Front Matter (PDF) - Stanford University Press
Front Matter (PDF) - Stanford University Press
Front Matter (PDF) - Stanford University Press
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dark on her own but receivingand givingoff the light of the sun. She is<br />
moon,<br />
sea, into whom all waters ¯ow; the earth, longing to be fructi®ed by the<br />
the<br />
that falls from heaven. She is the heavenly Jerusalem, into whom the King<br />
rain<br />
enter; She is the throne upon which He is seated, the Temple or Taberna-<br />
will<br />
dwellingplace of His glory. She is also Keneset Yisra'el, the embodied<br />
cle,<br />
[or: Assembly] of Israel'' itself, identi®ed with the Jewish people.<br />
``Community<br />
tenth se®rah is a passive/receptive female with regard to the se®rot above<br />
The<br />
receivingtheir energies and beingful®lled by their presence within Her.<br />
Her,<br />
She is ruler, source of life, and font of all blessingfor the worlds below,<br />
But<br />
human soul. The kabbalist sees himself as a devotee of the<br />
includingthe<br />
She may never be worshiped separately from the divine unity.<br />
Shekhinah.<br />
this separation of Shekhinah from the forces above was the terrible sin<br />
Indeed,<br />
Adam that brought about exile from Eden. Yet it is only through Her that<br />
of<br />
have access to the mysteries beyond. All prayer is channelled through<br />
humans<br />
seekingto energize Her and raise Her up in order to effect the se®rotic<br />
Her,<br />
The primary function of the religious life, with all its duties and obliga-<br />
unity.<br />
is to rouse the Shekhinah into a state of love.<br />
tions,<br />
realms outside the divine proceed from Shekhinah. She is surrounded<br />
All<br />
immediately by a richly pictorialized host. Sometimes these surrounding<br />
most<br />
are seen as angels; at others, they are the maidens who attend the Bride<br />
beings<br />
Her marriage canopy. They inhabit and rule over variously described realms<br />
at<br />
``palaces'' of light and joy. The Zohar devotes much attention to describing<br />
or<br />
such palaces with names that include ``Palace of Love,'' ``Palace of the<br />
seven<br />
Pavement'' (alludingto the vision of God in Exodus 24:10), ``Palace of<br />
Sapphire<br />
and so forth. The ``palaces'' (heikhalot) of the Zoharic world are<br />
Desire,''<br />
derived from the remains of the ancient Merkavah or Heikhalot<br />
historically<br />
a tradition that was only dimly remembered by the Zohar's day.<br />
mysticism,<br />
placingthe heikhalot beneath the Shekhinah, the kabbalists mean to say that<br />
In<br />
visionary ascent of the Merkavah mystic was a somewhat lesser sort of<br />
the<br />
experience than their own symbolic/contemplative ascent to the<br />
religious<br />
of the se®rotic universe, one that ascended with the Shekhinah as She<br />
heights<br />
into the highest realms. While the inner logic of the kabbalists'<br />
reached<br />
thinkingwould seem to indicate that all beings, including the<br />
emanational<br />
universe, ¯ow forth from Shekhinah, the medieval abhorrence of<br />
physical<br />
with corporeality complicates the picture, leavingKabbalah<br />
associatingGod<br />
a complex and somewhat divided attitude toward the material world. The<br />
with<br />
in which we live, especially for the Zohar, is a thorough mingling of<br />
world<br />
and demonic elements. Both the holy imprint of the ten se®rot and the<br />
divine<br />
structure of multilayered qelippot, or demonic ``shells,'' are to be<br />
frightening<br />
within it.<br />
found<br />
Introduction<br />
xlix