Abraham's Divine Power of Speech

Hasidism preserved a remarkable tradition of the creative, divine powers of speech. The power of speech, of course, is connected to letter esotericism.
In Judaism there was an early and sustained fascination with letters, their power and meaning. The roots of letter esotericism could be said to go back as far as the book of Genesis itself. God commands, things obey. This process was accomplished by the medium of speech. In Pirkei Avot 5:1, one of the earliest rabbinic texts, we read that God created the world by ten utterances. As speech consists of sounds represented by letters, it is logical to conclude that letters themselves have power and intrinsic meaning. Letters have individual sounds and in different combinations yield different words with different meanings. Ayin-Nun-Gimel is oneg- delight. Change the sequence and you get nega- blight or disease. God didn't say "kartina maslom" and there was light. He said "wa-yehi or." For the ancient Jewish exegetes the word choice wasn't arbitrary or randomn.

As an example of this, the Tabernacle in the wilderness was believed to be modelled after the cosmos. Bezalel the architect and craftsman who constructed the tabernacle, knew,

How to combine the letters by which the heavens and earth were created. It is written here (Exod. 35:31): "And He hath filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom and in understanding, and in knowledge." It is written elsewhere (Prov. 3:19): "The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens."

It is also written (Prov. 3:20): "By His knowledge the depths were broken up."[1]

That is to say, Bezalel knew which letters were used in which combinations in order to bring about the desired results.
In 3rd Enoch the theme of mystical creation by letters is continued.

Rabbi Ishmael said: ‘Metatron said to me: “Let me show you letters out of which heaven and earth were created. Letters out of which oceans and rivers were created. Letters out of which mountains and hills were created. Letters out of which trees and grass were created. Letters out of which the stars and constellations, the moon and the sun, Orion and the Pleiades and all kinds of lights of the firmament were created. Letters out of which the ministering angels were created, each letter flashed time after time like bolts of lightning, time after time like torches, time after time like flames, time after time like the rising of the sun, moon, and stars.” I approached him, and he seized me with his hand, lifted me with his wings, and showed me all those letters that were engraved with a pen of fire on God’s throne, and fiery sparks and lightning were coming out of them and covering all the chambers of the seventh heaven.’[2] 

The five openings of the mouth is part of the classification system the Sefer Yetzirah uses for the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each "opening" is a position of the tongue for producing speech.
In a discourse by the Hasidic master R. Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl (1730-1798), the letter heh, which changed Abram's name to Abraham, symbolised the five openings. Abraham was given mastery over the openings and the powers they regulated. According to the Chernobyler, in each letter of the alphabet is hidden some of the divine light which is what brings life and blessings into the world.

Abraham our Father so served God with love that he came to be called “Abraham My Lover” (Isa. 41:8). God gave over to him the conduct of all the worlds, placing within him this speech, centered in the five openings of the mouth. This is the meaning of God’s adding the heh [ = five] to Abraham’s name; it was through this that he became “father of many nations,” father and leader of the great host of the world’s peoples, by means of these five openings of the mouth…

His leadership is to be in all the worlds. That was why Abram did not father children; until he had reached the point at which speech was given to him, he could not yet be a father. Abraham did father children, for those openings of the mouth by which he conducted all the worlds had now been given him. Surely through that word he could draw forth offspring for himself as well.[3]

The power of procreation is linked to the power of creation, both being dependant upon the divine potency inherent in pure, divine speech. I did not include R. Menahem Nahum's discussion of the rung of sacred speech. Rungs of course are what allow one to climb a ladder.
Martin Buber, in his Ten Rungs, adapted a Hasidic interpretation of Jacob's ladder, emphasising the universal, ethical aspect.

Man is a ladder placed on the earth and the top of it touches heaven. And all his movements and doings and words leave traces in the upper world.[4]

The more traditional formulation is theurgic- by performing the commandments, man not only draws divine power into this world, but increases the power of Heaven above. In Joseph's dream, after all, the angels both descended and ascended upon the ladder.

The goal of man's coming to this lower world is to adapt himself to Torah and commandment[s], which are a ladder that stands on earth and the top of which reaches to Heaven, in order to draw down, by his performing the Torah and commandment[s], influx upon all the worlds, and to give power to the supernal retinue.[5]

For the Chernobyler, this is achieved primarily by means of pure, holy speech.
R. Meir ha-Levi of Apta, a later Hasid, provides another description of this process.

The supernal light is emanated into his heart, and the influxes go by his mediation, by the way of the five places of his mouth...[6]

Until Abraham perfected by loving service- acts of worship motivated by love- his ascent to the rung of sacred speech, he lacked the power to bring forth offspring. Having attained that rung, Abraham shared the divine power to create and to produce life. Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl's homily stops short of pursuing the implications to their logical, but radical conclusion. Man is capable of attaining a level of holiness in which not only is God's power delegated to him, he governs the worlds also. This form of theosis is not post-mortal, nor is it eschatological, but available in the here-and-now through elevating the profane and mundane to holiness.
 
[1]Babylonian Talmud, t. Berachot 55a.

[2]Rachel Elior, "Jewish Mysticism: The Infinite Expression of Freedom," p. 108.
[3]Arthur Green, "Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl: Upright Practices, The Light of the Eyes (Classics of Western Spirituality)," pg. 161-163.

[4]Martin Buber, "Ten Rungs: Collected Hasidic Sayings," p. 34.

[5]R. Aharon Shemuel ha-Cohen, translated in Moshe Idel, "Hasidism: Between Ecstasy and Magic," p. 143.
 
[6]Ibid, p. 204.

The Council of Souls

Found something too good to pass up. In fact, it deserves to be posted in its entirety, dealing at it does with an obscure strand of Jewish thought on the preexistence and prehistory of the soul, or, at least, some souls.
This is from Howard Schwartz's "Tree of Souls: the mythology of Judaism".

           196. THE COUNCIL OF SOULS

The souls of the righteous existed long before the creation of the world.
God consulted these souls in creating the universe, as it is said, They dwelt there in the king’s service (I Chron. 4:23). God called upon the souls of the righteous, who sat on the council with the Supreme King of Kings, to come together. He then took counsel with them before He brought the world into being, saying, “Let us make man” (Gen. 1:26). So too did they help Him with His work. Some assisted in planting and some helped create the borders of the sea, as it is said, Who set the sand as a boundary to the sea (Jer. 5:22). Nor does God make any important decision without consulting the Council of Souls. So too did God take counsel with the souls of the righteous. He asked them if they were willing to be created. And that is how the souls of the righteous, including the souls of Abraham and the other patriarchs, came into being.

While there are traditions that God took council with the angels or a divine partner such as Adam in creating the world, here the phrase, “Let us make man” from Genesis 1:26 is said to refer to a Council of Souls (nefashot shel Tzaddikim), with whom God consulted before creating the world. These souls of the righteous are said to have existed before the creation of the world. In fact, it is not specified that they were created by God at all, but only called together by God before He created the universe.
Further, they not only give their consent for the creation of the world, but they participate in it, assisting God in planting and creating the boundaries of the sea. Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev interprets God’s consulting with the souls of the righteous to mean that He asked them if they were willing to be created.
Evidence of a divine council can be found in several biblical passages, such as Psalms 82:1, which states that God stands in the divine assembly; among the divine beings He pronounces judgment. Here the term for the divine assembly is “adat el.” In Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, Frank Moore Cross describes this council as the Israelite counterpart of the Council of El found in Canaanite mythology, referring to El, the primary Canaanite god. It would thus seem that this obscure Jewish tradition is directly drawn from the Canaanite. Psalm 82 adds a strange twist to this myth: God appears to condemn the gods of the Council of Gods to death: “I had taken you for divine beings, sons of the Most High, all of you; but you shall die as men do, fall like any prince” (Ps. 82:6). This might be interpreted to mean that monotheism declares the death of polytheism.
Jeremiah 23:18 also describes a divine council: But he who has stood in the council of
Yahweh, and seen, and heard His word—He who has listened to His word must obey. Another reference to the divine council is found in 1 Kings 22:19-22, where God addresses the host of heaven, asking who will entice Ahab, and a certain spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said, “I will entice him.” Other passages suggesting the existence of heavenly beings with whom God discusses His decisions include Isaiah 6 and Job 1-2.
Usually the term, “the souls of the righteous,” refers to the souls of the pious who have died, and whose souls have ascended to Paradise. By pre-existing, these souls become identified as primordial gods, such as are found in other Near Eastern mythologies. By calling them together as a council, God implicitly recognizes their power. It must be assumed that the council of souls gave its approval for the creation of the universe, since God proceeded with it after that. Another possible explanation would be to identify “the souls of the righteous” in this midrash with the angels. In other sources, God is said to have consulted with the angels before creating man, and there are traditions and countertraditions of the notion that the angels somehow participated in the creation of the world itself. See “Creation by Angels,” p. 116. However, it would be highly unusual to refer to the angels as “the souls of the righteous,” although Philo does refer to angels as “unbodied souls.” A prooftext for the existence of such a council of souls or angels can be found in Daniel 4:14: The matter is by decree of the watchers, and the sentence by the word of the holy ones. Both of these terms, the “watchers” and the “holy ones,” suggest some kind of supernatural figures from the heavenly realm, whether angels, souls, or additional divinities. The Council of Souls may also be identified with the heavenly court, and identified as the Watchers. See “The Heavenly Court,” p. 208, and “The Watchers,” p. 457. There are parallel myths about God consulting the angels, rather than souls, in the creation of Adam. The text of Genesis 1:26 states that God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” But in the Pseudo-Yonathan Targum on Genesis 1:26, this is changed to read: “And God said to the angels who minister before him, who were created on the second day of Creation. `Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’” See “Creation By Angels,” p. 116. In Genesis Rabbah 8:9 the question of how many deities created the world is directly broached: “How many deities created the world? You and I must inquire of the first day, as it is said, For ask now of the first days (Deut. 4:32).” The rabbis subsequently debate whether the first sentence of Genesis describes creation by one God or by many, since Elohim is plural. Read this way, the first line of Genesis reads: “In the beginning Gods created the heaven and the earth.” That such a debate can take place at all is remarkable, considering the centrality of monotheism. But it is also a tribute to the open-ended willingness of the rabbis to explore even apparently heretical interpretations of the Torah. The existence of this discussion and the fact that it was recorded in a primary text such as Genesis Rabbah, indicates that the “heretical” had some advocates among the rabbis. Perhaps it harks back to a residual pagan myth, a Canaanite myth about a council of gods. Such divine councils rule in Mesopotamian, Babylonian, and Canaanite mythology. In the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish, Marduk is made head of the divine council by defeating Tiamat, the personification of the sea. It is likely that the existence of such a council in Jewish tradition is a remnant of such an ancient myth. Ugaritic texts describe the abode of El, the primary Canaanite god, and his council on the mountain of El, where the gods are seated at a table. El’s abode is said to be in the north. This setting and location is echoed in Isaiah 14:13: “I will sit in the mount of assembly, on the summit of Zaphon.” (Zaphon is Hebrew for “north.”) God’s perplexing use of the first person plural in verses such as Let us make man in our image (Gen. 1:26), Behold the man has become like one of us (Gen. 3:22), and Let us, then, go down and confound their speech there (Gen. 11:7) can be explained as addressing the divine council. This same usage is found in the Ugaritic texts. Most midrashic texts interpret “Let us” as God addressing the angels.

Sources:
Genesis Rabbah 8: 7; Maggid Devarav le-Ya’akov 1; No’am Elimelekh, Bo 36b.
Studies:
"Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic" by Frank Moore Cross, pp. 36-43, 186-190.
“The Council of Yahweh in Second Isaiah” by Frank Moore Cross.
“The Council of Yahweh” by H. Wheeler Robinson.
“God and the Gods in Assembly” by Matitiahu Tsevat.
"Assembly of the Gods: The Divine Council in Canaanite and Early Hebrew Literature" by E. Theodore Mullen.

From Promise to Redemption

In the early 1990s, Mom took us kids with her when she volunteered for the summer at the Sepphoris dig. Sepphoris was a large town just north of Nazareth and during New Testament times was the capital of the Galilee and one of the wealthiest, busiest centers of the north. One of the ways of gauging how prosperous the town was is the large amount of high quality mosaics found in the town.
Mosaics were an expensive affair. First, the right kinds of stone had to be found, then broken down into tiny pieces and shaped into squares. This, naturally, was a laborious process.
The pieces then had to be glued to the floor or wall according to the pattern. It took a good eye and an active imagination in order to design the pattern, if more than mere geometrical designs.
One of the most interesting mosaics discovered in Sepphoris was that of the synagogue floor. In a far more sophisticated form, it resembled a subject matter in synagogue mosaics found elswhere in the Galilee. It dates to the Byzantine period, between the 5th or 6th centuries.
The archaeologists at the site dubbed it From Promise to Redemption.
Lets see why.
The bottom panel, most of which, sadly, did not survive, depicts the angels promising Sarah a child, which represents the promise given to Abraham that he would be a great nation. The next two panels are of the Akedah- Abraham being commanded to sacrifice Isaac(technically, however, akedah means the binding). The only part that has been preserved in any detail is a depiction of the two servants and the ass. Valuable pictorial data, of course, but one dearly wishes that we could have seen how they pictured Abraham (in priestly vestments, no doubt).
The Akedah- a central theme in Jewish thought- provides the ultimate example of faith and obedience, the two concepts being inseperable in Judaism.
The middle panel depicts the four seasons (as four maidens), the zodiac and the chariot of the sun. These represent life, but also fate.
Hellenistic astrology exerted a great influence on Jews in general and the sages in particular. It held that the course of one's life was already known, and that through studying the signs and the stars and natal charts derived from them, could be foreseen and predicted. The term horoscope, in fact is a Greek term meaning hour marker.
This science (ths it was considered then) was immensely popular among all strata of society. The sages, like the true philosophers that they were, found it fascinating, but made some changes to fit in with their worldview. Whilst the course of a man's life was predetermined, it could be lengthened or shortened according to the choices he makes. One's life is in one's own hands. Rabbinical literature has many accounts of the sages interacting with astrologers, the latter making predictions of sudden death, the former foiling them by their piety.
In Midrash Tanhuma, an early collection of midrashic material (a midrash is an excursus on a scriptural or theological theme) there is an interesting midrash on the zodiac, contained within the chapter dealing with Deuteronomy 32.

A man is like the twelve mazalot (signs of the zodiac). When he is first born he is like the lamb, but grows in might as the bull (or ox) does. When he grows up he becomes twins, that is complete, and the evil urge grows within him. At first he is as weak as a crab, but later, as he grows, becomes mighty like the lion. And if he sins he becomes as the virgin, and if he continues to sin, is weighed in the balance (the scales). If he holds fast in his rebellion he is brought down to the lowermost Sheol (Hell), Sheol and Gehennom, as a scorpion is flung to the ground and to the deep ditches. And if he returns (that is, repents) he is shot out [of Sheol] as an arrow from the bow...
Immediately he becomes soft and clean as a baby goat, and is purified as in the hour of his birth, and is washed with pure water from a bucket, and increases in happiness as a fish is happy in water, thus he immerses himself at all times in rivers of balsam, and in milk and oil and honey, and eats of the fruit of the tree of life.
Midrash Tanhuma, Haazinu A.

The upper panels depict temple worship, sacrifice and offerings.
The second-to-last panel shows the door into the temple, flanked by symbols of Israel- the menorah, the citron, the lulav (palm leaves) and the shofar, or ram's horn. Not only are these symbols religious, they are also symbols of sovereignity.
In the uppermost panel are two lions flanking a wreath. I'm going to speculate that the wreath represents God, and the lions his power, or by extension, his messengers. They each hold a decapitated bull's head, a symbol of power and triumph. They also appear to be on some sort of cloud.
What the mosaic to me seems to represent is that the fulfilment of a promise is based on our own actions.
Granted, these interpretations are but one possibility of many, and we may never know for sure what was the original intent of those who designed the sepphoris synagogue mosaic.