In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

3 The Maskilim: Mystical Vocation in the Tiqqunim Mystics have their experiences in isolation, if only the isolation of their own minds. The inwardness of the mystical experience often removes the mystic from the social structure . If mystics identify with religious structures prior to their experiences, then they can reintegrate into their society, by communicating and propagating the content of their experience . The mystic's isolation and alienation are provisional, then, as the conclusions of his or her experience may lend themselves to social application, perhaps by the mystic's disciples . This chapter explores the ideas of mystical vocation in the Tiqqunim and Ra'aya Meheimna and the author's understanding of the mystic's relationship to religiOUS authority. The mystic's social role was defined in contradistinction and sometimes in opposition to the role of the rabbinic legal authority. Although the author of the Zohar contented himself with the creation of an attractive romance of a distant past, Tiqqunei ha-Zohar and Ra'aya Meheimna chartered a movement with contemporary application. In Tiqqunei ha-Zohar and Ra'aya Meheimna's system of religious values, the agent of religious truth is the maskil or en21 22 The Enlightened Will Shine lightened mystic. The maskilim are an order of mendicant kabbalists, whose charter is the lohar.l The image of a mystical fellowship, whose members wandered the districts of the Galilee, sharing their contemplative visions, had already been portrayed in the lohar. Tiqqunei ha-Zohar and Ra'aya Meheimna formalized this role, particularly in terms of the mystic's relationship to society, social authority, and the cosmic order. The main practice of this mystical order was the contemplation of the Torah in kabbalistic terms. This kind of reading, which derived from the literary nature of rabbinic midrash, was the characteristic literary feature of the lohar and its related literature. In its chartering of a movement devoted to the practice of symbolic reading, the maskilim of Tiqqunei ha-Zohar represent the apex and closure of the theosophical Kabbalah, in that the text of the lohar became canonical, although the creation of new texts of this nature was sanctioned. The terms maskil and zohar derive from the verse in DanieF liThe enlightened (maskilim) will be radiant (yazhiru) like the bright expanse of the sky, and those who lead the many to righteousness will be like the stars forever and ever." This phrase is a staple of loharic imagery, as the term will be radiant is built on the verb ZHR, the basis of the word zohar. This text forms the basis for the introductory proem of Tiqqunei ha-Zohar, and a number of lesser treatments of the text occur in the Tiqqunei Zohar Ifadash.3 The main sections of the lohar generally interpreted this text in terms of the dynamics of the emanatory process, particularly the conjunction of the lower sefirot: Yesod and Malkhut.4 The brightness or shining of the maskilim, according to the broadest interpretation of the text, is the hypostatic emanation of Divinity into corporeality through the medium of these sefirot. In the Midrash ha-Ne'elam,5 arguably the earliest stratum of the lohar, the image zohar signifies the soul's descent into the body.6 Elsewhere, the lohar portrays maskilim as the supporting sefirot of the Divine superstructure, "those who contemplate with wisdom all that the Palanquin? and her supports require ... for if it didn't shine on them [Le. the maskilim ], they would never be able to perceive it."B In this way, the term maskilim represents the emanated aspect of the cosmic order, as The Maskilim: Mystical Vocation in the Tiqqunim 23 well as the mystics who contemplate it. The many portrayals of the maskilim in the Tiqqunim show the mystic using the charged, symbolic reading of the Holy Text as the vehicle for enlightenment . To cite one instance: "Ha-maskilim-These are the ones who look at the secret of wisdom, the inner secrets of the Torah -the ones who do the will of their master and who practice the Torah day and night."9 Through his mystical reading, the maskil becomes a conduit for the flow of the Divine effluence; he is absorbed into the emanation of reality from the Divine mind.1O This loss of self causes the mystic's consciousness to become a mere instrument for the reception of Divine effluence: "Ha-maskilim-They practice the Torah and contemplate the words of the Torah with intention and contemplation.... they contemplate, not the...

Share