The Mystery of Unity

AJS Review 37:2 (November 2013), 231256
Association for Jewish Studies 2013

doi:10.1017/S0364009413000251
T HE M YSTERY OF U NITY : P OETIC AND M YSTICAL

A SPECTS OF A U NIQUE Z OHARIC S HEMA M YSTERY
Jonatan M. Benarroch
Abstract: This paper reveals one of the most unique Zoharic Shema
mysteries identified as Rav Hamnuna Sabbas Mystery of Unity
[] . This mystery is deeply connected to two narrative figures in Zoharic literature: The Yanuka (the Zoharic wunderkind) and the Saba (the wise old man). This paper argues that various
poetic aspects of these two figures illuminate the theosophic and mystical contents of their homilies as can be shown in the various homilies
of the Yanuka and Saba on their unique Shema mystery.
I NTRODUCTION
Among the various narrative figures in Zoharic literature, there are two that
are exceptional in their mythical-symbolic nature: the Yanukathe Zoharic wunderkindand the Sabathe wise old man.1 These figures are strongly linked to a
unique Zoharic Shema mystery.2 This linkage can serve as a hermeneutical key to
This essay is part of my research over the past two years, which was made possible thanks to the
generous support of the Tikvah fellowship at Princeton University (2011), the Fulbright fellowship at
Harvard University (2012), and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. (201113). This research
has been also funded by the European Research Councils Starting Grant TCCECJ headed by Dr. Pawel
Maciejko of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (20122014). I would also like to thank Joel Hecker
for reading a draft of this essay and contributing valuable comments, and for sharing some of his findings with me. Finally, I would like to thank Sara Tova Brody for her help in editing this essay. A paper I
delivered in the 2011 AJS conference in Washington, in a session on literary approaches to the Zohar,
served as a source for this essay. I would like to thank Eitan Fishbane for organizing this important AJS
session.
1. This essay is based in part on my PhD dissertation, in which I focused on these two figures.
See Jonatan Benarroch, Saba ve-Yanuka, Treyn de-inun h.ada: alegoriah, semel u-mitos ba-sifrut
ha-zoharit (PhD diss., Hebrew University, 2011), 357378. On the Zoharic Yanuka and Saba
figures, see also Michal Oron, Motiv ha-Yanuka u-mashmauto be-sefer ha-Zohar, Teudah 2122
(2006): 129164; Oded Yisraeli, Parshanut ha-sod ve-sod ha-parshanut: megammot midrashiyot
ve-hermanoitiyot be-Saba de-mishpatim sheba-Zohar (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2005); Yehuda
Liebes, Myth vs. Symbol in the Zohar and in Lurianic Kabbalah, in Essential Papers on Kabbalah,
ed. Lawrence Fine (New York: New York University Press, 1995), 21242; Jonatan Benarroch, Oro
shel Yanuka ve-sodo shel Saba: hebetim poetiyim u-mitopoetiyim be-iz.uv dmut ha-Yanuka beh.ativat ha-Yanuka de-Balak ba-Zohar (MA thesis, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2007).
2. Following the work of Abrams, I use the term Zoharic literature, and not the book of
Zohar. See Daniel Abrams, Kabbalistic Manuscripts and Textual Theory: Methodologies of Textual
Scholarship and Editorial Practice in the Study of Jewish Mysticism (Jerusalem and Los Angeles:
Magnes Press; Cherub Press, 2010), 224428. However, in my view, although the Zohar is not a
bookand therefore cannot be read with the assumption that there is complete coherence between
different passagesthere are nevertheless some poetic qualities that are unique to Zoharic literature
at large. In my opinion, the only way to understand the wide range of these qualities is to compare
231
achieve a better understanding of both the mystical Zoharic homilies on the Shema
recitation and the narrative framework in which they appear.3
Do the Yanuka and Saba stories serve only as poetic ornaments to the mystical teachings on the Shema mysteries, or is the narrative and literary framework
essential to the understanding of these Zoharic mysteries? And why are these two
figures chosen for this set of Shema mysteries?
As many scholars have shown before, various poetic aspects of the Zoharic narrative illuminate the theosophic and mystical contents of the homilies, and vice versa.4
the same ideas and characters as they appear in all the different passages of the diverse Zoharic
literature.
3. This work is part of a new approach in Zoharic scholarship that focuses on the literary framework and the unique poetics of Zoharic literature. See Yehuda Liebes, Ha-mashiah. shel ha-Zohar:
lidmuto ha-meshih.it shel R. Shimon bar Yoh.ai, in Ha-raayon ha-meshih.i be-Yisrael, ed. Shmuel
Reem (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1982), 87236; Liebes, Zohar
ve-eros, Alpayim 9 (1994): 67119; Elliot R. Wolfson, Language, Eros, Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and Poetic Imagination (New York: Fordham University Press, 2005), 190295; Elliot R. Wolfson,
Left Contained in the Right: A Study in Zoharic Hermeneutics, AJS Review 11 (1986): 2752; Ronit
Meroz, Va-ani lo hayiti sham?: kuvlanotav shel Rashbi al pi sippur Zohari lo yadua, Tarbiz. 71
(2002): 16393; Ronit Meroz, Der Aufbau des Buches Sohar, PaRDeS II (2005): 1636; Ronit
Meroz, Zoharic Narratives and Their Adaptations, Hispania Judaica Bulletin 3 (2000): 363; Boaz
Huss, H.akham adif mi-navi: Shimon bar Yoh.ai u-Mosheh Rabbenu ba-Zohar, Kabbalah 4 (1999):
10339; Eitan Fishbane, Representation and the Boundaries of RealismReading the Fantastic in
Zoharic Fiction, Kabbalah 23 (2010): 105119; Eitan Fishbane, The Scent of the Rose: Drama,
Fiction, and Narrative Form in the Zohar, Prooftexts 29, no. 3 (2009): 324361; Eitan Fishbane,
Tears of Disclosure: The Role of Weeping in Zoharic Narrative Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 11, no. 1 (2002): 2547; Eitan Fishbane, Mystical Drama and Narrative Form (forthcoming);
Ellen Haskell, Metaphor, Transformation, and Transcendence: Toward an Understanding of Kabbalistic
Imagery in Sefer ha-Zohar, Prooftexts 28 (2008): 335362; Melila Hellner-Eshed, A River Flows from
Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar, trans. Nathan Wolski (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009); Yisraeli, Parshanut ha-sod ve-sod ha-parshanut; Lvy Valnsi, La Potique du
Zohar (Paris: ditions de Lclat, 1996); Michal Oron, Simeni kha-h.otam al libekha: iyyunim
ba-poetikah shel baal ha-Zohar be-farashat Saba de-mishpatim, in Massuot, ed. Michal Oron and
Amos Goldreich (Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 1994), 124; Michal Oron, Sippur ha-otiyyot u-mekorotav:
iyyun be-midrash ha-Zohar al otiyyot ha-alef beit, Meh.kerei Yerushalayim be-mah.shevet Yisrael 3
(1984): 97109; Oron, Motiv ha-Yanuka; Shifra Asulin, Komatah shel ha-Shekhinah: mekomo shel
ha-parz.uf ha-elohi hanikbi bein ha-Idra Rabbah la-Idra Zutta, in Samkhut ruh.anit; maavakim al
koah. tarbuti be-hagut ha-yehudit, eds. Chaim Kreisel, Boaz Huss and Uri Erlich (Beer Sheva: Ben
Gurion University, 2009), 103182; Naomi Tene, Darkhei iz.uv ha-sippur be-sefer ha-Zohar (PhD
diss., Bar Ilan University, 1992); Matti Meged, Ha-or ha-neh.shakh: arakhim estetiyim be-sefer
ha-Zohar (Tel Aviv: Sifriyat Poalim, 1980); Aryeh Wineman, Mystic Tales from the Zohar (Philadelphia:
Jewish Publication Society, 1997); Nathan Wolski, A Journey into the Zohar: an Introduction to the Book
of Radiance (Albany: SUNY Press, 2010), 185214; Nathan Wolski, Mystical Poetics: Narrative, Time
and Exegesis in the Zohar, Prooftexts 26, no.2 (Spring 2008): 101128; Nathan Wolski, Don Quixote
and Sancho Panza Were Walking on the Way: El Caballero Andante and the Book of Radiance (Sefer
ha-Zohar), Shofar 27, no. 2 (2009): 2447. For a complete reference list of the research on the literary
and poetic aspects of Zoharic literature, see Fishbane, The Scent of the Rose, 353354; Joel Hecker,
The Face of Shame: The Sight and Site of Rebuke (Zohar 3:45b47a), Kabbalah 23 (2010): 2930,
n. 1; Daniel Abrams, Kabbalistic Manuscripts, 409428, esp. nn. 390393.
232
The Mystery of Unity

T HE YANUKA S TORY
Z OHAR H. ADASH M IDRASH R UTH

The central Yanuka story dealing with the Shema mysteries is the story of
Rabbi Bun5 and the Yanuka that appears in Zohar H.adash Midrash Ruth.6 The
complete story, describing the journeys of Rabbi Bun, is dispersed in three literary
locations, but has been reconstructed here from the various sources in which it
appears.7 The story begins in ZH. Ruth (77b78a),8 continues in ZH. Ah.arei
Mot (48a), and ends in a further section of ZH. Ruth (80c81a).
IN
YANUKA S TORY PART O NE : Z OHAR H. ADASH R UTH (77 B 78 A )

Part of the story describes the meeting between Rabbi Bun and the Yanuka,
and, later on, with a few other sages:
Rabbi Bun set out one day on the path and encountered a Yanuka. He said to
him, Rabbi, should I accompany you on your way and serve before you on
this journey?
He replied, Come. He went behind him.
4. See Liebes, Ha-mashiah. shel ha-Zohar; Meroz, Zoharic Narratives and Their Adaptations; Fishbane, Representation and the Boundaries of Realism; Oron, Simeni kha-h.otam al
libekha; Tene, Darkhei iz.uv ha-sippur be-sefer ha-Zohar; Wolski, Mystical Poetics.
5. The figure of R. Bun is one of the central figures in ZH. Ruth, as opposed to the main stratum
of Zoharic Literature, in which the central protagonist is Rabbi Shimon Bar Yoh.ai. See Meroz,
Va-ani lo hayiti sham?; Liebes, Ha-mashiah. shel ha-Zohar.
6. As demonstrated in my previous work, ZH. Ruth is the first stratum of Zoharic literature, introducing motifs that are developed in subsequent Yanuka and Saba stories. See Benarroch, Saba
ve-Yanuka, 263269. For more research on ZH. Ruth see Daniel Abrams, Midrash ha-neelam hu
Zohar Rut, originally published as Tapuh.ei zahav in Venice 1566 (Jerusalem: private edition, 1992),
113; Efraim Gottlieb, Meh.karim be-sifrut ha-kabbalah, ed. Joseph Hacker (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 1976), 540542; Lawrence A. Englander, The Mystical Study of Ruth: Midrash ha-Neelam
of the Zohar to the Book of Ruth, trans. and ed. Herbert W. Basser (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993).
7. The story appears scattered between the different locations both in the printed editions and in
several manuscripts. The printed editions used are: Tapuh.ei zahav (Thiengen, 1559); Tapuh.ei zahav
(Venice 1566); Moses ben Jacob Cordovero, Or yakar 17 (Jerusalem: Ah.uzat Yisrael, 1989),
197226. However it should be mentioned that the Vilna Gaon reconstructed the text in a similar
manner. See Midrash Ruth he-H.adash (Hadrat Kodesh), ed. Eliyahu mi-Vilna (Warsaw 1865), 8ab.
I thank Joel Hecker for referring me to this valuable source; Niz.oz.ei Zohar 48a, 78a; Mopsik, n.
118; Matok mi-devash on 48a, 80c cf. ZH. (Munkacz) 1:79a; 2:30b; Benarroch, Saba ve-Yanuka,
357362. The manuscripts I reviewed are: Vatican (Biblioteca Apostolica) ebr. 207 [V6]; Vatican
(Neofiti) 27 [V24]; British Library 27173 [L39]; Russian State Library, Ms. Guenzburg 174/7
[MS3]; Russian State Library, Ms. Guenzburg 290/5[MS4]; Oxford (Bodleian Library) 221 [O17]. I
want to thank all the libraries for allowing me to check their manuscripts, and in particular the
Scholem library and the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts (both located in the National
Library of Israel) for all of their generous help with handling the manuscripts.
8. The first part of the story (ZH. Ruth, 77b) describes Rabbi Bun, the storys protagonist, arriving at Kfar Sikhnin, the location of Hamnuna Saba and his sons (the Yanuka) domicile, according to
the central Zoharic Yanuka story (Zohar III, 86a192a). See Benarroch, Oro shel Yanuka ve-sodo
shel Saba. Later on (ZH. Ruth, 77c), Rabbi Bun meets Yanai Sabba. See Benarroch, Saba ve-Yanuka,
264.
233
While travelling, he happened upon Rabbi H.iyya son of Abba and Rabbi
Yehudah son of Rabbi Yose. They said to him, Youre by yourself, with
no one goading behind you. He answered, There is a child following me.
Rabbi H.iyya said, Youve invited harm to yourself, as you have no one
with whom to engage in words of Torah!
They sat down in a field under a tree.9
From the description of the meeting between Rabbi Bun and the other sages, it
seems that the Yanuka is visible only to Rabbi Bun.10 The framing of the
Yanuka as an invisible child possibly alludes to his hybrid-mythic nature,
between man and angel.11
In the continuation of the story, Rabbi Yehudah cites Rabbi Nehorai, who
taught an important mystery regarding the Shema recitation:
Rabbi Yehudah opened, saying: It shall be healing to your body [and strength
to your bones]. [Proverbs3:8]
The Torah is medicinal for a personbody and bonesin this world and in
the world that is coming, as Rabbi Neh.emiah taught in the name of Rabbi
Nehorai:12 What is a daily tonic for people in this world? Recital of the
Shema according to its requirements.
Rabbi Nehorai said further: The recital of Shema contains 248 words corresponding to 248 limbs in a persons body. One who recites Shema as
requiredeach and every one of his limbs takes a word for itself, and is
healed by it. This is the meaning of healing to your body, and strength to
your bones! [Proverbs3:8]13
The main mystical mystery of the Shema recitation, as cited in the name of Rabbi
Nehorai, is that the total sum of the words in the Shema prayer is 248which is parallel to the number of limbs in the human body.14 Rabbi Nehorai explained that the
reading of the Shema can therefore serve as a supernatural cure for the body. In his
words: Each and every one of his limbs takes a word for itself, and is healed by it.
Immediately after this homily, the figure of the Yanuka appears again:
9. ZH. Ruth, 77d. In translating the Yanuka story in ZH. Ruth I have relied mainly on the translation of Joel Hecker (as part of the Zohar: Pritzker Edition), and I thank him for sharing with me his
translation, which is in preparation.
10. Another explanation might be that he has just fallen behind, as he catches up afterward and
is described as being wearied from the journey. See below n. 16.
11. Benarroch, Saba ve-Yanuka, 264, 361362; Benarroch, Oro shel Yanuka ve-sodo shel
Saba, 76106.
12. The name of Rabbi Nehorai translates literally as light (nehora). He is the Rabbi of
Light, and he can be seen as a prefiguration of Rav Hamnuna Sabathe Yanukas father. On the
figure of R. Nehorai as a prefiguration of Hamnuna Saba, see Benarroch, Saba ve-Yanuka, 291292.
13. ZH. Ruth, 77d.
14. cf. TZ 21, 47a.
234

Meanwhile, the Yanuka arrived, wearied from the journey, and he sat before
them. He heard these teachings and rose to his feet, saying, But in the Shema,
there are only 245 words! Rabbi H.iyya replied: Sit down, my son, sit. He
sat down.
He [Rabbi H.iyya] continued, My son, have you heard something about
this? He said to him, This is what I have learned from my father. In the
Shema there are 245 words, three words short of the number of limbs in a
persons body. How is this resolved? The rabbis established that the prayer
leader should repeat three words. What are they? I am YHVH, your God
[YHVH, your God, true].15
The Yanuka, exhausted from the walk, suddenly reveals himself and appears
before the rabbis. His exhaustion serves as a poetic indicator of the Shema
mystery, the fact that reciting the Shema has the ability to cure human limbs.
With the strength given him by his mystical knowledge, the Yanuka revives
from his fatigue. He stands on his feet and argues with Rabbi Yehudah. He
explains, in the name of his father, that there are three words that need to be
added to the reading of the Shema in order to complete the count to 248 words.
These three words are: I am, YHVH, your God(or YHVH, your God, true),
which are added by the prayer-leader at the end of the Shema recitation in public.
A SHKENAZI T RADITIONS
ON THE
248 W ORDS
OF
S HEMA
The idea that the Shema prayer has 248 words, in parallel to the 248 limbs of
the human body, appears in Midrash Tanh.uma;16 as demonstrated by Ta-Shma, it
was widely known in Ashkenaz.17 The main custom originated from this idea was
the addition of the phrase God, faithful king(El melekh neeman) before the
Shema readingas these three words complete the count of 248 words in
15. ZH. Ruth, 77d. The translation follows V24, MS4, Tiengen, and Venice, which indicate that
one repeats the words I am YHVH, your God ( , ani YHVH eloheikhem), V6, O17, L39,
MS3, O18, and Or yakar all have YHVH your God, truth ( , YHVHEloheikhem emet),
in accordance with the emerging normative practice. Texts from fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Spain
indicate that the practice there was to repeat I am YHVH your God (ani YHVH eloheikhem). See
Recanati, as cited in Maharam Alshaqar, Responsa 60; Moses ben Jacob of Kiev, Shoshan sodot,
8b9a; Simeon ben Z.emah. Duran, Responsa 2:236; NZ n.11; cf. de Len, Shekel ha-kodesh,ed.
Charles Mopsik (Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 1996), 8485; Beit Yosef orah. H.ayim 61. I thank Joel
Hecker for sharing with me his findings on this as part of his research in translating ZH. Ruth, in the
framework of the Zohar: Pritzker Edition, which is in preparation.
16. Tanh.uma Kedoshim 6 records a tradition in the name of Rabbi Mani: Do not look askance
at the recital of Shema, for there are 248 words in it like the sum of limbs in a human body The
Blessed Holy One said: If you are vigilant [, shamarta] regarding my [248], reciting Shema as
prescribed, I shall guard [, eshmor] your [248]. cf. B. Nedarim 36b.
17. On the Ashkenazi origins of this idea, see Israel M. Ta-Shma, El melekh neeman: gilgulo
shel minhag (Terumah le-h.eker ha-Zohar), Tarbiz. 39 (1969): 184194; Israel M. Ta-Shma, Tikkunim
ve-hosafot le-maamarEl melekh neeman, Tarbiz. 40 (1970): 1056; Elliot R. Wolfson, Dimmui
antropomorfi ve-ha-simbolikah shel ha-otiyyot be-sefer ha-Zohar, in Sefer ha-Zohar ve-doro (Meh.kerei Yerushalayim be-mah.shevet Yisrael 8 [1989]), ed. Joseph Dan (Jerusalem: Hebrew University,
1989), 161 n. 62.
235
private prayer. Ta-Shma also argued that the custom of adding YHVH, your God,
true is a Zoharic innovation, which was eventually more widely accepted than the
addition of God, faithful king. The ending of the first part of the story (ZH. Ruth
77d78a) demonstrates the Zoharic polemic against the Ashkenazi tradition of
adding God, faithful king before the Shema reading of a private prayer.18
The Zohar mentions the early pious ones establishing the idea of contemplating the 248 words of Shema as paralleling the 248 limbs:
In the meantime, Rabbi Yehudah son of Rabbi Pinh.as came and sat among
them. He said to them, What topic are you discussing? They said to him,
The words of the Shema, and here is what this Yanuka said. He
replied, Certainly so! And thus said Rabbi Yoh.anan son of Nuri in the
name of Rabbi Yose son of Durmaskit, citing Rabbi Akiva: Early pious
ones established the recital of Shema to correspond to the Ten Commandments, as well as to the number of limbs in a persons body.19
It is plausible to assume that the phrase early pious ones in this paragraph
refers to the Ashkenazi pietistic circles, since it was they who established the
mystical liturgical ritual of contemplating the 248 limbs during the Shema
recitation.
The possibility of completing the count of 248 limbs in private prayer
appears also as part of that same tradition established by the early pious ones:
But, whoever recites the Shema without the congregation does not perfect his
limbs, because he is lacking the three words that the prayer leader repeats.
What is his remedy? He should contemplate the fifteen vavs of Emet
ve-yaz.iv [true and firm].20
Instead of the familiar tradition of adding God, faithful king (El melekh
neeman) before reciting the Shema in a private prayer, the Zohar describes a tradition that appears in the prayer commentary ascribed to Eleazar of Worms, which
offers a unique way of completing the 248 words of Shema in private prayer: contemplating the fifteen vavs that precede the words of praise that immediately
follow the Shema at the beginning of the morning blessing.21
18. According to Ta-Shma, the main polemic is against the Rambans prohibition of adding
God, faithful king (El melekh neeman) before the Shema recitation, in order to prevent any
break between the Ve-ahavta blessing and the Shema. See Ta-Shma, El melekh neeman, 190192.
19. ZH. Ruth, 77d78a.
20. ZH. Ruth, 78a.
21. Sixteen adjectives of praise immediately follow the Shema recitation, at the beginning of the
morning blessing, which follows it. After the first one, truth, (emet), the next fifteen are all joined
with the letter vav, and. It is not clear how the recitation of these fifteen vavs serves as a substitute
for a full 248-word recital of the Shema, but the prayer commentary ascribed to Eleazar of Worms indicates that these fifteen times sixthe numerical value of vavequal ninety, corresponding to the word
just, z.edek, in Psalms 17:1; the letter z.adi( )at the beginning of the word has the numerical value
of 90. Midrash Tehillim 17:6 explains as follows: Hear YHVH what is just (, shimah)this
236

The Yanuka, in the name of his father, rejects the possibility of completing
the count of 248 words in private prayer:
Nonetheless, of a person following this practice, [my] father imputed:
A crooked thing cannot be made straight [nor can the lack be counted]
[Ecclesiastes 1:15]. Those three words of Shema that the prayer leader
repeatshe cannot count them toward the sum of 248, as is the case for the
congregation.
He [Rabbi Yehudah] said to the Yanuka: Expound your verse!22
This stance of the Yanukas seems to polemicize against the Ashkenazi tradition
of adding God, faithful king (or of contemplating the fifteen vavs of the Emet
ve-yaz.iv prayer) in private prayer. Rather, it favors the Zoharic tradition of
adding, I am, YHVH, your God (or YHVH, your God, true) in order to complete the count of 248 words of the Shema, in the context of public prayer only.23
Traces of this polemic can also be found in the writings of Rabbi Moses
de Len, in his book Maskiot kesef,24 where he argues that the addition
of God, faithful king in order to complete the count of 248 words in the
Shema is a mistaken tradition. However, he does mention the possibility of contemplating the fifteen vavs of the Emet ve-yaz.iv prayer as a solution for private
prayer.25
YANUKA S TORY PART T WO : Z OHAR H. ADASH A H. AREI M OT (48 A )

The continuation of our Yanuka story appears in ZH. Ah.arei Mot 48a. After
being asked by Rabbi Yehudah, at the end of the previous paragraph, to cite a verse
that supports his argument, the Yanuka responds:
The Yanuka opened, saying: My people! What have I done to you? How
have I wearied you? Witness me! [Micah 6:3]26
signifies the recitation of Shema. This is, to be sure, much more convoluted than the Zohars usual
style. On the fifteen vavs, see Judah son of Yakar, Peirush ha-tefillot ve-ha-berakhot, 3032; Peirushei
siddur tefillah ha-Rokeah., 29899; cf. Midrash ha-gadol Terumah 26:8; cf. Beit Yosef orah. h.ayim 61. I
thank Joel Hecker for sharing with me his findings on this as part of his research in translating ZH. Ruth,
in the framework of the Zohar: Pritzker Edition which is in preparation.
22. ZH. Ruth, 78a. This paragraph (without mention of the figures of the Yanuka and his father),
appears in an unprinted fragment of Rabbi Moses de Lens Shoshan edut, see Wolfson, Dimmui
antropomorfi, 1623 n. 66; cf. Ta-Shma, Tikkunim ve-hosafot le-maamar El melekh
neeman, 105. For more on Shoshan edut, see: Moses de Len, Shoshan edut, ed. Gershom
Scholem, Kovez. al yad, 8 (1976): 32570. However, it is not clear if this work was written prior to
the Zoharic passage or whether it is actually quoting from the Zohar.
23. Cf. Zohar II, 156a.
24. Moses de Len, Sefer maskiyyot kesef, ed. Jochanan H. A. Wijnhoven (MA thesis, Brandeis
University, 1961), 2526.
25. de Len, Sefer maskiyyot kesef, 16, 26, 2930.
237
The opening verse of the Yanukas homily serves as one of the poetic indicators
that this section, appearing in ZH. Ah.arei Mot, is in fact the continuation of the
earlier Yanuka story. The Yanuka is described in the first part of the story as
being wearied from the journey, and here he opens with a verse that describes
the weariness of the people of Israel.
The Yanuka then continues developing his mystical teaching on the 248
words of the Shema recitation, which he explains consist of different combinations
of Gods name (mainly names of forty-two and seventy-two letters).27 He ends this
homily by repeating the idea that the number of words in the Shema is parallel to
the number of limbs in the human body:
Whoever recites the Shema fittinglyeach and every word overflows onto each
and every one of his limbs. And if a person does not recite the Shema in the
morning and evening, each and every one of his limbs will be permeated with
evil spirit and diverse forms of execrable diseases that are found in the world.28
In this description there is another connection to the central Zoharic Yanuka story
(Zohar III, Balak, 186a192a). In the beginning of the Balak Yanuka story the
Yanuka tells the sages who come to visit him that he can smell from their
clothes that they did not recite the Shema that day. It is plausible that the bad
odor of their clothes reflects the evil spirit mentioned here, which fills the
limbs of one who does not recite the Shema.29
At the end of this passage is a homily by Saba de-Yanuka,30 the Yanukas
father:
The Old Man [Saba] the childs father [Saba de-Yanuka]opened, saying:
There was a small city, and few people within it And there was found
within it a poor wise child [man][Ecclesiastes 9:1415]. Come and see:
There was a small citythis is Noahs ark. And few people within itthese
are his wife, his sons There came a great king against itthis is the evil
inclination31
26. ZH. Ah.arei Mot 48a. The only manuscript I identified for this source is St. Petersburg
(Russian National Library) Evr. II A 317/1.
27. Cf. de Len, Sefer maskiyyot kesef, 2829.
28. ZH. Ruth 77d.
29. On the connection between the Shema mystery and the unique ability of the Yanuka to
detect by smell whether a person had recited the Shema or not, see H.ayim ben Joseph Vital, Ez.
h.ayim, shaar keriat shema, 22.
30. This is the only source in all Zoharic literature where the term: Saba de-Yanuka
( ) is used. This term is another example of the strong linkage between the Saba and
Yanuka figures. See Benarroch, Saba ve-Yanuka, 358359.
31. ZH.Ah.arei Mot 48a.
238

YANUKA S TORY PART T HREE : Z OHAR H. ADASH R UTH (80 C 81 A )
The homily that has the Yanukas father expounding a few verses from
Ecclesiastes constitutes further evidence for the connection between the first
part of the story, in ZH. Ruth (77d78a) and this subsequent part of the story.
According to the printed editions (and a few manuscripts), this verse is the
same with which the Yanuka begins his homily at the end of the first part of the
story (ZH. Ruth 78a). This homily is also a connecting homily to the third and
final part of the story, as it appears in Midrash Ruth 80d, describing a series of
homilies on the verses in Ecclesiastes taught by the Yanuka:
Rabbi Reh.umai32 [H.isdai] opened: There was once a small city with only a
few people in it, and there came a great king against it.[Ecclesiastes 9:14]. A
small citythis is what Rabbi Yose said in the name of Rabbi Yiz.h.ak: this
signifies the body. Few people within itthese are the limbs. There came a
great king against itthis is the evil inclination
Rabbi Bun said: That Yanuka who had been sitting with uswhat did he
say about this verse? Well, this is how he opened: A small citythe assembly
of Israel.33
The fact that the homily was delivered by Rabbi Reh.umai34 serves as another
proof of the connection between the part of the story that appears in ZH.Ah.arei
Mot 48a and the continuation of the story as it appears here, in ZH. Ruth 80cd.
The figure of Rabbi Reh.umai (whose name can be translated as The Rabbi of
Love) can be understood as a prefiguration of Rav Hamnuna Saba, the
Yanukas father.35 If this is correct, there might have been a version of the story
in which the homily delivered by the Saba de-Yanuka, as presented in ZH.Ah.arei
Mot 48a, was attributed to Rabbi Reh.umai.36
After Rabbi Reh.umai finishes his homily on the verses from Ecclesiastes, the
story goes on to describe the Yanukas homilies on these same verses. There is also a
strong thematic linkage between the mystical teachings of the Yanuka (in the name
of his father) on the 248 limbs, and the homily of Rabbi Reh.umai: A small city
this is the human body; only a few people in itthese are the human limbs.
After the series of homilies by the Yanuka on the Ecclesiastes verses, the
story ends with a description of the sages kissing the Yanuka37 and blessing
32. The name Rabbi Reh.umai appears in V6 and MS3.
33. ZH. Ruth, 80cd.
34. I believe the correct version of this part of the story is the one that appears in at least two
manuscripts (V6 and MS3), describing Rabbi Reh.umai, and not Rabbi H.isdai (as appears in the printed
edition), as delivering the homily.
35. On the figure of Rabbi Reh.umai as a Saba figure, portrayed similarly to Rav Hamnuna,
see Benarroch, Saba ve-Yanuka, 157, 2645 n. 47.
36. It should be mentioned that in both of the homilies, the great king (in Ecclesiastes 9:14) is
interpreted as representing the evil inclination.
37. It is also possible to interpret this description as a kiss given by the sages to Rabbi Bun (and
not the Yanuka). On the significance of the act of kissing in Zoharic literature, see Joel Hecker, Kissing
239
him: The companions came and kissed him. They called out for him: All your
children will be taught by YHVH, and great will be the peace of your children.
[Isaiah 54:13]38
T HE M YSTERY
OF
L ILIES : T HE S HEMA M YSTERIES
IN
P IKUDIN
This text, from the Zoharic Pikudin stratum, which appears in Zohar III
263ab,39 consists of the same Shema mysteries that are identified with the
Yanukas father, as mentioned in the ZH. Ruth Yanuka story. It is one of the important sources for unraveling the Shema mysteries of the Yanukas father.
In the printed editions (in Zohar III 263a) the story is found in proximity to a
Zoharic text that lays out a homily delivered by Yeiva,40 who appears in the Zohar
only as Yeiva Saba. As Yehuda Liebes has argued, and as I discussed at length
elsewhere, the figure of Yeiva Sabbaparticularly as it is described in Saba
de-mishpatimis identified with Hamnuna Saba, the Yanukas father.41 By
placing the Pikudin text near this text of Yeiva (Saba), the later editors of the Zohar
aimed to connect the Pikudin Shema mysteries to the figure of Hamnuna Saba.42
In the beginning of the homily the Saba discusses the various mystical
meanings of each word in the opening verse of the Shema:
[Hear, O Israel: YHVH, our God, YHVH is one. (Deuteronomy 6:4)]
Rabbi Yeiva [Yeisa43 ][Saba] says that Hear, O Israel [Shema Yisrael] is
Israel the Old Man [Yisrael Saba].44
Kabbalists: Hierarchy, Reciprocity And Equality, in LoveIdeal and Realin the Jewish Tradition
from the Hebrew Bible to Modern Times, eds. Leonard J. Greenspoon, Ronald A. Simkins, and Jean
A. Cahan (Omaha: Creighton University Press, 2008), 171208.
38. ZH. Ruth 81a. An additional Zoharic homily on the Shema mysteries, and one of the central
sources on these mysteries, is also strongly identified with the Yanuka and with his fatherthe Saba.
39. This text mistakenly appears in the printed editions as part of the Raaya mehemna stratum.
See Yehuda Liebes, Porfuritah shel Helenah mi-Troyah ve-kidush ha-Shem, Daat 5759 (2005):
118119. On the Pikudin stratum see Ephraim Gottlieb, Maamar ha-pikudin she-ba-Zohar, in
Meh.karim be-sifrut ha-kabbalah, 21530; Neta Sobol, H.ativat ha-pikudin she-ba-Zohar, (MA
thesis, Tel Aviv University, 2001).
40. The original Zoharic homily is attributed to Yeiva Saba as can be found in Recanati on Deuteronomy 6:4. Another original Zoharic quotation of this homily appears in the writings of the apostate
Paulus de Heredia. See Yehuda Liebes, Christian Influences in the Zohar, in Studies in the Zohar,
trans. Arnold Schwartz, Stephanie Nackache, and Penina Peli (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1993),
139161, 228244.
41. Benarroch, Saba ve-Yanuka, 813, 363 n. 39; Liebes, Myth vs. Symbol.
42. Not enough attention has been paid in the research of Zoharic literature to the editorial considerations of the late editors, who chose to add chunks from various Zoharic units (e.g. Midrash
ha-Neelam, Pikudin, Matnitin, Sitrei Torah, Raaya mehemna and Tikkunei Zohar, etc.) into the
Zoharic pericopes which are the main stratum of the Zoharic literature (usually identified as Guf
ha-Zohar), as they appear in the printed editions. As is evident from most Zoharic manuscripts,
these different Zoharic units do not appear within the original Zoharic pericopes, but rather as separate
units.
240

Yeiva (Saba) identifies the opening words of the Shema: Hear, O Israelwith
Israel the Old Manthe mythical embodiment of Israel that is represented by the
figure of the Old Man.45 In other words: Israel the Old Man (Yisrael Saba) is identified here with Tiferet or Zeir Anpin, illuminated by Atika Kadisha, the highest
level of the Zoharic Godhead,46 who appears in some Zoharic stories (especially
in the Tikkunei Zohar and the Raaya mehemna stratum) as the Saba figure.47
T HE U NITY
OF
H UMAN L IMBS U NITES
THE
D IVINE L IMBS
The Pikudin Shema mysteries, which appear near the short homily by Yeiva
(Saba), begin as follows:
Thus the Blessed Holy One is one and only above and below.
Whoever declares the unity of the name of the Blessed Holy One should
direct his heart and will to the unification [yeh.uda] we have mentioned, and
connect all his limbs by means of the meditation we mentioned, so that all
his limbs will all become one.48
The text speaks of the unification of the human limbs with Gods limbs through
mediation on the Shema recitation. The unity of Gods image depends on the
unity of mans limbs.49 This teaching is also explained in mythical terms in the
next few lines of the homily:
At that time, there is an angel, a master of 248 worldsall called limbs. His
name is Heleniu. He stands awaiting that unification. He is the collector of
lilies, as it is written, to gather lilies, which are the bodys limbs.
The Supernal Name gathers the Supernal Bodys limbs according to the
meditation, which is unified by means of the mystery of forty-two names. It
picks all those supernal lilies. This angel collects all the lower [lilies],
which together constitute the seventy-two names.50
43. The name Yeisa also appears in Zoharic literature mainly as Yeisa Saba. See Benarroch,
Saba ve-Yanuka, 813.
44. Zohar III 263a.
45. In midrashic literature the title Israel the Elder refers to Israel the Patriarch (Jacob), as
opposed to the people Israel. See Bereshit Rabbah 68:11; Zohar 1:233a; 2:4a, 43a (Pikudin), 160b;
3:262b263a; de Len, Shekel ha-kodesh, 4243 (51). See below n.105. On a similar idea in the writings of de Len, see below.
46. The main Zoharic sources that deal with these descriptions of the Godhead are the Idra
Rabbah (Zohar III, 127b145a) and the Idra Zutta (Zohar III, 287b296b).
47. Benarroch, Saba ve-Yanuka, 30529; Liebes, Myth vs. Symbol.
48. Zohar III (Pikudin) 263a.
49. On the influence of the human limbs on the divine limbs, see ZH. Ruth, 78c: anyone who
harms one of his limbs below, it is as if he harms the limbs above. Cf. Elliot R. Wolfson, Iconic Visualization and the Imaginal Body of God: The Role of Intention in the Rabbinic Conception of Prayer,
Modern Theology 12 (1996): 137162.
50. See also de Len, Sefer maskiyyot kesef, 2829.
241
They are all picked by that meditation and all become one body according to the same mystery.51
The idea that the unity of Gods image depends on the unity of mans limbs during
the recitation of the Shema is found explicitly in a kabbalistic work named Shoshan
sodot (Lily of Mysteries),52 which preserved many early kabbalistic ideas, especially
from the Ashkenazi pietistic circles. In the words of the Lily of Mysteries:
Since the intention of Moses was that the sum of the words of the Shema would
correspond to the 248 limbs of the human body, why did he cause a lack [of three
words in the Shema]? And if that was not his intention, why do we have to add
[three words] to complete the sum of 248 words?. One adds: God, faithful
king [El melekh neeman] and the other adds: I am YHVH, your
God[Ani YHVH Eloheikhem] and the impurity rises until the H.esed is in
all the limbs of the upper Adam [ha-adam ha-elyon]53excluding the three
celestial limbs, which are the three upper sefirot [Keter, H.okhmah and Binah].
These three words are missing so that we will not allude to them [during the
Shema meditation]. In order not to omit them completely, we allude to them
indirectly: I am YHVH, your God. So that the upper Adam will not be
lacking these three limbs we add these three words: I am YHVH, your God.
All this is recited in public prayer, as it is only in the public prayer that prayer is
heard, with no impurity separating them [from divinity]. But in private prayer one
does not [add these three words: I YHVH, your God]. One who recites the
[Shema] in private, should direct his intention to the fifteen vavs of Emet
ve-yaz.iv, whose numerical value equals I am YHVH, your God [Ani YHVH
Eloheikhem] in gematria54
As Elliot Wolfson has shown, this idea appears also in Sefer ha-navon
an anonymous book of the pietistic circles of twelfth-thirteenth-century
Ashkenaz.55 This book is a commentary on the Shema prayer, in which the
words of the prayer are connected with the organs of God (shiur komah).56
51. Zohar (Pikudin) III 263a.
52. This work is called Shoshan sodot (Lily of Mysteries), because the number of mysteries discussed in it equals 656, which is the numerical value of the word lily (shoshan) in gematria.
53. The divine anthropos.
54. Moses ben Jacob (of Kiev), Sefer shoshan sodot (Koretz, 1779), 8b9a: 61. On the role of
the body during prayer in the Ashkenazi pietistic traditions, see Ivan G. Marcus, Prayer Gestures in
German Hasidism, in Mysticism, Magic, and Kabbalah in Ashkenazi Judaism: international symposium held in Frankfurt a.m. 1991, eds. Karl Erich Grzinger and Joseph Dan (Berlin; New York:
Walter de Gruyter, 1995), 4459.
55. Sefer ha-navon, published by Joseph Dan, Kobez. al yad, 6:16 (1966): 201223. Dan argues
that this book belongs to the kherub ha-meyuh.ad from the Ashkenazi pietist circles. See Joseph Dan,
H.ug ha-kherub ha-meyuh.ad me-h.asidut Ashkenaz, Tarbiz. 35, no. 4 (1965): 349372; Dan, Iyyunim
be-sifrut h.asidut Ashkenaz (Ramat Gan: Masada, 1975), 114133.
56. Wolfson, Dimmui antropomorfi, 162 n. 67; Dan, Iyyunim be-sifrut h.asidut Ashkenaz,
118, 1278, 1323. On the connection between the 248 limbs and the image (z.elem) of God in the
writings of Rabbi Eleazar of Worms, see Elliot Wolfson, Venturing Beyond: Morality and Law in
242

Furthermore, Wolfson has demonstrated that the Zoharic Shema mystery, as influencing the image of the upper anthropos, also appears in the writing of Rabbi
Moses de Len, in Shoshan edut:
Indeed, the meditation of the Shema recitation that our sages, may their
memory be blessed, had established, is a very high mystery which rises up
to the sum of the formation of Adam [tikkun ha-adam].57 On this matter
they interpreted the verse [and upon the likeness of the throne was] the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it. [Ezekiel 1:26]58
De Len uses almost the exact same wording as the Zohar in describing a few of
his Shema mysteries (both in Shekel ha-kodesh and in Shoshanedut) and he attributes them to Midrash Yerushalmi or to kadmonim (ancient sages), referring to the
Zohar.59
M Y B ELOVED
HAS
G ONE D OWN I NTO H IS G ARDEN
TO
G ATHER L ILIES
The Pikudin text is rich in its mythic imagery: with the correct meditation
during the Shema reading, each human limb becomes a lily that is picked by
Heleniu,60 the angel of liliesidentified with the angel Metatron,61 who collects
the lilies and unites them with the upper lilies. Then all the lilies of the upper
and lower worldsrepresenting the limbs of God and of menunite and
become one.62
The lily, or the rose, is one of the important allegoric symbols in Zoharic
literature. It is usually linked to the Shekhinah or, more accurately, to the
humans unification with the Shekhinah,63 and is probably connected to mystical
Christian traditions which relate to the rose as a mystical symbol.64
Kabbalistic Mysticism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 468. On the connection between the
Torah and the body of the divine anthropos, see Wolfson, Dimmui antropomorfi, 177 n. 129.
57. On the formation of Adam ( , tikkuna de-Adam) in Zoharic literature, see
Yehuda Liebes, Perakim be-millon sefer ha-Zohar (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1977), 778, 288.
58. Wolfson, Dimmui antropomorfi, 1623; Ta-Shma, Tikkunim ve-hosafot le-maamar
El melekh neeman, 105.
59. See below.
60. On the possible connection between the angel named Heleniu and the figure of Helen of
Troy, see Liebes, Porfuritah shel Helenah, 118.
61. Cf. ZH. Lekh Lekha 26a; ZH. Yitro (Sitrei Torah), 36bc.
62. On the idea of picking the lilies and transforming them into the divine anthropos, see Liebes,
Porfuritah shel Helenah, 118119.
63. Elliot Wolfson, Rose of Eros and the Duplicity of the Feminine in Zoharic Kabbalah, in
Botanical Progress, Horticultural Innovation and Cultural Changes, eds. Michel Conan and W. J. John
Kress (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2007), 5159; Meroz,
Zoharic Narratives, (The Rose and its Scent), 3847; Fishbane, The Scent of the Rose.
64. The rose was considered a symbol of mystery from antiquity onwards. For early Christians
the rose served as a visual expression of paradise, but also of martyrdom (Cyprian, Ep. 10). However,
the most central symbolism of the rose is its identification with the Virgin Mary, which dates back to the
243
In the Zohar III (Pikudin), 233ab the lily/rose symbolizes the act of unification itself, which is the central act of the Shema prayer:
The lily is witness to the heavenly unity. And this is so because in a lily
there are thirteen petals, all of them stemming from one root, and there are
five strong petals on the outside, that cover the rose and protect it. And it is
all in the mystery of wisdom
The lily is a witness to the unity of five words: Hear, Oh Israel, YHVH, our
God, YHVH [Shemaa Yisrael YHVH Eloheinu YHVH] [Deuteronomy
6:4]. These are the five strong leaves; they are the roots and the unity
which are attached to them. [While] one [eh.ad] is the prime cause and
the root to which all of them are attached, these thirteen petals are the
mystery of thirteen,65 and this [the word one] is the kings signet ring.66
A similar idea appears in the opening passages of the Zohar, where the rose
becomes a symbol of the unification with the Shekhinah while blessing and
holding the cup of benediction. The cup, filled with wine, is identified with the
petals of the rosesignifying the Shekhinah, and the stem and five leaves are
identified with the phallic arm and five fingers holding the cupsignifying
the covenant (brit yesod). The holy name of God is seeded in the cup,
through the fingers, symbolizing the unification of the Shekhinah.67 Evident
here is the linkage between the symbol of the lily (or rose) and the human
limbs (the hand and fingers), all connected to the act of divine unification.
fifth century theologian Sedulius Caelius. See Barbara Seward, The Symbolic Rose (New York: Columbia University Press, 1960), 152. Like many Christian symbols found in Zoharic literature, the symbol
of the rose presents an example of the complex shared discourse of the two cultures (probably resulting
from the shared cultural environment). This discourse is characterized by an ambivalent attitude
towards Christianity, combining both a deep revulsion of it and a strong attraction to some Christian
ideas and symbols. For a complete list of publications on the Christian influences on Zoharic literature
see Daniel Abrams, The Virgin Mary as the Moon that Lacks the Suna Zoharic Polemic against the
Veneration of Mary, Kabbalah 21 (2010): 913, nn. 717; 18 n. 26; Daniel Abrams, Perakim
be-biyografiya ha-ragashit ve-hamenit shel ha-KBH: hirhurim al midotav she ha-el be-mikra,
be-midrash, u-be-kabbalah, Kabbalah 6 (2001): 263286; Yiz.h.ak Baer, The Historical Context of
Raaya Meheimna, Zion 5 (1940): 144; Yehuda Liebes, Christian Influences on the Zohar, in
Studies in the Zohar, trans. Arnold Schwartz, Stephanie Nackache and Penina Peli (Albany, NY:
SUNY Press, 1993), 139161, 228244; Elliot Wolfson, Re/membering the Covenant: Memory, Forgetfulness, and the Construction of History in the Zohar, in Jewish History and Jewish Memory:
Essays in Honor of Yosef H.ayim Yerushalmi, eds. Elisheva Carlebach, John M. Efron and David N.
Myers (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 1998), 21446; Elliot Wolfson, Venturing Beyond: Law and Morality in Kabbalistic Mysticism (Oxford and New York: Oxford University
Press, 2006), 93; Elliot Wolfson, Along the Path: Studies in Kabbalistic Myth, Symbolism, and Hermeneutics (Albany: SUNY Press, 1995), 6388.
65. The word one ( eh.ad) has the numerical value of thirteen in gematria. See TZ 71a:
2526.
66. Zohar III (Pikudin), 233ab.
67. Zohar I, 1a.
244

The lily conceals these thirteen, the numerical value of one [eh.ad].68
This statement, mentioned by Rabbi Shimon in Tikkunei Zohar, is deeply
rooted in the Pikudin text, emphasizing the importance of the one, and the
lily as the symbol of the limbs of the body:
At that time all the bodys limbs are gathered and connected into one, so they
will all be according to the same meaning above and below, according to the
mystery of there shall be one YHVH, and his name one [yiheyeh YHVH
eh.ad u-shemo eh.ad, Zechariah 14:9].
For that reason in the word one [eh.ad] the pronunciation of two letters
[h.et and dalet] is lengthened, to gather lilies so as to be united by means of the
same mystery by the complete meditation [yeh.uda shalim].69
The mystery of the one is underscored through the essence of the Shema recitation as the declaration of Gods unity and the unification of his name in the upper
and lower worlds. The concept here combines both the theoretical idea of Gods
unity and the visualization of the unity between man and the divine. As part of
this visualization, the word one (eh.ad) is symbolized by the lily, which contains
the thirteen petals corresponding to the numerical value of one. Thus, both the
human body below and the upper body above are represented by the symbol of
the lily, the concept of one, and the numerical value of thirteen. By unifying
them, the one of below and the one of above become twenty-six, the numerical value of the Tetragrammaton, the holy name of God, YHVH. This means that
the wholeness of the name of God depends on the unity between man and the
divine, the lower and upper lily; so they will all be according to the same
meaning above and below.
Thus it appears that during the meditative visualization process of the recital
of the Shema, the person who recites it goes through a symbolic-mythical transformation, and is symbolically incarnated in a lily. He then rises above and
unites with the symbolic-mythical upper lily. By uniting both lilies, each equivalent to thirteen, the numerical value of one (eh.ad), they become identified with
the unified name of God: YHVH, which is equivalent to twenty-six.
In light of this, states the source, one can better understand the mystical
meaning of the custom of lengthening the word one in the Shema recitation:
For that reason in the word one [eh.ad] the pronunciation of two letters [h.et
and dalet] is lengthened, to gather lilies so as to be united by means of the
same mystery by the complete meditation. This practice, which already
appears in the Talmud,70 acts as a poetic indicator of the unifying meditation.
The utterance of the word one during the Shema recitation is performed as an
act of speech;71 this custom of lengthening the two letters h.et and daletwhich
68. TZ 71a: 2526.
69. Zohar (Pikudin) III 263a.
70. B. Berakhot, 13b; Y. Berakhot 12b.
71. John L. Austin, How To Do Things with Words, eds. James O. Urmson and Marina Sbis
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975).
245
together are pronounced h.ad), meaning one in Aramaichints at the unification toward which this speech act strives.
By mentioning this custom, the author alludes to the famous talmudic story
about the death of Rabbi Akiva:
When R. Akiva was taken out for execution, it was the hour of the recital of
the Shema. And while they combed his flesh with iron combs, he was accepting upon himself the kingship of heaven.
His disciples said to him: Our teacher, even to this point? He said to them:
All my days I have been troubled by this verse, with all thy soul, [which I
interpret] even if He takes thy soul. I said: When shall I have the opportunity
of fulfilling this? Now that I have the opportunity shall I not fulfill it?
He prolonged the word one [eh.ad] until he expired while saying it.
A divine voice [Bat Kol] went forth and proclaimed: Happy art thou,
Akiva, that thy soul has departed with the word one!72
This story suggests that the highest form of performing the Shema recitation is the
self-sacrifice of ones own body, and becoming a martyr.73 Similarly, the word
one in the Zoharic homily signifies the moment of unification between man
and the divine, which itself influences the unity within the divine between the Shekhinah and God.74 This is the moment in which the soul departs the human body
and unites with God, becoming a lily that is picked and raised above.
In this context it should be mentioned that, in Zoharic literature, the act of
picking the lily usually serves as an allegoric description of the untimely
death of the righteous and of infants who have never had a chance to sin.75
This allegoric description appears in Midrash Rabbah on the Song of Songs,
and it is probably this source which influenced the Zohar in shaping this allegoric
description.76
This idea can also be found in an interesting Zoharic source describing the
act of picking the lilies:
72. B. Berakhot 61b.
73. A similar Zoharic example of the lily symbolizing martyrdom can be found in the description of the ten martyrs (aseret harugei malkhut) as lilies embroidered on the parokhet. See Liebes,
Porfuritah shel Helenah, 8688, 101119.
74. According to the Lurianic mystical tradition, during the recitation of Shema one has to contemplate ones willingness to give his own soul to God through martyrdom, in order to unite the
Mother and Father (the Shekhinah and God). See Ronit Meroz, H.ibburim Lurianiyim
kedumim, in Massuot: meh.karim be-sifrut ha-kabbalah u-ve-mah.shevet Yisrael mukdashim
le-zikhro shel Professor Efrayim Gotlib, eds. Mikhal Oron and Amos Goldraikh (Jerusalem: Mosad
Bialik, 1994), 320, 334.
75. See ZH. (Munkacz), 1:22a; 1:34a; 1:60b; Zohar II, Tosafot, 274a. See also Isaiah Tishby and
Yeruh.am Fishel Lachower, Mishnat ha-Zohar: gufei maamreiha-Zohar mesuddarim le-fi ha-inyanim
u-meturgamim ivrit (Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 1971), 170171; Mikhal Oron, Kol ha-neshamah
tehallel Yah: bituy alegori le-tefisat ha-mavet be-sefer ha-Zohar, Dappim le-meh.kar be-sifrut 4
(1988): 3538; Benarroch, Oro shel Yanuka ve-sodo shel Saba, 102103 n. 810.
76. Cf. Shir Ha-Shirim Rabbah (Vilna, 1875), 6:810; Liebes, Porfuritah shel Helenah, 118.
246

My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the
gardens, and to gather lilies [Song of Songs 6:2] at that time the Blessed
Holy One had gone down. Where did he go? To the beds of spices. to
gather lilies. What are these lilies? They are the righteous that embrace the
Torah, they are the ones whose lips whisper words of Torah. Therefore it is
written: lilies [], do not read shoshanim but rather sheshonim [they
who memorize (the words of Torah)], that even in the grave they whisper
words of Torah
Come and see: when Jeroboam was a child he was righteous and did not
commit any sin. The Blessed Holy One said to the angel of death: Go and
bring me Jeroboam ben Nebat. At that time the ministering angels said to
him: YHVH, our Lord, how glorious is Thy name in all the earth[Psalms
8:2]! Your name is glorious, and he [Jeroboam the child] is righteous, leave
him, as for his good deeds we are blessed. The Blessed Holy One said to
them: If your wish is that I leave him, I will do so. Later, he [Jeroboam]
began to sin, and made two golden calves, and he caused the people of
Israel to sin.
The Blessed Holy One told them [the ministering angels]: All the blessings
you received from him, turned over into filth. Would it not have been better for
you that you had agreed to bring him to me when he was still righteous [as a
small child], and Metatron would have taught him Torah?77 At that time, they
[the ministering angels] all opened and said: Righteous are you, YHVH, and
upright are your judgments.[Psalms 119:137]
And therefore the Blessed Holy One went down into his garden, to gather
lilies.78
A similar version of this tale appears in Midrash ha-neelam on Genesis, and there
the picking of the lily is explicitly described as a macabre allegory for dying
infants who are picked by God when their smell is still fresh:
Rabbi Yehudah said: It is like a king who had a garden. One day he came to walk
in his garden, and he saw small lilies growing in it, and their fragrance was like
no other fragrance in the world. The king said: If this [their smell] is so now,
when they are still small; when they grow, it will surely be much stronger.
After a few days he came into the garden, thinking he would find those lilies,
which were fresh and had such good smell as he noticed that they were dry
and had no odor, he got angry and said: If I had picked them when they were
still fresh and good, with a fine smell, I would have enjoyed them; but now, how
can I enjoy them, as they are already dried out?
In the following year, the king entered in the garden and saw small lilies with
a fine smell. He said: I will pick them now, and I will enjoy them before they
77. Metatron is the patron of children who died young and teaches them Torah. See Yehuda
Liebes, Ha-Zohar ke-sefer halakhah, Tarbiz. 64 (1995): 589590; Benarroch, Saba ve-yanuka,
7273, 341; Bennaroch, Oro shel Yanuka ve-sodo shel Saba, 3940.
78. ZH. Ah.arei Mot, 47c48a. It should be mentioned that in the printed editions of the Zohar
this source appears before the ZH. Ah.arei Mot 48a part of the Shema Yanuka story discussed above.
247
dry out as they did before.
In the same way, the Blessed Holy One sees small people [infants], who
have a fine smell, and he knows that they will eventually sin. Now, when
they are still good, he takes them from this world, in order to give them a
good portion in the world to come. Therefore it is written: I am my beloveds,
and my beloved is mine: he grazes among the lilies. [Song of Songs 6:3]79
The infants soul is thus picked by Gods angel,80 as God has the desire to smell
the infants soul, the lily, while it is still fresh. From the verse of Song of Songs
quoted in the end it appears that God, the beloved, has an erotic desire to unite
with the infants soul.81 A parallel description can be found in the most central
Saba story, Saba de-mishpatim:
All those tormented souls, who are they? Here is a mystery. These are souls of
little infants, suckling from their mothers potent breasts. And the Blessed Holy
One sees that if they endure in the world their odor will stink and they will turn
sour like vinegar. He plucks them small, while they still yield fragrance.82
The infants, or tormented souls, are also identified with the figure of the Yanuka,
the son of the Saba.83 The central argument here is that the Yanuka, as he appears
in the central Yanuka story in the Balak pericope, dies as a small child because of
Gods desire to smell him:
The Blessed Holy One yearns to smell the scent of this apple. Blessed is his
portion! It is not for me to accuse the Blessed Holy One, but were it not for
the fact that he longs to smell his sweet scent, no one would prevail over
him.84
Here, in the end of this Yanuka story, the Yanuka is identified with the symbol of
the apple, which is picked by God, who longs to smell its sweet scent.85
Interestingly, we can find an explicit hint connecting the symbols of the apple
and the lily to an elevation to God in the Pikudin text as well:
There are 613 commandments in these lilies, which represent the limbs of the
two sides they have in them the high level of the precious gold that is
79. ZH. Bereshit (Midrash ha-neelam) 20ab.
80. From additional parallels in Zoharic literature it is clear that the angel in charge of picking
the lilies is Metatron. Zohar I 56b; ZH. Lekh Lekha (Midrash ha-neelam) 25d26a; Nathan Wolski,
Metatron and the Mysteries of the Night in Midrash ha-NeelamJacob ha-Kohens Sefer ha-Orah
and the Transformation of a Motif in Early Writings of Moses de Len, Kabbalah 23 (2010): 69
94; Benarroch, Saba ve-Yanuka, 263.
81. Benarroch, Oro shel Yanuka ve-sodo shel Saba, 101103.
82. Zohar II (Saba de-mishpatim) 96a.
83. Benarroch, Saba ve-Yanuka, 3340, 358.
84. Zohar III (Yanuka de-Balak), 191b192a.
85. Oron, Motiv ha-Yanuka 150.
248

elevated from them. And in any place in which they are found, that high level
is found in them, in order to be raised. And this is the mystery of: As the
apple tree among the trees of the wood [so is my beloved among the sons]
. As the lily among thorns [so is my love among the maidens]. [Song of
Songs 2:23]
Blessed is he who sacrifices these offerings. Surely this offering is favorable to him both in this world and in the World to Come.86
It is clear from this quote that both the apple and the lily serve as symbols of
erotic desire. The Yanuka is both the apple and the lily that God longs to unite
with. These symbols, signifying the human body and limbs, function as an offering that has been presented to God. Therefore the Yanuka, who dies as a small
child, is also identified with the Sacrificed Son.87
T HE C OMPLETE O FFERING : T HE M YSTERY
OF
S ACRIFICE
Accordingly, the Pikudin text connects the mystical teachings of the Shema
to the mystery of sacrifice:
That meditation rises and unites everything in the two sides into one unity
Once all body parts are united, according to the same mystery of the same
meditation, the whole is considered a complete offering.88
This part adds an important component to the Pikudin mystical teaching on the
Shema reading: the mystery of the complete offering. The text implies that as
part of the meditation processof the unification of the upper and lower
limbsthe human limbs serve as a sacrifice offered to God.
The phrase complete offering (korbana shalim) refers to the highest kind
of offeringthat is, the offering of mans own son.89 The most important Zoharic
source on this phrase appears in the Rav metivta section, which is linked in many
ways to the Yanuka and Saba stories throughout the Zohar:
The offering of the youth [korbana de-rabya]: when a man brings90 his
child to school or to circumcision, that is the complete offering [korbana
shalim] to be accepted.91
86. Zohar III (Pikudin) 263ab.

87. Benarroch, Saba ve-Yanuka, 357358. On the connection between the Yanuka and the
figure of Christ as Agnus Dei, the sacrificed holy lamb, see Bennaroch, Saba ve-Yanuka, 229230.
88. Zohar III (Pikudin) 263a.
89. Benarroch, Saba ve-Yanuka, 297.
90. The Aramaic word that is used here is: ( karev), which is similar to the word used for the
act of sacrifice.
91. Zohar III (Rav metivta), 164a.
249
The act of bringing the child to his circumcision, or later to school, is described as
an act of offering the child.92 In our context it is important to focus on the act of
circumcision,93 since it refers directly to a bodily organ that has been cut off from
the body, and is therefore the closest act to actual human sacrifice. This perception of circumcision can be found explicitly in the later stratum of Zoharic literature, in Raaya mehemna:
Any man has to offer his son to the Blessed Holy One with joy, with the will of
his heart, to elevate him under the wings of the Shekhinah. And the Blessed
Holy One accepts this offering as a complete offering, which is happily
accepted by him.
And this offering is similar to animal offering: this is offered on the eighth
day, and this is offered on the eighth day, as it is written: When an ox or a
sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother, and
from the eighth day on it shall be accepted as a sacrifice by fire to YHVH
[Leviticus 22:27]. After one week passes, as the Sabbath had passed, then
it shall be accepted. This is given as an offering, and this is given as an offering. Why? As he encountered and embraced that Sabbath, the mystery of circumcision, and therefore all is in the upper mystery.94
It is clear that the phrase: a complete offering (korbana shalim) refers to the
highest form of offering: the offering of the son. This is demonstrated in the parallel between the act of circumcision to the act of offering an animal, both done
from the eighth day after birth onward.95 As one might expect, this same term
is used in the context of the most famous act of child offering in Judaism, the biblical story of the offering of Isaac (the akedah). In the Zoharic interpretation of
this story we find the following statement: Isaac, who was bound to the altar, was
a complete offering [korbana shalim] before the Blessed Holy One.96
To conclude, there is no doubt that the use of the term complete offering in
the Pikudin text conceals a strong reference to the idea of offering mans organs
as an offering to God. In our context this offering can also be seen as a way to
complete Gods image by the offering of ones limbs, which unite with the
upper limbsthe limbs of God:
The lilies are a mystery. When these limbs are connected together so as to be
one, by means of one meditation according to the mystery of the sacrifice
There are 613 commandments in these lilies, which are the limbs of the two
92. Cf. Benarroch, Saba ve-Yanuka, 1314.
93. On the Kabbalistic meanings of circumcision, see Elliot Wolfson, Circumcision, Secrecy,
and the Veiling of the Veil: Phallomorphic Exposure and Kabbalistic Esotericism, in The Covenant of
Circumcision: New Perspectives on an Ancient Jewish Rite, ed. Elizabeth Wyner Mark (Hanover and
London: Brandeis University Press, 2003), 5870; Elliot Wolfson, Circumcision and the Divine
Name: A Study in the Transmission of Esoteric Doctrine, Jewish Quarterly Review 78 (1987): 77112.
94. Zohar III (Raaya mehemna), 44a. cf. idem, 109ab.
95. Cf. Va-yikra Rabbah 27:10; Devarim Rabbah 6:1; Mishneh Torah, Yad ha-h.azakah, 3:8.
96. Zohar I 39a.
250

sides, according to the mystery of there shall be one YHVH, and his name
one.
Blessed is he who sacrifices these offerings. Surely this offering is favorable to him both in this world and the World to Come.97
From here it is clear that the mystery of the sacrifice referred to in this homily is the
apotheosis of mans limbs. These limbs unify with the limbs of the divine and
together they create Gods body. This heavenly body is also identified with
the mythic figure of Adam, and consists of 613 body parts, the same number as
the sum of the Torah commandments.98
T HE S HEMA M YSTERY
OF
R AV H AMNUNA S ABA
A few sources explicitly mention the connection between Rav Hamnuna

Saba and his unique mystical meditation on the Shema. For example, the
Zoharic homily found in Zohar II Va-yakhel (216ab):
Mystery of unity [raza de-yeh.uda]for one who is worthy of the world that is
coming must unify the name of the Blessed Holy One, uniting limbs of the
upper and lower rungs, bringing them all where they should bebinding
the knot. This is the mystery written: Hear, O Israel, YHVH our God,
YHVH is one. [Deuteronomy 6:4] The mystery of Shema: Hear [shema,
]a name [shem, ], amounting to ayin [], seventy names, one totality.
IsraelIsrael the Old Man, for there is a small one [zutta], as is written:
When Israel was a youth, I loved him, [Hosea 11:1] whereas this is Israel
the Old Man [Yisrael Saba]. One mystery in one totality: Hear, O Israel
[shema Yisrael]here, the wife merges with her husband.
After they merge with one another into one whole, the limbs must be
unified joining two dwellings as one, with all the limbs, in heartfelt devotion, ascending in cleaving to the Ein Sof, uniting all there and becoming one
will
This is the unification of Rav Hamnuna Saba, taught him by his father, from
the latters teacher, reaching back to the mouth of Elijah.99 It is fine, a perfect
unification. Although we have established this by various mysteries, and all
those mysteries amount to one, still this mystery I found in his book, and it
is fine, a perfect unification [yeh.uda be-tikkuna]. We have already educed
the meaning of the unification of another mystery, which is a fine and
fitting unificationso it is! But this unification is a perfect unification
[yeh.uda be-tikkuna]; this is the unification of Rav Hamnuna Saba!100
97. Zohar III (Pikudin) 263ab.
98. It should be mentioned that many of these motifs are influenced by the early Shiur komah
literature, which portrays Gods limbs through references both to the mythic figure of Adam. See
Wolfson, Dimmui antropomorfi, 161163.
99. Cf. ZH. Ruth, 83b.
100. Zohar II (Va-yakhel) 216ab. I have relied in part on the translation of Daniel Matt (as part
of the Zohar: Pritzker edition), and I thank him for sharing his translation with me; see Isaiah Tishby,
251
It is clear from this passage that the teaching of the mystery of unity, representing the unique meditation of the Shema that unites the upper and lower limbs, is
identified with Hamnuna Saba.101 The Shema mysteries in both the Pikudin
stratum and this source open with the identification of Israel (of the opening
verse of the Shema, Hear, O Israel) as Israel the Old Man. And in both homilies the focus of the Shema meditation is the unity of the upper and lower limbs:
joining two dwellings as one, with all limbs, in heartfelt devotion.
Moreover, the passage emphasizes that the mystery of unity of Hamnuna
Saba is a perfect unification [yeh.uda be-tikkuna]. This Shema unification is
higher than the common Shema unification, which probably refers to the
Shema unification homilies mentioned in the Zohar on Terumah.102 These homilies (in Zohar on Terumah) are characterized by a much simpler Zoharic style,
focusing primarily on the unification of God and the Shekhinah. The Shema unification of Hamnuna Saba, on the other hand, focuses on the unification of the
upper and lower limbs and on the mysteries of the offering of ones body
and limbs.
Another interesting source appears in the Hebrew writings of the Tikkunei
Zohar and Raaya mehemna, published by Ephraim Gottlieb:
I saw written in the name of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yoh.ai that he asked Elijah:
Why are there different opinions on the way the Blessed Holy One is
unified [during the recitation of the Shema], as there are different opinions
interpreted by our sages on the Shema unification of Rav Hamnuna Saba?
. Elijah said to him: Of course this [Shema unification of Rav
Hamnuna Saba] is similar to the manna that had come down from above,
whom every one tasted according to his will and ability [to taste]; the same
is with this unification: any one perceives it according to his will and
ability [to perceive].103
The most important element in this passage here is the use of the phrase the
Shema unification of Rav Hamnuna Saba. This phrase is repeated several
times during the discussion between Rabbi Shimon and Elijah, proving that it
was well known in the later stratum of Zoharic literature that there was a
unique Shema unification identified with Hamnuna Saba. It was even so wellknown that apparently there had already been a few different opinions on the
exact meaning of this special unification.
The Wisdom of the Zohar: An Anthology of Texts, trans. David Goldstein, vol.1 (London: Littman
Library of Jewish Civilization, 1989), 1006 n. 260.
101. See Boaz Huss, Ke-zohar ha-rakia: perakim be-hitkabbelut ha-Zohar u-ve-havnayat
erko ha-simli (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2007), 7879 n. 132.
102. Zohar II 133b134b. Acording to Niz.oz.ei Zohar the reference is to the homily of Rashbi in
TZ 71a: 2526. See Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar, 10231028.
103. Ephraim Gottlieb, Ha-ketavim ha-ivriyyim shel Baal Tikkunei Zohar be-Raaya
mehemna, ed. Moshe Idel (Jerusalem: Ha-Akademyah ha-leumit ha-Yisreelit le-madaim, 2003),
137138.
252

Moreover, Elijah appears here as the one who has the knowledge of the
unique Shema unification of Rav Hamnuna Saba, as his figure is very close to
the figure of the Zoharic Hamnuna Saba. As we have seen above in the Zohar
on Terumah, Elijah appears as the one who originally transmitted the Shema
mystery known as the unification of Rav Hamnuna Saba. Further on, in
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yoh.ai and Elijahs discussion there is an explicit allusion to
this Shema mystery: "There are 248 [limbs] parallel to the 248 words in the
Shema recitation pericopes that were transmitted with love."104 This notion
of the 248 Shema words paralleling the 248 limbs is one of the central themes
in the Shema unification mystery of Rav Hamnuna Saba.
A trace of the Shema mystery of Rav Hamnuna Saba also appears in the
Shekel ha-kodesh of Rabbi Moses de Len. Here, de Len explicitly mentions
the idea of 248 words of Shema paralleling the 248 limbs of the human body:
You will find that the mystery of the Shema recitation is the formation of the
[upper] Adam, which is the mystery of the 248 limbs in the human body.
Therefore you will find in all the Shema recitation pericopes the mystery of
248 words; in order to construct the complete structure of the Adam, in any
matter and aspect of his repair [tikkunav].
And in the Midrash Yerushalmi it is mentioned: There are 245 words [in the
Shema recitation], and the prayer leader who leads the prayer repeats three
words. Which are these? YHVH, your God, true [YHVH Eloheikhem
emet], in order to complete the amount of limbs. And the prayer leader completes the [number of] limbs for all [of the congregation] with these three
words that he repeats.105
De Len mentions here, in the name of the Midrash Yerushalmi (referring to the
Zohar),106 the exact same Shema mystery delivered by the Yanuka in the name of
his father (the Saba), as it appears in ZH. Ruth.107
Furthermore, the figure of Hamnuna Saba is mentioned in the Shekel
ha-kodesh only once, when referring to the Shema mystery found in the book
of Hamnuna Saba:
104. Gottleib, Ha-ketavim ha-ivriyyim, 146.
105. De Len, Shekel ha-kodesh, 8485; cf. de Len, Sefer maskiyyot kesef, 26.
106. See Wolfson, Dimmui antropomorfi, 163 n. 70; Moses de Len, The Book of the Pomegranate: Moses de Lens Sefer ha-Rimmon, ed. Elliot R. Wolfson (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988), 18
n. 6, 49 n. 199.
107. Another important source in the writings of de Len that focuses on this unique Shema
mystery appears in a fragment of his Shoshan edut (as found in several manuscripts). See above n.
23. Both Ta-Shma and Wolfson have shown that de Len quotes, almost word for word, the Shema
mystery that appears in ZH. Ruth 77d78a, in the name of the ancient sages [kadmonim], which
refers to the Zohar. See Wolfson, Dimmui antropomorfi, 163 n. 70; Wolfson, The Book of the Pomegranate, 39 n. 137; Asi-Farber Ginat, Le-Mekorot torato ha-kabbalit ha-mukdemet shel Rabbi Mosheh
de Len, in Meh.karim ba-kabbalah, be-filosofyah Yehudit u-ve-sifrut ha-musar ve-he-hagut: mugashim li-Yeshaayah Tishbi be-malot lo shiviim ve-h.amesh shanim, eds. Joseph Dan and Joseph
Hacker (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1986), 77 n. 22.
253
The mystery of unity [sod ha-yih.ud] is the mystery of the unity of existence,
and the emanating of the trueness of the Blessed Name; he is One.
Indeed, the mystery of H.okhmah, Binah and Daat includes all the sefirot
[emanations], the wholeness of the complete union in the mystery of its trueness. And it is said in the book of Rav Hamnuna Saba: [Hear O Israel,]
YHVH our God, YHVH [is one] the mystery of these three levels is
the mystery of H.okhmah, Binah and Daat. Therefore, there are ten
sefirot and indeed, these ten [sefirot] are the six edges unified in their
union in the mystery of the formation [tikkun] of Adam.108
The book of Rav Hamnuna Saba refers to the mystery of unity, the unique
Shema mystery of Rav Hamnuna Saba mentioned in Zohar II (Va-yakhel)
216ab.109 Moreover, the phrase formation (tikkun) of Adam is used as it is
several times in the Zohar (appearing as tikkuna de-Adam).110 As the closing
paragraphs of the Shekel ha-kodesh, they might further underscore the importance
of the Shema mystery of unity identified with Rav Hamnuna Saba.
C ONCLUSIONS
There is no doubt that the Zoharic author(s) created a strong connection
between the Saba and Yanuka stories and their mystical homilies on the Shema
mysteries. The narrative framework of these stories illuminates the mystical contents of the Shema homilies. It is not to say the Zoharic homilies could not be
understood at all in the absence of the narrative framework; but rather that a
fuller and richer understanding of these homilies is lost without their narrative
framework.111
One of the central dimensions that would be weakened in the absence of
the narrative framework is a deeper mystical experience. As demonstrated
by Hellner-Eshed, it appears that by placing the Zoharic mysteries in a
narrative framework the Zohar wishes to invoke a mystical experience in its
reader.112 A deeper mystical experience is achieved when the reader identifies
himself with the narrative figures that embody the mystical mysteries taught by
them. Thus, the reason that the Zohar creates such a strong linkage between the
Shema mysteries and the Saba and Yanuka figures is to construct its readers religious practice of the Shema reading by creating an identification with these narrative figures. This identification should not be understood in the narrow literal
108. De Len, Shekel ha-kodesh, 105106.
109. See above n. 103. See also de Len, Shekel ha-kodesh, 105 n. 765. The correct reference is
to Zohar II 216b (and not Zohar III as mistakenly mentioned by Mopsik). Cf. Yehuda Liebes, Bikkoret
al: Charles Mopsik (mahadir), sefer Shekel ha-kodesh le-Ramdal (bikkoret al mahadurat Mopsik),
Kabbalah 2 (1996): nn. 2224, Liebes mentions Zohar III 307a as another Zoharic source that hints
to the mystery of unity of Rav Hamnuna Saba.
110. De Len, Shekel ha-kodesh, 106 n. 766.
111. I thank the anonymous reviewer of this article for pointing out this necessary clarification.
112. Hellner-Eshed, A River Flows from Eden, 166173.
254

sense, but rather in the broader sense: the various impacts that these narrative
figures have on their readers.113
The strongest impact on the reader is created by the shaping of the mystery
of self sacrifice, as portrayed by the Yanuka and Saba figures. The reader
becomes deeply connected to the ethos of offering ones body and limbs, and
even to the most difficult of all offerings: the offering of ones own son. This
element might also provide a better understanding of the ambivalent attitude of
the Zohar towards the notion of human sacrifice: the idea that human sacrifice
is completely forbidden, but at the same time that it also contains enormous religious potential, especially in the mystical yearning to unite with God.114 The main
tension created here is the tension between the actual offering of human limbs and
the allegoric understanding of this idea. The Zohar seems to insist on preserving
the tension between the metaphoric and concrete; only by combining them can a
unique Zoharic mystical experience be achieved.
This combination of the allegoric and concrete is the essence of the mythical
Saba and Yanuka figures. As narrative figures they exist in the concrete realm of
the fictional story. But in the process of interpretation their allegoric, symbolic,
and mythic aspects are revealed. Concerning these symbolic and mythic aspects
of the Yanuka and Saba figures, the words of Moses de Len on the Shema
mystery of unity are extremely relevant:
Now, know and observe, and direct your heart to this matter. In the two first
words [YHVH, Our God )] we include two emanations [middot] together: the
mystery of thought [mah.shavah], as she is the first entrance,115 and the
mystery of the mighty old man [ha-zaken ha-gadol]116 to be together,
and in this mystery of We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old
age, a little one, [Genesis 44:20] two unique emanations [middot] which
are the mystery of complete unity only with this [the mystery of the
Youth naar] can you enter the high gate. Indeed, For how shall I go up to
my father, and the lad [naar] be not with me? [Genesis 44:34] to enter
through this gate to the upper gates117 and this is: Hear O Israel Israel
is Israel the Old Man [Yisrael Saba].118
This passage appears in the third part of de Lens book dedicated to the Shema
mysteries and opens with the idea of the parallel of 248 words and limbs. It is
not possible to go into all the details of the passage, but it is clear that the
113. Lowry Nelson Jr., The Fictive Reader and Literary Self-Reflexiveness, in The Disciplines of Criticism: Essays in Literary Theory, Interpretation, and History, eds. Peter Demetz,
Thomas Greene, and Lowry Nelson, Jr. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), 17391.
114. For more on the philosophical implications of sacrifice, see Moshe Halbertal, On Sacrifice
(New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2012), 762.
115. Referring to Malkhut/Shekhinah.
116. Referring to Tiferet or Zeir Anpin as being illuminated byAtika Kadisha.
117. Cf. Rekanati on Va-yikra 10:1.
118. De Len, Sefer maskiyyot kesef, 2627.
255
Shema mystery of unity is deeply connected to the symbols of the Old Man and
the Youth (naar), the father (YHVH) and the son (Eloheinu).119
This is also a clear reference to the figure of Enoch-Metatron, who unites
these two symbols, since he is identified both with the Old Man (Yisrael
SabaTiferet or Zeir Anpin illuminated by Atika Kadisha)and the Youth
(Yisrael Zutta naarShekhinah).120 Both the Saba and Yanuka are identified
also with the figure of Enoch-Metatron.121
The main idea here is that in order to be elevated above (during the Shema
recitation) and unite with the father, the mighty Old Man (Arikh Anpin or
H.okhmah)one needs to connect first with the son (naar or Shekhinah). Only
through the son can one enter the gates above and go up to the father, as stated
in the verse: For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad [naar] be not
with me?(Genesis 44:34).
This passage in Maskiyyot kesef strengthens the argument that there is a
strong and deep connection between the Yanuka and Saba figures and the
content of their homilies on the Shema mysteries, since their own narrative
figures also represent the mythical-symbolic figures of the Old Man, as
Yisrael Saba, and the Youth as Yisrael Zutta. Therefore, it is not a coincidence
that the Yanuka and Saba figures are identified with these unique Zoharic Shema
mysteries, as these figures act both as narrative characters and, at the same time, as
mythic and symbolic figures. The Saba and Yanuka act as incarnated narrative
figures of God and his son;122 their own bodies serving as poetic representation
of the collector of lilies, the collector of limbs, uniting the lower and upper
limbs into one mythopoetic body.
Hebrew University
Jerusalem, Israel
119. Cf. Liebes, Christian Influences on the Zohar, nn. 2428.

120. Cf. de Len, Shekel ha-kodesh, 4243.
121. Benarroch, Saba ve-Yanuka, 331335.
122. See Benarroch, Saba ve-Yanuka, 41131; Bennaroch, Oro shel Yanuka ve-sodo shel
Saba, 76106; Liebes, Myth vs. Symbol.
256

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AJS Review 37:2 (November 2013), 231256

Association for Jewish Studies 2013