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4 The Myth of Chaos To identify for a given writer the state from which Adam fell is to reconstruct the writer's concept of the ideal human being and the ideal human condition. This ideal will be found to be all pervasive in that writer's thought system. Thus, the messianic period will be viewed as a restoration of Adam's condition before the Fall, and for the period between the beginning and the End-the here and now-a program will be conceived to retrieve the lost ideal. At a minimum, such a scheme provides a helpful perspective on a writer. At best, it may provide the key to his thought.1 In the Tiqqunim and RaJaya Meheimna, present existence is suffused with qualities of exile and loss. The maskil understands that the world is enmeshed in an ontology of chaos. The mystic's loneliness and alienation result from his heightened sensitivity to this truth. This alienation is expressed in myths of prehistory and exile, derived from the author's selection of mythic aggadot. The Talmud and midrashim are heterogeneous anthologies of multiple sources, culled over a period of several centuries. If they manifest a unifying mentality, it is that of the compiler and final editor. Zoharic texts, on the other hand, resemble late and medieval midrashim in that they are distinguished by 33 34 The Enlightened Will Shine the unifying perspective of a single author. In the lohar, the author's voice asserts itself in his selection and interpretation of the midrashic canon. Narratives from the midrash are combined and reconstructed into a coherent myth. This recurring myth haunts the kabbalistic author's thinking as he constructs a world-view based on primordial traditions of rabbinic esotericism. These traditions might be remnants of a lost rabbinic esotericism. The utilization of these early legends constitutes a particularly "received" aspect ofthe theosophic Kabbalah, in that the term kabbalah means "received tradition." Although Tiqqunei ha-Zohar clearly builds on the lohar's assemblage of source material, the author nevertheless incorporates aggadic motifs that the lohar omits or does not explore . These motifs are recombined in such a way as to present a unified myth of prehistory and its relation to the present. Humankind's present dilemmas derive from these mythic events. The events of Genesis, then, are not confined to remote history, but continue to unfold in the present. The lohar perceives the dilemmas of humankind as deriving , at least in part, from the consequences of the fall of Adam. The kabbalistic uses of the mythos of the fall reveal the tension between two great extraneous influences: Neoplatonic optimism and gnostic pessimism. Hence, the tradition of Adam as the primordial man probably has its origins in the mysterious relationship between early Kabbalah and Manicheanism, Catharism, and other esoteric traditions that were presumably within the kabbalists' intellectual orbit.2 Both the lohar and the Tiqqunim cite the midrashic tradition that God created a number of prior worlds, and was later compelled to destroy them (boneh 'olamot u-maJ:r;zrivan).3 The present world was created through the emanation of the Divine effluence through the sefirot. The tensions and rivalries of those previous worlds continue into contemporary history. Biblical figures confront one another again, renewed through the principle ofgUgul or transmigration , particularly among the Edenic generations,4 and the lineages around Moses.5 The fall was important to Tiqqunei ha-Zohar and Ra'aya Meheimna, for it began a chain of catastrophes that continue to unfold, defining the fallen condition The Myth ofChaos 35 of existence. Focal pOints for the author's portrayal of the fall were its themes of seduction, the power of evil, and the role of the demonic in present existence. Traditions of the seduction and defilement of Eve by the serpent originate in a number of classical Rabbinic sources. One talmudic tradition portrays the serpent as having implanted zohama (impurity) in Eve.6This tradition recurs in theosophical Kabbalah, particularly in the Bahir/ the Zohar,s and the Tiqqunim.9 In the Tiqqunim, the serpent is a paradigm of deceit,1° an agent of the sefirah of Din, harsh judgment.ll The banishment from the Garden ofEden continues into the present, for lithe serpent is the promiscuous woman who destroys the Shekhinah by separating her from her husband."12 In sefirotic terms, the tradition of seduction and implantation implies a defilement in the sefirah Malkhut, caused by the illicit union of the serpent and Eve. The implantation of...

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