CHAPTER 11
The Kabbalah Matures: Moses de León and Abraham Abulafia
Moses de León
NOW THAT WE HAVE LOOKED at the beginnings of Kabbalah and its
vocabulary of mystic symbolism, we move into the period where Kabbalah
in Spain matures. Fellowships of like-minded mystics gathered together
to spur each other onwards in their meditation practices, to discuss the
revelations they experienced, to explain and expand on the myths and
symbolism they were creating. Often they would defer to one among them
as the first among equals, their master on the spiritual path. An
important example is Moses de León and his fellowship in
thirteenth-century Spain who are presumed to be the authors of the
Zohar, which became the central text of the Kabbalah.
By the middle of the sixteenth century the Zohar had become as sacred as the Torah and the Talmud. Zohar means splendor, radiance, brilliant light. It is written in the form of a classic mystical commentary on the Torah, and incorporates fanciful tales about Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai, a renowned second-century sage and legendary mystic, and a group of rabbis who were his disciples. The interactions among these rabbis and their discussions about the deeper meanings embedded in the Torah serve as the narrative voice of the teachings presented in the Zohar. What is most important about Rabbi Simeon as portrayed in the Zohar is his great knowledge of the secrets of the Torah and, indeed, all mystical secrets, combined with his permission by God to reveal them.
Moses ben Shem Tov de León, known to history as Moses de León, was born in Arevalo, Spain, in the year 1250. Until 1290 he lived in Guadalajara, a center of adherents of the Kabbalah. He then traveled a great deal and finally settled in Ávila, where he died in 1305. De León, during his lifetime, maintained that he was only a scribe copying from an ancient book of wisdom that he had found. He said that the author of the book was none other than the renowned sage Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai himself.
It was commonly accepted during the lifetime of de León and for centuries afterwards that the book was written by Rabbi Simeon. Nonetheless there were always those who doubted the authenticity of his authorship. In 1305, Isaac, son of Samuel of Akko, a kabbalist of great depth, reached Spain after wandering throughout the Mediterranean Jewish world from the time of the fall of Akko in 1291. He had heard of the Zohar and had come to Valladolid in quest of the truth about its origin. Isaac’s diary was known to the historian Abraham Zacuto, who cites it in his book Sefer ha-yuhasin (Book of Genealogy). Apparently, Isaac managed to meet de León, who agreed to show him the original manuscript if Isaac would meet him in Ávila. The two parted company and agreed upon a date to meet at de León’s home in Ávila.
Unfortunately, by the time Isaac reached Avila, Moses had died. Isaac questioned another scholar about the manuscript, who recounted a conversation with Moses’ widow. She said that there never was an old manuscript he had copied from, but that he had written it himself just to make money. Isaac records her words:
Thus and more may God do to me if my husband ever possessed such a book! He wrote it entirely from his own head. When I saw him writing with nothing in front of him, I said to him, “Why do you say that you are copying from a book when there is no book? You are writing from your head. Wouldn’t it be better to say so? You would have more honor!” He answered me, “If I told them my secret, that I am writing from my own mind, they would pay no attention to my words, and they would pay nothing for them. They would say: ‘He is inventing them out of his imagination.’ But now that they hear that I am copying from the book of the Zohar composed by Rabbi Simeon son of Yohai through the Holy Spirit, they buy these words at a high price, as you see with your very eyes.”298
Isaac mentions that Moses was known as one who had contact with the holy divine name, and that although he might not have had an old manuscript, it was commonly thought that he wrote at the inspiration and power of the holy name, perhaps channeling the book in a trance state. The close kabbalist friends of de León would have seen nothing wrong in what he was doing in order to heighten the teachings in which they also believed. And indeed, pseudepigrapha (where religious texts are attributed to ancient respected personalities) was a common way of presenting innovative and possibly heretical teachings, giving them the authority and anonymity of tradition. So, in spite of the testimony of de León’s widow and some skepticism about Simeon’s authorship, through the centuries the Zohar became even more venerated as the sacred text of Rabbi Simeon. It was not until 1920, when Gershom Scholem did the most intensive research and linguistic and stylistic analysis, comparing the Zohar to other documents written by de León, that the academic world became convinced that Moses de León was the author of the book. Very recent research and analysis confirms Scholem’s conclusions but proposes that Moses de León was not the sole author of the Zohar; it demonstrates that his fellow kabbalists wrote sections of the book with Moses de León at the center of what might have been a kind of mystical brotherhood, engaged over a period of thirty to forty years in putting into writing their perception of the spiritual reality.299
It is not known if Moses de León had disciples or whether this was a fellowship of equals, but the relationship and the mode of disseminating mystical concepts from master to disciples is beautifully depicted in the Zohar. The atmosphere, oral exchanges, the poetic verse, and the love between master and disciple is faithful to the time and place. The majority of mystical concepts of the Zohar were not new, but were never made quite so clear and intense, nor so inspiring. Admirers and many commentators of the Zohar through the centuries stress how the deeper layer of wisdom contained in the words of the book vibrate with a magnetic strength that pulls the earnest student into a world beyond concepts.
De León was a mystic whose persistent study and love of Torah brought him into the realm of active mystic union and caused a profound revolution in Judaism reverberating through the centuries into our present day. For de León, the Zohar is a means to an end (mystic union with God) and inspires one to live the Torah and rise above the level of intellectual knowledge. In another of his books, Or zaru’a (Sown Light), de León writes:
I have seen some people called “wise.” But they have not awoken from their slumber; they just remain where they are.… Indeed, they are far from searching for His glorious Reality. They have exchanged His Glory for the image of a bull eating grass (cf. Psalms 106:20).…
The ancient wise ones have said that there was once a man engaged in Mishnah and Talmud all his day according to his animal knowledge. When the time came for him to depart from the world, he was very old, and people said that he was a great wise man. But one person came along and said to him, “Do you know your self? All the limbs in your body, what are they for?” He said, “I do not know.” “Your little finger, what is it for?” He said, “I do not know.” “Do you know anything outside of you, why it is, how it is?” He began shouting at everyone, “I do not know my self! How can I know anything outside my self?” He went on, “All my days I have toiled in Torah until I was eighty years old. But in the final year I attained no more wisdom or essence than I attained in those first years when I began studying.” The people asked, “Then what did you toil over all these years?” He said, “What I learned in the beginning.” They said, “This wise man is nothing but an animal without any knowledge. He did not know the purpose of all his work; just like an animal carrying straw on its back, not knowing whether it is sifted grain or straw!”… See how my eyes shine, for I have tasted a bit of this honey! O House of Jacob! Come, let us walk in the light of YHWH!300
“This wise man is nothing but an animal without knowledge.” Moses de León is referring to the rabbis and scholars who can quote from memory any verse from the Torah just as the priests and sages of all religions do from their scriptures – those for whom God is a book to be studied and worshiped. For de León and other kabbalists, the Torah was the breath of God. The Zohar was de León’s attempt to bring to life “eyes that shine because they have tasted the honey of Torah.” There were “generations of devotees who sought to make its poetry transparent, to see beyond the imagery into the ‘true’ religious meaning of the text, … to find in each word or phrase previously unseen layers of sacred meaning.”301
A prominent theme of the Zohar is that the Torah as a book points to the Torah as a divine living presence: “Torah in the Zohar is not conceived as a text, as an object, or as material, but as a living divine presence, engaged in a mutual relationship with the person who studies her.”302
In a narration on the meaning of Torah in the Zohar, Rabbi Simeon says the following:
Alas for the man who regards the Torah as a book of mere tales and everyday matters! If that were so, we, even we could compose a torah dealing with everyday affairs, and of even greater excellence. Nay, even the princes of the world possess books of greater worth which we could use as a model for composing some such torah. The Torah, however, contains in all its words supernal truths and sublime mysteries. Observe the perfect balancing of the upper and the lower worlds. Israel here below is balanced by the angels on high, of whom it says: “who makest thy angels into winds” (Psalms 104:4). For the angels in descending on earth put on themselves earthly garments, as otherwise they could not stay in this world, nor could the world endure them. Now, if thus it is with the angels, how much more so must it be with the Torah – the Torah that created them, that created all the worlds and is the means by which these are sustained.
Thus had the Torah not clothed herself in garments of this world, the world could not endure it. The stories of the Torah are thus only her outer garments, and whoever looks upon that garment as being the Torah itself, woe to that man – such a one will have no portion in the next world. David thus said: “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law” (Psalms 119:18), to wit, the things that are beneath the garment.
Observe this. The garments worn by a man are the most visible part of him, and senseless people looking at the man do not seem to see more in him than the garments. But in truth the pride of the garments is the body of the man, and the pride of the body is the soul. Similarly the Torah has a body made up of the precepts of the Torah, called gufei torah [bodies of the Torah, i.e., main principles of the Torah], and that body is enveloped in garments made up of worldly narrations. The senseless people only see the garment, the mere narrations; those who are somewhat wiser penetrate as far as the body.303
The creation came about through the words of the Torah, Rabbi Simeon declares:
See now, it was by means of the Torah that the Holy One created the world. That has already been derived from the verse, “Then I was near him as an artisan, and I was daily all his delight” (Proverbs 8:30). He looked at the Torah once, twice, thrice, and a fourth time. He uttered the words composing her and then operated through her.…
Hence the account of the creation commences with the four words Bereshit bara Elohim et [“In-the-beginning created God the”], before mentioning “the heavens,” thus signifying the four times which the Holy One, blessed be He, looked into the Torah before He performed His work.304
In another place, Rabbi Simeon summarizes the power of the Torah as the ultimate guide for life:
Observe how powerful is the might of the Torah, and how it surpasses any other force. For whoso occupies himself in the study of the Torah has no fear of the powers above or below, nor of any evil happenings of the world. For such a man cleaves to the tree of life, and derives knowledge from it day by day, since it is the Torah that teaches man to walk in the true path.305
For de León and his fellowship, the Torah text as narrated and interpreted in the Zohar is a dynamic creative force, the holy name or utterance. And the more than three hundred stories and reflections in approximately twenty volumes of the Zohar are a means to help the student who is moving toward contact with the “living and divine” Torah. The study of Torah for these mystics was not just a duty; it was their supreme pleasure. And their mystical and symbolic interpretations provided a supernatural rationale for observance of the commandments.
In the Zohar, Rabbi Eleazar is quoted as having said: “Therefore to study the Torah is like studying the holy name, as we have said, that the Torah is all one holy supernal name.”306
Through the numerous stories of a group of disciples gathered around their master in a garden, in a grove of trees or around a fire at midnight, at an inn, or conversing as they leisurely walk from one village to another, the Zohar takes the laws and narratives of the Torah and interprets them on both conceptual and symbolic levels, reading mystical truths and principles into them, investing them with an exponential power. It sees the Torah as the power of God projected in the creation, and explores the microcosmic elements making up that power and how they break into various spheres (the ten sefirot – the unfolding of creation). Rabbi Simeon and his disciples spend many hours delving into the deeper meanings of passages in the Torah, how Torah sustains the world, the various levels of the soul, the symbolic structure of the human body, and many more subjects.
The master and disciple sitting or walking together through this mundane world, and discussing the divine realms and matters of the spirit, was the common mode of teaching and transmission.307 Arthur Green in A Guide to the Zohar writes:
These tales of Rabbi Simeon and his disciples wandering about Galilee a thousand years before the Zohar was written are clearly works of fiction. But to say so is by no means to deny the possibility that a very real mystical brotherhood underlies the Zohar and shapes its spiritual character. Anyone who reads the Zohar over an extended period will come to see that the interface among companions and the close relationship between the tales of their wanderings and the homilies those wanderings occasion are not the result of fictional imagination alone. Whoever wrote the work knew very well how fellow students respond to companionship and support and are inspired by one another’s glowing renditions of a text. He (or they) has felt the warm glow of a master’s praise and the shame of being shown up by a stranger in the face of one’s peers.
Leaving aside for now the question of who actually penned the words, we can say that the Zohar reflects the experience of a kabbalistic circle. It is one of a series of such circles of Jewish mystics, stretching back in time to Qumran, Jerusalem, Provençe, and Gerona, and forward in history to Safed, Padua, Miedzybozh, Bratslav, and again to Jerusalem. A small circle of initiates gathered about a master is the way Kabbalah has always happened, and the Zohar is no exception. In fact, the collective experience of this group around Rabbi Simeon as “recorded” in the Zohar forms the paradigm for all later Jewish mystical circles.308
But as much as the Zohar teaches about the Torah on a symbolic level, through the narratives of its cast of characters, its essence is the story of the master and the disciples gathered around him. The story of Rabbi Simeon and his circle is a thin veil over the story of Moses de León and his kabbalist circle. And the wanderings of the holy men studying the profound meaning of the Torah is in itself a metaphor for the divine spirit, the Shekhinah, wandering in exile in the world and choosing to be revealed through the saints who seek to do the divine will in every aspect of their lives.
With that in mind, we will set aside the richness of the mystic teachings and interpretations of the creation process contained within the Zohar, and look more closely at what it reveals about the spiritual master and his profound relationship with his disciples.
The great reverence with which Simeon bar Yohai is treated by his disciples is worthy of note. They elevate him to the highest level, sometimes even equating him with God. He evokes great gratitude for the grace and light he bestows upon them. “Happy is the generation in which Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai lives!”309
The figure of Simeon bar Yohai “became a paradigm for medieval kabbalists. Not only did he know where to go in the ascent to heaven, he also possessed the great redemptive capacity to atone for the sins of others.”310 It is no wonder that many of the later kabbalists claimed to be his reincarnation.
Here are a few comments of his disciples about him. In this first account, Rabbi Simeon is referred to as “the sacred lamp.” He is also compared to Moses, revered as the greatest of the prophets, and it is assumed he is Moses’ reincarnation. The Zohar says that in this generation, Rabbi Simeon’s holiness brings the miracles of the holy spirit into the world.
Rabbi Jose said: Let us take these things [the mysteries of the scriptures] up to the sacred lamp, for he prepares sweet dishes [reveals spiritual mysteries], like those of the holy Ancient One [Atika Kadisha], the mystery of all mysteries; he prepares dishes that do not need salt from another. Furthermore, we can eat and drink our fill from all the delights of the world, and still have some to spare. He fulfills the verse “So he set it before them, and they ate, and had some to spare, according to the word of the Lord” (2 Kings 4:44).…
Rabbi Isaac said: What you say is true, for one day I was walking along with him, and he opened his mouth to speak Torah, and I saw a pillar of cloud stretching down from heaven to earth, and a light shone in the middle of the pillar. I was greatly afraid and I said: Happy is the man for whom such things can happen in this world. What is written concerning Moses? “And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the door of the tent, all the people arose and worshiped, every man at his tent door” (Exodus 33:10). This was most fitting for Moses, the faithful prophet, supreme over all the world’s prophets, and for that generation, who received the Torah at Mount Sinai and witnessed so many miracles and examples of power in Egypt and at the Red Sea. But now, in this generation, it is because of the supreme merit of Rabbi Simeon that wonders are revealed at his hands.311
A shared spiritual experience of Rabbi Simeon and his son, Rabbi Eleazar, is described:
Rabbi Simeon came and kissed him on the head. He said to him: Stand where you are, my son, for your moment has now come.
Rabbi Simeon sat down, and Rabbi Eleazar, his son, stood and expounded wisdom’s mysteries, and his face shone like the sun, and his words spread abroad and moved in the firmament.
They sat for two days, and did not eat or drink, not knowing whether it was day or night. When they left they realized that they had not eaten anything for two days.312
Rabbi Simeon then exclaims to his son that if we have had such an experience after such a short time, imagine what Moses, who spent forty days with the Lord on Mount Sinai, would have experienced!
After hearing about this event, Rabbi Gamaliel, the head of the academy, says that Rabbi Simeon is so great that even God obeys him. He doesn’t have to fast or perform other austerities to influence God. It is a common theme in praising the saints in all mystic traditions to say that they are greater than God:
Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai is a lion, and Rabbi Eleazar, his son, is a lion. But Rabbi Simeon is not like other lions. Of him it is written, “The lion has roared; who will not fear?” (Amos 3:8). And since the worlds above trembled before him, how much more should we? He is a man who has never had to ordain a fast for something that he really desired. But he makes a decision, and the Holy One, blessed be He, supports it. The Holy One, blessed be He, makes a decision, and he annuls it.… The Holy One, blessed be He, is the ruler over man, but who rules over the Holy One, blessed be He? The righteous, for He makes a decision, and the righteous annuls it.313
In another account, Rabbi Hiya, a member of Rabbi Simeon’s fellowship, says:
This is Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai, who shatters all things. Who can stand before him? This is Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai, whose voice, when he opens his mouth and begins to study Torah, is heeded by all the thrones, all the firmaments, and all the chariots, and all of these, who praise their master, neither open nor close [their mouths] – all of them are silent, until in all the firmaments, above and below, no sound is heard. When Rabbi Simeon completes his study of the Torah, who has seen the songs, who has seen the joy of those who praise their master? Who has seen the voices that travel through all the firmaments? They all come on account of Rabbi Simeon, and they bow and prostrate themselves before their master, exuding the odors of the spices of Eden as far as the Ancient of Days [Atika Kadisha] and all this on account of Rabbi Simeon.314
Before his death, Rabbi Simeon reveals more mysteries to his disciples and tells them who will teach them when he is gone.
Now is a propitious hour, and I am seeking to enter the world-to-come without shame. There are sacred matters that have not been revealed up till now and that I wish to reveal in the presence of the Shekhinah, so that it should not be said that I departed from the world with my work incomplete. Until now they have been concealed in my heart, so that I might enter the world-to-come with them. And so I give you your duties: Rabbi Abba will write them down, Rabbi Eleazar, my son, will explain them, and the other companions will meditate silently upon them.315
Rabbi Abba had described the relationship of Rabbi Simeon to his disciples prior to his death:
It is taught that from that day forward the companions did not leave Rabbi Simeon’s house, and that when Rabbi Simeon was revealing secrets, only they were present with him. And Rabbi Simeon used to say of them: We seven are the eyes of the Lord, as it is written, “these seven, the eyes of the Lord” (Zechariah 4:10). Of us is this said.
Rabbi Abba said: We are six lamps that derive their light from the seventh [like the menorah lampstand, whose six lamps are lit by the “chief” candle]. You are the seventh over all, for the six cannot survive without the seventh. Everything depends on the seventh.
Rabbi Judah called him “Sabbath,” because the [other] six [days] receive blessing from it, for it is written “Sabbath to the Lord” and it is also written “Holy to the Lord.” Just as the Sabbath is holy to the Lord, so Rabbi Simeon, the Sabbath, is holy to the Lord.316
Subsequently Rabbi Hiya was called “the light of the lamp of the Torah,” meaning the light that was lit by his master. And later the Zohar recounts the death of Rabbi Simeon in terms of the appearance of light and fire, similar to the way the Torah describes the divine revelation Moses experienced in the burning bush:
Rabbi Abba said: The holy light [Rabbi Simeon] had not finished saying “life,” when his words were hushed. I was writing as if there were more to write, but I heard nothing. And I did not raise my head, for the light was strong, and I could not look at it. Then I became afraid.… All that day the fire did not leave the house, and no one could get near it. They were unable, because the light and the fire surrounded it the whole day. I threw myself upon the ground and groaned. When the fire had gone I saw that the holy light, the holy of holies, had departed from the world. He was lying on his right side, wrapped in his cloak, and his face was laughing. Rabbi Eleazar, his son, rose, took his hands and kissed them, and I licked the dust beneath his feet. The companions wanted to mourn but they could not speak. The companions began to weep, and Rabbi Eleazar, his son, fell three times, and he could not open his mouth.…
Rabbi Hiya got to his feet, and said: Up till now the holy light has taken care of us. Now we can do nothing but attend to his honor.
Rabbi Eleazar and Rabbi Abba rose, and put him in a litter. Who has ever seen disarray like that of the companions? The whole house exuded perfume.317
The Zohar poetically recounts the disciples’ distress at the loss of their master. He was the source of their knowledge of the celestial mysteries, their deep mystic experience.
It is taught that Rabbi Jose said: From the day that Rabbi Simeon left the cave, matters were not hidden from the companions, and the celestial mysteries were radiated and revealed among them as if they had been promulgated at that very moment on Mount Sinai. When he died it was as is written “the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped” (Genesis 8:2), and the companions experienced things that they did not understand.318
Rabbi Judah’s reverence and love for Rabbi Simeon is expressed beautifully in a symbolic cry of longing:
When he awoke [from his dream], he said: Truly, since Rabbi Simeon died, wisdom has departed from the world. Alas for the generation that has lost the precious stone, from which the upper and the lower regions looked down, and from which they gained their support!319
Another interesting element in the Zohar’s concept of the spiritual master, which is almost a subtext running throughout, is that the true holy man hides himself from view and is often unknown to those around him. Arthur Green writes:
A significant part of the Zohar text is devoted to tales of their [the companions’] wanderings and adventures, proclamations of their great love for one another, accounts of their devotion to their Master, and echoes of the great pleasure he takes in hearing their teachings. In these tales, while on the road, wandering from place to place in the Holy Land, they encounter various other teachers, in the form of mysterious elders, wondrous children, merchants, and donkey [or mule] drivers, all of whom possess secrets that they share with this band of loving and faithful companions. Usually these mysterious teachers know more than the wanderers expect, and Rabbi Simeon’s disciples are often outshone in wisdom by these most unlikely figures. That too is part of the Zohar’s story.320
The mule-driver appears in the Zohar as a metaphor for the spiritual master, even for the messiah. The biblical prediction of the coming of the messiah envisions him as riding on a mule – the one “who will come lowly and riding on an ass” (Zechariah 9:9). The Zohar’s use of this metaphor points to the humility of the spiritual master, as also to the mule-like nature of the disciple whom he has to guide, who is governed by his stubborn mind.
This parable begins when Rabbi Eleazar and Rabbi Abba take a long journey together. Along the way, they enter into a discussion concerning some fine points of the scriptures. The mule-driver, who was leading the mules behind them, joins the discussion and slowly they become impressed that “he has some wisdom we do not know.” In the course of the tale, the rabbis tell him:
You have not told us your name nor the place where you live.
He replied: The place where I live is fine and exalted for me. It is a tower, flying in the air, great and beautiful. And these are they who dwell in the tower: the Holy One, blessed be He, and a poor man. This is where I live. But I am exiled from there, and I am a mule driver. [I am exiled from the higher spiritual regions and must live in this world, this earth plane, as a mule-driver.]
Rabbi Abba and Rabbi Eleazar looked at him, and his words pleased them. They were as sweet as manna and honey.
They said: If you tell us the name of your father, we shall kiss the dust of your feet.
Why? he asked. It is not my wont to use the Torah in order to exalt myself. But my father used to live in the great sea, and he was a fish [nuna]* that used to circumnavigate the great sea from end to end. [He crossed the ocean of phenomena.] He was so great, ancient, and honorable that he used to swallow all the other fish in the sea, and spew them out again, live and healthy, and full of all the goodness in the world. He was so strong that he could cross the sea in a single second, and he produced me like an arrow from a mighty warrior’s hand. He hid me in the place that I described to you, and then he returned to his place and concealed himself in the sea.
Rabbi Eleazar considered his words, and said: You are really the son of the sacred lamp, you are really the son of Rav Hamnuna Sava, you are really the son of the light of the Torah, and yet you drive mules behind us?
They both wept together, and kissed him, and continued their journey.321
The Zohar tells another story, perhaps a retelling of an old folk tale, of a man who is weeping because he gave his daughter in marriage to a man who knows nothing of Torah; he doesn’t even know the blessing after meals. At first the father thought the bridegroom was an ardent student of Torah because he leaped into the synagogue from a nearby roof to hear the prayers. But then later (after the marriage) the father realizes the boy knows absolutely nothing. All of this is revealed by the father to two disciples of Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai. And while this discussion goes on, once again – as in the beginning of the story – the young bridegroom leaps into the group and explains why he had concealed his true identity from them all, and that in fact he is a great Torah scholar and lover of God. And there is great rejoicing in the household!
This story reverberates with themes inculcated in Jewish mysticism, principally that of the need to conceal what is great. It shows the unique manner in which kabbalists play with their disciples and readers by presenting something that at first appears as one thing and, when looked at again, is understood to be something very different – the hidden and the disclosed and their interdependence. This is related to a deeply held spiritual belief in Judaism that the divine power of God teaches through all things and people, and one therefore should never ignore what might seem insignificant or of no spiritual importance owing to its “garments” or appearance.
Kabbalistic teachings and the Zohar in particular are constantly presenting persons claiming to know nothing but then their true spiritual greatness is revealed. In kabbalistic thinking it is believed that esoteric teachings are concealed everywhere and can come from anyone. The hidden secrets of life, the layers of illusion that surround a man’s already limited perception, are highlighted in similar tales in the Zohar. As the true meaning of the Torah is hidden, revealed through the Zohar, so the truth of the master is hidden and revealed in the narratives of the Zohar. Additionally, a recurrent theme in the Zohar is that a man of spiritual greatness should conceal himself in obscurity, which is possibly what Moses de León himself was doing.
Abraham Abulafia
Abraham Abulafia was a thirteenth-century Spanish kabbalist who is
significant because his detailed method for practicing Kabbalah offered
the hope of an ecstatic experience of union with the divine, in which
“the boundaries separating the self and God are overcome.”322 Abulafia’s
system emerged as an alternative to the theosophical, intellectual
approach of the majority of kabbalists of his time, who were preoccupied
with meditating on the symbolism of the sefirot that make up the divine
realms and not on a practical path of devekut, an intimate
joining with God through inner ascent. Abulafia called his teaching
“prophetic Kabbalah” (kabbalah nevu’it), as it was designed to
induce a state of inner illumination. Modern scholars have called it
“ecstatic Kabbalah.”
Abulafia was born in 1240 in Saragossa, Aragon, which at the time of his birth was under Muslim rule. He died sometime around 1291. Very early in life he was taken by his parents to Tudela, Navarre, which was home to many Jewish scholars and mystics. There Abraham’s father instructed him in the Bible and Talmud. When he was eighteen years old his aging father died, and two years later Abraham began a lifetime of extensive travel. First he went to Palestine in order to find the Ten Lost Tribes which, according to legend, were to be found at the mythological river Sambatyon, referred to in many ancient Jewish texts.* But his trip was interrupted due to fighting and chaos in the Holy Land following the last Crusades.
Abulafia returned to Europe where he married, and lived in Italy. In Capua, he studied Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed with Rabbi Hillel of Verona.* Despite his intense commitment to the path of mystical experience, Abulafia was deeply influenced by Maimonides and the philosophical approach current at that time. He adopted Maimonides’ concept of the Active Intellect which emanates from God and directs the physical creation. He associated it with the projection of the divine power, which is present in everything. The Active Intellect can touch the human intellect (the human spiritual potential) that has been actualized through meditation. The human being thus can receive the divine influx, the overflowing divine spiritual consciousness that radiates from God. Abulafia sometimes calls the Active Intellect the dibur kadmon, the primordial speech or word. The Bible calls the human intellect or consciousness “the image of God,” in which man was created.‡
Scholem remarks that for Abulafia, there is a “stream of cosmic life – personified for him in the intellectus agens (active intellect) of the philosophers, which runs through the whole of creation. There is a dam which keeps the soul confined within the natural and normal borders of human existence and protects it against the flood of the divine stream, which flows beneath it or all around it; the same dam, however, also prevents the soul from taking cognizance of the Divine.”323 Through the meditation practices he developed, Abulafia sought to open himself to receive this divine stream.
When Abulafia returned to Spain from Italy, he studied the Kabbalah, especially the early text of the Sefer yetsirah (Book of Formation) which presents the creation as having taken place through the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the numbers, planets, and spatial dimensions. He immersed himself in the commentaries on the Sefer yetsirah by Eleazar of Worms, the renowned Ashkenazic hasid who taught various meditations on names of God. While the methods that Abulafia later developed were unique, he acknowledged adopting elements from Eleazar of Worms. In turn, Eleazar maintained that Abraham already knew the letter combination system and said they were secrets passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation, until they reached mystics in the medieval period.
It is claimed that in 1270 Abulafia had a revelation that affected the course of his life. Some scholars write that God appeared to Abulafia and commanded him to meet with the Pope; others say that an inner voice spoke to him. But whatever the case, based upon a revelation, he went to Rome in 1280 in order to convert Pope Nicholas III to Judaism. The Pope heard of this and issued orders to burn Abulafia at the stake as soon as he arrived. Outside the city of Rome a stake was erected. Fortunately for Abulafia, the night before he arrived the Pope had a stroke and died. However, Abulafia was captured and briefly thrown into prison.
He was next heard of in Sicily in the year 1281, where he claimed that he was the messiah. By now he had gathered a circle of followers in Sicily “who moved at his command.” His behavior was bizarre and his teachings strongly challenged some of the accepted beliefs in traditional Judaism, even among kabbalists. During his own time he was considered a maverick, perhaps a crazy and dangerous person, as he proclaimed himself a prophet and messiah. As a result he was severely attacked by the orthodox Jewish community and was forced into exile on the island of Comino near Sicily. Abulafia probably died around 1291, as there is no indication of any activities or writing by him after that date.
Abulafia began writing in 1271 and wrote about fifty texts. Although he was one of the most prolific writers of the medieval period on Kabbalah, yet it was only in the twentieth century that many of his manuscripts were found. These books included his interpretation of classic Jewish texts of antiquity and accounts of his spiritual experiences. And most important, a number of his books offered detailed descriptions of complex meditation practices based upon letter combination in conjunction with other exercises, which became the basis of ecstatic Kabbalah.
While there is very little written in English about Abulafia’s relationship to his followers, it appears they wanted more than an academic understanding of God. Abulafia offered a mystical path not taught by other kabbalists of the time to those who had the courage and capacity for understanding, memorizing, and putting his techniques into practice. What’s more, his message offered a challenging journey that, until Abulafia, had belonged only to those men written about in the Torah and Talmud of ages past. His path required dedication and discipline of the highest order. The following demonstrates the dedication required of his students:
One who enters the path of combination [of letters of the alphabet], which is the way that is close to knowledge of God in truth, from all the ways he will at once test and purify his heart in the great fire, which is the fire of desire; and if he has strength to stand the way of ethics, close to desire; and his intellect is stronger than his imagination,* he rides upon it as one who rides upon his horse and guides it by hitting it with the boots to run at his will, and to restrain it with his hand, to make it stand in the place where the intellect will wish, and his imagination is to be a recipient that he accept his opinion.… The man who possesses this great power, he is a man in truth.324
Although Abulafia has been portrayed as an ascetic by some scholars, Moshe Idel, the most renowned contemporary expert on Abulafia, points out that he was not as extreme as some of his disciples were, nor as the later generations of kabbalists who combined Abulafia’s techniques with Sufi-influenced austerities. Rather, Abulafia believed that by strengthening one’s spiritual aspect (intellect) rather than by suppressing body, senses, or mind (imagination), it would be possible to achieve the state of prophecy or even mystic union. Idel writes: “As Abulafia understood man’s inner struggle as taking place between the intellect (spirit) and the imagination (mind), one cannot find in his writings extreme ascetic instructions.… His approach is rather that, in order to attain ‘prophecy,’ one must act in the direction of strengthening the intellect rather than that of suppressing the body, the soul, or the imagination.”325 This is very different from a path of extreme austerities.
Reaching towards the “abstract” and ineffable name of God, Abulafia focused his meditation practices on combinations and permutations of the written or spoken names of God, which he felt would bring him in touch with that imperceptible reality that is the true abstract name, thus drawing down the divine influx and actualizing his intellect. As Scholem explains, “Abulafia believes that whoever succeeds in making this great name of God, the least concrete and perceptible thing in the world, the object of his meditation, is on the way to true mystical ecstasy.”326
His technique of merging into the “nameless” or the “word” was through a complex process of combining letters, vowels, and words from the Hebrew alphabet on the written level, then on the verbal level (by singing the letters), and ultimately on the mental level through concentration. Some of the techniques were shared with earlier kabbalists and the Hasidei Ashkenaz, but one which Abulafia seemed to have developed himself was tseruf, the practice of letter combination. Literally, tseruf means smelting or merging, as well as separating the true from the false, the real from the unreal.
In addition, he prescribed a fixed method of breathing and movements of the head and hands in accordance with the letters being vocalized. It is probable that Abulafia incorporated elements of the yogic systems of pranayam and asanas into his breathing techniques and body postures. Scholem comments that some passages of his book Or ha-sekhel (Light of the Mind) read like Judaized versions of a yoga manual. The fact that Abulafia traveled a great deal would have provided him the opportunity to encounter yogis and adepts of different spiritual paths.
Through his practices, he sought to free his soul from the “seals” and “knots” that bound it to the physical world and that kept it in a state of separation from God. These seals and knots were the way he described the obstacles, the lower, evil inclinations that prevent the Active Intellect from flowing into a person’s consciousness and actualizing his spiritual potential. Abulafia maintained that the letters and words themselves have no power on their own, but when absorbed with the breath and spiritual intellect of the individual they become dynamic forces with shapes of their own that transform them into powers, and the letters thereby transform the person meditating.
Abulafia and his disciples experienced both inner light and sound during their meditation. Here is an account by one of his disciples of the experience of inner light:
The third night, after midnight, I nodded off a little, quill in my hands and paper on my knees. Then I noticed that the candle was about to go out. I rose to put it right, as oftentimes happens to a person awake. Then I saw that the light continued. I was greatly astonished, as though, after close examination, I saw that it issued from myself. I said: “I do not believe it.” I walked to and fro all through the house and, behold, the light is with me; I lay on a couch and covered myself up, and behold, the light is with me all the while. I said: “This is truly a great sign and a new phenomenon which I have perceived.”327
Abulafia wrote about the devotees ascending from the outer human speech to inner speech and merging into the divine speech, the dibur kadmon:
And they ascend from light to light … to the union, until their inner speech returns, cleaving to the primordial speech which is the source of all speech, and they further ascend from speech to speech until the inner human speech [is a] power in itself, and he prepares himself to receive the divine speech.328
Abulafia also wrote that the combination of letters and names creates a kind of internal music in the meditator. The melodies vibrate within and bring joy to the heart of the meditator.
I will now explain to you how the method of tseruf proceeds. You must realize that letter combination acts in a manner similar to listening with the ears. The ear hears sounds and the sounds merge, according to the form of the melody or the pronunciation. I will offer you an illustration. A violin and a harp join in playing and the ear hears, with sensations of love, variations in their harmonious playing. The strings touched with the right hand or the left hand vibrate, and the experience is sweet to the ears, and from the ears the sound travels to the heart and from the heart to the spleen [the seat of emotion]. The joy is renewed through the pleasure of the changing melodies, and it is impossible to renew it except through the process of combinations of sounds.
The combination of letters proceeds similarly. One touches the first string, that is, analogically, the first letter, and the right hand passes to the others, to second, third, fourth, or fifth strings, and from the fifth it proceeds to the others. In this process of permutations new melodies emerge and vibrate to the ears, and then touch the heart. This is how the technique of letter combination operates.… And the secrets which are disclosed in the vibrations rejoice the heart, for the heart then knows its God and experiences additional delight. This is alluded to in the verse (Psalms 19:8): “The Torah of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” When it is perfect, it restores the soul.329
Abulafia gives detailed instructions for his meditation techniques in his book Hayei ha-olam ha-ba (Life of the World-to- Come). He includes hints on preparing oneself for a period of meditation, describes the technique, and guides his disciple on what to expect as he experiences the “intellectual influx.” It is interesting that rather than divesting himself of thought and rising above the thinking process, as taught in many other systems, he intensely increases the flow of thought in his mind, perhaps making his mind hyperactive and losing control, as a way of rising above it. We have included this selection in its entirety because it covers all aspects of the meditation practice he taught:
Make yourself ready to meet your God, O Israel. Get ready to turn your heart to God alone, cleanse your body, and choose a special place where none will hear you, and remain altogether by yourself in isolation. Sit in one place in a room or in the attic, but do not disclose your secret to anybody. If you can do this in the day time in your own home, do even if only a little. But it is best to do it at night. Be careful to withdraw your thoughts from all the vanities of the world when you are preparing yourself to speak to your Creator, and you want Him to reveal to you His mighty deeds.
Robe yourself in your tallit [prayer shawl] and put the tefillin [phylacteries] on your head and hand; so that you may feel awed before the Shekhinah [divine immanence] that is with you at that time, cleanse your garments. If you can, let your garments all be white, for this is a very great aid to experiencing the fear and love for God. If you are doing this at night, kindle many lights so that your eyes will see brightly.
Then take in hand pen and ink and a writing board, and this will be your witness that you have come to serve your God in joy and with gladness of heart. Begin to combine letters, a few or many, reverse them and roll them around rapidly until your heart feels warm. Take note of the permutations, and of what emerges in the process. When your heart feels very warm at this process of combinations and you have understood many new subjects that you had not known through tradition or through your own reason, when you are receptive to the divine influence, and the divine influence has touched you and stirred you to perceptions one after another, get your purified thoughts ready to envision God, praised be He, and His supreme angels. Envision them in your heart as though they were people standing or sitting about you, and you are among them like a messenger whom the king and his ministers wish to send on a mission and he is ready to hear about his mission from the king or his ministers.
After envisioning all this, prepare your mind and heart to understand mentally the many subjects that the letters conjured up in you, concentrate on all of them, in all their aspects, like a person who is told a parable or a riddle or a dream or as one who ponders a book of wisdom in a subject so profound as to elude his comprehension which will make you receptive to seek any plausible interpretation possible.
All this will happen to you after you will have dropped the writing tablet from your hand and the quill from your finger or they will have fallen away by themselves, because of the intensity of your thoughts. And be aware that the stronger the intellectual influx will become in you, your outer and inner organs will weaken and your whole body will be agitated with a mighty agitation to a point where you will think you are going to die at that time, for your soul will separate from your body out of great joy in having comprehended what you have comprehended. You will choose death over life, knowing that this death is for the body alone, and that as a result of it your soul will enjoy eternal life.
Then you will know that you have attained the distinction of being a recipient of the divine influx, and if you will then wish to honor the glorious Name, to serve Him with the life of body and soul, cover your face and be afraid to look at God, as Moses was told at the burning bush (Exodus 3:5): “Do not draw near, remove the shoes from your feet, for the ground on which you stand is holy.”
Then return to your bodily needs, leave that place, eat and drink a little, breathe in fragrant odors, and restore your spirit until another time and be happy with your lot. And know that your God who imparts knowledge to man has bestowed His love on you. When you will become adept in choosing this kind of life, and you will repeat it several times until you will be successful in it, strengthen yourself, and you will choose another path even higher than this.330
While a variety of practices exist that incorporate movement with repetition of phrases or words, none occupy the intellectual faculties of the mind with so many activities on changing objects, combined with vocal and body involvement. What is also unique about Abulafia’s letter combination system is that the combination of so many objects (letters, vowels, words, physical movements, and breaths) requires an extraordinary memory. Idel points out that this system does not allow for prolonged periods of contemplation, but rather “short bursts into eternal life, followed by a rapid return to the life of this world.”331 He comments about some unusual aspects of Abulafia’s system:
Abulafia’s method is based upon the contemplation of a constantly changing object: one must combine the letters and their vowel signs, “sing” and move the head in accordance with the vocalization, and even lift one’s hands in the gesture of Priestly Blessing. This combination of constantly changing components is entirely different from what we know of these other techniques. Abulafia is not interested in relaxing the consciousness by means of concentration on a “point,” but in purifying it by the necessity to concentrate intensely on such a large number of activities that it is almost impossible at that moment to think about any other subject. By this means, the consciousness is purified of every subject apart from the names being uttered.332
The complexity of this system can be illustrated by examining the process of letter combination. When working with a Hebrew letter it must be combined with the letters of the explicit name of God (YHWH). Each letter is combined with the explicit name using each of the five vowels of the Hebrew alphabet. For example, in using the first letter aleph, it is joined with each letter of YHWH, so that there would be four combinations, AY, AH, AW, AH. Each of these is then vocalized by every possible permutation of the five vowels, holam, kamats, hirik, tserei, kubuts.
There were specific instructions on how many breaths to take between each letter combination, specific directions on how long the breaths should be on the exhalation while reciting a particular letter/vowel combination, and how the head and hand movements should be coordinated with the above. Furthermore, Abulafia instructed his followers to see the letters as a visionary experience, either as the names of God themselves or in the shape of a man, symbolizing the divine being.
In theory, as one author writes, one meditation session could take more than a day if anyone could do it, and if you made a mistake on breath, hand, or sound you had to start over again. It would be very dangerous not to start from the beginning, according to Abulafia.
As complex and difficult as this system may appear to be, Abulafia had several disciples who attested to its effectiveness. For example, in the anonymous work written in 1295 called Sha’arei tsedek (Gates of Virtue), one of Abulafia’s disciples discusses the basic ideas of prophetic Kabbalah, and describes the two other methods by which he tried to attain “spiritual expansion”: the method of “effacement” as practiced by Muslim mystics and the method of rationalistic philosophy, until he finally arrived at Kabbalah and the path of the names, through which he attained the spiritual level he desired. A short selection describing his experience of inner light was cited a few pages back. The complete selection, included as Appendix #4, gives a revealing account of his relationship with his master as well as his progress in taking his soul beyond the physical realm and filling it with the divine influx.
Abulafia’s techniques were also adopted and incorporated into later practices of Jewish mysticism. The Sufi Jewish mystics who had originated in Egypt continued to live in the Holy Land during Abulafia’s time; it is thought that they incorporated elements of his teachings, and produced a kind of hybrid Sufi Kabbalah. Abulafia’s influence was also felt among kabbalists like Isaac of Akko and Shem Tov ibn Gaon in the fourteenth century, and even in the teachings of the Safed mystics of the sixteenth century like Moses Cordovero and Hayim Vital.