Sefer Hekhalot §8: The True Fall of Humanity

Text:

עד שבאו בני דורו של אנוש לעולם שהיה ראש לכל עובדי ע׳ז׳ שבעולם ומה היו בני דורו עושין היו הולכים מסוף העולם  ועד סופו ומביאין כל אחד ואחד מהם כסף וזהב ואבנים טובים ומרגליות בהרים הרים וגבעות גבעות ועושין אותן עבודה זרות בערבה רוחות העולם והיו מעמידין אותן בכל רוח ורוח בעולם ע׳ז׳ בעולם כשיעור אלף פרסה ומורידין חמה ולבנה כוכבים ומזלות ומעמידין לפניהם מימינם ומשמאלם לשמש בהן כדרך שהיו משמשין לפני לה׳ב׳ה׳ שנאמ׳ וכל צבה השמים עומדים עליו מימיני ומשמאלו והיאך היה בהם כח שיהו מורידין אותן ומשתמשין בהם אלא עוזא עזא ועזאל היו מלמדים להם כשפים שיהו* מורידין אותם ומשת– משין בהם שאלמלא כן לא היו יכולין להורידן. באותה שעה קשרו** מלאכי השרת קטיגור לפני ה׳ב׳ה׳ ואמרו לפניו רבונו של עולם מה לך אצל בני אדם שנא׳ מה אנוש כי תזכרנו מה אדם לא נאמר כאן אלא מה אנוש שהוא ראש לע׳ז׳ מפני מה הנחת את שמי שמים העליונים מלון כבוד שמך וכסא רם ונשא שברום ערבות ובאת ולנת עם*** בני אדם שעובדים ע׳ז׳ והשוו אותך בע׳ז׳ עכשיו אתה בארץ וע׳ז׳ בארץ מה טיבך בין דרי**** הארץ עובדי ע׳ז׳ מיד סילק ה׳ב׳ה׳ שכינתו מין הארץ מביניהם. באותו שעה באו מלאכי השרת וגדודי זבאות וחיילי ערבות אלף מחנות וריבי צבאות ונטלו את חצוצורות ותפשו בידם את השופרות והקיפו את השכינה בשירים ובשירים ועלה לשמי מרום שנאמ׳ עלה אלהים בתרועה יוי בקול שופר.

Textual Notes: 

Material only in V228 in italics; material only in M40 in bold. 

*M40 has שהיו

**M40 has קראו

***M40 has אצל

****M40 has דאיירי

Translation:

Until the generation of the sons of Enosh came into the world, who was the leader of all those who practiced foreign worship in the world. What did the sons of his generation do? They wandered from one end of the world, and each and every one brought for themselves silver and gold, fine stones, and pearls in mountains of mountains and hills of hills, and they practiced foreign worship in the four winds of the world and the set up for themselves in each and every wind of the world foreign worship in the world measuring 1000 parasangs. And they drew down the sun, the moon, the stars, and the constellations and and set them up before them to their right and to their left to serve them in the way that they had served before the Holy One Blessed Be He, as it is said, “and every army of heaven stood by him on his right and on his left.”  How did they have in them the strength to draw them down and serve them? These, Uzzah, Azzah, and Azael were teaching them sorceries that drew them down and used them; without them* they would not be able to draw them down. At that hour, the ministering angels conspired to prosecute** [them] before the Holy One Blessed Be He. They said to him, “Master of the World, “What are to you the children of Adam? As it is said, what is a human (Enosh) that you remember him?’ ‘What is Adam’ is not stated here; rather, ‘What is Enosh.’ For he is the leader of foreign worship.  Why did you abandon the heaven of heavens on high from the lodging place of the glory of your name, your high and uplifted throne which is in the height of Arabot, and come and lodged with humans [“sons of Adam”] who practice foreign worship and equate you with foreign worship?  Now you are on the earth and the foreign worship is on the earth.” Why is one of your quality among earthlings who practice foreign worship?  Immediately, the Holy One Blessed Be He removed his Sh’khinah from the earth, from among them. At that hour, the ministering angels came and the regiments of hosts and armies of Arabot, 1000 companies, a myriad of hosts. They took up their trumpets and grabbed their horns in their hands and encircled the Sh’khinah with songs and with songs. And he ascended to the heavenly heights, as it is said, “God has ascended with a shout, YHWH with the sound of a horn.”

Translation Notes:

* This is translating an Arabic loanword, אלמלא, meaning “were it not for.” This likely points to a late antique / early medieval Arabic-speaking milieu for at least this section of Sefer Hekhalot.

**Using Greek loanword κατἠγορος.

Overall, I am translating the terminology of avodah zarah very literally. Usually, it is translated as idolatry and idols; I am translating throughout as “foreign worship.” 

Discussion:

This section directly continues the previous without the usual intervening intro of “R Ishmael said that Metatron said.”  The text concerns the true “fall” of humanity; it is not with Adam, but with Enosh.  In fact, the angelic prosecutors emphasize that it is truly about Enosh and not Adam.  While Adam was driven from Eden, the light of God’s Sh’khinah, brighter than the sun, still resided upon the earth and her light extended from end to end.  

What was the fall really about? The passage emphasizes two major sins: the generation of Enosh wander the extent of the earth – the same extent of the light of the Sh’khinah.  First, they hoard wealth (silver, gold, precious stones, and pearls – all super valuable). Second, they engage in sorcery. I translated the phrase more technically than I have noticed other translators (e.g., Alexander) as “drawing down.” This is ancient magical language. The charge of magic was regularly to “draw down the moon” (see the amazing book by Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World [Princeton University Press, 2019]).  Here, the generation of Enosh do something more impressive: they draw down the sun, the moon, the stars, and constellations.  All of the heavenly bodies are drawn down to earth. 

But they had help; heavenly beings named Uzzah, Azzah, and Azael helped them. We have met them before. They had challenged Metatron’s ascent to the heavenly heights. Their trans/anthropo/phobia is a cover for their own malicious activities. They accuse a human of transgressing the heavenly height, while they themselves are the true transgressors. They take out their trans/anthropo/phobia by causing the true fall of humanity. Every accusation is a confession. 

We have other complainers now: the ministering angels who remain in heaven ask God why God has abandoned the heavenly heights for earth. Why has God gone down to these people who equate the true God of heaven with foreign worship (i.e., idols)?  So God removes the healing light of the Sh’khinah and brings her up to heaven.  We see a pattern of divine descent and ascent. 

Once the Sh’khinah returns, all of heaven breaks out into a military-like party with regiments, trumpets, and horns. Literally they “grabbed their horns with their hands” as they surround God’s feminine presence, the Sh’khinah.  

I find this passage makes me a bit uneasy.  The denouement might be a huge heavenly rejoicing, but the angels’ regimented yet excessive phallocentric jouissance as they encircle a feminine divine entity stopped me in my translation tracks.  As Elliot Wolfson writes about Kabbalah, “jouissance is the surplus-enjoyment of the feminine” and “jouissance is an expression of the phallic impulse” (Language, Eros, Being, 279). The hyper-masculinized angels blowing their phallic horns around the feminine Sh’khinah seems to me to be a perfect example of this jouissance.  What is more, their excessive joy is because humans will no longer have the comfort of the Sh’khinah on earth. They revel in their schadenfreude.