Concepts of Scripture in Jewish Mysticism 177Rabbinic Canon: Authority and Boundaries,” Journal of Biblical Literature 110
(1991): 624 – 26.
- Moshe Hayyim Ephrayyim of Sudylkov, Degel Mah.aneh Efrayyim, 119 – 20.
- Ibid.
- R. Elimelekh of Lisansk, No’am Elimelekh, fol. 8a.
- See Moshe Idel, Hasidism: Between Ecstasy and Magic (Albany: SUNY
Press, 1995), 215 – 18. - Th e Hebrew phrase here (she-hu asur bi-shemo) means fi guratively that
God is imprisoned in or bound by His Name. Th e view that God is bound is remi-
niscent of Song of Songs 7:6, in which the king, understood in many Jewish texts
as an allegory for God, is caught or bound (Hebrew: asur) in tresses. Compare,
however, to Scholem’s view that, in addition to light and sound, “even the names of
God are merely symbolic representations of an ultimate reality which is unformed,
amorphous” (On the Kabbalah, 8). - Th e Hebrew verb qore’ means both “to read” and “to call.” For the magical
signifi cance of this verb in the Heikhalot literature, see Peter Schaefer, Hekhalot-
Studien (Tübingen, Germany: J. C. M. Mohr, 1988), 259. In our context, the role
of the biblical phrase qore’ be-shem Yhwh (see Psalm 99:10 and Joel 2:17) should
be examined. - Dov Baer, Or Ha-Emet, fol. 14c.
- Note that Shneor Zalman here diff ers from the widespread understanding
of the sefi rot described earlier, according to which the second sefi rah, H.okhmah,
stands for the primordial or heavenly Torah; the sixth, Tiferet, stands for the Writ-
ten Torah; and the lowest, Malkhut (also known as Shekhinah), is associated to the
Oral Torah. According to Shneor Zalman in this passage, however, H.okhmah is
associated with Oral Torah, and the highest sefi rah, Keter, is implicitly associated
with Written Torah. - Th is author emphasizes that the source of the letters and of speech in gen-
eral is higher than that of knowledge, because the knowledge stems from the sec-
ond sefi rah, H.okhmah, while the speech stems from the fi rst sefi rah, Keter. Th is
stand is explicated in more details elsewhere in the same book; see Liqqutei Torah
(Brooklyn, 1979), H.uqqat, IV, fol. 59a. Th is is a very important passage, as it explic-
itly describes the source of speech as higher than that of knowledge, a stand I am
not acquainted with elsewhere in kabbalah. - Shneor Zalman, Derushim le-Rosh ha-Shanah, V, fol. 59a.
- A similar view is found in a teaching ascribed to a grandson of Rabbi
Shneor Zalman of Liady, Rabbi Menahem Mendel Schneerson of Lubavitch (1789 –
1866; he should not be confused with his great-great-great-grandson [and also
great-great-grand-son-in-law, twice over] of the same name [1902 – 1994], who also
served as Rebbe or Tz ad di k of the Lubavitch community); see Hayyim Liebersohn,
Tzeror Ha-H.ayyim (Bielgoria: Azriel Hayyim, 1913), fol. 30a. Th e hyposemantic