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CHAPTER 3: The Eschatological Pillar of the Souls in Zoharic Literature 1. THE PILLAR AND THE TWO PARADISES Unlike the works of other Kabbalistic schools before the 1280s, it is only in the book of the Zohar that an important additional function of a pillar is evident. In some of parts of the Zohar the pillar recurrently serves as a conduit for the ascent of the souls of the deceased righteous from a lower paradise to a higher one. This eschatological function will be the subject of this chapter. Some time before 1270, the theory of two paradises became part and parcel of the eschatology of Rabbi Moses ben Nahman—known by the pseudonym Nahmanides—particularly evident in the last section of his book, Torat ha-’Adam.1 He appears to be the first Jewish author to adopt an explicit theory of a double paradise: the terrestrial and the supernal . Immediately afterwards, the philosopher Rabbi Hillel ben Shmuel of Verona quoted this theory from one of the many Christian sources that, since the Isidore of Seville in the seventh century, discussed the double paradise.2 Hence, Rabbi Hillel’s source for this theory was probably that of Nahmanides,3 as was the case with other theological issues.4 Nahmanides, who died in 1270, deeply influenced many Kabbalistic understandings of personal eschatology, one of the most important of which was that of a group active in Castile a generation after his death.5 Pillars appear in some Christian sources, and according to such texts, the names of the righteous are inscribed upon them.6 However, in one of the early medieval treatises related to Heikhalot literature , Midrash Alpha Beitot, God is described as moving from one place to another, each described as a separate entity and as related to paradise.7 The Zohar demonstrates acquaintance with and citations of different passages from Hagigah discussions on the pillar. This is most obvious in the first layer of the book, entitled Midrash ha-Nèelam.8 ASCENSIONS ON HIGH IN JEWISH MYSTICISM However, in the later layers, one finds a theory of the pillar as a column that connects the two paradises and serves as the mode for the process of continuous ascent and descent of souls from one to the other in privileged moments in time. This theory is elaborated in two Kabbalistic sources written in Castile before 1300: numerous discussions are found in the Zohar, and short passages referencing this theory appear in a pseudepigraphic Midrash composed by members of the circle of the Zohar. These seem to represent a Kabbalistic view that breaks with that of earlier Kabbalistic material and is characterized by an insistence upon the eschatological role of the pillar. To be sure, the pillar—actually two pillars, one of fire and the other of smoke—fulfilled a role in the Israelites’ journey in the desert, which was part of an eschatological enterprise beginning with the exodus from Egypt. Moreover, as the biblical verses claim, those pillars represent the guidance of God during the long journey, and they constitute, in a way, a direct divine intervention in the order of nature. According to some early Jewish and Christian sources, the pillars played an eschatological role in national redemption .9 Such a stance is found in some apocalyptic writings composed in the early Middle Ages, in which the pillar of fire reappears as part of the eschatological scenario.10 However, these sources deal with historical events imagined to take place in this world at the end of time. Below we are concerned with ascents of the souls of the departed righteous and thus with personal forms of eschatology. Before addressing the main topic under scrutiny, it should be noted that in a relatively early Zoharic composition entitled the Midrash haNe `elam on the book of Ruth, there is a rather detailed description of paradise. This is from the perspective of a certain Rabbi Perahiyya, who was granted a tour of heaven during his lifetime. He and his guide, a dead scholar who took him on this tour, did not accomplish a posthumous ascension but instead entered a cave, the gates of which protect paradise.11 Despite the relatively long description of paradise, not a single eschatological pillar appears, though seven pillars and even the foundation as the righteous—themes discussed in chapter two—are mentioned elsewhere in the same composition without any connection to paradise.12 The absence of the motif of ascent of the soul in this context...

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