Melila Hellner-Eshed

Seekers of the Face (eBook, ePUB)

Secrets of the Idra Rabba (The Great Assembly) of the Zohar

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

A magisterial, modern reading of the deepest mysteries in the Kabbalistic tradition.

Seekers of the Face opens the profound treasure house at the heart of Judaism's most important mystical work: the Idra Rabba (Great Gathering) of the Zohar. This is the story of the Great Assembly of mystics called to order by the master teacher and hero of the Zohar, Rabbi Shim'on bar Yochai, to align the divine faces and to heal Jewish religion. The Idra Rabba demands a radical expansion of the religious worldview, as it reveals God's faces and bodies in daring, anthropomorphic language.

For the first time, Melila Hellner-Eshed makes this challenging, esoteric masterpiece meaningful for everyday readers. Hellner-Eshed expertly unpacks the Idra Rabba's rich grounding in tradition, its probing of hidden layers of consciousness and the psyche, and its striking, sacred images of the divine face. Leading readers of the Zohar on a transformative adventure in mystical experience, Seekers of the Face allows us to hear anew the Idra Rabba's bold call to heal and align the living faces of God.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 480
• Erscheinungstermin: 14. September 2021
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781503628588
• Artikelnr.: 62179398

Autorenporträt

Melila Hellner-Eshed has been a Professor of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and is Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. She is the author of A River Flows from Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar (Stanford, 2009).

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
Part One, Chapter 1: Introduction to the Idra Rabba
chapter abstract
What is the Idra Rabba? This chapter covers the place of the Idra Rabba in
zoharic literature as well as its reception, history, and scholarship.
Part One, Chapter 2: The Language of Divine Faces
chapter abstract
This chapter follows the history of the language of the face of God from
the Bible to midrashic and liturgical sources, as well as in psychoanalysis
and philosophy.
Part One, Chapter 3: The Gaze
chapter abstract
This chapter discusses "the gaze" as healing, in mother-child relationships
and in the divine faces. We also look at the restorative power of bathing
in the light of God's face.
Part One, Chapter 4: Reflections on Ze'eir Anpin
chapter abstract
This chapter looks at Ze'eir Anpin as the God of Judgment, dual
consciousness, Ze'eir Anpin and Gnosis, the dynamic between splitting and
healing, and the importance of praying for the life of Ze'eir Anpin.
Part One, Chapter 5: Literature, Mysticism, Praxis
chapter abstract
This chapter covers the secrets of the Godhead and also narrative,
simultaneity, paradoxical language, the idraic midrash, space, time,
consciousness, experience, the personality of the teacher and the role of
the circle of disciples, as well as religious practice in the Idra.
Part One, Chapter 6: Overarching Themes in the Idra Rabba
chapter abstract
This chapter explores four overarching themes that connect the whole Idra
Rabba: the mythic account of the emergence of many faces of the Divine; the
unfolding of existence; various ways of attenuating the power of Judgment
(Din); reading through the lens of consciousness, Oneness, and the dual
male and female.
Part One, Chapter 7: What Is the Idra Rabba Trying to Communicate?
chapter abstract
This chapter lays out the Zohar as a manifesto calling for the healing of
the face of Jewish religion.
Part Two, Chapter 8: Entering the Idra Rabba
chapter abstract
The chapter is a close reading of the account of the opening of the Great
Gathering.
Part Two, Chapter 9: The Kings of Edom: The First Appearance
chapter abstract
This chapter explores the myth of the kings of Edom from the Bible to the
Zohar, its place in the Zohar, and its first appearance in the Idra Rabba.
Part Two, Chapter 10: Arikih Anpin: Origins
chapter abstract
This chapter looks at the origins of how the Divine attains a face,
especially a skull and a brain.
Part Two, Chapter 11: Arikh Anpin: Features of the Face
chapter abstract
This chapter delves into the elements of the divine face: hair/regulation
of divine flow; forehead/will; eyes/providence; nose/length of breath.
Part Two, Chapter 12: Arraying Arikh Anpin's Beard
chapter abstract
This chapter provides an overview of the beard in Zohar and idraic
literature as well as the thirteen tiqqunim of the beard.
Part Two, Chapter 13: The Kings of Edom: The Second Appearance
chapter abstract
Continuing the exploration of the myth of the Edom, this chapter looks at
the themes of balance and lack of balance, and the masculine and feminine.
Part Two, Chapter 14: Ze'eir Anpin Comes into Being
chapter abstract
This chapter discusses God in the likeness of Adam (the human being), the
emergence of Ze'eir Anpin's skull and brain.
Part Two, Chapter 15: Ze'eir Anpin's Head and Its Features
chapter abstract
This chapter is about the parts of the head of Ze'eir Anpin as an
expression of dual consciousness: hair/transmission, forehead/judgmental
providence, eyes/divine providence in duality, nose/divine wrath, and
ears/attentiveness, discernment, and mechanisms of delay.
Part Two, Chapter 16: The Tiqqunim of Ze'eir Anpin: The Language of Flowing
Bounty
chapter abstract
This chapter is about the beard of Ze'eir Anpin as an expression of divine
attributes.
Part Two, Chapter 17: The Ancient of Ancients and Ze'eir Anpin: All Is One
chapter abstract
This chapter deals with the complex unity of the divine faces.
Part Two, Chapter 18: Forming the Male and Female Body
chapter abstract
This chapter explores the emanation of the divine masculine and feminine
bodies, and the sources of the idraic myth of those bodies.
Part Two, Chapter 19: The Kings of Edom: The Third Appearance
chapter abstract
This chapter looks at the third appearance of the mythical kings of Edom in
the Idra Rabba.
Part Two, Chapter 20: Separation and Coupling
chapter abstract
The topic in this chapter is the separation and individuation of masculine
and feminine bodies, as well as their first coupling.
Part Two, Chapter 21: Sweetening Judgment
chapter abstract
This chapter explores the idraic myth of the birth of Cain and Abel and
their archetypal role, the birth of Seth, and finally the ideal coupling of
the divine male and female.
Part Two, Chapter 22: Emerging from the Idra Rabba
chapter abstract
This chapter looks at the end of the Idra Rabba and its themes of fear of
revealing too much, the death of the Companions, validating the Assembly,
and amplifying the figure of Rabbi Shimon.