By April 13, 2008 Read More →

Eleazar of Worms, Perush Sefer Yesirah le-R. ’Ele‘azar mi-Worms, 3a-b

Jewish Mysticism
The [Creator] cannot be compared to a body or anything corporeal, nor can you mention any limb, not the mouth or the eye, as it is with the soul. He appears to the prophets by means of the Presence of His glory in many images (dimyonot) according to His will and desire, the one who creates images. With respect to the Presence of his glory it is said, “I beheld the Lord” (Isa. 6-1), “upon this semblance of a throne, there was the semblance of a human form” (Ezek. 1-26), “in our image, after our likeness” (Gen. 1-26), “And the Ancient of Days took his seat” (Dan. 7-9), “The heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool” (Isa. 66-1)… And that which is said in the Ma‘aseh Merkavah [regarding] the measurement of the stature of the Presence as 236,000 myriad parasangs… applies especially to the Presence of His glory, but the Creator of the world has no limit or boundary.

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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