Sefer Hekhalot §9: What Is This Smell? What Is This Taste? Angelic Expressions of Trans/Anthropo/Phobia

Text

אמר ר׳ ישמעאל אמר לי מטטרון מלאך שר הפנים כשבקש ה׳ב׳ה׳ להעלות אותי למרום בתחלה שיגר לי ענפיאל יוי השר ונטלני מביניהם לעיניהם בהרכיבני בכבוד גדול על רכב אש וסוסי אש ומשרתי כבוד והעלני עמ השכינה לשמי מרום. וכיון שהגעתי לשמי מרום והיו חיות הקודש ואופנים ושרפים וכרובים וגלגלי המרכבה ומשרתי אש אוכלה מריחין את ריחי בריחוק *שלש מאות וששים וחמשת עלפים רבבות פרסאות* ואומרים מה ריח** ילוד אשה ומה טעם טיפת לבן*** שהיא עולה לשמי מרום וישמש בין חוצבי שלהבת. משיב ה׳ב׳ה׳ ואומר להם משרתיי צבאיי כרוביי ואפניי ושרפיי אל ירע לכם**** בדבר זה שכל בני האדם כפרו בי ובמלכותי הגדולה והלכו ועבדו ע׳ז׳ וסלקתי שכינתי מביניהם והעליתיה למרום וזה שנטלתי מביניהם מובחר שבכולם הוא וזה שקול כנגד כולם באמונה ובצדקה ובכשרון מעש וזה שנטלתי שכרי בעולמי תחת כל השמים.

Textual Notes: Italics indicates only found in V228; bold only found in M40.

*…* M40 reads ששי׳ והמשת עלפי׳ רבבות ושלש מאות פרסה

** throughout V228 uses ריח and M40 רוח, flipping “smell” and “soul” – oh those smelly souls!  

*** M40 has לכן

****M40 has לבבכם

Translation

R. Ishmael said that Metatron, angel of the prince of the presence said to me, “When the Holy One Blessed Be He desired* to raise me up to the height he at first sent to me, Prince Anafiel YHWH and he took me up from their midst before their eyes, and he conveyed me with great glory** in fiery chariot and fiery horses and glorious attendants with the Sh’khinah to the heavenly heights.  

When I arrived in the heavenly heights, the holy living ones, the ofanim, the serafim, and the cherubim, and the wheels of the chariot and the ministers of consuming fire were smelling my odor*** from a distance of 365,000 myriads of parasangs away. And they said, ‘What is the odor*** of one born of woman? What is the taste of a white drop that she**** ascends to the heavenly heights and ministers among the flame masons.’*****. 

The Holy One Blessed Be He replied, saying to them, ‘My ministers, my hosts, my cherubim, and my ofanim, and my serafim, don’t break yourself up concerning this thing. For all the human offspring have denied me and my great kingdom and have gone and practiced foreign worship, and I have brought up my Sh’khinah from among them and brought her****** to the height. And this one I lifted up from among them, he is the choicest of all of them, and this one is comparable against them all in faith, in righteousness, and in competent action and this one that I have lifted up is my recompense from my whole world under the heavens.

Translation Notes

*or sought

** literally glory but can mean honor – but same word used for God’s “glory” and term is regularly repeated so I will try to largely be consistent translating as “glory.”

***M40 has soul where V228 has “odor,” so one tradition is “smell by odor” and the other “smell my soul.”  See more in discussion. 

**** I am translating literally – the manuscripts agree on the use of the feminine pronoun here, even though it disagrees with most of the antecedents, except “drop” or if one reads with M40 “soul.” Everyone else translates in such a way to avoid the pronoun.

***** literally, “cleavers of flame.” cf. Ps. 29:7.

******Seriously, previous translators (Odeburg; Alexander) substitute a neuter pronoun “it” for the feminine “Sh’khinah” erasing her femininity

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Discussion 

This passage has three parts: the ascent, the angelic reaction, and the divine response.  In the ascent, the passage begins like Elijah’s ascent in a fiery chariot with fiery horses.  Metatron’s guide in this ascent is Prince Anafiel YHWH.  There are some parallels between Metatron (after Metatron’s transformation) and Anafiel. They are both guides for humans and they both have God’s name in them (It is explicitly states that Metatron is given God’s name in him; Anafiel has YHWH as part of his name).  Throughout it seems like God sneaks Metatron in when God raises the Sh’khinah.  They come up at the same time.  This means there was never a time when Metatron has not been in the presence of the radiance of the Sh’khinah.  

The angelic response is a clear case of trans/anthropo/phobia.  The angels object to a human being coming into their angelic-only space.  They express this in a very interesting manner. They say they can smell the odor of one born of woman and they can taste the white drop.  Why should “she” ascend?  So there are a few translation choices here where I diverge from previous translators.  Firstly, Alexander drops “taste” even though Odeburg before him retains it.  I see now reason why one should drop it. “Taste” provides a nice follow up to “smell.”  These are intimate senses, which, ironically, the angels can experience from thousands of parasangs away – they’re so sensitive!  Perhaps it is the discomfort in realizing the angels know what a “white drop” tastes like, and the text is referencing having semen on one’s tongue.  The second translation choice is the pronoun “she.” It is clearly in the manuscripts, but it is largely avoided. Oldenburg switches to a gender-neutral relative pronoun (which), whereas Alexander translates in such a way to avoid using the pronoun. These are possible ways to translate, but it is curious that “she” is in all the manuscripts here.  It could be the pronoun with an antecedent to “drop” which is feminine. But both the “odor” and the “drop” ultimately refer to Metatron, who is usually gendered “he” throughout. In fact, Munchen 40 (or M40) will put an unnecessary “he” later perhaps to balance this out?  Did the angels misgender Metatron?  Do they consider him a “she” compared to them?  Ultimately, the angelic objectors are referring to one caught in the web of sexual reproduction: Metatron was born (of a woman) and came from the white drop (of a man): things those socialized as angels never experienced.  

God ultimately tells the trans/anthropo/phobic angels to stop their whining, because Metatron is a unique human; he’s special; he’s the bestest human ever (so far).  And so he brought him up when God brought the Sh’khinah up.  There is a postpositional pronoun – “she” – here that refers back to the Sh’khinah, a feminine word.  Both Odeburg and Alexander substitute the feminine “she” from the text with a neutral “it.”  They could argue, perhaps, that divine entities transcend gender, so why put “she”? I would ask the same of why they would keep gendering God in the masculine.  So unless you are going to substitute “it” for “he” elsewhere, don’t substitute “it” for “she” here and remove the divine feminine from the heavenly heights.