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332 Excursus I following ~i~um, it formed ten concentric circles, which were to become the ten sefirot. The light that entered each of these circles formed the 'or penimi ("inner light") of that particular sefirah, while the light in the circle outside it was an 'or maqqif("surrounding light") to that sefirah. Cf. 'E~ Ifayyim, sha'ar ha-kelalim, beginning , and Immanuel Hai Ricci's Mishnat Ifasidim, beri'at Adam Qadmon 1:1. As the progressive revelation ofthe sefirot indicates a growing 'distance' from'eyn sof, the maqqifin of any given sefirah are the lights too intense for that sefirah to contain within itself. In transferring the use ofthe terms maqqifand penimifrom the sefirotic realm to the realm of human mental processes, Nahman is following a generally familiar pattern within Hasidism. A passage strikingly reminiscent of Nahman here is found in Qedushat Levi, shemot, 92f. There Levi Yizhak is building upon teachings attributed to the BeSHTand Yehiel Mikhel ofZloczow. The progression of dialectical thinking from the BeSHT to Nahman may be traced by close comparative study of such passages. Interestingly, the term maqqif does not appear here at all. Another example of such thinking is found in Qedushat Levi, wa-era', 97a. 14. Liqqufim II 7:6. 15. Liqqufim 245. 16. Liqqufim 21:7. Deut. 32:18 is more conventionally translated: "You were unmindful of the Rock who begot you." See also Zohar 3:249b. The term mo~in is Nahman's inclusive term for both maqqifin and penimiyim; they are the "levels of awareness" the seeker is to integrate. Here, too, a Lurianic term has been reapplied . In Lurianic texts (e.g. 'E~ Ifayyim 5:6:22, 67a; and Siddur Qol Ya'aqov 18a-b) the term is applied to the inner powers of each sefirotic configuration (pa~uf), which may then exist in a "greater" or "lesser" state, e.g., mo~in de-gadlut de-ze'ir. In earlier Hasidism, the term is used to refer in a general way to the worshiper's mental powers or strength of concentration. Cf. for example the quotation from the Ba'al ShemTov in Toledot Ya'aqov Yosef83a. The term 'ibbur as used by Nahman here is another example of transference of Lurianic terminology from the theosophical to the mental sphere. It is based upon the notion of the 'gestation' of the upper lights within the womb of Mtzlkhut. Cf. Mishnat Ifasidim, 'ibbur ze'ir we-nuqveyh , 13 a-b. It has nothing directly to do with the idea of'ibbur ha-neshamot, a part ofthe Kabbalistic doctrine of metempsychosis. 17. This phrase becomes a sort of watchword in Bratslav and is frequently quoted in the later sources. For its use by Nahman and Nathan cf. Ifayyey II 2:42 and Shiv~ II 35. I have not found this formula in the Hebrew philosophical literature of the Middle Ages and suspect that it is of late, but pre-Hasidic, origin. The BeSHT already seems to be commenting on it in a passage quoted in the openinglines ofthe introduction to Ben Porat Yosef. Similarformulations are found elsewhere in Hasidic sources, e.g. Me'or 'Eynayim, p.l40. The phrase is reminiscent of the idea of Docta Ignorantia in the thought of Nicholas of Cusa, though I know ofno historical link. 18. Si~t 3: Shiv~ II35. 19. Liqqufim 21:4; 64:4. Cf. Weiss, op. cit., p.256. 20. Si~t32. 21. Ifayyey 1:24. Emphasis mine. 22. Loc. cit. Here the personal emphasis is found in the word order of the Yiddish original: "Mir loz emetserzogn aterets." Faith, Doubt, and Reason 333 The reference to "books of Kabbalah" is to the Sheney Lu~ot ha-Berit by Isaiah Horowitz, 26a. Scholem quotes an earlier part of this same passage in Messianic Idea, pp. 302f., but deletes the SheLaH's comments to the effect that the House of Hillel was rooted in ~sed and the House of Shammai in gevurah. It is for this reason, according to Horowitz, that halaknh generally prefers the Hillelite rulings. 23. If.ayyey [[7:2. See Weiss, op. cit., p.276f. 24. For Ben Sheshet's anti-rationalist polemics see his Meshiv Devarim Nekho- ~im. This work is primarily a refutation of the Ma'amar Yiqqawu ha-Mayim of Samuel Ibn Tibbon. It is discussed by Vajda in the more general context of the thirteenth-century tension between philosophyand Kabbalah in his Recherches sur la Philosophie et la Kabbale dans la PenseeJuive du Moyen Age. Shem...

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