In the Prologue, we are introduced to the rabbinic cast of characters: R. Hizkiah, R. Simeon, R. Eleazar. It starts with some fanciful exposition of Biblical verses, involving verses from the Song of Songs. If you are looking for spiritual eroticism, here is the signal that you are going to find it.
After a tortuous exposition by R. Eleazar, R, Simeon takes over, and his derivation (on p. 6 of my Soncino Press edition, which equates to pp. 1b-2a in the Mantua edition) of Elohim (God) from Eleh (these) and Mi (Who?) will absolutely make your head spin. Afterwards, his companions prostrate themselves before him in admiration. One of them says that if he had been born only to hear this, he would have been satisfied.
In my edition, the Prologue begins on page 3. In talking about it, we have only reached page 6. The Prologue ends on page 62, so we have a lot more of the same ahead of us. Obviously, I cannot provide a blow-by-blow commentary.
What I can do is go back to some material that unfortunately got skipped over in the last instalment of these Notes.
The Zohar was not only a revelation to Christians (as I described last time); it was a revelation to Jews. It was partly to blame for the failed messianism of Sabbatai Zevi, which caused negative connotations to become attached to it. But a new era truly began for the Zohar and for Kabbalah in general with eighteenth-century Chasidism.
Back in 1964, I began my exploration of Jewish mysticism with a truly remarkable book by Martin Buber: HASIDISM AND MODERN MAN. It may have been a fortuitous choice, but I could not have selected a better entry point.
In that book, Buber showed just exactly in what way the Chasidism of the eighteenth and later centuries is still relevant, as a spiritual outlook, today. What I read reminded me of my beloved American Transcendentalism, and I wrote a paper comparing the two. It fired my imagination and my spiritual ardor. I wanted to emulate the Tzaddikim ("Righteous") who had followed, and I guess still follow, in the footsteps of the Baal Shem Tov, the Master of the Good Name.
Text Copyright © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler.
