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Courses
Eating from the Tree of Life: A Course on the Zohar
Translated Texts
THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
COMMENTARY: THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON Often, when the Zohar wants to say something new, it pretends
it is old hat. Throughout this passage the Zohar uses phrases
that label everything it is saying as well-established, ancient
teachings: "it is taught", "this has been established", and so
on, ending with Rabbi Shim'on's disclaimer, "this has been said
before". These are signals of how radical this text really is. Rabbi Abba said: It is written: The wisdom of Solomon... The rabbis speak in praise of settled, peaceful wisdom. Yet when
they settle into conversation, their theme is a terrifying vision
of Malkhut. We have been taught: A thousand mighty mountains, in front of
her, are just one bite for her... The description of Malkhut with Her giant size, voracious appetite,
grasping claws, and monstrous hair, recalls the Hindu iconography
of the goddess Kali. Kali is typically coloured pitch black, with
a red tongue and white fangs, wearing a necklace of skulls, holding
weapons in Her many hands and dancing on a living or dead male
body. Born to this fierce goddess is Metatron, the greatest and most
powerful angel, whom earlier midrashic texts call the Prince of
the World (Sar haOlam) and "the little YHVH" (YHVH ha-katan).
As mentioned in the introduction to this text, there is danger
in contact with him. This is the lad who holds six hundred and thirteen exalted keys
from the domain of Mother. Six hundred and thirteen is the well-known traditional number
of commandments in the Torah. The commandments come "from the
domain of Mother". "Mother" here is Binah, the source of judgment and division.The Zohar often emphasizes
observance of the commandments, but at this moment in its vision
of reality the commandments have a rather secondary place, as
keys hanging from the sword of an angel -- greatest of all angels
though he be. Under the lad shelter the living things (Chayot) of the field... These living things are further levels of angels, specifically
the angels seen by the prophet Ezekiel in his great vision. In
Ezekiel these angels surrounded a human image on a throne, understood
to be the presence of God (Ezekiel 1:26). Perhaps, as the Zohar
is imagining things here, that human image was Metatron. Come and see: holy Israel on high is called the son of his mother...
So too below, this one is called his mother's lad... "Israel on high" is Tif'eret. Jacob, who embodied Tif'eret, is
also called Israel. "His mother" is Binah. The clippings of her fingernails... These are demonic forces; the imagery of fingernail clippings
means that they are originally part of Her yet have grown away
from Her and become separated. Yet to really know Her would mean
knowing them as well. And because King Solomon inherited the full Moon, he wanted to
also receive her in her waning... King Solomon wants to know the dark side of Malkhut. This means
connecting with demonic forces. There are many Jewish and Muslim
legends of Solomon communicating with demons. In fact, he got
the shamir, mentioned earlier in this passage, from Ashmodai,
king of the demons. Kabbalists communicated with demons as well. "From all the Children of Before..." "Ashmodai, king of the demons": Talmud Gittin 68a. Moshe Idel, a leading scholar on Kabbalah, quotes a medieval text
that proudly says, "all our Rabbis of Castile [Spain] have served
in the palace of Sama'el". Not something included in the curriculum
of most rabbinical schools today! According to the great commentary on the Zohar by Rabbi Moshe
Cordovero (16th century), the Children of Before, or Kings of
Edom, were manifestations of God from the deepest levels of the
Divine, but they were divine emanations that could not last and
returned to nothingness. This idea is connected with midrashic
legends which say that God created and destroyed many worlds before
this one, and that God intended to create the world purely with
the power of judgment but found that it could not endure that
way, and so created it with Chesed, lovingkindness.
"The power of judgment" is harshly manifested in Esau (see Module
3, Jacob and Esau), and Edom is the nation descended from Esau
(Genesis 36:43). ... The one that includes male and female, called Hadar... According to Cordovero, Hadar (Beauty) is an aspect of divine
Wisdom (the Sefira Chokhmah, or its hidden beginnings). Since
it "includes male and female" it is the foundation of all the
male and female polarities and unions among the Sefirot. ... Solomon... was her fitting counterpart... and this is why
his mother was Bathsheba. Bathsheba, Bat Sheva, means "daughter of seven". This is a name
of Malkhut, who is the "daughter" of the seven Sefirot before
her, counting from Binah. All was included in the Wisdom of Solomon -- the wisdom of the
Children of Before and the wisdom of Egypt. "The wisdom of Egypt" is occult, demonic wisdom. Malkhut, who
includes good and bad, life and death, here includes a vast spectrum
of spiritual reality, from the highest, most hidden divine emanations
to the lowest demonic powers. "God gave wisdom to Solomon": THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON: QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION
Please read this text: The nineteenth-century Hindu mystic Sri Ramakrishna was once meditating
on the bank of a sacred river when he saw a beautiful, pregnant
woman emerging from the water. She gave birth, and tenderly held
and nursed her baby. Then, as he looked on, she became a terrifying
monster, devoured her child, and sank back into the river. Sri
Ramakrishna bowed his head and worshipped, knowing that he had
seen the Goddess, the divine personification of nature, which
constantly brings life into being and destroys it. Do you think the religious experiences underlying these texts
are fundamentally different?
It is taught: One day Rabbi Shim'on was going from Kapotkia to
Lud...
Malkhut is called "Wisdom" because She receives from the Sefirah Chokhmah (Wisdom). Similarly, She is called "Moon" because She receives
the light of the Sun, Tif'eret; the "Field" because She is sown with seed from Yesod. In this passage, though all these names are used, it is not
Her receptiveness that is celebrated, but Her terrifying power.
In the previous selections we learned that Malkhut includes judgment as well as compassion and the power of life and death. This passage focuses on the aspects of Her that are connected
with judgment and death, in all their power.
This kind of goddess imagery arises from intense male emotional
experiences of simultaneous attraction to, and fear of, women,
extended to reality as a whole in all its beauty and terror. This
is a vision of reality which does not expect it to be nice. As
my teacher Devorah Schoenfeld notes concerning the ancient Sumerian
myths of Inanna, another warrior goddess, "the Goddess doesn't
have to be any more moral, or less arbitrary, than nature is."
One youth, whose measure is from the height of the world to the
end of the world, emerges between her legs...
The Zohar's imagery of Metatron as the son of Malkhut may be a
deliberate reworking of Christian imagery of Jesus as the son
of God and Mary.
The "geography" of the Zohar's vision is complicated, with many
spiritual forces playing a part. It is not altogether clear what
is part of Malkhut and what is a separate being, and where Metatron,
the living beings, the hair of Malkhut, Her fingernails and their
clippings, and the spirits and demons, stand in relation to each
other. Though Malkhut is the Divine Presence, in this vision at
least She does not simply fill our souls and the world. There
is a lot of space between Her and us, and it is filled with angels
and demons -- though the boundary between Her and those angels
and demons is blurred.
Usually the parallel "below" would be Israel below, the Jewish
people. Here it is Metatron, "the lad". But the Zohar is blurring
the distinction between us and Metatron. This blurring is appropriate,
because Metatron was originally a human being, Enoch son of Yered,
who was taken into heaven and transformed. Jewish mystics before
the time of the Zohar identified with Enoch's ascent and transformation,
and sought ways to experience it; the Zohar may be inviting the
same identification.
Solomon was the wisest king, the one most connected with wisdom,
which this passage identifies with Malkhut. Rabbi Shim'on applies
the verse, "The Wisdom of Solomon grew..." (I Kings 5:10) to Malkhut.
The verse immediately before that says "God gave wisdom to Solomon."
In Biblical Hebrew idiom, this could mean that God, acting as
the father of the bride, gave Wisdom in marriage to Solomon. The
language of the Zohar, too, suggests marital imagery. It is consistent
with ancient Near Eastern mythology, which the Zohar often resembles,
that the hero would be the son of the goddess and also her consort.
On the human level, what is the wisdom which the Rabbis have been
speaking about? It is the wisdom of facing reality with open eyes,
seeing all its attractions and fears. Such wisdom truly, as Rabbi
Shim'on said to begin with, requires settled calm; if we did not
keep calm and settled, we would run away in terror.
I Kings 5:9:
Vayitein Elohim chochma l'Shlomo...
I mentioned my sense of goddess imagery as drawing on male fear
of and attraction to women, but of course women also worship,
or work with imagining, goddesses. I am particularly curious about
how women taking this course respond to the imagery of Malkhut
in this passage.