Beholders of Divine Secrets: Mysticism and Myth in the Hekhalot and Merkavah Literature

Introduction

1 Introduction Rabbi Akiva said: Who is able to contemplate the seven palaces and behold the heaven of heavens and see the chambers of chambers and say: “I saw the chamber of YH?” —Ma’aseh Merkavah, Synopse, 554. This question is posed by Rabbi Akiva, a central figure of the Hekhalot and Merkavah literature of late antiquity. In it we find mentioned several claims and aspects which distinguish the mysticism found in this literature. We hear of “contemplation,” “ascent to heaven,” and “vision of divine palaces.” We learn that a human being can cross traditional boundaries between the phenomenological and the transcendent realms, make a contemplative ascent to heaven, behold the chambers of God in a personal manner, and communicate these experiences and visions to others. We also encounter an enigma: Who is this qualified person? The first part of the question: “Who is able to contemplate the seven palaces?,” seems to describe a spiritual introspective process, taking place on an internal level, in which a visionary reflects and meditates upon the seven palaces of God, placing them in the center of his contemplation, imagination, and thought. The second part: “and to ascend and behold the heaven of heavens, and to see the chambers of chambers,” pertains to beliefs, practices, and revelations. It claims the existence of a different reality, beyond the phenomenological world, envisioned as a celestial realm of God, in which his divine palace is situated in the heaven of heavens. It also appears to introduce the possibility of divine-human encounters outside traditional norms of historical revelation. These words seem likewise to affirm a specific religious consciousness, which enables a human being to exceed parameters of traditional norms, time, and space, and to initiate a direct 2 Beholders of Divine Secrets encounter with the divine, in a meditative process, visualized as a personal, otherworldly voyage to heaven. The third part of the question: “and say I saw the chamber of YH,” may refer to the manner in which contemplative experiences and their attendant, interpreted divine visions and revelations, are formulated and conveyed through verbal expressions, and sayings. Rabbi Akiva’s query also seeks to discern “Who” can take part in such quests which, in fact, offer an alternative to the traditional concept of divinely initiated communication between God and his people. It also, perhaps, indicates an attempt to distinguish the identity of the ones who are involved in these endeavors, and to situate them in an historical and cultural context. This study concentrates on the facets of Rabbi Akiva’s question as a framework for the discussion. It explores the nature of the mystical tradition found in the enigmatic Hekhalot and Merkavah literature and the manner in which its mystical notions are molded and communicated . The social and cultural contexts of its writers will be considered as well. The Hekhalot and Merkavah literature includes various manuscripts and literary traditions written and edited over a long period of time, arguably between the third and seventh centuries C.E., in Palestine and Babylonia. They contain overlapping mystical, cosmological, messianic, and magical traditions, presented in several literary forms. With a full awareness of the complexity of this literature and the intricacy of its traditions, this study focuses on the mystical dimensions of the literature. It examines several treatises in which these mystical notions principally find expression. These include textual units known Hekhalot Rabbati (The Greater Book of Hekhalot), Hekhalot Zutarti (The Lesser Book of Hekhalot), Ma’aseh Merkavah (The Works of the Chariot), Sefer Hekhalot (The Book of Hekhalot) also entitled the Hebrew Book of Enoch or 3 Enoch, the Shi’ur Komah traditions (Measurements of the Divine Body), various fragments known as Shivhei Metatron, and several texts found in the Cairo Genizah. The discussion treats these topics in six chapters. The first chapter of this study presents a brief overview of the Hekhalot and Merkavah literature as it was composed, edited, and integrated over a substantial period of time. It introduces debated historical questions of origin and dating, as well as the complex nature of its manuscripts, literary traditions, and conceptual notions. Maintaining the view that scholarly analysis of mystical phenomena is primarily textually based, the chapter then discusses aspects of the mystical tradition found in the Hekhalot and Merkavah literature, in light of current observations and methodological premises in the study of mysticism. Introduction 3 The second chapter distinguishes specific mystical characteristics...