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Mystical Texts Chapter Eleven Mystical Texts Michael D. Swartz The Idea ofMerkava Mysticism 394 The Merkava and Rabbinic Literature 396 The Mishna 397 Tosefta 397 Hekhalot Literature 401 Ascent and Visionary Texts 403 Hekhalot Rabbati 403 Maase Merkava 408 3 Enoch 411 Shiur Koma 413 Other visionary texts 414 Conjurations and other Rituals 415 Sefer Y etsira 417 Early Jewish Mystical Texts in Context 419 Along with the Talmuds, Midrashim, and liturgy, Hebrew literature in late antiquity includes a body of esoteric texts that describe visionary experiences and magical rituals. Since the nineteenth century, scholars have argued that in the rabbinic period small circles of Jews cultivated a type of visionary mysti­ cism that involved the cultivation of visions of the heavens and of ecstatic journeys through the seven 'palaces' (m?J':l, hekhalot) or layers of the celestial world to the throne-room of God, where he is seated on his 'chariot-throne' (:1:JJ1~, merkava). 1 The evidence for this phenomenon exists primarily in manuscripts from early medieval Europe and the Cairo Geniza in what is known as Hekhalot literature, as well as short passages in rabbinic literature. This essay will concern these texts and what can be learned from them about mysticism in rabbinic Judaism and related cultural phenomena. ' When used as literary terms, 'Hekhalot' and 'Merkava' will be capitalised in tbe following, but not when denoting the heavenly 'palaces' and 'chariot-throne'. 393 MYSTICAL TEXTS The Idea ofMerkava Mysticism Visions of God are described in several places in the Hebrew Bible.2 Visions of God seated on His divine throne appear in Isaiah chapter 6, Ezekiel chapters 1- 3, and Daniel chapter 7. The term :1:J:J,~, literally meaning 'chariot', does not appear in the Massoretic text of the Hebrew Bible when describing the throne of God. However, the term is used in 1 Chron 28:18 to designate the structure formed by the cherubs that frame the Ark of the Covenant in Solomon's tem­ ple. In Ben Sira 49:8 the throne of Ezekiel's vision is called the merkava: 'Ezekiel saw a vision, and described the different (creatures) of the chariot' (:1:J:J,~;-r n'l:Jn). Visions of the divine throne appear in Biblical and post-biblical literature, from Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel1-3 to the 'tours ofheaven' in apocalyptic texts such as the Books of Enoch and 4 Ezra. However, in these literatures journeys to heaven are not undertaken actively by the human traveller; rather they occur at God's initiative. It is only with Hekhalot literature that human beings are described as initiating travels through the heavens to the throne of God. Early scholars of rabbinic Judaism and Jewish history characterized Hek­ halot literature as mystical.' Heinrich Graetz, who saw the sages as ancient rationalists, argued that the Hekhalot literature was a marginal post-talmudic phenomenon, the result of the influence of Islam in the early Middle Ages. 4 Although a few portions of Hekhalot texts were published, mostly in antholo­ gies of 'minor Midrashim' ,5 the literature received little attention from scholars for decades. It was Gershom Scholem who brought this literature into the foreground as an important episode in the history of Jewish mysticism and rabbinic Judaism, when he dedicated Chapter 2 of his Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism to the subject of 'Merkabah mysticism and Jewish Gnosticism'! In this chapter, and in his subsequent book Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmu­ dic Tradition,7 Scholem presented a compelling, coherent portrait of a mystical discipline that extended back to the early days of the rabbinic period. Hekhalot literature, Scholem argued, reflected a mystical system centered on the cultiva­ tion of elaborate visions of heaven. The Merkava mystics, in ecstatic trances, saw themselves ascending to heaven, fighting off powerful angels, and fmally reaching God's throne-room, where they would behold him in acutely anthro­ pomorphic form. In order to reach this state of ecstasy, they fasted, secluded themselves, and sang extravagant, numinous hymns, which may have func- 2 For a useful survey of biblical and rabbinic attitudes to visions of God see Wolfson, Speculum, 13-51. 3 The most important early studies are Bloch, ':1:l:J1~ '111''; and Graetz, 'Mystische Literatur'. 'On Graetz's conception ofMerkava mysticism approach see Biale, Gershom Scholem, 19-25. 5 Jellinek, Bet Ha-Midrash; Wertheimer, Bate Midrashot. 6 Scholem, Major Trends, 40-79. ' Scholem, Jewish Gnosticism. 394 .
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