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<h1 style="text-align:center;">How to Read the Zohar</h1>
![[Shaar Hazohar.png|align center]]
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# Table of Contents
- [[#Course Description and Links|Course Description and Links]]
- [[#Introduction to the Zohar|Introduction to the Zohar]]
- [[#Introduction to the Zohar#I: What is the Zohar?|I: What is the Zohar?]]
- [[#Introduction to the Zohar#II: The Symbolism of the Zohar|II: The Symbolism of the Zohar]]
- [[#II: The Symbolism of the Zohar#Nothing|Nothing]]
- [[#II: The Symbolism of the Zohar#The Sefirot|The Sefirot]]
- [[#II: The Symbolism of the Zohar#Dividing the Sefirot into Four Layers of Symbolism|Dividing the Sefirot into Four Layers of Symbolism]]
- [[#II: The Symbolism of the Zohar#The Sefirot as a Map of our Ultimate Concern|The Sefirot as a Map of our Ultimate Concern]]
- [[#Introduction to the Zohar#III: The Zohar as a Language of Mystical Experience|III: The Zohar as a Language of Mystical Experience]]
- [[#III: The Zohar as a Language of Mystical Experience#Practices involved with the Zohar as a Language of Mystical Experience|Practices involved with the Zohar as a Language of Mystical Experience]]
- [[#1. Ma'amar One: The Thirteen Petalled Rose|1. Ma'amar One: The Thirteen Petalled Rose]]
- [[#1. Ma'amar One: The Thirteen Petalled Rose#1.1 *Breshit* - In the Beginning|1.1 *Breshit* - In the Beginning]]
- [[#1.1 *Breshit* - In the Beginning#Breshit 1: 1-3|Breshit 1: 1-3]]
- [[#Breshit 1: 1-3#JPS 1917|JPS 1917]]
- [[#Breshit 1: 1-3#**Selections from the Jewish Study Bible on *Breshit*** (Jon D. Levenson)|**Selections from the Jewish Study Bible on *Breshit*** (Jon D. Levenson)]]
- [[#Breshit 1: 1-3#Selections from Robert Alter's Translation and Commentary|Selections from Robert Alter's Translation and Commentary]]
- [[#1.1 *Breshit* - In the Beginning#Getting inside the Word of Creation - Textual Spiritual Practices|Getting inside the Word of Creation - Textual Spiritual Practices]]
- [[#1. Ma'amar One: The Thirteen Petalled Rose#1.2 Love in the Song of Songs - The Power of Creation|1.2 Love in the Song of Songs - The Power of Creation]]
- [[#1.2 Love in the Song of Songs - The Power of Creation#The Song of Songs 1:1-3|The Song of Songs 1:1-3]]
- [[#1.2 Love in the Song of Songs - The Power of Creation#The Jewish Study Bible on the Song of Songs (Elsie Stern)|The Jewish Study Bible on the Song of Songs (Elsie Stern)]]
- [[#1.2 Love in the Song of Songs - The Power of Creation#Rashi on the Song of Songs|Rashi on the Song of Songs]]
- [[#1.2 Love in the Song of Songs - The Power of Creation#Practices Involving this Text|Practices Involving this Text]]
- [[#1. Ma'amar One: The Thirteen Petalled Rose#1.3 The First Page of the Zohar|1.3 The First Page of the Zohar]]
- [[#1.3 The First Page of the Zohar#The Zohar 1:1|The Zohar 1:1]]
- [[#The Zohar 1:1#Daniel Matt's Commentary in the Pritzker Zohar (with rabbinic sources and other additions)|Daniel Matt's Commentary in the Pritzker Zohar (with rabbinic sources and other additions)]]
- [[#1.3 The First Page of the Zohar#Symbols Maps for the Rose|Symbols Maps for the Rose]]
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## Course Description and Links
Since its mysterious appearance almost a thousand years ago, the Zohar has emerged as one of the most powerful forces in Jewish tradition. The Zohar’s radical hermeneutics, its passionate and often erotic religious intensity, and its mystical formulation of Judaism’s fundamental ideas, have riveted many of Israel’s greatest sages (while appalling others!). This course seeks to open the gates of the Zohar by systematically *learning how to learn it*. We will begin at *Breshit*, the beginning of the text, in the original Aramaic and in translation. Using academic tools and spiritual practices such as chanting and visualization, we will learn to think like the Zohar, and to understand the way it cultivates an encounter with *elohut* (divinity) through studying Jewish sources.
- Feel free to contact me with comments or questions at
[email protected]
- Link to this Document: https://tinyurl.com/Read-the-Zohar-FJC
- Link to PDF Version (Updates Occasionally): https://tinyurl.com/Coursebook-PDF
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## Introduction to the Zohar
### I: What is the Zohar?
*Selections from Arthur Green's Introduction to the Zohar in the Prizker Edition Vol. 1*
![[Selections from Arthur Green's Introduction to the Zohar]]
### II: The Symbolism of the Zohar
![[Sefirot Matt Plus YHVH.png|100%]]
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#### Nothing
*Selections from Gershom Scholem's **Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism***
![[Scholem on Mystical Nothing]]
#### The Sefirot
*Selections from Arthur Green's Introduction to the Pritzker Zohar*
![[Selections from Green on Sefirotic Symbolism]]
#### Dividing the Sefirot into Four Layers of Symbolism
![[Sefirot - All Layers.png]]
![[Sefirot - God.png]]
![[Sefirot - Mind.png]]
![[Sefirot - World.png]]
![[Sefirot - Torah and Mitsvot.png]]
#### The Sefirot as a Map of our Ultimate Concern
![[ADAM Y-H-V-H Graphic.png]]
*Note: For our purposes, synonyms for **ultimate concern** are ultimate value, the meaning of life, what's important, the purpose of existence and any similar such phrase.*
###### *The Dynamics of Faith by Paul Tillich (Chapter One, Kindle Version)*
> 1\. FAITH AS ULTIMATE CONCERN Faith is the state of being ultimately concerned: the dynamics of faith are the dynamics of man’s ultimate concern. Man, like every living being, is concerned about many things, above all about those which condition his very existence, such as food and shelter. But man, in contrast to other living beings, has spiritual concerns—cognitive, aesthetic, social, political. Some of them are urgent, often extremely urgent, and each of them as well as the vital concerns can claim ultimacy for a human life or the life of a social group. If it claims ultimacy it demands the total surrender of him who accepts this claim, and it promises total fulfillment even if all other claims have to be subjected to it or rejected in its name. If a national group makes the life and growth of the nation its ultimate concern, it demands that all other concerns, economic well-being, health and life, family, aesthetic and cognitive truth, justice and humanity, be sacrificed. The extreme nationalisms of our century are laboratories for the study of what ultimate concern means in all aspects of human existence, including the smallest concern of one’s daily life. Everything is centered in the only god, the nation—a god who certainly proves to be a demon, but who shows clearly the unconditional character of an ultimate concern.
>
> But it is not the unconditional demand made by that which is one’s ultimate concern, it is also the promise of ultimate fulfillment which is accepted in the act of faith. The content of this promise is not necessarily defined. It can be expressed in indefinite symbols or in concrete symbols which cannot be taken literally, like the “greatness” of one’s nation in which one participates even if one has died for it, or the conquest of mankind by the “saving race,” etc. In each of these cases it is “ultimate fulfillment” that is promised, and it is exclusion from such fulfillment which is threatened if the unconditional demand is not obeyed.
>
> An example—and more than an example—is the faith manifest in the religion of the Old Testament. It also has the character of ultimate concern in demand, threat and promise. The content of this concern is not the nation—although Jewish nationalism has sometimes tried to distort it into that—but the content is the God of justice, who, because he represents justice for everybody and every nation, is called the universal God, the God of the universe. He is the ultimate concern of every pious Jew, and therefore in his name the great commandment is given: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5). This is what ultimate concern means and from these words the term “ultimate concern” is derived. They state unambiguously the character of genuine faith, the demand of total surrender to the subject of ultimate concern. The Old Testament is full of commands which make the nature of this surrender concrete, and it is full of promises and threats in relation to it. Here also are the promises of symbolic indefiniteness, although they center around fulfillment of the national and individual life, and the threat is the exclusion from such fulfillment through national extinction and individual catastrophe. Faith, for the men of the Old Testament, is the state of being ultimately and unconditionally concerned about Jahweh and about what he represents in demand, threat and promise.
>
> Another example—almost a counter-example, yet nevertheless quality revealing—is the ultimate concern with “success” and with social standing and economic power. It is the god of many people in the highly competitive Western culture and it does what every ultimate concern must do: it demands unconditional surrender to its laws even if the price is the sacrifice of genuine human relations, personal conviction, and creative eros. Its threat is social and economic defeat, and its promise—indefinite as all such promises—the fulfillment of one’s being. It is the breakdown of this kind of faith which characterizes and makes religiously important most contemporary literature. Not false calculations but a misplaced faith is revealed in novels like Point of No Return. When fulfilled, the promise of this faith proves to be empty. Faith is the state of being ultimately concerned. The content matters infinitely for the life of the believer, but it does not matter for the formal definition of faith. And this is the first step we have to make in order to understand the dynamics of faith.
*Study Questions: One way to think about the Sefirot is as a symbolic map of our true ultimate concern / ultimate value / the meaning and purpose of human life.*
*Think for a moment about some of the common names of the sefirot: Will, Wisdom, Love, Justice, Beauty and Compassion. When laid out on a page, the sefirot are often arranged in the shape of a human being.*
*In light of these points, can you already see in an intuitive way how the sefirot might be understood as a map of ultimate value? What would the map need to include in order to be a map of **your** ultimate values? Jot down a few examples.*
###### The Tapestry of Value
*This is a way I have often imagined the emergence of the sefirot as a map of our ultimate concern*
I imagine the light of divinity emerging like this: first, there was nothing. And then everything that wasn't (\!) became a tiny point of…maybe light. And that point exploded into the planets and the stars and their constellations. And on at least one planet, physics gave birth to biology, and biology (through evolution) gave birth to the human mind.
Inside the mind, as I know it from the inside, there is also a vast university, but of subjectivity, rather than material objects. And in that universe some things shine with goodness. I can imagine all that shining swirling value, rich in deep colors and powerful emotions, pulsating with ideas and faces and holy stories, human shapes, voices and sounds; it is a great tapestry stretching out before and around me; a tapestry composed of the patterns of ultimate value, illuminating my life and the world. It is composed of all the things that I know to be good.
Imagine the tapestry as a great work of art: it is a colossal mural and on it are painted all the experiences of divinity that you know now, or can remember or imagine. Each and every one is embedded in some instance of your life; they were always in reference to somebody or something or some place. Now, these moments of felt divinity are artistically rendered into shapes, patterns, lines and colors on the mural, which shines and grows dark, adding light and shadow to its tools of expression. The art expresses meanings and relationships by grouping pictures and symbols, and through use of color and contrast. There are portraits and manifestos, signs and words; streams of justice, love and reason; stories mapped out like hieroglyphics. Each instance of value is interconnected with all the others. And the tapestry isn't static: its contents and spirit are in motion, capturing one aspect of the whole, and then another. It's like the moving hieroglyphics that Moses finds in Pharoh's basement in the Prince Of Egypt. The tapestry is evolving as you contemplate it, alive, interactive and dynamic.
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### III: The Zohar as a Language of Mystical Experience
*Selections from Melila Hellner-Eshed's - A River Flows from Eden - On the Zohar as a Language of Mystical Experience*
![[Melila on the Zohar as a Language of Mystical Experience - Abbr]]
#### Practices involved with the Zohar as a Language of Mystical Experience
In the above section, Melila Hellner-Eshed discusses what it means to approach the Zohar as a language of mystical experience. We will adopt this approach to the Zohar in our class, and also apply it to the sacred texts from which the Zohar is woven. This involves interacting with the text in atypical ways from a Western secular perspective. We will chant the text out loud, focus on its sounds and shapes, consider the roots from which the words are constructed, visualize its images and symbols, and pay close attention to the impact of all of these on our states of mind and being. In this context, we will also make use of meditative practices taught by Rabbi Abraham Abulafia. As we progress through the various materials in this course book, pay particular attention to these dimensions of our study.
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## 1. Ma'amar One: The Thirteen Petalled Rose
*We will begin our exploration of the Zohar with the very first page. The spell on this page is woven from a number of elements. The first element is the opening text of creation - breshit.*
### 1.1 *Breshit* - In the Beginning
#### Breshit 1: 1-3
<p dir="rtl" style="line-height: 1.3;" align="center"><span lang="he-IL" style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: David;">בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים <br>אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃ </span></strong></span><br><span lang="he-IL" style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: David;">וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ </span></strong></span><br><span lang="he-IL" style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: David;">וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם </span></strong></span><br><span lang="he-IL" style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: David;">וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃ </span></strong></span><br><span lang="he-IL" style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: David;">וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִ֣י א֑וֹר </span></strong></span><br><span lang="he-IL" style="font-size: 18pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: David;">וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר׃</span></strong></span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3.5;" align="center"><span style="font-family: David;"><span lang="en-IL">When God began to create heaven and earth—</span></span><br><span style="font-family: David;"><span lang="en-IL">the earth being unformed and void,</span></span><br><span style="font-family: David;"><span lang="en-IL">with darkness over the surface of the deep</span></span><br><span style="font-family: David;"><span lang="en-IL">and a wind from God sweeping over the water—</span></span><br><span style="font-family: David;"><span lang="en-IL">God said, “Let there be light”;</span></span><br><span style="font-family: David;"><span lang="en-IL">and there was light. (JPS 2006)</span></span></p>
##### JPS 1917
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. And God said: ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light.
##### **Selections from the Jewish Study Bible on *Breshit*** (Jon D. Levenson)
![[JSB on Breshit]]
##### Selections from Robert Alter's Translation and Commentary
![[Robert Alter on Breshit]]
#### Getting inside the Word of Creation - Textual Spiritual Practices
In order to enter the space of this text:
- Speak it out loud in English and Hebrew until it roles off your tongue and you know it by heart.
- Look up the Hebrew roots and consider how the meanings of the verses emerge from them.
- Consider the shapes of the letters, the way they are grouped together, and their numerical values.
- Imagine the images that are evoked by the words.
- Consider alternative translations.
- Ask yourself: What is going on in these verses? Who are these lovers? Why are they saying these things to each other?
- Count the letters from the *beit* of *breshit* to the *beit* of *Vohu*
### 1.2 Love in the Song of Songs - The Power of Creation
#### The Song of Songs 1:1-3
<div class="hebrew" style="text-align:center;">
אֲנִי֙ חֲבַצֶּ֣לֶת הַשָּׁר֔וֹן שׁוֹשַׁנַּ֖ת הָעֲמָקִֽים׃
<p>
כְּשֽׁוֹשַׁנָּה֙ בֵּ֣ין הַחוֹחִ֔ים כֵּ֥ן רַעְיָתִ֖י בֵּ֥ין הַבָּנֽוֹת׃
<p>
כְּתַפּ֙וּחַ֙ בַּעֲצֵ֣י הַיַּ֔עַר כֵּ֥ן דּוֹדִ֖י בֵּ֣ין הַבָּנִ֑ים…
</div>
<div class="ltr" style="text-align: center;">I am a rose of Sharon, A lily of the valleys.<p>Like a lily among thorns, So is my darling among the maidens.<p>Like an apple tree among trees of the forest, So is my beloved among the youths
</div>
#### The Jewish Study Bible on the Song of Songs (Elsie Stern)
![[JSB on The Song of Songs]]
#### Rashi on the Song of Songs
<div class="hebrew" div style="font-weight: bold;">
הַקְדָּמָה: אַחַת דִּבֶּר אֱלֹהִים שְׁתַּיִם זוּ שָׁמָעְתִּי, מִקְרָא אֶחָד יוֹצֵא לְכַמָּה טְעָמִים וְסוֹף דָּבָר אֵין לְךָ מִקְרָא יוֹצֵא מִידֵי פְשׁוּטוֹ וּמִשָּׁמְעוֹ...וְאוֹמֵר אֲנִי שֶׁרָאָה שְׁלֹמֹה בְּרוּחַ הַקֹּדֶשׁ שֶׁעֲתִידִין יִשְׂרָאֵל לִגְלוֹת גּוֹלָה אַחַר גּוֹלָה, חֻרְבָּן אַחַר חֻרְבָּן, וּלְהִתְאוֹנֵן בְּגָלוּת זֶה עַל כְּבוֹדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן וְלִזְכֹּר חִבָּה רִאשׁוֹנָה אֲשֶׁר הָיוּ סְגֻלָּה לוֹ מִכָּל הָעַמִּים, וְאָשׁוּבָה אֶל אִישִׁי הָרִאשׁוֹן כִּי טוֹב לִי אָז מֵעָתָּה וְיִזְכְּרוּ אֶת חֲסָדָיו, וְאֶת מַעֲלָם אֲשֶׁר מָעֲלוּ, וְאֶת הַטּוֹבוֹת אֲשֶׁר אָמַר לָתֵת לָהֶם בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים וְיָסַד סֵפֶר הַזֶּה בְּרוּחַ הַקֹּדֶשׁ בִּלְשׁוֹן אִשָּׁה צְרוּרָה אַלְמְנוּת חַיּוּת מִשְׁתּוֹקֶקֶת עַל בַּעְלָהּ מִתְרַפֶּקֶת עַל דּוֹדָהּ מַזְכֶּרֶת אַהֲבַת נְעוּרִים אֵלָיו וּמוֹדֶה עַל פִּשְׁעָהּ, אַף דּוֹדָהּ צַר לוֹ בְּצָרָתָהּ וּמַזְכִּיר חַסְדֵי נְעוּרֶיהָ וְנוֹי יָפְיָהּ וְכִשְׁרוֹן פְּעָלֶיהָ, בָּהֶם נִקְשַׁר עִמָּהּ בְּאַהֲבָה עַזָּה, לְהוֹדִיעָם כִּי לֹא מִלִּבּוֹ עָנָה, וְלֹא שִׁלּוּחֶיהָ שִׁלּוּחִין, כִּי עוֹד הִיא אִשְׁתּוֹ וְהוּא אִישָׁהּ וְהוּא עָתִיד לָשׁוּב אֵלֶיהָ:
</div>
___
*A note about this translation: Rashi artfully weaves back and forth from "they" meaning Israel to "her", the lover's wife. I translated "He", as God, in parallel to the "they" of Israel, and I translated "he", as the male lover, in parallel to "her", the female lover.*
**Introduction: "God has spoken once, twice have I heard this…" (Psalms 62 12), one text of scripture goes out to several meanings, but in the end the scripture never loses its simple meaning…And I say that Solomon saw through the Holy Spirit that Israel would be exiled in exile after exile, destruction after destruction, and would express sorrow about the exile and about the honor they had once had, and would remember the early affection [of God], that they were treasured [by Him] more than all nations, "And I will return to my first man, for then it was better for me then than now" (Hoshea 2 9), and they will remember his loving kindness, and their treachery in their betrayal of Him, and the great beneficences that he promised them in the end of days. And he [Solomon] established this book in the Holy Spirit, in the language of a woman cursed with 'living widowhood' [bound to a living man with which she cannot have union, from Samuel 1 20 3], yearning for her husband, clinging to her lover, speaking about the love of her youth toward him, and admitting her crime. And even her lover suffers for her suffering, and he speaks of the loving kindness of her youth, the pleasantness of her beauty, the greatness of her abilities, the things through which he fell into great love for her. [The Song of Songs is] to tell them that it was not from His heart that He caused them pain, and that in sending her away he did not divorce her, for she is still his wife, and he is still her man and he will return to her.**
#### Practices Involving this Text
In order to enter the space of this text:
- Speak it out loud in English and Hebrew until it roles off your tongue and you know it by heart.
- Look up the Hebrew roots and consider how the meaning of the verses emerges from them.
- Imagine the images that are evoked by the words.
- Consider alternative translations.
- Ask yourself: What is going on in these verses? Who are these lovers? Why are they saying these things to each other?
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### 1.3 The First Page of the Zohar
![[www.peggyturchette.com.jpg]]
*Illustration by Peggy Turchette*
#### The Zohar 1:1
<div class="hebrew" div style="font-weight: bold;">
ספר הזוהר א:א
<p>
(א) רבִּי חִזְקִיָּה פָּתַח, כְּתִיב, (שיר השירים ב׳:ב׳) כְּשׁוֹשַׁנָּה בֵּין הַחוֹחִים. מָאן שׁוֹשַׁנָּה? דָּא כְּנֶסֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל. בגין דאית שושנה ואית שושנה, מַה שּׁוֹשַׁנָּה דְּאִיהִי בֵּין הַחוֹחִים אִית בַּהּ סוּמָק וְחִוָּר, אוּף כְּנֶסֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל אִית בַּהּ דִּין וְרַחֲמֵי. מַה שּׁוֹשַׁנָּה אִית בַּהּ תְּלֵיסַר עָלִין, אוּף כְּנֶסֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל אִית בַּהּ תְּלֵיסַר מְכִילָן דְּרַחֲמֵי דְּסַחֲרִין לַהּ מִכָּל סִטְרָהָא. אוּף אֱלהִים דְּהָכָא מִשַׁעְתָּא דְּאִדְכַּר אַפִּיק תְּלֵיסַר תֵּיבִין לְסַחֲרָא לִכְנְסֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל וּלְנַטְרָא לַהּ.
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(ב) וּלְבָתַר אִדְכַּר זִמְנָא אָחֳרָא. אַמַּאי אִדְכַּר זִמְנָא אָחֳרָא? בְּגִין לְאַפְקָא חָמֵשׁ עָלִין תַּקִּיפִין דְּסַחֲרִין לְשּׁוֹשַׁנָּה. וְאִנּוּן חָמֵשׁ אִקְרוּן יְשׁוּעוֹת. וְאִנּוּן חָמֵשׁ תַּרְעִין. וְעַל רָזָא דָא כְּתִיב (תהילים קט״ז:י״ג) כּוֹס יְשׁוּעוֹת אֶשָּׂא דָּא כּוֹס שֶׁל בְּרָכָה. כּוֹס שֶׁל בְּרָכָה אִצְטְרִיךְ לְמֶהֱוֵי עַל חָמֵשׁ אֶצְבְּעָן וְלָא יַתִּיר. כְּגַוְונָא דְּשׁוֹשַׁנָּה דְּיָתְבָא עַל חָמֵשׁ עָלִין תַּקִּיפִין דּוּגְמָא דְחָמֵשׁ אֶצְבְּעָן. וְשׁוֹשַׁנָּה דָא אִיהִי כּוֹס שֶׁל בְּרָכָה. מֵאֱלהִים תִּנְיָנָא עַד אֱלהִים תְּלִיתָאָה חָמֵשׁ תֵּיבִין.
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(ג) מִכָּאן וּלְהָלְאָה אוֹר דְּאִתְבְּרֵי וְאִתְגְּנִיז וְאִתְכְּלִיל בְּבְּרִית הַהוּא דְּעָאל בְּשּׁוֹשַׁנָּה וְאַפִּיק בַּהּ זַרְעָא. וְדָא אִקְרֵי עֵץ עוֹשֶׂה פְּרִי אֲשֶׁר זַרְעוֹ בוֹ. וְהַהוּא זֶרַע קַיָּימָא בְּאוֹת בְּרִית מַמָּשׁ.
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(ד) וּכְמָה דְדִיּוּקְּנָא דִבְרִית אִזְדְּרַע בְּאַרְבְּעִין וּתְרֵין זִוּוּגִין הַהוּא זַרְעָא, כָּךְ אִזְדְּרַע שְׁמָא גְלִיפָא מְפָרַשׁ בְּאַרְבְּעִין וּתְרֵין אַתְוָן דְּעוֹבָדָא דִּבְרֵאשִׁית.</div>
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**Sefer Hazohar 1:1** (*Translation by Daniel Matt*)
(1) **Rabbi Ḥizkiyah opened, “*Like a rose* *among thorns, so is my beloved among the maidens* (Song of Songs 2:2). [n1] Who is *a rose*? Assembly of Israel. [n2] For there is a rose, and then there is a rose\! Just as a rose among thorns is colored red and white,[n3] so Assembly of Israel includes judgment and compassion. Just as a rose has thirteen petals, so Assembly of Israel has thirteen qualities of compassion surrounding Her on every side.[n4] Similarly, from the moment אלהים (*Elohim*), *God*, is mentioned, it generates thirteen words to surround Assembly of Israel and protect Her; then it is mentioned again.[n5] Why again? To produce five sturdy leaves surrounding the rose.[n6] These five are called Salvation;[n7] they are five gates.[n8] Concerning this mystery it is written: *I raise the cup of salvation* (Psalms 116:13). This is the cup of blessing, which should rest on five fingers— and no more [n9] —like the rose, sitting on five sturdy leaves, paradigm of five fingers. This rose is the cup of blessing.**
**(2) “From the second אלהים (*Elohim*) till the third, five words appear.**
**(3) From here on: light—created, concealed, contained in the covenant,[n10] entering the rose, emitting seed into Her. This is the *tree bearing fruit with its seed in it* (Genesis 1:12).[n11] That seed endures in the actual sign of covenant.**
**(4) Just as the image of the covenant is sown in forty-two couplings of that seed, so the engraved, explicit name [n12] is sown in forty-two letters of the act of Creation.” [n13]**
##### Daniel Matt's Commentary in the Pritzker Zohar (with rabbinic sources and other additions)
[1\.] ***rose*** שושנה (*Shoshanah*) probably means “lily” or “lotus” in Song of Songs, but here Rabbi Ḥizkiyah has in mind a rose.
See *Vayiqra Rabbah* 23:3; *Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah* on 2:2; *Zohar* 1:137a, 221a; 2:20a (*MhN*), 189b; 3:107a, 180b, 233b, 286b; Ezra of Gerona, *Peirush Shir ha-Shirim*, 489 (lily); Joseph ibn Akhnin, *Peirush Shir ha-Shirim*, 63–65 (rose); Moses de León, *Sefer ha-Rimmon*, 183–84; *Zohorei Ya’bets*.
A Ladino translation of the verse (*The Ladino Five Scrolls*, ed. Lazar, 4–5) reads: “Commo la roza entre los espinos, ansi mi conpañera entre las dueñas.”
[2\.] **Assembly of Israel** ישראל כנסת (*Keneset Yisra’el*). In rabbinic Hebrew, this phrase denotes the people of Israel. The midrash on the Song of Songs describes an allegorical love affair between the maiden (the earthly community of Israel) and her lover (the Holy One, blessed be He). See *Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah* on 2:1. In the *Zohar, Keneset Yisra’el* can refer to the earthly community but also (often primarily) to *Shekhinah*, the divine feminine counterpart of the people, the aspect of God most intimately connected with them. The lovers in the Song of Songs are pictured as the divine couple: *Tif’eret* and *Shekhinah*.
[3\.] **colored red and white** As is *Rosa gallica versicolor* (also known as *Rosa mundi*), one of the oldest of the striped roses, whose flowers are crimson splashed on a white background. The striping varies and occasionally flowers revert to the solid pink of their parent, *Rosa gallica*. The parent was introduced to Europe in the twelfth or thirteenth century by Crusaders returning from Palestine. Both parent and sport were famous for their aromatic and medicinal qualities. Elsewhere (2:20a–b) the *Zohar* alludes to the process of distilling oil from the petals of the flower to produce rose water, a popular remedy. During this process the color gradually changes from red to white.
[4\.] **thirteen petals... thirteen qualities of compassion...** A rose blossom can have thirteen petals in its second tier. In rabbinic tradition, God’s thirteen attributes of compassion are derived from Exodus 34:6–7. See BT *Rosh ha-Shanah* 17b. According to Kabbalah, these qualities originate in *Keter*, the highest *sefirah*, the realm of total compassion untainted by judgment.
[5\.] ***Elohim*** **אלהים**, ***God*****, is mentioned...** The divine name אלהים (*Elohim*), *God*, refers here to *Binah*, the Divine Mother. Between its first and second occurrences in the opening verses of Genesis there are thirteen words, which allude to the thirteen qualities of compassion originating in *Keter*, emanating from *Binah* and surrounding the rose of *Shekhinah*.
[6\.] **five sturdy leaves...** The leaves of rose plants grow in clusters of five, nine, or thirteen leaves. And between the second and third occurrences of אלהים (*Elohim*) in Genesis are five words, alluding to five divine leaves: the five *sefirot* emanating from *Binah* and transmitting the flow to *Shekhinah*. These *sefirot* are *Ḥesed, Gevurah, Tif’eret* (including *Yesod*), *Netsaḥ*, and *Hod*.
[7\.] **Salvation** The flow of emanation saves the rose of *Shekhinah* from the demonic thorns surrounding Her.
[8\.] **five gates** By which one enters the divine realm.
[9\.] **cup of blessing... on five fingers...** According to the Talmud, the cup of wine is held in the right hand during the blessing after food. See BT *Berakhot* 51a: “One takes it with both hands and places it on the right hand.” Cf. *Zohar* 1:156a (*ST*), 250a; 2:138b, 143b, 157b.
[10\.] **light—created, concealed...** See BT *Ḥagigah* 12a: “Rabbi El’azar said, ‘With the light created by the blessed Holy One on the first day, one could gaze and see from one end of the universe to the other. When the blessed Holy One foresaw the corrupt deeds of the generation of the Flood and the generation of the Dispersion \[the generation of the Tower of Babel\], He immediately hid it from them, as is written: *The light of the wicked is withheld* (Job 38:15). For whom did He hide it? For the righteous in the time to come.’”
Elsewhere, the Midrash links the hidden light with Psalms 97:11: *Light is sown for the righteous*. See *Tanḥuma, Shemini* 9; *Shemot Rabbah* 35:1; *Midrash Tehillim* 27:1.
Rabbi Ḥizkiyah now specifies *where* the primordial light was concealed: in the covenant, which is a name for the *sefirah* of *Yesod*—the divine phallus, site of the covenant of circumcision. *Yesod* is also known as Righteous. See *Zohar* 1:21a, 31b–32a, 45b; 2:35a, 148b–149a; 166b–167a, 230a.
[11\.] ***tree bearing fruit...*** The tree symbolizes male divinity.
[12\.] **explicit name** The Ineffable Name, *YHVH*. See *Devarim Rabbah* 3:8; *Midrash Tehillim* 114:9; *Zohar* 2:48a.
[13\.] **forty-two couplings... forty-two letters of the act of Creation** The forty-two-letter name is mentioned in the name of Rav, though not recorded, in BT *Qiddushin* 71a. According to one later view, it consists of the first forty-two letters of the Torah, from the ב (bet) of בראשית (*Be-reshit*) through the ב (*bet*) of בהו (*bohu*), *void* (Genesis 1:2).
See *Tosafot, Ḥagigah* 11b, s.v. *ein doreshin; KP* 1:46c–d; Trachtenberg, *Jewish Magic and Superstition*, 94–95; cf. Maimonides, *Guide of the Perplexed*, 1:62. Cordovero (*OY*) describes how the name *YHVH* (“the engraved, explicit name”) can be permuted into a forty-two-letter name; cf. *Zohar* 2:260a. In *Zohar* 1:9a, Moses’ staff is described as “radiating the engraved name in every direction with the radiance of the wise who engraved the explicit name in forty-two colors.” Cf. *Zohar* 1:15b, 30a; 2:130b, and 175b: “... the forty-two holy letters of the holy name, by which heaven and earth were created.”
#### Symbols Maps for the Rose
![[Sefirotic Map of Rose.png]]
![[Correlations Chart for the Rose.png]]
![[Rose with Psukim.png]]