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Eating from the Tree of Life: A Course on the Zohar

Translated Texts

HEAR, O ISRAEL

INTRODUCTION

This selection, like our first one, The Rose, is a kind of petichta: it begins with one verse of the Bible, "opens" it by interpreting other verses from completely different parts of the Bible, and finally returns to the verse it began with. That verse is the well-known song lyric from Psalms (Psalm 133:1):

Hinei ma tov uma na'im shevet achim gam yachad.
This is conventionally translated, "Behold, how good and how pleasant for brothers to dwell together." But that ignores the little word "gam", which means "also". A literal translation would say, "... to dwell, also, together". The Zohar, building on earlier Midrashim, asks what the "also" includes. Another translation issue is the word "achim"; the Zohar correctly understands that it can mean "siblings" -- a brother and a sister -- as well as "brothers".
Drawing on earlier Midrashim, the Zohar moves from this verse to a series of verses about different kinds of relationships:
Ki li v'nei Yisra-eil avadim, avadai heim, asher hotseiti otam mei-erets Mitsrayim, ani Adonai eloheichem.
For the Children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants; I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I YHVH your God. {Leviticus 25:55}.
Banim atem l'Adonai eloheichem; lo titgod'du v'lo tasimu korcha bein eineichem lameit.
You are children of YHVH your God; you shall not gash yourselves or make bald patches on your heads (in mourning) for the dead. {Deuteronomy 14:1}
L'ma-an achai v'rei-ai, adabra na shalom bach.
For the sake of my siblings and friends, let me speak of peace for you. {Psalm 122:8}

From these verses about family and friendship, the Zohar moves to one of the strangest verses in the Torah, a law about incest:
V'ish asher yikach et achoto, bat aviv o vat imo, v'ra-a et ervata, v'hi tir'eh et ervato, chesed hu, v'nichr'tu l'einei b'nei amam; ervat achoto gila, avono yisa.
If a man marries his sister, his father's daughter or his mother's daughter, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is chesed; they shall be cut off in the sight of their people; he has uncovered his sister's nakedness, he shall bear his guilt {Leviticus 20:17}.
The strangeness comes from the word "chesed" which ordinarily has very positive connotations. It is usually translated as "lovingkindness" or "loyalty"; in Kabbalah, it is the name of the Sefirah that manifests God's love and generosity. But the rest of the verse, and the context, make it clear that marriage or sexual intimacy between a brother and sister are absolutely forbidden.
Historically, the word chesed in this verse probably has a negative meaning, like the related Aramaic word chisuda, which means "shame" or "disgrace". But the Zohar prefers the provocative paradox of reading it positively.
Two other Biblical verses interpreted in this selection are very well-known; many of us know them by heart in Hebrew:

-- The Shema: Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad {Deuteronomy 6:4};
-- the verse sung at the end of Aleinu: V'haya Adonai l'melech al kol ha-arets, ba-yom ha-hu yih'yeh Adonai echad ush'mo echad {Zechariah 14:9}.
In conventional translations:
"Hear, O Israel, the Eternal our God, the Eternal is One";
"The Eternal will become ruler over the whole earth; on that day the Eternal will be One and His name One".

It is in reading these well-known verses that the Zohar reaches its most challenging conclusions, as it undermines any ordinary understanding of monotheism.

HEAR, O ISRAEL...
Zohar III (Vayikra) 7b

...[Rabbi Abba] opened again and said: "Hinei ma tov uma na'im shevet achim gam yachad -- Behold, how good and how pleasant for siblings to dwell, also, together".

Privileged are Israel, for the Blessed Holiness has not given them to a ruler, or to an emissary. Israel cling to Him, and He clings to them.

And because of love for them, the Blessed Holiness calls them "servants". As it is written, "For the Children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants". Going further, He calls them children, as it is written, "You are children of YHVH your God". Going still further, He calls them siblings, as it is written, "For the sake of my siblings and friends..." And because He calls them siblings, He wanted to place His dwelling with them, and never depart from them. So it is written, "Behold, how good and how pleasant for siblings to dwell, also, together."

And the Holy Lamp said as follows: "Behold, how good and how pleasant...". It is as when you say: "If a man marries his sister..."

According to the Book of Rav Yeiva the Elder: "If a man" -- that is, the Blessed Holiness, "marries his sister" -- that is, the Community of Israel -- what is the reason for this? "... It is chesed". It is indeed Chesed, and we have established this.

And so, "Behold, how good and how pleasant for siblings to dwell, also, together" -- the Blessed Holiness and the Community of Israel. The Holy Lamp: (Botsina Kadisha) -- Rabbi Shim'on, the hero of the Zohar, whose teachings give light to the world.

"Also" is to include Israel below. As we have said: When the Community of Israel is in oneness with the Blessed Holiness, Israel below dwell in joy, they too, with the Blessed Holiness. And therefore it is written, "also, together".

And according to the Book of Rav Hamnuna the Elder: "Also, together" is to include the Righteous with her, with the Community of Israel, since they are one couple. And these words are all one.

"Israel below": The Jewish people.

And we have learned, on the passage "Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad -- Hear, O Israel, YHVH our God, YHVH is One": What is "One" (Echad)? It is the Community of Israel clinging (achid) to the Blessed Holiness.

Echad is Hebrew, achid is Aramaic.

As Rabbi Shim'on has said: The coupling of male and female is called One. Where the female dwells, it is called One. For what reason? Because male without female is called half a body, and half is not one. But when they join as one, two halves of a body become one body, and then it is called One.

But now the Blessed Holiness is not called One. The mystery of this word: the Community of Israel is in exile, and the Blessed Holiness has gone up, higher and higher; the couple has separated, and the holy Name is not in completeness, and is not called One.

When will it be called One? When the Lady is found with the King, and they couple as one.

As it is written, "And dominion shall be YHVH's." Who is "dominion"? It is the Community of Israel, for dominion is linked to her.

Then, "Bayom ha-hu yih'yeh Adonai echad ush'mo echad -- On that day, YHVH shall be One and His Name One".

This is the meaning of "Behold, how good and how pleasant for siblings to dwell, also, together".
"Lady": Matronita.

Obadiah 1:21:
V'alu moshi'im b'har Tsiyon lishpot et har Eisav, v'hay'ta l'Adonai ham'lucha.
Rescuers shall go up on Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau, and dominion shall be YHVH's.

COMMENTARY: HEAR O ISRAEL

Rabbi Abba opened...

Unity is the theme of this text. It begins with unity between the Jewish community and God. "The Blessed Holiness" at the beginning of this passage may simply mean God; later, it will refer specifically to Tif'eret.
Agreeing with earlier sources, the Zohar says that Israel, the Jewish people, are directly connected with God, without any intermediaries in between. So God calls us servants -- which is already a term of love, because a servant is not a stranger! -- and then goes further to call us children, siblings and friends, relationships of closeness and intimacy.

And the Holy Lamp said...

Now the imagery turns to marriage, but incestuous marriage. At this point, the subject changes to unity within God. Here "The Blessed Holiness" refers specifically to Tif'eret, the aspect of God that is the focus of prayer. "Community of Israel" is not the Jewish people, or not just the Jewish people, but their divine counterpart, Malkhut. Chesed -- the divine power of overflowing love -- brings them together.
The Zohar seems to be suggesting that the degree of unity within God is far beyond anything that could exist among human beings. If we try to imagine it in human terms, we have to draw on both the relationship of a married couple and the relationship of two siblings. If the intimacy of both kinds of relationship were combined, what an intense unity there would be! But in Jewish terms such a relationship is impossible, forbidden -- on the human level. In the divine realm, between Tif'eret (the Blessed Holiness) and Malkhut (the Community of Israel) it is possible.
The "Book of Rav Yeiva the Elder" and the "Book of Rav Hamnuna the Elder", mentioned later, are fictional, part of a whole imaginary library which the Zohar quotes from in different passages. They are part of the Zohar's technique of claiming ancient authority especially for its more radical innovations.

And so, "Behold, how good and how pleasant for siblings to dwell, also, together"...

Following the method of other midrashim, the Zohar pays close attention to the words of the verse. The word "also" seems extra, but it implies that something else is included. The Zohar contemplates two possibilities: the something else is us -- "Israel below", the Jewish people in this material world -- or it is the Sefirah Yesod which joins Tiferet and Malkhut. Perhaps these two possibilities belong together. We embody Yesod, since it is our mitzvot that join Tiferet with Malkhut.

And we have learned, on the passage "Shema Yisrael..."

My teacher Joseph Cohen of Toronto once defined Kabbalah as "a science that takes punning seriously". Here the Zohar makes one of its most daring puns.

The Hebrew word echad, as in the Shema, spelled Aleph, Chet, Dalet, means "one".
There is an Aramaic verb, achad or achid, which means "to hold on" or "to cling". It is the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew achaz, which also means "to hold on"; (Aramaic often has a Dalet where Hebrew has a Zayin .)

However, the Aramaic achid has the same root letters, Aleph, Chet, Dalet, as the Hebrew echad.
The Zohar's juxtaposition of verses also suggests a connection between echad and achim ("siblings") which also begins Aleph Chet.
Both puns make the same point, making explicit what the Zohar has already implied. The oneness of God is in the embrace of two aspects of divinity, Malkhut and Tif'eret, who become "one" in their intimacy with each other.
This is radically different from most concepts of monotheism, especially those worked out by Jewish philosophers in the centuries before the writing of the Zohar. The authors of the Zohar were well aware of these philosophical views; they had been written into halakhah (Jewish Law) by Maimonides (1135-1204) at the beginning of his authoritative code of law, Mishneh Torah. Maimonides appeals to the Shema as the proof text for his view:

God is one; not two and not more than two, but one. This oneness is not like any of the onenesses that exist in the world -- not like the oneness of a category which includes many other ones, and not like the oneness of a body which is divided into parts and dimensions, but a oneness like no other oneness in the world... Knowing this is a positive commandment, as it is said: Hear, O Israel, YHVH our God, YHVH is One... And since it is clear that God is without a body or physicality, it is clear that nothing physical can happen to God: no joining and no separation...
(Mishneh Torah, Yesodei HaTorah, 1:7, 1:12)

The Zohar's teaching here is almost a point-by-point rejection of this view: God is "two", Tif'eret and Malkhut, or "more than two" with Yesod (and Chesed and other Sefirot). God's oneness is "like the oneness of a body": the Zohar says, "two halves of a body become one body". God's aspects are subject to "joining and separation".
This is not an exceptional moment in the Zohar. The Zohar cites the Shema many times and frequently relates it to the union of Tif'eret and Malkhut or of all the Sefirot.

But now the Blessed Holiness is not called One...

The Zohar's first challenge to conventional monotheism was in its understanding of what God's oneness means: not abstract unity, but union. Now the Zohar ups the ante and makes the startling claim that God is not one. Tif'eret and Malkhut are separated: Malkhut is with us in exile, and Tif'eret "has gone up, higher and higher" into transcendence.
The exile of Malkhut is a common theme in the Zohar. It is based on a theme of earlier Midrash, the exile of the Shekhinah: when we go into exile, when we suffer, the Shekhinah is with us. In the Midrash this is a way of saying that God shares our suffering; in the Zohar it is more complex, because Tif'eret remains in heaven, so to speak, while Malkhut is in exile with us. There is a split in the Divine, a disconnection between God with us and God beyond us.
This is the same split which we read about in "Trees of the Garden", the disconnection between the two trees, which Adam and Eve's mistake brought about. It is part of the human condition, the reality of the broken world we live in.
Neither of the Zohar's challenges to ordinary monotheism is unique to this passage. We have seen both ideas -- unity as union, and the reality of separation -- before. But here the Zohar seems to be presenting these ideas as starkly as possible, contrasting them as sharply as possible with the normal theology of the Middle Ages, or today.

"On that day, YHVH shall be One..."

When is that day? Other passages of the Zohar suggest different possibilities as to when God will truly be one, in complete union. Sometimes it seems that it can never be until messianic times. In other passages it seems that the union happens every Shabbat. Or whenever human couples join together with desire, while observing halakhic guidelines and maintaining spiritual awareness. Or every time we learn Torah, or do mitzvot. The Zohar invites us to be aware of both connection and separation, to allow ourselves to be conscious of both.
When we do find a sense of oneness, the Zohar invites us to understand it as a union within God which also includes us. This is the Zohar's image of devekut, joining with God: we bring Malkhut and Tif'eret together, and we are held in their embrace.

HEAR, O ISRAEL: QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION:

Gershom Scholem writes about the Zohar: "It is sometimes difficult to avoid the impression that the author was acting on the good old principle of épater le bourgeois ['shocking the bourgeois, the establishment']" (Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 167). Which ideas in this text could be included in this category? In what ways are they shocking from the perspective of more conventional Jewish teachings?

What might it mean for a religious outlook to internalize the idea that God is not, at present, one?

Go to FORUM


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	INTRODUCTION This selection, like our first one, The Rose, is a kind of petichta: it begins with one verse of the Bible, "opens" it by interpreting other verses from completely different parts of the Bible, and finally returns to the verse it began with. That verse is the well-known song lyric from Psalms (Psalm 133:1): Hinei ma tov uma na'im shevet achim gam yachad. This is conventionally translated, "Behold, how good and how pleasant for brothers to dwell together." But that ignores the little word "gam", which means "also". A literal translation would say, "... to dwell, also, together". The Zohar, building on earlier Midrashim, asks what the "also" includes. Another translation issue is the word "achim"; the Zohar correctly understands that it can mean "siblings" -- a brother and a sister -- as well as "brothers". Drawing on earlier Midrashim, the Zohar moves from this verse to a series of verses about different kinds of relationships: Ki li v'nei Yisra-eil avadim, avadai heim, asher hotseiti otam mei-erets Mitsrayim, ani Adonai eloheichem. For the Children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants; I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I YHVH your God. {Leviticus 25:55}. Banim atem l'Adonai eloheichem; lo titgod'du v'lo tasimu korcha bein eineichem lameit. You are children of YHVH your God; you shall not gash yourselves or make bald patches on your heads (in mourning) for the dead. {Deuteronomy 14:1} L'ma-an achai v'rei-ai, adabra na shalom bach. For the sake of my siblings and friends, let me speak of peace for you. {Psalm 122:8} From these verses about family and friendship, the Zohar moves to one of the strangest verses in the Torah, a law about incest: V'ish asher yikach et achoto, bat aviv o vat imo, v'ra-a et ervata, v'hi tir'eh et ervato, chesed hu, v'nichr'tu l'einei b'nei amam; ervat achoto gila, avono yisa. If a man marries his sister, his father's daughter or his mother's daughter, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is chesed; they shall be cut off in the sight of their people; he has uncovered his sister's nakedness, he shall bear his guilt {Leviticus 20:17}. The strangeness comes from the word "chesed" which ordinarily has very positive connotations. It is usually translated as "lovingkindness" or "loyalty"; in Kabbalah, it is the name of the Sefirah that manifests God's love and generosity. But the rest of the verse, and the context, make it clear that marriage or sexual intimacy between a brother and sister are absolutely forbidden. Historically, the word chesed in this verse probably has a negative meaning, like the related Aramaic word chisuda, which means "shame" or "disgrace". But the Zohar prefers the provocative paradox of reading it positively. Two other Biblical verses interpreted in this selection are very well-known; many of us know them by heart in Hebrew: -- The Shema: Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad {Deuteronomy 6:4}; -- the verse sung at the end of Aleinu: V'haya Adonai l'melech al kol ha-arets, ba-yom ha-hu yih'yeh Adonai echad ush'mo echad {Zechariah 14:9}. In conventional translations: "Hear, O Israel, the Eternal our God, the Eternal is One"; "The Eternal will become ruler over the whole earth; on that day the Eternal will be One and His name One". It is in reading these well-known verses that the Zohar reaches its most challenging conclusions, as it undermines any ordinary understanding of monotheism.
	HEAR, O ISRAEL... Zohar III (Vayikra) 7b ...[Rabbi Abba] opened again and said: "Hinei ma tov uma na'im shevet achim gam yachad -- Behold, how good and how pleasant for siblings to dwell, also, together". Privileged are Israel, for the Blessed Holiness has not given them to a ruler, or to an emissary. Israel cling to Him, and He clings to them. And because of love for them, the Blessed Holiness calls them "servants". As it is written, "For the Children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants". Going further, He calls them children, as it is written, "You are children of YHVH your God". Going still further, He calls them siblings, as it is written, "For the sake of my siblings and friends..." And because He calls them siblings, He wanted to place His dwelling with them, and never depart from them. So it is written, "Behold, how good and how pleasant for siblings to dwell, also, together."
	And the Holy Lamp said as follows: "Behold, how good and how pleasant...". It is as when you say: "If a man marries his sister..." According to the Book of Rav Yeiva the Elder: "If a man" -- that is, the Blessed Holiness, "marries his sister" -- that is, the Community of Israel -- what is the reason for this? "... It is chesed". It is indeed Chesed, and we have established this. And so, "Behold, how good and how pleasant for siblings to dwell, also, together" -- the Blessed Holiness and the Community of Israel.		The Holy Lamp: (Botsina Kadisha) -- Rabbi Shim'on, the hero of the Zohar, whose teachings give light to the world.
	"Also" is to include Israel below. As we have said: When the Community of Israel is in oneness with the Blessed Holiness, Israel below dwell in joy, they too, with the Blessed Holiness. And therefore it is written, "also, together". And according to the Book of Rav Hamnuna the Elder: "Also, together" is to include the Righteous with her, with the Community of Israel, since they are one couple. And these words are all one.		"Israel below": The Jewish people.
	And we have learned, on the passage "Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad -- Hear, O Israel, YHVH our God, YHVH is One": What is "One" (Echad)? It is the Community of Israel clinging (achid) to the Blessed Holiness.		Echad is Hebrew, achid is Aramaic.
	As Rabbi Shim'on has said: The coupling of male and female is called One. Where the female dwells, it is called One. For what reason? Because male without female is called half a body, and half is not one. But when they join as one, two halves of a body become one body, and then it is called One. But now the Blessed Holiness is not called One. The mystery of this word: the Community of Israel is in exile, and the Blessed Holiness has gone up, higher and higher; the couple has separated, and the holy Name is not in completeness, and is not called One.
	When will it be called One? When the Lady is found with the King, and they couple as one. As it is written, "And dominion shall be YHVH's." Who is "dominion"? It is the Community of Israel, for dominion is linked to her. Then, "Bayom ha-hu yih'yeh Adonai echad ush'mo echad -- On that day, YHVH shall be One and His Name One". This is the meaning of "Behold, how good and how pleasant for siblings to dwell, also, together".		"Lady": Matronita. Obadiah 1:21: V'alu moshi'im b'har Tsiyon lishpot et har Eisav, v'hay'ta l'Adonai ham'lucha. Rescuers shall go up on Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau, and dominion shall be YHVH's.
	COMMENTARY: HEAR O ISRAEL Rabbi Abba opened... Unity is the theme of this text. It begins with unity between the Jewish community and God. "The Blessed Holiness" at the beginning of this passage may simply mean God; later, it will refer specifically to Tif'eret. Agreeing with earlier sources, the Zohar says that Israel, the Jewish people, are directly connected with God, without any intermediaries in between. So God calls us servants -- which is already a term of love, because a servant is not a stranger! -- and then goes further to call us children, siblings and friends, relationships of closeness and intimacy. And the Holy Lamp said... Now the imagery turns to marriage, but incestuous marriage. At this point, the subject changes to unity within God. Here "The Blessed Holiness" refers specifically to Tif'eret, the aspect of God that is the focus of prayer. "Community of Israel" is not the Jewish people, or not just the Jewish people, but their divine counterpart, Malkhut. Chesed -- the divine power of overflowing love -- brings them together. The Zohar seems to be suggesting that the degree of unity within God is far beyond anything that could exist among human beings. If we try to imagine it in human terms, we have to draw on both the relationship of a married couple and the relationship of two siblings. If the intimacy of both kinds of relationship were combined, what an intense unity there would be! But in Jewish terms such a relationship is impossible, forbidden -- on the human level. In the divine realm, between Tif'eret (the Blessed Holiness) and Malkhut (the Community of Israel) it is possible. The "Book of Rav Yeiva the Elder" and the "Book of Rav Hamnuna the Elder", mentioned later, are fictional, part of a whole imaginary library which the Zohar quotes from in different passages. They are part of the Zohar's technique of claiming ancient authority especially for its more radical innovations. And so, "Behold, how good and how pleasant for siblings to dwell, also, together"... Following the method of other midrashim, the Zohar pays close attention to the words of the verse. The word "also" seems extra, but it implies that something else is included. The Zohar contemplates two possibilities: the something else is us -- "Israel below", the Jewish people in this material world -- or it is the Sefirah Yesod which joins Tiferet and Malkhut. Perhaps these two possibilities belong together. We embody Yesod, since it is our mitzvot that join Tiferet with Malkhut. And we have learned, on the passage "Shema Yisrael..." My teacher Joseph Cohen of Toronto once defined Kabbalah as "a science that takes punning seriously". Here the Zohar makes one of its most daring puns. The Hebrew word echad, as in the Shema, spelled Aleph, Chet, Dalet, means "one". There is an Aramaic verb, achad or achid, which means "to hold on" or "to cling". It is the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew achaz, which also means "to hold on"; (Aramaic often has a Dalet where Hebrew has a Zayin .) However, the Aramaic achid has the same root letters, Aleph, Chet, Dalet, as the Hebrew echad. The Zohar's juxtaposition of verses also suggests a connection between echad and achim ("siblings") which also begins Aleph Chet. Both puns make the same point, making explicit what the Zohar has already implied. The oneness of God is in the embrace of two aspects of divinity, Malkhut and Tif'eret, who become "one" in their intimacy with each other. This is radically different from most concepts of monotheism, especially those worked out by Jewish philosophers in the centuries before the writing of the Zohar. The authors of the Zohar were well aware of these philosophical views; they had been written into halakhah (Jewish Law) by Maimonides (1135-1204) at the beginning of his authoritative code of law, Mishneh Torah. Maimonides appeals to the Shema as the proof text for his view: God is one; not two and not more than two, but one. This oneness is not like any of the onenesses that exist in the world -- not like the oneness of a category which includes many other ones, and not like the oneness of a body which is divided into parts and dimensions, but a oneness like no other oneness in the world... Knowing this is a positive commandment, as it is said: Hear, O Israel, YHVH our God, YHVH is One... And since it is clear that God is without a body or physicality, it is clear that nothing physical can happen to God: no joining and no separation... (Mishneh Torah, Yesodei HaTorah, 1:7, 1:12) The Zohar's teaching here is almost a point-by-point rejection of this view: God is "two", Tif'eret and Malkhut, or "more than two" with Yesod (and Chesed and other Sefirot). God's oneness is "like the oneness of a body": the Zohar says, "two halves of a body become one body". God's aspects are subject to "joining and separation". This is not an exceptional moment in the Zohar. The Zohar cites the Shema many times and frequently relates it to the union of Tif'eret and Malkhut or of all the Sefirot. But now the Blessed Holiness is not called One... The Zohar's first challenge to conventional monotheism was in its understanding of what God's oneness means: not abstract unity, but union. Now the Zohar ups the ante and makes the startling claim that God is not one. Tif'eret and Malkhut are separated: Malkhut is with us in exile, and Tif'eret "has gone up, higher and higher" into transcendence. The exile of Malkhut is a common theme in the Zohar. It is based on a theme of earlier Midrash, the exile of the Shekhinah: when we go into exile, when we suffer, the Shekhinah is with us. In the Midrash this is a way of saying that God shares our suffering; in the Zohar it is more complex, because Tif'eret remains in heaven, so to speak, while Malkhut is in exile with us. There is a split in the Divine, a disconnection between God with us and God beyond us. This is the same split which we read about in "Trees of the Garden", the disconnection between the two trees, which Adam and Eve's mistake brought about. It is part of the human condition, the reality of the broken world we live in. Neither of the Zohar's challenges to ordinary monotheism is unique to this passage. We have seen both ideas -- unity as union, and the reality of separation -- before. But here the Zohar seems to be presenting these ideas as starkly as possible, contrasting them as sharply as possible with the normal theology of the Middle Ages, or today. "On that day, YHVH shall be One..." When is that day? Other passages of the Zohar suggest different possibilities as to when God will truly be one, in complete union. Sometimes it seems that it can never be until messianic times. In other passages it seems that the union happens every Shabbat. Or whenever human couples join together with desire, while observing halakhic guidelines and maintaining spiritual awareness. Or every time we learn Torah, or do mitzvot. The Zohar invites us to be aware of both connection and separation, to allow ourselves to be conscious of both. When we do find a sense of oneness, the Zohar invites us to understand it as a union within God which also includes us. This is the Zohar's image of devekut, joining with God: we bring Malkhut and Tif'eret together, and we are held in their embrace.
	HEAR, O ISRAEL: QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION: Gershom Scholem writes about the Zohar: "It is sometimes difficult to avoid the impression that the author was acting on the good old principle of épater le bourgeois ['shocking the bourgeois, the establishment']" (Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 167). Which ideas in this text could be included in this category? In what ways are they shocking from the perspective of more conventional Jewish teachings? What might it mean for a religious outlook to internalize the idea that God is not, at present, one? Go to FORUM