Jewish Mysticism
Measure of holiness, measure of might,
an awesome and terrifying measure.
Measure of trembling, measure of shaking,
measure of terror, measure of panic,
of the garment of Zoharariel, the Lord of hosts, God of Israel,
[with which] He is wrapped when He comes to sit upon the throne of His glory.
And all over it is inscribed, outside and inside, YHWH YHWH.
The eyes of no creature can behold it,
neither the eyes of any being of flesh and blood nor the eyes of His servants.
The one who looks upon it, or glimpses or sees it,
his eyeballs are seized by pulsations,
and his eyeballs emit and send forth flames of fire,
and they kindle him and burn him up.
The fire that comes out of the man who looks kindles him and burns him.
Why?
Because of the appearance of the eyes of the garment of Zohrariel YHWH, God of Israel,
who is wrapped when He comes [to sit] on the throne of His glory. Pleasant and sweet is His beauty,
like the appearance of the beauty of the splendor of the glory of the eyes of the holy beasts, as it is said, “Holy, holy, holy,
the Lord of hosts.”
Translated by Elliot Wolfson in Through a Speculum that Shines- Vision and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism, Princeton- Princeton University Press, 1994, from Schafer, Peter, Synopse zur Hekhalot-Literatur, Tubingen- J. C. B. Mohr, 1981, § 102.