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"Improper Twins": the Ambivalent "Other Side" in the Zohar

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"מעלות תאומיות שאינן מתאימות" "Improper Twins": The Ambivalent "Other Side" in the Zohar and Kabbalistic Tradition Nathaniel Berman University College London Submitted for the PhD in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies 1 Acknowledgements I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Professor Ada Rapoport-Albert for her generosity, patience, inspiration, thoughts, and wisdom. This doctoral thesis would simply not exist without her. I cannot thank her enough. I thank Dr. Naftali Loewenthal for his insightful comments on my drafts and warm encouragement of my work. Finally, I thank the three incarnations of the Shekhinah in my life: my mother, Daisy Berman, my wife, Julie Peters, and my daughter, Kaia Berman-Peters. Without them, nothing would be possible. וסלקא שכינתא על ההוא טורא ותשתמע תלת קלין And the Shekhinah ascends upon that mountain and makes three voices resound … Zohar Ḥadash, 56a 2 Declaration I, Nathaniel Berman, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 3 Abstract This thesis explores the portrayals of the demonic, the Sitra Aḥra, the “Other Side,” in the Zohar and closely related texts. Such portrayals form a key theme in the Zohar, a collection of 13th century mystical, mythological, and homiletical texts, written in Spain. In proposing new approaches to this theme, the thesis also advances new ways of understanding the work’s literary virtuosity and ontological innovativeness. At the rhetorical level, the thesis focuses on close readings, attending to the distinctive ways Zoharic texts employ “schemes” and “tropes” (Quintilian) in a manner that constructs and manages ambivalence about the divine/demonic relationship. This methodology grows out of a rejection of past scholarly approaches, which tended to read such texts as reflective of large-scale cultural-historical phenomena, such as the putative divide between Gnosticism and Neoplatonism. Such approaches bypass the distinctiveness of Zoharic writing, in which all precursor texts, be they scriptural, rabbinic, or theological, become transformed into elements of novel literary works. At the ontological level, the thesis rejects the unreflective notions of “catharsis” that have often guided past Zohar scholarship’s understandings of the relationship between the divine and the demonic. The inadequacy of such notions appears particularly when Zoharic texts’ literary specificities are foregrounded. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, the thesis illuminates the phenomenon that Zoharic texts continually portray the recurrent emergence, collapse, and re-consolidation of divine subjects and structures as inextricably bound up with that of demonic subjects and structures. The approach taken by the thesis highlights the centrality of “abjection” (Kristeva) for the emergence of differentiated subjects, human or divine. Reading the Zohar in this way facilitates a comprehensive embrace of the distinctiveness of its textuality and an explication of its vision of the ways the differentiation of divine and human subjects from their “Others” is both indispensable and yet ultimately impossible. 4 Table of Contents Technical Note – p. 7 Introduction A. The Demon, the Modern, and the Text – p. 10 B. Demonic Ambivalence – p. 24 1. Ontological Splitting and Rhetorical Parallelism – p. 26 2. Abjection and Irony, Crystallization and Prosopopeia – p. 32 C. Overview of the Dissertation – p. 45 Chapter One - Reading the Sitra Aḥra A. Two Models of the Sitra Aḥra? Essence, Geography, Structure – p. 49 B. Signifying Ambivalence – Schemes and Tropes – p. 67 1. Schemes: the Seductions of Rhetorical Parallelism – p. 68 2. Tropes – Images of Hyperbolic Ambivalence – p. 92 a. Dragons – p. 93 b. The Dragon's Fellows: the "Bald God," Koraḥ, and Job – p. 104 C. Ambivalence Thematized: Variations on Seduction – p. 118 D. Conclusion – p. 133 Chapter Two - Origin, Intimacy, and Sustenance A. Introduction – p. 136 B. The Origin of Evil: Theogonic Narrative versus Theological Explanation 1. Introduction – p. 139 2. Tishby, "Dualism," and Abjection – p. 141 5 3. Levels of Abjection – p. 149 a. “Thought” – p. 150 b. “Earth” – p. 156 c. “Fierce Rage” – p. 166 d. “The River” – p. 172 4. The Divine and the Demonic: A Family Affair – p. 180 a. Procreational Purification: the "Afterbirth” passage – p. 180 b. Brothers and Sisters – p. 186 C. Ambivalences of Intimacy 1. Dangerous Liaisons – p. 191 2. Seduction of Yesod and the Generation of the Shedim – p. 196 3. Routinization of Abjection – p. 202 D. Ambivalences of Sustenance: "Suckling" – p. 208 E. Conclusion: A Theurgical Parallel – p. 220 Chapter Three - Dangerous Consequences: Impersonation and the Abyss A. Introduction – p. 224 B. Impersonation through Aggressive Enclothing – p. 225 C. The Abyss – p. 248 Conclusion - The Divine/Dunghill, or, The Self is the Other – p. 268 Bibliography – p. 277 6 Technical Note This note contains some preliminary explanations about methods that might be helpful before beginning reading the thesis, but is only supplementary to the information contained in the bibliography. Please see the bibliography for any information not contained here. I. Bibliography and Footnotes The bibliography contains the complete publication information for all sources. For brevity’s sake, the footnotes contain only abbreviated information, easily amplified through reference to the bibliography. Authored works are cited in the footnotes by the author’s last name, abbreviated title, and the relevant page numbers. Other works are cited by an abbreviated title and page number. The style in both footnotes and bibliography follows the Style Sheet issued by the UCL Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies. II. Texts Zohar: There are no standard critical editions of the Zohar, Ra’ya Mehemena, and Tikune Ha-Zohar. I have generally employed the most widely-used editions, edited by Re’uven Margoliot (see bibliography for details). I have occasionally selected variants that this text provides in parentheses, noting in the footnotes the basis for my choice – at times buttressed by reference to the Cremona or Mantua editions (see bibliography). Moreover, I have occasionally adopted the textual variants offered by Daniel Matt in his Aramaic Texts (see bibliography), when the Margoliot text seems corrupted, and have so noted in the footnotes. Bible: I have used the standard Masoretic text for the original Hebrew and the King James Version (KJV) for the English translations (see bibliography for details). Due to the importance of the specific names of God in the Zohar, I generally substitute transliterations of those names for the KJV’s translations. Where I otherwise depart from the KJV, due to the way particular passages are understood by the Zohar, I so note in the footnotes. 7 III. Translations All translations from non-English works not marked by a footnote are my own. When I have composed my own translations of the Zohar and Tikune Ha-Zohar, I have drawn on a wide variety of sources, including the Hebrew translations in Yehudah Ashlag’s Sulam and Daniel Frisch’s Matok Midevash, and, rarely, the Soncino translation, as well as commentaries such as Moshe Cordovero’s Or Yakar and others (see bibliography for details on all sources mentioned here). I have also quoted extensively from the new translation by Daniel Matt (see bibliography for details), and have so noted in the footnotes. Where I quote Matt’s translations but have modified them, I so note. IV. Transliterations I have used a simplified transliteration system, as follows: Consonants: at the beginning of a word, designated by the appropriate vowel; if sounded in the middle :א of a word, preceded by a single closed quote (’) b :ּב v :ב g :ג d :ד (is silent ה even if ,ה h (always added at the end of a word that ends with a :ה (v (if a consonant; otherwise designated by the appropriate vowel :ו z :ז ḥ :ח t :ט (y (if a consonant, otherwise designated by the appropriate vowel :י k :ּכ kh :כ l :ל m :מ n :נ s :ס at the beginning of a word, designated by the appropriate vowel; if sounded in the middle :ע of a word, preceded by a single closed quote (’) p :ּפ f :פ ts :צ k :ק 8 r :ר sh :ׁש s :ׂש t :ת ,ּת Vowels: Pataḥ and kamats: a Tsere, segol, and mobile shewa at the beginning of a word: e ḥiriq: i ḥolem, kamats katan and ḥataf kamats: o shuruk and kubuts: u 9 Introduction A. The Demon, the Modern, and the Text In its Hekhalot sections, the Zohar describes a series of palaces through which prayers pass on their way upwards through the divine realm, and through which the soul ascends after death.1 These palaces also form progressively ascending stages in the human quest for divine secrets. The Zohar declares that the first of these palaces, the site of the "beginning of the secret of faith," stands on the threshold between the realms of holiness and contamination – and thus provides a unique vantage point from which to perceive both the divine and the demonic realms. היכלא קדמאה, שירותא גו מהימנותא, והאי איהו שירותא לרזא דמהימנותא... ובגין דהאי איהו שירותא דמהימנותא, כתיב )הושע א ב( תחלת דבר יהו"ה בהושע, דחמא מגו דרגא דא, דאיהו שירותא דכל דרגין לסלקא לעילא, וסופא דכל דרגין לנחתא לתתא. ובגין דהושע חמא מגו שירותא דא, סופא דכל דרגין, אצטריך לנטלא האי אשת זנונים2 The first palace, the beginning within faith, and this is the beginning to the mystery of faith … and since this is the beginning of faith, it is written “The beginning of the word of YHVH by Hosea” (Hosea 1:2) – for he saw from within this level, which is the beginning of all the levels to ascend above, and the end of all levels to descend below. And since Hosea saw from this beginning, the end of all levels, he had to take that "woman of whoredom" [ibid.].3 1 I note at the outset that, for the sake of convenience, I will use the term “the Zohar” as shorthand for the collection of texts in the standard printed editions of the “Sefer ha-Zohar,” taking the Margoliot edition as my basis, but excluding the Ra’ya Mehemena sections,.
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