172 Moshe Idel
can be explained as part of the sociological background of Hasidism: the
Hasidic master invests the ritual of reading the Torah with an effi cacy that
does not depend on the cognitive capacities of the performer. Such an ap-
proach allows strong mystical experiences, which are caused by the descent
of the divine power into the voiced letters of the canonical text. On the
other hand, the study of the Oral Torah (the study of which is more elit-
ist, because Talmudic study occurs especially in academic settings and not
among the masses of Jewry) is envisaged as having a magical eff ect only if
it involves understanding. Th us, the Oral Torah remains the prerogative of
the rabbinic elite, but now this elite is deprived of a special status as magi-
cians, at least insofar as the activation of the canonical texts are involved:
God is compelled to be present by the inner structure of the voiced Written
Torah performed in public, even by an unlettered but pious Jew.39
Torah as Intermediary
We have seen that the Torah as God’s name serves as an intermediary, al-
lowing God to descend into the world. We can conclude this survey by not-
ing some texts which propose movement that goes in the other direction:
the Torah allows human beings to ascend to a heavenly realm.
Some kabbalists developed a theory reminiscent of the great chain of
Being. Here the lower realms are the impression (Hebrew, roshem) of the
higher ones, with God at the top. A related theory defi nes the Torah as the
souls of the people of Israel and considers that the Torah consists of the di-
vine names. Th is triune vision enables the passage of the soul, via the Torah
and the divine names, to God.40 Th e following passage is one major ex-
ample of this view, taken from Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz’s early seventeenth-
century work Shnei Luh.ot Ha-Berit (Ha-Shelah), a widely read classic of
somewhat more popular kabbalah:
Th e Holy One, Blessed be He, and the Torah and man are linked to each
other. . . . As the sages of truth [the kabbalists] said, the Torah is the im-
pression of the Divinity, and man is the impression of the Torah, since the
revelation of His divinity is the secret of His holy names, and the Torah
is, in its entirety, His names. . . . Th e Torah consists of the souls of Israel,
both the revealed Torah . . . and the primordial, preserved Torah, which
is the root of the souls of the chosen few. And man is the impression of
the Torah. Th e vast majority, almost all of them, are the impression of this