tour of the universe. This work survives in a long and a short recension, with variations even among these. It contains no magical or ritual material, although the fragment from the Cairo Geniza (see below) does include some such material. 13 Shi#ur Qomah, the Measure of the Stature, consists of diverse material that focuses on the measurements and names of the various gigantic body parts of God. Schäfer s Synopse contains some material from this corpus, but the major complete manuscripts and recensions have been edited by Martin Samuel Cohen. 14 Massekhet Hekhalot, the Treatise of the Palaces, is a borderline case that arguably should not be included among the Hekhalot literature. It contains detailed descriptions of the celestial realm, but these are not connected to a heavenly ascent and there are no ritual instructions, song and adjurations, or Sar Torah materials. It has been edited by Klaus Herrmann. 15 The complete medieval manuscripts contain other short texts and fragments, including a Sar Torah rite called The Chapter of R. Nehuniah See also Naomi Janowitz, The Poetics of Ascent: Theories of Language in a Rabbinic Ascent Text; Michael D. Swartz, Liturgical Elements in Early Jewish Mysticism and idem, Mystical Prayer in Ancient Judaism. 12 See also Schäfer, Prolegomena zu einer kritischen Edition und Analyse der Merkava Rabba. 13 See also the edition of Hugo Odeberg, 3 Enoch, or the Hebrew Book of Enoch and note the German translation by Schäfer and Herrmann et al. in Übersetzung, vol. 1, and the English translation by P.S. Alexander in OTP 1: Cohen, The Shi#ur Qomah: Liturgy and Theurgy; idem, The Shi#ur Qomah: Texts and Recensions. See also Schäfer, Shi#ur Qoma: Rezensionen und Urtext. 15 Herrmann has produced an edition and German translation in Massekhet Hekhalot.

15 6 chapter one ben HaQanah ( ); the incantation prayers 16 in The Great Seal- Fearsome Crown ( // ); a brief account of The Ascent of Elisha ben Avuyah ( 597); the Sar Panim ( ), a collections of rites and adjurations to control the angelic Prince of the Presence; and a passage about The Youth (ha-na#ar), an angelic high-priestly fijigure who leads the celestial liturgy. In Geniza-Fragmente, Schäfer also published twenty-three fragmentary manuscripts from the Cairo Geniza, the most important of which are the following. The Ozhayah Fragment (G8), an instructional account of the descent to the chariot involving the angel Ozhayah as guide, followed by a Sar Torah instruction. The Unicum (i.e., unique ) Fragment (G22) is a collection of Hekhalot adjurations and Merkavah hymns. It is preceded in the manuscript by Shi#ur Qomah material. 17 Fragments of the Hekhalot Rabbati (G1 G6), 18 the Hekhalot Zutarti (G7, G16, G18), an otherwise unknown recension of the beginning of 3 Enoch (G12), 19 the Sar Panim (G1), and Shi#ur Qomah traditions (G4, G8, G9, G10, G11). Sometimes these fragments provide a better text than the much later complete medieval manuscripts. Other texts published in Geniza Fragmente fall on the borderline of the Hekhalot literature. One may well include the fragment involving Metatron and Moses (G19), but we should exclude the work known as Sheva Zutarti (the Lesser Adjuration ) or Sheva Eliyahu (the Adjuration of Elijah ), copies of which are found in G13 G17 and elsewhere. G11 also contains an otherwise unknown passage about Metatron. G20 is a collection of magical recipes for various practical purposes. G21 opens with an adjuration but then segues into a long account of the ascent of Moses to heaven. G23 is from Pereq Shirah, a text outside the Hekhalot corpus, known from elsewhere. 16 For the genre incantation prayer see Schäfer, Jewish Magic Literature, Both the Ozhayah Fragment and the Unicum Fragment were originally published by Ithamar Gruenwald in New Passages from Hekhalot Literature. It is entirely possible (and indeed likely, given the recovery of G8, G19, and G22, discussed below) that other texts existed in the Geonic era which we would class as Hekhalot literature had they survived. Dan notes possible quotations from such lost works in Hekhalot Texts in the Middle Ages, Schäfer has also published another very interesting Geniza fragment of the Hekhalot Rabbati in Ein neues Hekhalot Rabbati-Fragment. 19 See also Schäfer, Ein neues Fragment zur Metoposkopie und Chiromantik.

16 introduction 7 Still other texts from the Geniza and elsewhere have thematic overlaps and connections with the Hekhalot literature, but should not be classed as part of that literature. 20 Re"uot Yeḣezqel, the Visions of Ezekiel is a midrashic work that describes the visionary ascent of Ezekiel through the seven heavens, using some of the same terminology and ideas as those found in the Hekhalot literature. 21 Seder Rabba de Bereshit, the Great Order of Creation, is a cosmological tractate that describes the seven heavens and the seven hells. 22 Various magical tractates such as Sefer HaRazim, the Book of the Mysteries include adjurations and cosmological speculations with parallels to the Hekhalot texts, as do some of the fragments of magical handbooks and treatises recovered from the Geniza. 23 There are also physiognomic treatises that describe a person s character and destiny based on their physical appearance and these refer to themes and practices known from the Hekhalot texts. 24 This volume translates most of the major macroforms in chapters two through six: Hekhalot Rabbati, Sar Torah, Hekhalot Zutarti, Ma#aseh Merkavah, and Merkavah Rabba. The shorter texts mentioned above are also translated in chapter seven: The Chapter of R. Nehuniah ben HaQanah, The Great Seal- Fearsome Crown, Sar Panim, The Ascent of Elisha ben Avuyah, and The Youth. In chapter eight the Geniza fragments of Hekhalot Rabbati, Hekhalot Zutarti, 3 Enoch, Sar Panim, and some related material (G1 7, G12, G16, and G75) are translated, as are G8, G19, and G22. I have chosen not to translate three of the longer macroforms. An excellent English translation of an eclectic critical text of 3 Enoch by Philip Alexander was published as part of the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha corpus edited by James H. Charlesworth in 1983 and a German translation of the Vatican manuscript, with variants from other major manuscripts, was published by Peter Schäfer and Klaus Herrmann in I saw no need to produce another 20 For a survey of broadly mystical books which includes most of the works mentioned in this paragraph and more, see Dan, The Ancient Jewish Mysticism, But Dan and I are largely in agreement regarding the primary books of ancient Jewish mysticism. 21 For an English translation and discussion of Re"uot Yeḣezqel see David J. Halperin, The Faces of the Chariot, , For a recent discussion see Peter Schäfer, In Heaven as It is in Hell: The Cosmology of Seder Rabba di-bereshit. 23 A new edition of all the manuscript evidence and a German translation of Sefer HaRazim has been published by Bill Rebiger and Peter Schäfer in Sefer ha-razim I und II. For a discussion of some of the relevant magical texts see Davila, Descenders to the Chariot, chapter For a survey of the physiognomic texts and a discussion of their relation to the Hekhalot literature see ibid., See n. 13 above.

17 8 chapter one English translation of this text. Massekhet Hekhalot has been translated into German by Herrmann. Although an English translation is a desideratum, for reasons noted above it is doubtful that this text should be included in the Hekhalot corpus and I do not translate it here. The Shi#ur Qomah corpus is a loose collection of traditions rather than a single text and its relationship to the other Hekhalot texts is somewhat tangential. Cohen has produced a translation of the various recensions. His work, however, needs to be revised to take fully into account the much earlier Geniza material published by Schäfer. This would be a worthy project in itself, but it is one outside the scope of this volume. In the introduction to chapter eight I have discussed my reasons for including or excluding Geniza manuscripts published in Geniza-Fragmente. 3. Key Issues in Research on the Hekhalot Literature Heavenly Ascents and Sar Torah Adjurations The question of the central themes of the Hekhalot literature has generated much discussion and debate in the last generation, with two themes emerging as especially important. The fijirst is the heavenly ascent (or descent to the chariot ), instructions for which appear in the Hekhalot Rabbati ( ) and the Hekhalot Zutarti ( ) 26 The second is the control of angels for various purposes, especially adjurations and ritual instructions to compel the Prince of Torah to descend and reveal expertise in Torah lore to the practitioner. Gershom G. Scholem, the pioneer of critical study of the Hekhalot literature in the twentieth century, saw the ascent traditions as the central theme of the Hekhalot literature, with the adjurations and rituals preparatory to them, and the aim of the ascent to achieve a direct vision of God. Although he thought the adjurational material in the Hekhalot texts to belong to the very core of their particular religious system, he regarded at least much of the Sar Torah traditions as a later and somewhat degenerate aspect of these texts Additional references to heavenly ascents in the context of ritual instruction include Ma#aseh Merkavah 547, 550, 570, ; G8; G22 1b Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, 40 79, quotation on p. 51. See also idem, Jewish Gnosticism, Gruenwald has argued a similar position, dividing the Hekhalot literature into genuinely mystical heavenly ascent traditions and traditions about the appearance of angels on earth to reveal mysteries. He argues that the Sar Torah materials are later, post-mystical developments. See his Apocalyptic and Merkavah Mysticism, ,

18 introduction 9 But beginning in the 1980s Schäfer, David J. Halperin, and Martha Himmelfarb began to challenge this understanding of the texts and to show that elements of it were unsatisfactory. A considerably larger proportion of the Hekhalot literature is devoted to adjurations and rituals involving the coercion of the Prince of Torah and other angels than to the heavenly ascent. 28 Apart from naïve theories of evolutionary religious thought, there is no inherent reason to suppose that mystical thinking involving an ascent to heaven to experience the beatifijic vision is more original or fundamental than magical thinking of the type involving adjurations and rituals for the coercion of angels to do the will of the practitioner. And a close reading of the texts shows that the purpose of the heavenly ascent is more complex and less obviously mystical than was thought at fijirst. The ascent in the Hekhalot Rabbati culminates in the seating of the practitioner in the celestial throne room, where the choir of angels regales him with their music, and in a later ascent passage (Hekhalot Rabbati ) a practitioner who reaches the throne of God recites the hymns sung by the throne itself. In the Hekhalot Zutarti the practitioner is seated on the lap of God and granted whatever wish he desires. 29 The vision of God, although apparently an important part of the process of ascent, is not its aim and purpose. It is clear that the heavenly ascent and the Sar Torah traditions must be distinguished; that each must be understood on its own terms; and that ritual and adjuration are central to the Hekhalot literature and cannot be regarded as secondary or less valid than the ascent. Debate continues on whether some central overarching theme can subsume and make sense of both these core themes. Exegesis, Experience, and Praxis Scholem accepted that actual practitioners made use of the rituals in the Hekhalot texts and that the descriptions of the ascents and angelic encounters on some level reflected experiences that arose from these practices. Moreover, he understood that the warnings in the Tannaitic and Amoraic Halperin, A New Edition of the Hekhalot Literature, esp. pp ; Schäfer, The Aim and Purpose of Early Jewish Mysticism, esp. pp. 282; idem, The Hidden and Manifest God, ; Himmelfarb, Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses, Schäfer, Aim and Purpose, Other passages have other objectives for the heavenly ascent. See Davila, Descenders to the Chariot, The Amoraim are Palestinian and Babylonian sages who lived from the early third century ce to the end of the fijifth century and whose sayings are quoted in the Gemara (post- Mishnaic traditions) of the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds and the Midrashim.

19 10 chapter one rabbinic literature against misuse or even use of ma#aseh merkavah referred to the use of the rituals and traditions found in the Hekhalot literature. 31 This position began to be challenged in 1980 with the work of Halperin on the rabbinic traditions about ma#aseh merkavah and the Story of the Four Who Entered Paradise. Halperin concluded that the Tannaitic traditions about this material knew nothing of the Hekhalot traditions, but rather referred to traditions of scriptural exegesis that the rabbis found objectionable. 32 He went on to elaborate this position in a 1988 work of vast scope and erudition. 33 He argued that the Hekhalot traditions developed as an unanticipated side track from third-century ce Palestinian sermons associated with the festival of Shavuot and connected particularly with R. Joshua ben Levi in Caesarea. None of these sermons survive, but Halperin reconstructed what he regarded to be their basic content from Re"uot Yeḣezqel, homilies of the contemporary church father Origen, and other Jewish midrashic and homiletic sources. The basic exegetical strategy of these sermons was to connect Ezekiel s vision of the Merkavah in Ezekiel 1 and 10 with the revelation of Torah on Mount Sinai in Exodus 19, this by way of Ps 68:18 19, which connected the divine chariotry with Sinai. The reference to an ascent in Psalm 68 was developed into a myth in which Moses ascended to heaven, overcame angelic opposition, laid hold of God s throne, and received the Torah to bring back to Israel. The connection between Psalm 68 and Ezekiel s vision is attested in the Second Temple period in the ancient Greek translation (the Septuagint) of Ezekiel and in the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifijice from Qumran, so the third century Shavuot sermons were developing an old theme, through which they offfered a considerable exegetical payofff in opening the possibility of learning more about the nature of the deeply enshrouded Sinai revelation through the details of Ezekiel s mysterious vision. According to Halperin, the Hekhalot traditions developed when some exegetes carried elements of this myth to conclusions never anticipated by its formulators. Its themes were combined with the myth of the ascent to heaven of the patriarch Enoch, producing the Hekhalot myth of the transformation of Enoch into the angel Metatron, to which the Moses ascent myth has many parallels. The ascent of Moses also served as a paradigm for the Hekhalot practitioners, who likewise ascend to the very throne of God and who likewise 31 Scholem, Major Trends, 42 43; idem, Kabbalah, Cf. Gruenwald, Apocalyptic and Merkavah Mysticism, Halperin, The Merkabah in Rabbinic Literature, Halperin, The Faces of the Chariot.

20 introduction 11 compel angels to deliver up the secrets of Torah. The heavenly journey is thus no more than a fantasy that validates the theurgic rituals used by the Hekhalot practitioners as a short-cut to gain both unearned knowledge of Torah and the social status that accompanies such knowledge. Halperin acknowledged the possibility that some practitioners experienced hallucinations corresponding to the visionary traditions in the Hekhalot texts, but he regarded these as an unimportant by-product of what was ultimately a feat of exegetical creativity that produced the foundation myth of the Hekhalot literature. 34 He noted that the ascent instructions in the Hekhalot Zutarti end with the command to recite this mishnah ( 419) and concluded that the Hekhalot practitioners thought it necessary only to recite accounts of the ascents of ancient worthies, not to embark on their own ascents. 35 Without necessarily accepting Halperin s entire reconstruction, Schäfer, Himmelfarb, and Michael D. Swartz agreed that the basis of the Hekhalot traditions was literary expression based on exegesis of scripture and that the heavenly journey was of secondary importance, probably mainly as a fijictional paradigm involving Tannaitic rabbis. 36 Halperin s reconstruction of the exegetical undergirding of the Hekhalot traditions, while speculative in many respects, has many persuasive elements and there may be much truth to it. The Hekhalot literature assumes a complex web of scriptural connections that include not only Ezekiel s vision, the Sinai event, and Psalm 68, but also the Sinai vision of God on the sapphire pavement in Exod 24:9 11; Isaiah s vision of God in chapter 6; the divine silence of 1 Kgs 19:12; the camps of God in Gen 32:1 2; the vision of the Ancient of Days in Dan 7:9 10; the divine chariot and fijiery angels of Ps 104:1 4; and the earthly temple and temple cult of 1 Chronicles as a template for the celestial throne room and the angelic liturgy. These connections were already in place in the Second Temple period. 37 Scriptural exegesis is fundamental to any overarching explanation of the origins and meaning of the Hekhalot literature. That said, although literary skill and exegesis are fundamental, they are not sufffijicient, and their importance should by no means lead us to dismiss or downplay the experiential elements in the Hekhalot texts. Indeed, to drive 34 Ibid., Halperin, A New Edition, ; idem, The Faces of the Chariot, Schäfer, Aim and Purpose, 294; Himmelfarb, Ascent to Heaven, ; Swartz, Scholastic Magic. 37 Davila, The Macrocosmic Temple.