GENERAL CONCEPTS
Although Bardon's Kabbalah is extraordinary and certainly not easily compatible with the mainstream Kabbalah. On this page we will summarise the key traditional perspectives. These should however not be understood to be the views shared by Bardon.
The whole world is a book which God, blessed be He, made; and the Torah is the commentary
that He made and bound to that book. (Rav Zadok ha-Kohen of Lublin, Mahshavot Heruts 44a)
Rav Zadok ha-Kohen of Lublin (1823–1900) expresses here the core of kabbalistic teaching: language penetrates to the heart of reality. Kabbalah is quintessentially a mysticism of language. The Torah is not seen as something apart from the world. Indeed, the crucial connection between Torah and the world is explicit in the advice given by Rabbi Ishmael (early second century CE) to a scribe who writes the sacred words on a Torah scroll:
'My son, be meticulous in your work, for it is the work of heaven; should you omit one single letter, or add one too many, you would thereby destroy the whole world' (Talmud, Eru- vin 13a).
The kabbalist attempts to use language to return to the 'primordial root', which is the unknowable essence of all. Kabbalistic practices entail using language in ways that deliberately abandon the normal semantic meaning of words. Specifically using letters and sounds as elements void of meaning brings about the intended connection to that which cannot, by its very nature, be given a finite meaning. Paradoxically, the elements of language themselves become the means for transcending language as a semantic system.
The primary source for all kabbalistic language practices is the Sefer Yetsirah. This work explains how God used the Hebrew letters in His work of creation. The mystic's desire to draw close to God is realized through imitating God's own ways of working:
22 foundation letters. He [God] engraved them, carved them, weighed them, permuted them, combined them, and formed with them all that was formed and all that would be formed in the future ... He engraved them with voice, carved them with breath, fixed them in the mouth in five places ... He placed them in a wheel, like a wall with 231 gates. The wheel revolves forwards and backwards ... How? He weighed them and per- muted them: Alef with them all and all of them with Alef; bet with them all and all of them with bet. They continue in cycles and exist in 231 gates. Thus, all that is formed and all that is spoken derive from one Name. (Sefer Yetsirah 2:2–5)
In addition to recording God's arcane methods of working with the Hebrew letters, the Sefer Yetsirah is instructing the reader on the methods that should be used in order to imitate God's ways.
The Hebrew of the paragraph could be translated either as 'He engraved them ...' or as 'Engrave them ...'. Kabbalists hold that both meanings are intended. The mystic is enjoined to emulate the ways in which God worked with the letters. The sequence of six processes given in the beginning of this extract (which I have emphasized by italicizing the verbs) is used in a visualization practice. Preparation for visualization requires closing or half-closing the eyes. Normally, when we close the eyes we automatically turn the visual sense off inwardly as well. For this kind of a practice, however, we must remain acutely aware of the visual sense even whilst being closed to outward seeing. It is as if we are seeing the screen made by the insides of the eyelids. Engraving means outlining the letter in the mind's eye; as the outline is built up, we hold a clear intent to operate with a specific letter.
Carving entails establishing the letter as a powerful presence in visual consciousness; energy is focused on the letter until it blazes like fire on the inner screen of the mind. The intent behind weighing is that of allowing the letter's qualities to impress themselves upon us; a receptive state must be cultivated, in which we might, for example, find mean- ing in the letter's shape, its constituent parts, its relations with other letters, and so on.
This is followed by permuting the letter with other letters; perhaps, having focused on the letter's constituent lines, other letters using those lines arise in the mind. Letters are then combined, enabling them to enter into relationships one with another. The final stage concerns the meaning of those combinations; what kind of a presence is formed when those specific letters come together? It is not simply a matter of knowing the word (and, in fact, not all combinations produce words), but rather we are attempting to discern the nature of the entity depicted by the specific combination of letters. What tensions arise between the letters, or do they share a more harmonious relation?
The Sefer Yetsirah's phrase concerning the 'five places' in which the letters are fixed refers to the locations in which the letters' sounds are produced. The five locations are the throat, palate, tongue, teeth, and lips (see Figure 6.3). These locations also relate to the five primary vowel sounds in Hebrew – a, ei, o, ee, oo, thereby providing the basis for a chanting meditation (see Kaplan 1990: 102–8). The essence of the meditation involves becoming aware of the site of origin for each letter. Of course, at the same time that you are engaging with the origin of the letter within your own anatomy, you should be cognizant of its ultimate origin in the divine Being. The final section in the above extract from the Sefer Yetsirah focuses on the method of combining individual letters. The creative fluidity in language as a whole is seeded by the 'wheel' used by God in forming letter combinations. This wheel brings letters into combination, generating words, and therefore – according to the worldview of the Sefer Yetsirah – bringing forms into being. The motif of the wheel recurs in the Bahir in relation to the ramifications of meaning in scriptural words: 'What is a “word”? As is written, “[Apples of gold in settings of silver is] A word fitly [Hebrew of 'nav] spoken” (Proverbs 25:11). Do not read “fitly” [of 'nav] but “its wheel” [ofanav], as in “My presence will go” (Exodus 33:14)' (Bahir 33; I have discussed the psychological importance of this passage in Lancaster 2004: 240–6). The path to the 'apples of gold', a term indicating the concealed truth of the scriptural text, requires accessing the wheel of meanings to which any given word relates. The Bahir subtly conveys this instruction via the very midrashic technique it encourages. The vowelless form of Hebrew scriptural texts means that the word translated in most English Bibles as 'fitly' could be articulated differently, giving the word meaning 'its wheel'. In accommodating both meanings, we may say that the reading of a scriptural text becomes 'fitting' to the ex- tent that its words are elaborated by the 'wheel' of their associations and subtleties of meaning. The perspective of the Bahir is complementary to that of the Sefer Yetsirah. The Sefer Yetsirah is concerned with God's activation of the wheel of letters in His work of forming all that exisits. The Bahir is viewing things more from the perspective of the mystic who aspires to grasp the nature of creation through the study of Scripture. The mystic uses the very potency that God injected into the language in the first place in order to unveil the divine presence in Scripture. Mathematically, there are 231 two-letter combinations (without doubling letters and without reversals) from the Hebrew alphabet of twenty-two letters.
Abulafia points out that the name Israel could be read yesh ra'el (both are spelled ysr'l), meaning 'there are 231'. The implication of this equation is that the path to the higher state connoted by the name 'Israel' requires that the mystic studies and practises these 231 combinations. The kabbalist aspires to the highest possible alignment with God by exploring these 'gates' in a con- centrated meditative state. A further gematria is critical for Abulafia's under- standing of the goal of this practice: both Israel and yesh ra'el have the same numerical value (541) as sekhel ha-po'el (the Active Intellect). The Active Intel- lect is also identified with the Torah. In the mediaeval map of spiritual realms, the Active Intellect is the sphere of union between the human and divine minds. Abulafia is using these various formulas to indicate that immersion in the Torah, including a total knowledge of the ways of letter combinations, is the path to that union. According to Abulafia, the 'wheel of the letters' is under the jurisdiction of the angel Metatron. This angel is identified by the Talmud with the angel men- tioned in Exodus 23:20: 'Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you in the way and to bring you to the Place which I have prepared.' The next verse states, 'My Name is in him.' The Talmud sees in this verse an allusion to the name Shaddai, which has the same numerical value (314) as the name Metatron.
(Talmud, Sanhedrin 38b). The simple meaning is that Metatron will be the guide for the journey to the Promised Land. At a deeper level, the reference to 'Place' alludes to the journey towards closeness to God, which entails a mys- tical grasp of the wheel of letters. The Zohar Hadash (Yitro, 39d) connects Metatron with the 'one wheel on the earth' in Ezekiel's vision (Ezekiel 1:15). The Zohar proceeds to describe how the letters of the ineffable Name are engraved in a flame that emerges from the angel. These are the letters at the core of kab- balistic practices. Ultimately, each of the 22 Hebrew letters is viewed as a Name in its own right. Thus, by engaging in mystical concentration with the wheel of the letters, the kabbalist aspires to encounter Metatron, guardian of the way to union with God. In the above extract from the Bahir, the reference to Exodus 33:14 is poignant in this context. The full dialogue between Moses and God in the Exodus pas- sage goes as follows: And Moses said to the Lord, See, You say to me, bring up this people; and You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, I know you by name, and you have also found grace in my sight. Now therefore, if I have found grace in Your sight, make known to me
Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your eyes; see that this nation is Your people. And He said, My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. (Exodus 33:12–14) Etymologically, the allusion in the Bahir to the phrase 'my presence will go' is simple enough, since the Hebrew words for 'presence' and 'wheel' have let- ters in common. But the author of the Bahir seems to be alluding to a deeper tradition. The passage from Exodus describes God's intention to reveal His presence to Moses. This event represents the pinnacle of all individual human–divine encounters portrayed in the Hebrew Bible. As the biblical com- mentators emphasize, the reference is to God in His very essence. According to Ramban's commentary on this passage, the Torah is intimating that God agreed to Moses' request that He reveal to him the details of His Name. The deeper meaning of the Bahir extract appears to be that the wheel of letters and language provides the key to grasping and using the Name. The mystic who as- pires to an encounter with 'the King' must be at one with the fluid ways of the Hebrew language, as well as possessing an intimate knowledge of the practices by means of which God's Name is fully internalized.
