Chapter 1 (PDF) - Stanford University Press

Shim'on opened, ``The blossoms
Rabbi
have appeared on the earth, the
of pruning has arrived; the voice
time
the turtledove is heard in our land (Song of Songs 2:12). The blossoms are the
of
of Creation, which appeared on the earth. When? On the third day, as is
act
The earth brought forth vegetation (Genesis 1:12). Then they appeared on
written:
of tyrants (Isaiah 25:5) took place. 14
pruning 15
deficiently.
swarm [with a swarm of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth,
waters
the expanse of the sky] (Genesis 1:20), generating offspring. Is heard is the
across
will do, and we will listen (Exodus 24:7). 16 In our land is the Sabbath day,
We
of the land of eternal life. 17
paradigm
though not recorded, in BT Qiddushin
Rav,
According to one later view, it consists
71a.
1:2).
(Genesis
Tosafot, Ḥagigah 11b, s.v. ein doreshin;
See
1:46c±d; Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and
KP
94±95; cf. Maimonides, Guide of
Superstition,
Perplexed, 1:62. Cordovero (OY )describes
the
the name YHVH (``the engraved, explicit
how
can be permuted into a forty-twolettername;
name'')
cf. Zohar 2:260a. In Zohar 1:9a,
staff is described as ``radiating the
Moses'
name in every direction with the
engraved
name in forty-two colors.'' Cf. Zohar
explicit
1:15b,30a;2:130b,and175b:``...theforty-two
letters of the holy name, by which
holy
and earth were created.''
heaven
translated ``singing of'' in this verse,
usually
Rabbi Shim'on understands it as ``prun-
but
of,'' i.e., the pruning of the demonic
ing
the tyrants (KP; cf.Zohar 3:4b), or
powers,
pruning of humans by the demonic tyrants
the
(OY ).
is written without vavs, the vowel
(me'orot)
(Such variant spelling is common in
letters.
Torah and affects neither pronunciation
the
plain meaning of the words.) This
northe
spelling implies that something
deficient
missing on the fourth day of Creation,
was
Proverbs 3:33; JT Ta'anit 4:4, 68b;
See
de-Rav Kahana 5:1; Soferim 17:4;
Pesiqta
and Minḥat Shai on Genesis 1:14;
Rashi
1:12a, 19b, 33b.
Zohar
We will do and we will listen Spoken
16.
by the people of Israel at Mount Sinai.
these words, Israel demonstrated true
With
by committing themselves to fulfill and
faith
God's word even before hearing the
enact
See BT Shabbat 88a.
details.
Haqdamat Sefer ha-Zohar
[1:1b]
\ (Be-reshit), In the beginning.
K[BZC
the earth. The time of pruning has arrivedÐthe fourth day, on which the
ZB \ (Me'orot), lights, spelled
P
The voice of the turtledove is the fifth day, as is written: Let the
sixth day, as is written: Let us make a human being (Genesis 1:26), who was
destined to declare acting before hearing, for here is written: [1b]
F[TR
Let us make, a human being, and there is written: R [T F (Na'aseh),
(Na'aseh),
3
of the first forty-two letters of the Torah,
\ (Be-reshit)
P ZB \ (Me'orot), lights, spelled defi-
15.
In Genesis 1:14, the word P \ZB
ciently
from the C (bet) of
C
K[BZ
through the C (bet) of
C
F
G
(bohu), void
a lack representing the potential for evil or
P ZB F (me'erah).
``curse'':
radiance of
the wise who engraved the
pruning of tyrants . . . H KP Z (Zemir) is
14.
paradigm of the land . . . According
17.
BT Berakhot 57b, the Sabbath is ``a reflec-
to
tion of the world to come.''