Session Five
Kabbalah
TEXTS: Part II
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This is a text from the Zohar, the most important book of Kabbalah,
which appeared in Spain in the late 13th century. This selection,
quite typical of the Zohar, is a poetic, imagistic reworking of
part of the Biblical story of Creation, in which every image represents
an aspect of God or your own soul. |
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TREES OF THE GARDEN -- from the Zohar on B'reshith (Zohar I 35a
f.)
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Rabbi Abba said, "The tree of life in the middle of the garden,
and the tree of knowing good and evil..." [Genesis 2:9] The tree
of life: we have learned [in Midrash Genesis Rabbah 15:6] that
it is a five-hundred-year journey high. And all the waters of
creation flow out from beneath it.
The tree of life is truly in the middle of the garden. It receives
all the waters of creation, and the flow out again from beneath
it. The outward-flowing river dwells above the garden and flows
into it, and from there its waters flow out in all directions.
The garden receives them all, and then they flow out from it,
and become many streams below, "[gushing forth in torrents, making
their way between the hills] for all the living creatures of the
field to drink" [Psalm 104:11]
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 The word for "field" here is "sadai", shin-dalet -yud, which looks
the same as Shaddai, one of the names of God.
This is probably meant to be noticed. |
-- when they flow out from the world on high, and water the high
mountains of pure balsam, and then come to the tree of life, and
flow out from beneath it to every place, each in its own way.
"And the tree of knowing good and evil." Why is it called that,
this tree which is not in the middle? "The tree of knowing good
and evil" -- what does that mean?
It suckles from both sides and knows them, like someone suckling
sweet and bitter, and because it suckles from both sides, and
knows them and dwells between them, it is called "good and evil".
And all the other plants dwell above it.
And all the other plants on high are joined to it.
And they are called "the cedars of Lebanon". What are the cedars
of Lebanon? They are the six days on high, the six days of creation
which we speak of, the real "[trees of HaShem which drink their
fill], cedars of Lebanon which He planted" [Psalm 104:16]. Once
they are planted, they continue to endure.
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| The Zohar follows Rashi's opinion that Eve was made from Adam's
"side", one half of an androgynous body, not from a "rib". |
| She had been at his side -- they were side by side. |
At this point [in Genesis] the letter "samekh" [which means "sustaining"]
appears for the first time. In what context?
"[God] _S_ealed up the flesh in her place" [Genesis 2:21] |
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| *The Blessed Holiness" is my preferred translation for Aramaic
"Kudsha brikh hu" and the equivalent Hebrew phrase, "HaKadosh
barukh hu". These phrases are commonly translated "the Holy One,
blessed be He" or The Holy Blessed One, but there is a scholarly
view that "Kudsha" or "HaKadosh" means "The Holiness", not "The
Holy One". ("Kudsha" in Aramaic is usually the equivalent of Hebrew
"HaKodesh", which would always be translated "The Holiness").
If so, the phrase is impersonal and not meant to sound male. A
word for word translation would be "The Holiness, blessed be It." |
The Blessed Holiness uprooted them and transplanted them to another
place, and turned them face to face, so they would endure. That
is how worlds are sustained. The Blessed Holiness* uproots them and plants them in another
place, and they endure in completeness.
Rabbi Abba said: How do we know that Adam and Eve were plants?
It is written: "The sprout of My planting, the work of My hands
in which I take pride" [Isaiah 60:21] Truly "the work of My planting"
-- no other creations worked on them. It is also written, "On
the day You plant, You see it grow" [Isaiah 17:11] -- on the same
day that they were planted in the world, they became corrupt.
We have learned [in Midrash Genesis Rabbah 15:1]: the plants were
like the antennae of grasshoppers, and their light was faint,
they did not shine. When they were planted and healed, they grew
in light, and were called cedars of Lebanon. Adam and Eve too
-- until they were planted, they did not grow in light, and there
was no fragrance, until they were uprooted and transplanted and
healed appropriately. "HaShem God commanded the human [saying:
from all the trees of the garden eat, yes, eat]" [Genesis 2:16].
We have learned
[in the Talmud, Sanhedrin 56b -- this is an example of Midrash
Halakhah and very different from the rest of this text]:
"Commanded" can only mean [a commandment forbidding] idolatry.
"HaShem" -- this is [a prohibition of] "blessing the Name" ["blessing"
here is a euphemism for "cursing", i.e. blasphemy]. "God [Elohim]"
-- this is [a commandment to have] judges ["Elohim" sometimes
means "judges".] "To the human" -- this is [a prohibition of]
shedding blood [of humans]. "Saying" -- this is [a prohibition
of] forbidden sexual relations ["saying" is sometimes a euphemism
for sex]. "From all the trees of the garden" -- not to steal [e.g.
from someone else's garden]. "Eat, yes, eat" -- [but] not to eat
a limb from a living animal.
This is well said. [But here is a mystical interpretation:] "From
all the trees of the garden eat, yes, eat" -- they were permitted
all, to eat from them as one.
For we see that Abraham ate, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets
ate, and they lived. But since this tree is the tree of death,
anyone who takes it by itself dies, since they have taken the
poison of death. And so, "On the day you eat from it you will
die, yes, die" [Genesis 2:17] -- because you have separated the
plants.
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(c) Justin Lewis, instructor
course offered through Kolel: The Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish
Learning |
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