Moses de Leon, Book of the Pomegranate, edited by Wolfson, pp. 333-334

 

The secret of the Sabbath is the lower point… and all the lower entities sit beneath this one point, which is the final point. Indeed, the foundation stone is that from which the world is established, and it is the midpoint of all the seventy nations and she stands in the middle. … Just as king Solomon, the secret of the median line, stands in the middle between the upper waters and the lower waters, so the secret of the lower point stands in the middle. Thus, she stands in the middle and revolves until she ascends in holiness, and the seventy thrones stand surrounding this point that is in the middle. … There is no circle without the beginning of this point that is in the middle. … When everything is in the surrounding circle and the point is in the middle, which is the space of the circle, the one who comes to touch the space of the circle, which is in the middle and which is called the “Sabbath,” is deserving of the punishment of death.

Translated by Elliot Wolfson in, “Coronation of the Sabbath Bride- Kabbalistic Myth and the Ritual of Androgynisation,” Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 6 (1997)- 301-344.

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