# *Seder Limmud* for Jodi and Shaiya (JLC 2025) # Links Link to this document: https://a-d-a-m.faith/Shared/2025+Jodi+Katzeff/Seder+Limmud ([PDF version](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hiDs8J5mVsRL4zPYPePFLg15H5Y-q_Ra/view?usp=sharing)) [Google doc with Links to background Readings and Resources](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ExmH0mR8fZtoCn6Ld7kHq_OAnpiVltbNoUuxtnqOsHo/edit?usp=sharing) # Table of Contents - [[#First Meeting 6/8/25|First Meeting 6/8/25]] - [[#First Meeting 6/8/25#Daniel Matt in the Essential Kabbalah:|Daniel Matt in the Essential Kabbalah:]] - [[#First Meeting 6/8/25#Gershom Scholem in Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism|Gershom Scholem in Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism]] - [[#First Meeting 6/8/25#Chart for Hazkarat Hashem|Chart for Hazkarat Hashem]] - [[#First Meeting 6/8/25#Kavanah for Hazkara (Intention for the Vocalization)|Kavanah for Hazkara (Intention for the Vocalization)]] - [[#First Meeting 6/8/25#Elements of Hazkarat Hashem|Elements of Hazkarat Hashem]] - [[#First Meeting 6/8/25#The Experience of Entering the Divine Name|The Experience of Entering the Divine Name]] - [[#Meeting 18/9/25: The Zohar on the Holidays of Tishrei|Meeting 18/9/25: The Zohar on the Holidays of Tishrei]] - [[#Meeting 21.10.25|Meeting 21.10.25]] - [[#Meeting 21.10.25#Speakers in Ecstasy - The Biblical *Mitnabim*|Speakers in Ecstasy - The Biblical *Mitnabim*]] - [[#Speakers in Ecstasy - The Biblical *Mitnabim*#Anchor Bible Commentary on the Prophetic Speakers in Ecstasy|Anchor Bible Commentary on the Prophetic Speakers in Ecstasy]] - [[#Meeting 4.11.25|Meeting 4.11.25]] - [[#Meeting 4.11.25#Vowels and Motions of the Hazkarah|Vowels and Motions of the Hazkarah]] - [[#Meeting 4.11.25#The meaning of the Letters Alef, Heh, Vav and Yod - אהו"י|The meaning of the Letters Alef, Heh, Vav and Yod - אהו"י]] - [[#Meeting 4.11.25#Abulafia on the Breath|Abulafia on the Breath]] - [[#26-2-18: The Guide to the Perplexed!|26-2-18: The Guide to the Perplexed!]] ## First Meeting 6/8/25 We decided to begin with the Torah of Rabbi Avraham Abulafia (there are links to background readings on Abulafia in the Google doc above). ![[Your God is Within You]] We started off by talking about Abulafia's place in Jewish history and in Kabbalistic tradition: ### Daniel Matt in the Essential Kabbalah: ![[Daniel Matt on Abulafia in the Introduction to the Essential Kabbalah]] ### Gershom Scholem in Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism ![[Selections from Gershom Scholem Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism on Avraham Abulafia]] We then turned to some resources on Abulafia: [[Entering the Divine Name]]. Below are some of the particular sources that we saw: Abulafia's meditation on the divine name: ### Chart for Hazkarat Hashem ![[אלף עם יהו-ה סידור חדש- משותף.png]] We read Abulafia's presentation of the Kavanah or Intention for the Hazkarah: ### Kavanah for Hazkara (Intention for the Vocalization) ![[In the hour you desire - Hebrew and English]] ![[Commentary on kavanah for hazkarah]] And we began to explore the elements of the Hazkarah: ### Elements of Hazkarat Hashem ![[2 Basic Elements]] ![[Elements of Hazkarah]] We also (I think!) read some of Abulafia's description of what it's like to enter the space of the divine name: ### The Experience of Entering the Divine Name ![[21 Abulafia Anointing Oil Text in Hebrew-English Table]] ![[Anointing Oil Commentary]] [[Shared/2025 Jodi Katzeff/Seder Limmud#Table of Contents|Back to Table of Contents]] ## Meeting 18/9/25: The Zohar on the Holidays of Tishrei [Zohar on the Holidays of Tishrei](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mvF2QeQ3Qe46GzDxeOiV1PNlr6KSgzbW/view?usp=sharing) ## Meeting 21.10.25 ### Speakers in Ecstasy - The Biblical *Mitnabim* ![[Samuel 10 Robert Alter]] #### Anchor Bible Commentary on the Prophetic Speakers in Ecstasy ![[Samuel 10 Anchor Bible Commentary]] And then we might get deeper into how the practice works: ## Meeting 4.11.25 ### Vowels and Motions of the Hazkarah ![[Vowels and Motions]] And then, we might get deeper into the meaning of the letters: ### The meaning of the Letters Alef, Heh, Vav and Yod - אהו"י ![[34 אותיות אהוי עברית אנגלית]] ![[34 אותיות אהוי - זה זכרי לעולם]] ### Abulafia on the Breath ![[08 Abulafia on Breath Hebrew English]] ## 26-2-18: The Guide to the Perplexed! ### The Guide to the Perplexed 1:1 *Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation that keepeth faithfulness may enter in*[1](javascript:void\(0\)) *Translation: Shlomo Pines* CHAPTER 1 *Image* \[*ṣelem*\] and *likeness* \[*demuth*\]. People have thought that in the Hebrew language *image* denotes the shape and configuration of a thing. This supposition led them to the pure doctrine of the corporeality of God, on account of His saying: *Let us make man in our image, after our likeness*.[2](javascript:void\(0\)) For they thought that God has a man’s form, I mean his shape and configuration. The pure doctrine of the corporeality of God was a necessary consequence to be accepted by them. They accordingly believed in it and deemed that if they abandoned this belief, they would give the lie to the biblical text; that they would even make the deity to be nothing at all unless they thought that God was a body provided with a face and a hand, like them in shape and configuration. However, He is, in their view, bigger and more resplendent than they themselves, and the matter of which He is composed is not flesh and blood. As they see it, this is as far as one can go in establishing the separateness of God from other things. Now with respect to that which ought to be said in order to refute the doctrine of the corporeality of God and to establish His real unity—which can have no true reality unless one disproves His corporeality—you shall know the demonstration of all of this from this Treatise. However, here, in this chapter, only an indication is given with a view to elucidating the meaning of *image* and *likeness*. Now I say that in the Hebrew language the proper term designating the form that is well known among the multitude, namely, that form which is the shape and configuration of a thing, is *toʾar*. Thus Scripture says: *beautiful in form* \[*toʾar*\] \[12b\] *and beautiful in appearance*;[3](javascript:void\(0\)) *What form* \[*toʾaro*\] *is he of?*;[4](javascript:void\(0\)) *As the form* \[*toʾar*\] *of the children of a king*.[5](javascript:void\(0\)) This term is also applied to an artificial form; thus: *He marketh its form* \[*yetaʾarehu*\] *with a line, and he marketh its form* \[*yetaʾarehu*\] *with a compass*.[6](javascript:void\(0\)) Those terms[7](javascript:void\(0\)) are never applied to the deity, may He be exalted; far and remote may this thought be from us. The term *image*, on the other hand, is applied to the natural form, I mean to the notion in virtue of which a thing is constituted as a substance and becomes what it is. It is the true reality of the thing in so far as the latter is that particular being. In man that notion is that from which human apprehension derives. It is on account of this intellectual apprehension that it is said of man: *In the image of God created He him.*[8](javascript:void\(0\)) For this reason also, it is said: *Thou contemnest their image.*[9](javascript:void\(0\)) For *contempt* has for its object the soul, which is the specific form, not the shape and configuration of the parts of the body. I assert also that the reason why idols are called *images* lies in the fact that what was sought in them was the notion that was deemed to subsist in them, and not their shape and configuration. I assert similarly with regard to the scriptural expression: *images of your emerods.*[10](javascript:void\(0\)) For what was intended by them was the notion of warding off the harm caused by the *emerods*, and not the shape of the *emerods*. If, however, there should be no doubt concerning the expressions *the images of your emerods* and *images* being used in order to denote shape and configuration, it would follow that *image* is an equivocal or amphibolous term applied to the specific form and also to the artificial form and to what is analogous to the two in the shapes and configurations of the natural bodies. That which was meant in the scriptural dictum, *let us make man in our image*,[11](javascript:void\(0\)) was the specific form, which is intellectual apprehension, not the shape and configuration. We have explained to you the difference between *image* and *form*, and have explained the meaning of *image*. As for the term *likeness* \[*demuth*\], it is a noun derived from the verb *damoh* \[*to be like*\], and it too signifies likeness in respect of a notion. For the scriptural dictum, *I am like a pelican in the wilderness*,[12](javascript:void\(0\)) does not signify that its author \[13a\] resembled the pelican with regard to its wings and feathers, but that his sadness was like that of the bird. In the same way in the verse, *Nor was any tree in the garden of God like unto it in beauty*,[13](javascript:void\(0\)) the likeness is with respect to the notion of beauty. Similarly the verses, *Their venom is in the likeness of the venom of a serpent*[14](javascript:void\(0\)) and *His likeness is that of a lion that* *is eager to tear in pieces*,[15](javascript:void\(0\)) refer both of them to a likeness in respect of a notion and not with respect to a shape and a configuration. In the same way it is said, *the likeness of the throne, the likeness of a throne*;[16](javascript:void\(0\)) the likeness referred to being in respect of elevation and sublimity, not in respect of a throne’s square shape, its solidity, and the length of its legs, as wretched people think. A similar explanation should also be applied to the expression: *the likeness of the living creatures*.[17](javascript:void\(0\)) Now man possesses as his proprium something in him that is very strange as it is not found in anything else that exists under the sphere of the moon, namely, intellectual apprehension. In the exercise of this, no sense, no part of the body, none of the extremities are used; and therefore this apprehension was likened unto the apprehension of the deity, which does not require an instrument, although in reality it is not like the latter apprehension, but only appears so to the first stirrings of opinion. It was because of this something, I mean because of the divine intellect conjoined with man, that it is said of the latter that he is *in the image of God and in His likeness*, not that God, may He be exalted, is a body and possesses a shape. ## Sources we looked at: [https://www.sefaria.org.il/II_Kings.11.18?ven=hebrew|Tanach_with_Ta%27amei_Hamikra&lang=bi&with=all&lang2=he](https://www.sefaria.org.il/II_Kings.11.18?ven=hebrew|Tanach_with_Ta%27amei_Hamikra&lang=bi&with=all&lang2=he) וַיָּבֹ֣אוּ כׇל־עַם֩ הָאָ֨רֶץ בֵּית־הַבַּ֜עַל וַֽיִּתְּצֻ֗הוּ אֶת־מִזְבְּחֹתָ֤ו וְאֶת־צְלָמָיו֙ שִׁבְּר֣וּ הֵיטֵ֔ב וְאֵ֗ת מַתָּן֙ כֹּהֵ֣ן הַבַּ֔עַל הָרְג֖וּ לִפְנֵ֣י הַֽמִּזְבְּח֑וֹת וַיָּ֧שֶׂם הַכֹּהֵ֛ן פְּקֻדֹּ֖ת עַל־בֵּ֥ית יְהֹוָֽ-ה׃ Thereupon all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal. ==They tore it down and smashed its altars and images to bits==, and they slew Mattan, the priest of Baal, in front of the altars. [Jehoiada] the priest then placed guards over the House of GOD. And all the people of the land came to the temple of the Baal and tore it down; ==its altars and its statues they broke completely.== Matan, the priest of the Baal, they killed in front of the altars. Then [Yehoyoda] the _kohein_ set up assignments for the Beis [Hamikdosh] of Adonoy. the notion that was deemed to subsist in them, and not their shape and configuration. Chapter 1 [1](javascript:void\(0\)). Isa. 26:2. [2](javascript:void\(0\)). Gen. 1:26. [3](javascript:void\(0\)). Gen. 39:6. [4](javascript:void\(0\)). I Sam. 28:14. [5](javascript:void\(0\)). Judg. 8:18. [6](javascript:void\(0\)). Isa. 44:13. [7](javascript:void\(0\)). The plural conforms to the Arabic text. However, as far as one can see, the sentence has in view only one term, namely, *toʾar*. [8](javascript:void\(0\)). Gen. 1:27. [9](javascript:void\(0\)). Ps. 73:20. [10](javascript:void\(0\)). I Sam. 6:5. [11](javascript:void\(0\)). Gen. 1:26. [12](javascript:void\(0\)). Ps. 102:7. [13](javascript:void\(0\)). Ezek. 31:8. [14](javascript:void\(0\)). Ps. 58:5. [15](javascript:void\(0\)). Ps. 17:12. [16](javascript:void\(0\)). Ezek. 1:26. [17](javascript:void\(0\)). Ezek. 1:13. Article by Warren Zev Harvey which outlines and support our reading of the Guide 1:1 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OlHlIkW9MFGvFewxMFHs05a4TxP9NLZf/view?usp=sharing