166 M o s h e I d e l
in R. Joseph of Hamadan’s work: “a limb that holds up,” which means that
the lower limb not only corresponds to but also supports the supernal one.
He is arguing that performance of the commandments by a certain limb
strengthens its parallel limb found on high, which is one of the sefi rot.
Th us, the contemplation of the higher from the vantage point of the lower
is not the only, and perhaps not even the most important, type of relation-
ship between certain shapes here below (the human body and the Torah)
and the structure of the sefi rot on high. Th e lower not only knows the
higher but also contributes to making it (as seems to be the case in the pas-
sage quoted earlier from Th e Book of [Divine] Unity ) or supports it (as is
the case in R. Joseph of Hamadan’s books). Th is infl uence is theurgical in
nature (the term theurgy refers to a human activity intended to infl uence
divinity, whether in God’s own inner state or in God’s relationship with hu-
manity). Th is theurgical infl uence is only possible because of the affi nities
between three isomorphic structures: the Torah, the human body, and the
ten sefi rot which form the divine realm.
R. Joseph writes elsewhere in his Commentary on the Rationales of the
Commandments,
Woe to whoever believes that there is nothing more than the plain mean-
ing of the Torah, 21 because the Torah, in its entirety, is the name of the
Holy One blessed be He. Th e [Talmudic] sages of blessed memory already
hinted at this [when they said] that whoever says the whole Torah is from
heaven except for this letter is a heretic and has no portion whatsoever in
the World to Come. 22 Because the Torah in its entirety is the name of the
Holy One, blessed be He, it consists of inner [i.e., spiritual] things . . . such
that no creature can comprehend the greatness of its rank other than God,
blessed be He, the supreme and the wonderful One who created it. And
the Torah of the Holy One, blessed be He, is within Him, and in Him there
is the Torah, and this is the reason why kabbalists said that “He is in His
name, and the Name is in Him.” He is His Torah, and the Torah is made of
the holy and pure chain, in [the image of the] supernal form, and it is the
shadow of the Holy One, blessed be He. 23Th e profound affi nity between God, name, and Torah is obvious in this
passage. God forms the hidden layer of the Torah, and from this point
of view, He is within the Torah. However, this anthropomorphic isomor-
phism has an additional and very important layer: the human and divine