Table Of ContentApocalyptic and Merkavah Mysticism
Ancient Judaism and
Early Christianity
Arbeiten zur Geschichte des antiken Judentums
und des Urchristentums
Founding Editor
Martin Hengel † (Tübingen)
Executive Editors
Cilliers Breytenbach (Berlin)
Martin Goodman (Oxford)
Editorial Board
Lutz Doering (Münster) – Pieter W. van der Horst (Utrecht)
Tal Ilan (Berlin) – Judith Lieu (Cambridge)
Tessa Rajak (Reading/Oxford ) – Daniel R. Schwartz ( Jerusalem)
Seth Schwartz (New York)
VOLUME 90
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ajec
Apocalyptic and Merkavah
Mysticism
Second, Revised Edition
By
Ithamar Gruenwald
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gruenwald, Ithamar.
Apocalyptic and Merkavah mysticism / by Ithamar Gruenwald. — Second, revised edition.
pages cm. — (Ancient Judaism and early Christianity)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-13602-1 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-27920-9 (e-book) 1. Mysticism—Judaism.
2. Apocalyptic literature. 3. Throne of God. I. Title.
BM723.G78 2014
296.7’12—dc23
2014020718
This publication has been typeset in the multilingual ‘Brill’ typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering
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issn 1871-6636
isbn 978 90 04 13602 1 (hardback)
isbn 978 90 04 27920 9 (e-book)
Copyright 2014 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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Contents
Preface vii
List of Abbreviations and Transcriptions ix
PART 1
Introduction 3
1 The Quest for the Mystical Reality: Reflections on the Ontological
Provenance of the Hekhalot Hymns and Visions 7
2 Two Essential Qualities of Jewish Apocalyptic 44
3 The Mystical Elements in Apocalyptic 68
4 The Attitude Towards the Merkavah Speculations in the Literature of the
Tannaim and Amoraim 111
5 The Hekhalot Literature 134
PART 2
Introduction 161
Reʾuyot Yeḥezkel 168
Hekhalot Zutarti 176
Hekhalot Rabbati 184
Maʿaseh Merkavah 206
Hekhalot Fragments 213
Sefer Hekhalot (3 Enoch) 217
vi contents
Merkavah Rabbah 234
Masekhet Hekhalot 241
Shiʿur Qomah 245
Physiognomy, Chiromancy and Metoposcopy 249
Sefer Ha-Razim 255
Concluding Chapter
When Magical Techniques and Mystical Practices Become Neighbors:
Methodological Considerations 264
Appendices by Saul Lieberman 291
1. Metatron, the Meaning of his Name and his Functions 291
2. The Knowledge of Halakha by the Author (or Authors)
of the Heikhaloth 297
Selected Bibliography 301
Index 310
Preface
The revised edition of this book is a project, which has been planned for a
long time. In fact, since the first edition went out of print and was no longer
available, many readers who have expressed their wish to access the book have
found it difficult if not impossible to purchase even a second hand copy.
The revised edition contains new introductory and concluding chapter, a
Select Bibliography, and a new Index. Further more, substantial corrections
and changes have been made in the original text. The changes concern matters
of language and style, they nuance the line of argumentation, and they update
the discussion of major issues. The new chapters fill several scholarly gaps
that have opened since the initial publication of this book in 1980. The new
“Chapter One” explores new venues and issues in the study and assessment of
the Hekhalot literature and relevant passages in apocalyptic literature, and this
in terms of epistemological and ontological considerations. The “Concluding
Chapter” suggests a new approach to the study of mystical theurgy and magic
in terms of ritual study and theory.
A major factor that contributed to the enormous change in the scholarly
interest in the Hekhalot literature after the publication of the first edition of
this book is the series of volumes of the Hekhalot Literatur (including a concor-
dance) prepared by Peter Schäfer and his research teams.1 They made printed
editions of the relevant texts accessible to the scholarly world. Previously—
and this was the case when I worked on the first edition—only manuscripts
scattered through various libraries or their photographic reproductions were
available. The few printed editions of the texts at hand were not as reliable as
the manuscripts themselves.
Naturally, responsible discussions of all the studies that have been published
in the field since the publication of the first edition are beyond the capacity
of a revised text. Taking into consideration the updated and annotated elec-
tronic bibliography prepared by Don Karr (http://www.digital-brilliance.com/
contributed/Karr/Biblios/mmhie.pdf), which consists of more than forty
pages of items, one could justifiably draw the conclusion that an altogether
new book should have been written. A revision of the original text cannot do
full justice to the wealth of material published after the publication of the first
edition. However, essential issues in that material have been carefully consid-
ered in revising the present edition. Naturally, not every reference could be
1 Published by J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen, 1981–1988. These volumes were followed
by a series of translations into German by the same teams of scholars and publisher.
viii preface
taken up and discussed at length. Only studies that bear direct relevance to
my discussion have been included in this edition. I decided to bypass debates
that would have given the book what I consider a wearisome twist.
Instead, I have put new agenda on the discussion table, which will alert the
reader to the scholarly relevance of issues that previously did not receive the
kind of attention they deserve. Furthermore, I reconsidered almost every issue
in the first edition and made the necessary changes. As indicated, epistemolog-
ical questions and matters of ritual theory, which relate to the essence of the
Hekhalot writings, are now in the foreground. In this respect, attention is given
to the ontology that sustains the visionary experiences and, particularly, the
role of hymnic materials in the realization of that ontology. The ritual aspects
of the mystical and theurgic practices receive a new mode of theoretical and
practical consideration. As a result, the subject matter contained in the book
now highlights the epistemological cogency of the mental experiences that
sustain the Hekhalot writings and the ritual theory that underlies the theurgic
and magical practices. So far, the absence of these discussions has constituted
a gap that had to be filled with due scrutiny.
J. R. Davila’s Hekhalot Literature in Translation: Major Texts of Merkavah
Mysticism (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2013) came out too late to be consulted for
this edition. The English translations of passages from Hekhalot Rabbati were
taken from the electronic edition prepared by Don Karr (http://www.digital-
brilliance.com/kab/karr/HekRab/HekRab.pdf). Karr’s extended “Preface to
the January 2009 Edition” provides the story of that translation, which reflects
the work of Morton Smith done over a long period. I took the liberty of mak-
ing several changes to the English text, which, as the recently updated version
of Karr’s Preface makes clear, I have good reason to believe that Morton Smith
would have accepted. Furthermore, Don Karr read the final draft of this edi-
tion and made numerous stylistic and other suggestions. They considerably
improved my line of argumentation. I am indebted to his friendly help and
the open line of communication that the work on this edition initiated.
Finally yet importantly, an old colleague at Brill, Ms. Loes (Louise) Schouten,
was for many years the driving force behind this publication. More recently,
Ms. Mattie Kuiper took upon herself the publishing responsibility and patiently
stayed with the publication through all its unfortunate delays. They and my old
publisher, Brill, on whose behalf they work, deserve thanks and the warm grati-
tude of the writer and his readers.
I also wish to thank Dr. Lieve Teugels, the diligent copy-editor on behalf of
Brill.
Jerusalem, November 2013
List of Abbreviations and Transcriptions
Abbreviations
OGIS = Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae
TB = Talmud Babylonicum
TP = Talmud Palaestinense
Transcriptions
א = ʾ כּ = k
ע = ʿ כ = kh
ב = v צ = ẓ (sometimes: tz)
ו = w ק = q (sometimes: k)
ח = ḥ ש = sh (sometimes: sch)
ט = ṭ (sometimes: t) ת = t
