Chagigah 13a (יג.) — the Talmud in English

This light,

the light, dwells with Him

in the inner chambers,

in the inner houses, as it is stated: “And the light dwells with Him.”

This darkness,

the darkness, dwells around Him

in the outer chambers,

in the outer houses.

These matters are among the secrets of the Torah, without an explicit explanation! See also the Maharsha above, on 5b.

And Rav Aḥa bar Yaakov said: There is one more firmament above the heads of the living creatures, as it is written

in the account of the Merkava in Ezekiel:

“And above the heads of the living creature was the likeness of a firmament, like the appearance of the awesome ice.”

Up to this point,

concerning that firmament,

you have permission to speak

about them.

But

from this point onward,

concerning the matters of the higher firmaments from this point onward—

you have no permission to speak!

For it is written in the Book of Ben Sira: “Concerning what is too wondrous for you”

what is separate and removed from you, which the Holy One, blessed be He, did not wish to reveal to you,

do not investigate.

And concerning what is hidden from you, do not inquire.

Only

contemplate that which you have been permitted.

But

you have no business with hidden matters!

It is written in the Book of Daniel: And you raise this parable concerning the king of Babylon: “And you—Nebuchadnezzar—said in your heart: ‘I will ascend to the heavens; above the stars of God I will raise my throne, and I will sit upon the Mount of Meeting, in the farthest reaches of the north.’”

It was taught in a beraita: Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai said: What answer did the Divine Voice give that wicked man

Nebuchadnezzar

when he said:

“I will ascend upon the heights of the clouds; I will resemble the Most High.”

A Divine Voice emerged and said to him: Wicked son of a wicked man, descendant of the wicked Nimrod,

king of Babylon,

who rebelled against

the wording in the text is uncertain

the entire world against Him

this is a euphemistic expression, meaning: against himself and not against Me, Rashi

through his kingdom,

for he gave the people of the Generation of the Dispersion the counsel to build a tower to wage war against the heavenly host [Rashi, Pesaḥim 94b]!

And yet,

how

many are the days of

a person’s years?

Seventy years!

As it is stated: “The days of our years are seventy years, and if with strength, eighty years.”

And do you think that with so few years you will ascend to the heavens?!

Is it not the case that from the earth to the firmament

the lowest one

is a journey of five hundred years, and the thickness of the firmament

the lowest firmament itself

is a journey of five hundred years, and likewise between each firmament and the next?

And further,

above them are the holy living creatures.

And the feet of the living creatures correspond to all of them

to the entire journey of five hundred years extending up to their feet.

And the ankles of the living creatures correspond to all of them. And the legs of the living creatures

correspond to all of them.

And the knees

the thigh bone adjacent to the leg

of the living creatures correspond to all of them. And the thighs

the upper leg bone set into the loins

of the living creatures correspond to all of them. And the bodies

of the living creatures correspond to all of them. And the necks of the living creatures correspond to all of them ...

and the heads of the living creatures correspond to all of them. And the horns of the living creatures correspond to

all of them.

And

further,

above them is the Throne

of

Glory.

And the legs of the Throne of Glory correspond to all of them, and the Throne of Glory corresponds to all of them.

And above them

according to the variant reading in the text:

the King, the living and enduring God, exalted and uplifted,

dwells above them.

And you,

Nebuchadnezzar,

said: “I will ascend upon the heights of the clouds; I will resemble the Most High”?!

“Yet to the netherworld you shall be brought down, to the farthest reaches of the pit!”

This is the adjacent verse. Its meaning is: In response to your saying, “I will ascend upon the heights of the clouds,” it shall not be so! Rather, you will be brought down to the netherworld and to the depths of the pit.

We learned in the Mishna:

Nor

may one teach

the

account of the

Merkava to an individual

to one person, unless he is a sage who understands on his own:

Rabbi Ḥiyya taught: But one may transmit to him

to an individual

the headings

the headings of the sections of the account of the Merkava.

Rabbi Zeira said: The headings may be transmitted only to the president of the court, and to anyone

or to everyone

whose heart is anxious within him,

and who does not treat the matter lightly.

Some say:

provided that his heart is anxious within him. Even to the president of the court they transmit them only if his heart is anxious within him; but to one whose heart is anxious within him alone, they do not transmit them.

Rabbi Ami said: The secrets of the Torah

such as the account of the Merkava, the Book of Creation, and the account of Creation, and this is a beraita, Rashi

may be transmitted only to one who possesses five qualities

listed in Isaiah 3:3:

a.

captain of fifty;

b.

one of distinguished presence;

c.

a counselor;

d.

a skillful craftsman;

e.

and one who understands whispered speech,

all of these are explained in the Gemara below, on 14a.

Rabbi Ami said: The words of Torah may not be transmitted to a gentile,

as it is stated: “He has not done so for any nation, and His ordinances they have not known.”

Rabbi Yoḥanan said to Rabbi Elazar: Come, I will teach you

come and I will teach you

the

a beraita of the

account of the Merkava.

He said to him,

Rabbi Elazar said to Rabbi Yoḥanan: I am still

not old enough

I have not aged, and my heart is not anxious within me.

When

Rabbi Elazar grew old,

Rabbi Yoḥanan’s soul departed

his soul passed away

from Rabbi Yoḥanan.

Rabbi Asi said

to Rabbi Elazar:

Come and I will teach you

come and I will teach you

the

a beraita of the

account of the Merkava.

He said to him,

Rabbi Elazar said to Rabbi Asi:

If I were worthy,

I would have learned it from Rabbi Yoḥanan, your master

had I been worthy of studying the account of the Merkava, I would already have learned it from Rabbi Yoḥanan, your master.

The Maharsha wrote: From here one may learn that one should not engage extensively in the study of Kabbala, and certainly that one should not expound matters of Kabbala publicly, since the wisdom of Kabbala deals with matters

above

the account of the Merkava! Proof of this is that we find no allusion to the wisdom of Kabbala, neither in the Talmud nor in the other midrashim of the tannaim. It is evident from here that it is more appropriate to conceal it rather than reveal it.

The Maharsha further adds that one should protest against those who expound this wisdom publicly, even in the secret of the Divine Name!

Rav Yosef had learned

he was studying a beraita of the

account of the Merkava;

whereas

the elders of Pumbedita

the elders of Pumbedita, namely Rav Yehuda and Rav Einah, Maharsha

would study

would recite

the

a beraita of the

account of Creation.

They said to him,

the elders of Pumbedita said to Rav Yosef:

Let the master teach us

let our master teach us

the account of the Merkava.

He said to them,

Rav Yosef said to the elders of Pumbedita:

Teach me the account of Creation

teach me, you, the account of Creation.

They taught him

according to the version in the text, the elders of Pumbedita indeed taught Rav Yosef the beraita of the account of Creation.

After

After they had taught him,

after they had taught him,

they said to him

again:

Let the master teach us the account of the Merkava.

He said to them,

Rav Yosef said to the elders of Pumbedita:

We learned concerning them

we learned a beraita about the account of the Merkava:

It is written:

“Honey and milk are under your tongue,”

to teach you:

things sweeter than honey and milk

the account of the Merkava, which is sweeter than honey and milk,

should be under your tongue

and not upon your tongue.

Rabbi Abbahu said: From here:

It is written:

“Lambs

with a right shin

for your clothing”; do not read “lambs”

but “things concealed”

according to the variant reading in the text, to teach you:

things that are the concealment

the secret

of the world shall be beneath your clothing,

that is, they shall remain hidden. At the beginning of the Book of Ezekiel, in chapter 1, the “account of the Merkava” is written.

Verse 1: “And it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month ... the heavens opened, and I saw visions of God.”

Verse 3: “The word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel ... and the hand of the Lord was upon him there.”

Verse 4: “And I looked, and behold, a storm wind came from the north, a great cloud, and a fire flashing forth, with a brightness around it. And from within it”

was something like the color of electrum

within the fire.

The account of the Merkava is detailed there at length in the following verses.

Verse 26: “And above the firmament that was above their heads was the likeness of a sapphire stone, the appearance of a throne.

And above the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man upon it above.”

Verse 27: “And I saw

something like the color of electrum,

like the appearance of fire within it all around, from the appearance of his loins and upward.

And from the appearance of his loins and downward I saw something like the appearance of fire, with a brightness around it.”

Verse 28: “Like the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.”

Afterward, at the beginning of chapter 2: “And He said to me: Son of man, stand upon your feet!” From that point onward, he no longer speaks about the account of the Merkava.

They said to him,

the elders of Pumbedita said to Rav Yosef: We have already

learned concerning them

we learned the beraita of the account of the Merkava regarding the verses of the account of the Merkava in the Book of Ezekiel, from the beginning of the chapter to its end,

until “And He said to me, son of man,”

at the beginning of chapter 2.

He said to them,

Rav Yosef said to the elders of Pumbedita: If you have already learned up to this point—that is, if you have also learned verses 27 and 28—you have learned a great deal, for

these are

these two verses

the account of the Merkava,

for they speak of the form of the Divine Presence and the appearance of the Holy One, blessed be He.

The Gemara raises an objection: How far does the account of the Merkava extend?

Rabbi says:

Up to the end of verse 26, that is,

up to

the beginning of verse 27, which begins with the words

“And I saw something like the color of electrum,” the latter occurrence,

which is the final expression of “something like electrum” in this chapter, whereas in verse 4 the expression “something like the color of electrum” appears for the first time—and not including it!

Rabbi Yitzḥak says:

The beginning of verse 27 is also included in the account of the Merkava—

up to “electrum,”

and this word is included.

We have learned that the principal account of the Merkava extends to the end of verse 26, or at most also to the beginning of verse 27, and not through all of verse 27 and verse 28, as Rav Yosef said?!

And we answer:

“And I saw

something like the color of electrum”—

we teach it.

And this is what the tanna said in the beraita: How far does the account of the Merkava extend in terms of what may be expounded, over which the Sages were not strict? Until the end of verse 26, or even several words at the beginning of verse 27—

But

from here,

from the beginning of verse 27,

onward,

until the end of the chapter,

we transmit

an explanation of those verses,

“the headings”

alone, because the Sages were strict concerning them.

Some say:

This is what the beraita is saying: The entire account of the Merkava, from its beginning

until “And I saw”

until the end of verse 26

we transmit its headings

alone. But

from this point onward,

only

if he is a sage who understands on his own

do we continue to transmit headings to him, and

if not—

we do not

transmit anything to him.

And we challenge Rabbi Yitzḥak, who says that the beginning of verse 27 is also expounded, “up to electrum”:

But is it so,

that is,

do we expound “electrum”?

But there was that child

a minor

who expounded “electrum,”

and a fire emerged

a fire came out

from “electrum” and consumed him

and burned him?!

And we answer:

A child is different, for his time had not yet arrived

a child is different, since he had not yet reached the proper age

and it is not proper conduct for him to expound it

since it is not proper conduct for him to expound it.

Rav Yehuda said that Rav said

according to the variant reading in the text:

Indeed, that man is remembered for good, and his name was Ḥanania ben Ḥizkiya,

for

if not for him, the Book of Ezekiel would have been placed in concealment,

because

its words

at the end, concerning the offerings,

contradict the words of the Torah.

But he reconciled them.

What did

Ḥanania ben Ḥizkiya

do?

They brought up to him, to the upper chamber,

three hundred jars

measures of

oil

for lighting,

and he sat in the upper chamber and expounded

the Book of Ezekiel so that its words would not contradict the secrets of the Torah.

The Sages taught: An incident occurred involving a certain child who was reading in his teacher’s house from the Book of Ezekiel, and he understood

the passage about

“electrum,”

he knew how to expound what electrum was,

and a fire emerged from “electrum” and burned him.

And

because of this incident, the Sages

sought to place the Book of Ezekiel in concealment.

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said to them

according to the variant reading in the text:

If

this child

is wise, then all

according to the variant reading in the text

children are wise.

That is, if this child is wise, then all children are wise, and one must be concerned that they might study it.

But there is no need to be concerned regarding adults, as we said above: a child is different, since his time had not yet arrived [Maharsha].

The Gemara now explains various verses in the account of the Merkava in the Book of Ezekiel:

What is “electrum”?

Rav Yehuda said: