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The Name of God and the Linguistic Theory of the Kabbala

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Gershom Scholem
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“Thy word (or: essence) is true from the beginning”; thus reads the Psalmist's passage, oft quoted in kabbalistic literature (Psalm 119: 160). According to the originally conceived Judaistic meaning, truth was the word of God which was audible both acoustically and linguistically. Under the system of the synagogue, revelation is an acoustic process, not a visual one; or revelation at least ensues from an area which is metaphysically associated with the acoustic and the perceptible (in a sensual context). This is repeatedly emphasised with reference to the words of the Torah (Deuteronomy 4: 12): “Ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.” What precisely we are to understand by this voice and what is uttered through it is the very question which the various currents of Judaistic religious thought have constantly posed themselves. The indissoluble link between the idea of the revealed truth and the notion of language—is as much, that is, as the word of God makes itself heard through the medium of human language, if, otherwise, human experience can reach the knowledge of such a word at all—is presumably one of the most important, if not the most important, legacies bequeathed by Judaism to the history of religions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 20 , Issue 79 , September 1972 , pp. 59 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © 1972 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

* This article was originally a lecture given at the Eranos-meeting in Ascona, 1970.

1 In a letter from Hamann to Jacobi written at the end of 1785, shortly before his death, cf. Hamanns Schriften, ed. Gildemeister 5, p. 122, and Rudolf Unger, Hamanns Sprachtheorie im Zusammenhange seines Denkens, 1905, p. 226, in which the author completely misconstrues the importance of this epigram for Hamann's thought.

2 Molitor, Philosophie der Geschichte oder über die Tradition, 2, 1834, pp. 73 & 248. The author is of the opinion that he has discovered in the Kabbala another conception of the Creation which is seen not as the auto-representation of God, but as the shadow projected by God. However, he has misunderstood his sources for this thesis in the Emek ha-Melekh, folio 12b, para. 61, where the argument has nothing to do with this. In kabbalistic literature I have only once come across the conception of nature as the shadow projected by the divine name, and this again in the light of the mystique of language. I found this in the manuscript commentary on the Psalms, namely the Kaph ha-Ketoreth, which was printed c. 1500 in Paris.

3 Benno Jacob, Im Namen Gottes. Eine sprachliche und religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung zum Alten und Neuen Testament, 1903, p. 64.

4 Gerhard von Rad, Theologie des Alten Testaments 1, 1957, p. 185.

5 E.g. by S. Mowinckel, Psalmenstudien, I, 1921, pp. 50 ff.

6 von Rad, p. 183.

7 Jacob, p. 110, concerning the way in which these ideas penetrate Pharisaical Judaism.

8 Ludwig Blau, Das altjüdische Zauberwesen, 1898, p. 119-120, in which the source data for these assertions are also given. Some of these assertions have been recently examined in a philosophical spirit by Emanuel Levinas, Le Nom de Dieu d'après quelques textes talmudiques, in the colloquium: L' Analyse du langage théologique. (Le Nom de Dieu, ed. E. Castelli, Paris, 1969, pp. 155-167).

9 Hermann Cohen, Jüdische Schriften I, 1924, p. 63. This passage is taken from one of Cohen's late writings.

10 The literature relevant to the Shem meforash is abundant. I shall limit myself to an indication of the wholly opposed conceptions of Ludwig Blau, in the above-mentioned book, pp. 123-126, and Max Gruenbaum, Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Sprach- und Sagenkunde, 1901, pp. 228-434. The Kabbalists considered both these conceptions of the meforash as legitimate. (cf. for example, Moses Cordovero, Pardes rimonim, chap. 19, para. 1.)

11 The fact that this linguistic traditon dates back so far is a result of its being misconstrued, due to translation, as far back as the Coptic-gnostic scripts. Cf. my own explanations in the Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, 30, 1931, pp. 170-176. Reference is also often made to this linguistic tradition in the writings of the mystique of the Merkaba between the 3rd and 7th centuries.

12 Blau, pp. 137-146. In the magic papyri and later on in the kabbalistic tradition there is even a divine name of a hundred letters. Cf. Bakhya ben Asher's Commentary on the Torah, ex. 3:4, in which this name is related back to the tradition of the Babylonian scholars of the Gaonic period.

13 For example in Hay Gaon and Rashi, cf. Blau, p. 125 and p. 132.

14 In Makkoth lla.

15 Riesser, Altjüdisches Schrifttum ausserhalb der Bibel, 1928, p. 346.

16 For example in the Wertheimer version, chap. 23, para. 2, as well as in Jellinek's version, chap. 9.

17 Pirkei Rabbi Eli'ezer, chap. 3.

18 Berakhoth 55a.

19 Midrash Tadsche, chap. 2: "The Tabernacle was built in accordance with the creation of the world." This midrash is also to be found in Bamidbar Rabba, chap. XIII.

20 Cfr. my explanations of the Book of Yetsira in Ursprung und Anfänge der Kabbala, 1962, pp. 20-28.

21 The Book of Yetsira has frequently been translated into European languages. As a result of the considerable complexities presented by certain passages, such translations are frequently at variance with each other. Chapter 1 deals with the ten sefiroth, chapters 2-5 the letters.

22 Both these passages are to be found in chapter 1 about the sefiroth, paras. 10 and 13.

23 Cf. Ursprung und Anfänge der Kabbala, p. 27.

24 For example in the Commentary of the Azriel from Gerona, which is printed in the editions of the book of Yetsira under the name of the Nakhmanides.

25 Cf. the material of Franz Dornseiff, Das Alphabet in Mystik und Magie, 1925, pp. 69-80, as well as my own observation in op. cit. p. 25, where I have interpreted an ancient Graeco-Hebrew amulet in which the alphabetical series is clearly used for a magic purpose.

26 For example in Erich Bischoff, Elemente der Kabbala, Part I, 1913, p. 67.

27 In my book Zur Kabbala und ihrer Symbolik, 1960, pp. 209-219.

28 Cf. Max Grunwald, Bibliomantie, in the Mitteilungen für jüdische Volkskunde, Book 10, 1902, pp. 80-98.

29 Sepher Ha-Ratsim, a newly recovered book of magic from the Talmudic period, ed. Mordecai Margalioth, 1966.

30 A translation of this piece can be found in August Wensche, Aus Israels Lehrhalle, kleine Midrashim, vol. I, 1907, pp. 127-133, NB p. 132.

31 A 3rd century assertion, which has given rise to many speculations among the Kabbalists. Cf. for example, Zur Kabbala und ihrer Symbolik, pp. 70-71.

32 This formulation is found in Ezra ben Salomon, in his commentary on the Talmudic Aggadoths, manuscript of the Vatican, Hebr. 294. folio 34a, in the revision of this text by his colleague Azriel, Peruch Aggadoth, ed. Tishby, 1943, p. 76, as well as in Jacob ben Sheshet's book Emuna u-Bitachon, which was erroneously printed under the name of the Nakhmanides, chap. 19. All these Kabbalists belong to the circle of mystics of Gerona.

33 Sefer he-Khayim, ms. Parma de Rossi, 1390, folio 135a.

34 For example in Zohar III, 36a: "The whole Torah is a unique holy and mystic name." Similar definitions in II, 87b; III 80b, 176a.

35 G. Scholem, Zur Kabbala un ihrer Symbolik, 1960, p. 59.

* The concluson of this article by Gershom Scholem will appear in the next issue of Diogenes.