By April 10, 2008 Read More →

Eleazar of Worms, Hilkhot ha-Kavod, MS Oxford-Bodleian 2575, fol. 3a

Jewish Mysticism
Since it is written ‘For I fill both heaven and earth’ (Jer. 23-24), why does one need to pray in a Synagogue or in the Temple? Yet, there is a place in which the Holy One, blessed be He, shows the created glory to the prophet according to the need of the hour. One might ask- how can one bow down to something created? And consider these verses- It is written, ‘For I granted many visions, and through the prophets was imaged’ (Hosea 12-11). How could it be said, ‘Yet my own eyes have beheld the King Lord of Hosts’ (Isa. 6-5) when it is written ‘no man shall see Me and live’ (Exod. 33-20)? Rather the [vision] is nothing but a wonderful image (dimyon) and it appears as if he actually saw but it is nothing but a strong image. It is written, ‘upon this semblance of a throne there was the semblance of a human form’ (Ezek. 1-26); so too here [in the case of Isaiah] it is only an image.

Translated by Elliot Wolfson in Through a Speculum that Shines- Vision and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism, Princeton- Princeton University Press, 1994.

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