174 Moshe Idel
Th is is the gist of another interesting passage in early Hasidism, in
which the unitive concern is combined with what I call the talismanic
model. Rabbi Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl, a Hasidic master active in
the second part of the eighteenth century, writes,
Man must pronounce the letters while being in a state of cleaving to the
“Primordial Speech” through which he can draw downward the “Primor-
dial Speech” — which is an aspect of God — to Israel in a general way. Since
this is the quintessence of the revelation of the Torah, which is an aspect
of God and is in His Name, part of God is drawn and infused into the
Children of Israel, by means of speech that emanates from the Primor-
dial Speech. 43On the same page, R. Menahem Nahum writes that the ideal study of the
Torah is “for its own sake.” Th is is a common rabbinic idea, and in the
original Hebrew, the idea of “its own” is conveyed by a pronominal suffi x
spelled with the letter h. Menahem Nahum therefore interprets this com-
mon rabbinic idea to mean that ideal Torah study is “for the sake of the let-
ter h [whose numerical value in Hebrew is fi ve and thus refers to study for
the sake of ] the fi ve locations, which is Primordial Speech.” He interprets
Torah study as being for the sake of the fi ve locations in the mouth where
vocalizations are produced. Th us, Torah study is defi ned as primarily vocal
and also ideally intended to be so.
Th ese passages represent only a sampling of the varied ways that scrip-
ture is viewed in Jewish mystical texts. Additional types of Jewish mysti-
cism (in particular the ecstatic kabbalah) could not be adduced here for
reasons of space, and further nuances in the literatures surveyed could not
be described. Several themes, nonetheless, emerge from the varieties of
scriptural experience seen in our survey. For Jewish mystics, scripture con-
tains several types of information, accessible at exoteric and esoteric lev-
els. Moreover, scripture does not only serve as a source of information and
guidance; it also contains the very presence of God, through the names of
God from which it is built. Consequently, scripture is not only something
to be understood but something to be used, a localization of the sacred.
Notes- Editor’s Note: Th is chapter is based on two pieces by Moshe Idel, which have
been abridged and combined by Benjamin D. Sommer: “Th e Concept of Torah in