Metatron Comes out as Trans, Part 2: Sefer Hekhalot §5

Text, Translation, and Discussion of §5

Text (V228; M40 adapted from Schaefer, Synopse zur Hekhalot):

אמר ר׳ יאשמעאל אמרתי לו למטטרון מפני מה אתה נקרא בשם קונך בשבעים שמו׳ ואתה גדול מכל השרים וגבוח מכל המלאכים וחביב מכל המשרתי(ם) ונכבד מכל הצבאים ורב מכל האדירים במלוכה ובגדולה ו(ה)בכבו(ד) ומפני מה קורין אותך בשמי מרומים נער. 

השיב ואמר לי מפני שאני הוא חנוך בן ירד. 

שכשחטאו בני דור המבול וסרחו במעשיהם ואמרו לאל סור ממנו שנ׳ ואמרו סור ממנו ודעת דרכיך לא חפצנו. 

נטלני* ה׳ב׳ה׳ מביניהם להיות עד עליהם בשמי מרום לכל באי העולם כדי שלא יאמרו רחמן אכזר הוא 

מה חטאו כל אותן האוכלוסין כשהיה נשיהם בניהם ובנותיהם סוסיהם פרדיהם מקניהם וקניינם וכל עופות שהיו בעולם שאבדן ה׳ב׳ה׳ עמהם בימי דור המבול מה העולם יאמרו אם הללו דור המבול חטאו בהמה וחיה ועופות מה חטאו שספו עמהם לפיכך העלני ה׳ב׳ה׳ בחייהם לעיניהם לשמי מרום להיות עד עליהם לעולם הבא וזיווגי** ה׳ב׳ה׳ במרום לשר ולנגיד בין מלאכי השרת. באותה שער באו שלשה מלאכים השרת

Translation

R. Ishmael said, I said to him, to Metatron, 

“Why are you called by the name of your Maker seventy names? 
You are greater than all the princes, 
higher than all of the angels
and more loved than all the ministers
And more honored than all of the armies
And more exalted than all nobles in sovereignty, greatness, and glory.
Why do they call you in the heavenly heights, ‘Youth’?” 

He answered and said to me, “Because I am he, Enoch, son of Jared.  

When the sons of the generation of the flood sinned and became excessive in their actions, they said to God, ‘Turn aside from us, again they said turn aside from us, and we do not desire knowledge of your ways.’ 

The Holy One Blessed Be He lifted me from among them to be a witness against them in the heavenly heights to all who would come into the world that they will not say, ‘The Merciful One is cruel. How did the whole population of them sin? When were their wives, their sons and their daughters, their horses, their mules, their cattle, their possessions, and all the birds that were in the world that the Holy One Blessed be He destroyed with them in the waters of generation of the flood? What will the world say if these, the generation of the flood, sinned, the beast, the living creature, and the birds, how did they sin that they should be swept away with them?  Therefore, the Holy One Blessed Be He, lifted me up in their lifetimes before their eyes to the heavenly heights to be a witness against them in the world to come. And the Holy One Blessed Be He *matched me in the heights with* the prince and the chief among the ministering angels. At that time, three ministering angels came.”

Textual Variants

Italicized words are only in V228; bold words are only in M40. (This one’s a mess. Luckily it is not a mess in places that concern me most.)

*M40 uses הצילנו

Translation Notes

*…* or appointed … as”

Discussion 

In the previous section, R. Ishmael asked Metatron his name. Names are important, especially in the world of the Hekhalot and Jewish mysticism and magic where secret names can unlock mysteries. Metatron reveals that he has seventy names and that they are all based upon the divine name, but God calls him “youth.”  This leads to this section: R. Ishmael, now even more confused, asks why Metatron, who is better than all the heavenly beings – except God – in every way would be called youth by all of them?  Metatron is greater, higher (literally taller), more loved, more honored (or glorious), more exalted.  Why be called a more diminutive “youth”? 

At this point, for Metatron to answer the question honestly, he must reveal who he used to be and what he used to be.  It is a quintessential coming out of the closet moment for a trans person. He has another name, a “deadname,” and he used to be a man: Enoch, son of Jared.  The Hebrew name, Jared, means “one who descends.” Enoch, though, is the one who ascends. Jared descends as Enoch ascends; Jared rests as Jaeda rises. Enoch has revealed that he was not always an angelic being or the highest of the angels. He has transitioned.  

Coming out is an apocalypse, a revelation of who you are or who you used to be.  Trans people sometimes have two closets: the initial coming out of the closet as you begin your transition is the first. The second is less talked about. It is after you have transitioned, and most people accept you as you are and do not know you used to be a different gender – or in Enoch’s case, a different kind of being.  To let someone in and tell them you lived part of your life in a different way, as a different gender, is an act of trust and intimacy.  Metatron offers this to R. Ishmael, letting him in to his most personal secret.

What prompted the coming out – what gives Metatron away – is nothing in his physical appearance – he has fully transitioned into angelic form with body augmentations and fiery transformations from bone to flesh. He “passes.”  It is the way the fellow heavenly beings, who were there when he transitioned, interact with him.  They call him “Youth.”  It is his nickname. It reflects that he is younger than all of the other heavenly beings – only existing since primeval times! But it marks him as different. Even though God has made him more powerful, he remains marked, considered different than the other angels. Perhaps the name is meant to be endearing, but it has a hint of a microagression from the anthropophobic (transphobic) heavenly beings who act, elsewhere, as gatekeepers trying to keep others out of their spaces. Three such trans/anthropo/phobic angels approach at the end of one version of this section and into the next section. They will challenge God’s elevation of Metatron to the heavenly heights, a challenge trans people experience from transphobes, TERFS, and gatekeepers.