The opening of the Zohar, a good example of discursive heterogeneity in the kabbalah
The title of our contribution is taken from the opening of the Zohar, the central text of Jewish mysticism. The Zohar begins with a commentary on the Song of Songs (2,2: “Like a lily among thorns is my darling among women”) The Jerusalem Bible translates shoshanah as lily, but it is more precise to say “rose”. The complexity of defining 'Jewish mysticism' is perfectly illustrated by this extract from the Zoar truly representative of the multiplicity of the varied elements of nature which appear in kabbalist literature.
The passage then opens with the phrase: “Someone opened the discussion, saying: it is written etc”: so the discourse presents a more complex 'mise en abyme' [placing into the abyss], multiplying the intermediaries. Kabbalist literature frequently returns to this kind of formulation which is intended to show how secret knowledge is passed from a teacher to a disciple.
The commentary is based on a close weaving of the different possible meanings in the verse of the Song of Songs, placing on it an equivalence between the community of Israel, the rose, and the material of the text. It interrogates the correspondence between the sociological level (the community of Israel), the symbolic level (the colours), the level of religious orthopraxy (the way in which one must make the blessing after a meal), the linguistic level (the number of words separating the different occurrences of the term “Elohim”, that is, the “material” of the text and its formal aspect are in themselves objects of speculation).
One part of the text concerns the manner in which the blessing must be given at the close of the meal. The kabbalah is often defined as being a mystical commentary on the reason for the commandments in Judaism. So, if the halakha[1] is concerned with the way in which to put the law into effect, the kabbalah interrogates the reason for its existence. This provides us with a good example of the fact that the mystical commentary of the kabbalah is anchored in a specific religious tradition, that is, Judaism.
The underpinning of the commentary is to be found principally in its linguistic aspect. Far from viewing human language as incapable of expressing mystical experience, the Zohar considers that God intervenes through the biblical text to “gush forth” meaning which is there to be grasped through hermeneutics. One should note in passing that the way in which words are placed in the text is faithful to the classic division into verses of the biblical text. Here the text is treated as continuous material, irrespective of its syntactical framework.
Finally, the text concerns itself with the creation of the world as it is described in Genesis, even though the official framework of the commentary is a verse of the Song of Songs. As Scholem often reiterated, the mysteries of creation constitute the central theme of kabbalist enquiry.
