Bahir

[flexibeast]

i finished reading the Bahir today. As befitting a work of mysticism, i found it ranged from the clear and thought-provoking through to the obfuscated and befuddling. Its basis for future Kabbalistic thought, however, was readily apparent.

A couple of things of personal interest:

Verses 162-163 state:

They have one Attribute which causes them to leave aside every good way and choose every evil way. When they see a person directing himself along a good way, they hate him.
What is [this Attribute]? It is the Satan.
This teaches us that the Blessed Holy One has an Attribute whose name is Evil. It is to the north of the Blessed Holy One, as it is written (Jeremiah 1:14), "From the north will Evil come forth, upon all the inhabitants of the earth." Any evil that comes to all the inhabitants of the earth comes from the north.

What is this One Attribute?
It is the Form of a Hand.
It has many messengers, and the name of them all is Evil Evil. Some of them are great, and some are small, but they all bring guilt to the world.
This is because Chaos is toward the north. Chaos (Tohu) is nothing other than Evil. It confounds (Taha) the world and causes people to sin.

Verse 164 states:

The word Satan means "turning aside," since he turns all the world aside to the balance of guilt.

And verse 167 states:

He is the Prince of Chaos. It is thus written (1 Samuel 12:21), "Do not turn aside, for you will follow Chaos. It will not help or save, for it is Chaos." [It cannot help or save,] but it can do harm.

Yet in verse 150, we find:

Rabbi Rahumai said:
What is the meaning of the verse (Proverbs 6:23), "And the way of life is the rebuke of admonition"?
This teaches us that when a person accustoms himself to study the Mystery of Creation and the Mystery of the Chariot, it is impossible that he not stumble. It is therefore written (Isaiah 3:6), "Let this stumbling be under your hand." This refers to things that a person cannot understand unless they cause him to stumble.

Which, in what i imagine is a willful misreading on my part :-), seems to me to imply that 'stumbling' in one's life journey is often necessary to achieve understanding; and is not 'turning aside' a form of 'stumbling'? And if so, does that not suggest how facing such challenges can lead to understanding, and, hopefully, to wisdom?

On a lighter note, verse 198 says:

Why was she called Tamar and not any other name?
Because she was female.
Can we then say that [it was something special that] she was female?
But it is because she included both male and female. For [Tamar means a date palm, and] every date palm includes both male and female.
How is this? The frond (Lulav) is male. The fruit is male on the outside and female on the inside.

Sounds like me! ;-)¹

---

1. Although it does go on to say And how? The seed of the date has a split like a woman. which, sadly, does not describe me. :-(
 

Comments

[naked-wrat.livejournal.com]

I'm going to take a stab at this. I'm not sure but here it goes....

I'm guessing what it could be saying is that one can get understanding through their mistakes. It can be impossible to stay 'on the straight and narrow' but through the instances where one 'turns aside' it's what one learns is the thing that matters. I imagine that it could be saying that since it is impossible not to 'turn aside' that one can understand via contrast.

[flexibeast.livejournal.com]

*nod* Agreed. :-)