T
demands of justice, and to execute, in place of the ten brothers, ten great scholars of that time. Their names are given, and they are all prominent Tanaim (sages of the Mishnah) of the second century, sev- eral of them known to have been martyred by the Emperor Hadrian around 135–138, in the context of the Bar Kochba rebellion.
In Hekhalot Rabbati, chapters 4 and 5, there is the description of the reaction of the circle of mystics, “the descenders to the chariot” to the news of this Roman decree, which condemned many of them to death. Their leader, Rabbi Nehunia ben Ha-Kanah, sends Rabbi Ishamel to the divine realm to inquire whether this decree is just a human decision of the emperor—if it was such, the mystics have no dif- ficulty in overcoming it by their magical powers—or whether it is a divine decree that has to be obeyed. Rabbi Ishmael ascends and finds that it was a divine one, the result of a long and difficult process of nego- tiations between God and the celestial representative of Rome, the archenemy of Israel, who is given here the name of Samael.3Samael
insisted that justice demands that the ten sages will be executed. This cannot be denied by the celestial court, but in return Samael is required to agree that the city of Rome and its emperor will be cruelly destroyed. Samael accepted the condition, and the text includes a detailed apocalyptic description of the process in which clouds of pesti- lence will rain destruction over Rome for many months, until “a per- son may say to another: you can have Rome and all that is in it for one penny, and he will answer: it is not worth it.” The text includes also a cruel description of the demise of the emperor, Lupianus.4
When Rabbi Ishamel returns to the circle of mystics and recounts what he learned in the celestial court, Rabbi Nehunia declares a day of rejoicing, orders that a feast will be presented, an orchestra of musicians plays and sings, to celebrate the imminent destruction of evil Rome; the sacrifice of ten sages seems to be an appropriate one for the achieve- ment of this great redemptive moment, the deliverence of the world from the yoke of Rome. In the narrative text “The Story of the Ten Martyrs,” this is followed by ten chapters, each describing in cruel, graphic terms the tortures that each of the ten martyrs underwent before his death. This has become one of the most important literary expressions of Jewish martyriology, and had great influence in the Middle Ages.
Rabbi Ishmael, according the narrative, then assembles, in the “third great hallway of the House of God” in Jerusalem,5all the mem-
bers of the rabbinic courts of the time, and they sit there, surrounded by celestial torches of fire, and then Rabbi Nehunia reveals to them “the secret of the world”—the procedure of the ascension to the char- iot, which from now on becomes “like a person who has a ladder in his home”—one of the earliest, if not the first, mystical reference to the mystical experience as the ascent by a spiritual ladder.
This unique assembly, which combined the meeting of all great mystics, a background of martyriology and apocalypse, a combination of disaster and messianic hope, and the revelation of great ancient secrets that have been hidden until now, is the first such event in the history of Hebrew mystical literature, but not the last. Several medieval and early modern Jewish mystics used this format for expressing such experiences. One prominent example is the Zoharic Idras,6and later—
groups of mystics in Safed and in the early Hasidic movement in the eighteenth century.7
Rabbi Ishmael said: When Rabbi Nehunia ben ha-Kanah saw that evil Rome had decided to obliterate the great [sages] of Israel, he stood up and revealed the secret of the world.
The characteristic befitting one who is worthy to observe the King and the throne, His glory and His beauty, the holy beasts and the angels of power, the wheels of the divine presence, the terrifying lightening and the terrible hashmal,8the burning lava encircling the throne, the
bridges9and the flames which burst out between the bridges, the dust
and smoke and the fragrance which arise from the dust (= smoke) which was covering and enshrouding all the chambers of the palace of the aravot firmament,10and the fog of his burning coals, and Soria,11the
prince of the divine countenance, the servant of Totrochiel12Lord God,
the proud.
What is this like? Like a man who has a ladder in his house, for everyone who is pure and clean of worship of idols, and of fornication and of blood-shedding and wicked gossip and swearing in vain, and des- ecration of the holy name, and of false pride and hatred without reason, and observes all the commandments and prohibitions.
Geim,13happy he is, and happy is the soul of anyone who is pure and
clean of these eight characteristics, which are despised by Totrochiel and his servant Soria. [He can] descend and observe the hidden pride and the power which is beyond understanding, a numinous pride and a brilliant force, when they rush in front of His throne of glory three times every day in the celestial realm since the day the world was cre- ated until now, in praise, as Totrochiel Lord God behaves in it in that realm [#198–200].
Rabbi Ishmael said: When my ears heard this warning, my strength left me. I said to him [to Rabbi Nehunia]: If it is so, there is no end [to these demands], because there is no living person who is clean and pure of these eight [evil] characteristics. He said to me: Ben Geim, if not, go and bring before me all the great men of this company, all the leaders of the academy (yeshivah), and I shall state before them the secrets and mysteries which are hidden and esoteric, and the structure on which the perfection of the world and its beauty stand, and the goodness of the earth and the heaven, for all the wings of the earth and the cosmos and the wings of the supreme firmaments are tied within it. And the way of the celestial ladder, whose first edge is on the earth and its second edge on the right leg of the throne of glory [#201].
Rabbi Ishmael said: Immediately I stood up and assembled all the members of the greater and the smaller sanhedrin14 to the great
entrance-hall, the third one, of the House of God,15 and he [Rabbi
Nehunia] sits on the bench of pure marble which my [Ishmael’s] father, Elisha, gave to me, at the wish of my mother, who brought to him as a part of the matrimonial agreement.
There came Raban Shimon ben Gamliel and Rabbi Eliezer the Great, and Rabbi Lazar ben Damah and Rabbi Eliezer ben Shamua and Yohanan ben Dhavai and Hanania ben Hachinai and Jonathan ben Uzziel and Rabbi Akivah and Rabbi Judah ben Bava.16We all came
and set before him, and all the multitude of the fellows standing on their feet, for they were seeing lamps of fire and torches of light which separated them from him. Rabbi Nehunia ben ha-Kanah was sitting and arranging before them [i.e., teaching them] all the matters of the chariot, descending and ascending, how the descender descends and how the ascender ascends [#202–203].
upon Soria the Prince of the Countenance, and would invoke him one hundred and twelve times in the name of Totrosiai, Lord God, who was called Totrosiai Zortak . . . 17He should not add to the one hundred and
twelve times nor subtract from them, for if he adds or omits he will pay with his life. But his mouth should pronounce [holy] names and the fingers of his hand counting one hundred and twelve. Immediately he descends and governs the chariot [#204–205].
Rabbi Ishmael said: Rabbi Nehunia ben ha-Kanah, my teacher, told me this: Totrosiai, Lord God of Israel, is sitting in seven palaces, a chamber within a chamber. In the gate of each palace there are eight guardians . . . four to the right side of the gate and four to the left. These are the names of the guardians of the first palace . . . at the gate of the seventh palace there stand, somberly, all the powerful heroes, strong and tough, terrible and frightening, taller than mountains, brighter than hills, their bows drawn in front of them, their swords bright in their hands, lightening erupting from their eyes, flames burning from their noses and torches erupting from their mouth, wearing helmets and cov- ered by armour, spears hanging on their arms. Their horses are the horses of darkness, of the land of death, horses of fire, of hail, of blood, of iron, of fog; horses which when mounted stand over troughs of fire, full of burning coals and eating burning coals from them, a hundred cubits in every mouthful; the measure of each mouth is like three times that of the troughs of Caesarea. Beside them flow rivers of fire which the horses drink, like the flow of the water in the river Kidron which hold all the rain-water of Jerusalem. And there was a cloud above their heads and the heads of their horses. This is the characteristic distin- guishing the guardians of the gate of the seventh palace and the horses in front of every [other] palace.
And all the matters [of the procedure] of the descenders to the chariot who were ascending without any harm [were observed], and after seeing all this they would descend in peace and would come and stand and testify to the terrible sights, things which cannot be found in any palace of any earthly king. [They would] praise and bless and beau- tify . . . and give honor and greatness to Tortosiai, Lord God of Israel, who would be happy with the descenders to the chariot, and would be sitting and waiting for every single one from the people of Israel, when is he going to descend.18 In unique pride and unequaled power, the
pride of the numinous and the power of great light which come before the throne of glory three times every day in heaven from the day the world was created until now, in praise [#213–216].
Totrosiai Lord God of Israel—in the measure that he waits for the redemption and the time of deliverance which is kept for Israel after the destruction of the Second Temple, the last one—waits and hopes for that time when the descender will descend, when he will see the heav- enly pride, when the end, the redemption, will be heard, when eye will see what no eye has ever seen, when he will ascend and speak to the seed of his beloved Abraham [#218].
Rabbi Ishmael said: When you come and stand at the gate of the first palace, take the two seals19in your two hands, one that of Totrosiai
Lord God and one of Soria the Prince of the Countenance, and show [the first] to the [guardians] who are standing on the right, and that of Soria show to those who are standing on the left. Immediately, the Prince Rahaviel who is in charge of the gate of the first palace and stands to the right of the threshold and the Prince Topiel who stands to the left of the threshold, they together immediately take hold of you, one on the right and one on the left, and they lead you and hand you, after warning you, to the Prince Tagriel, who is in charge of the gate of the second palace and is stationed to the right of the threshold and the Prince Matpiel who is stationed to the left of the threshold, together with him [#219].
This procedure is repeated at the gate of each of the next five palaces, though the names on the seals differ in each case. The process is interrupted at the gate of the sixth palace:
Because the guardians of the sixth palace usually destroy the descenders to the chariot, and not the descenders to the chariot with- out permission. [Superior powers] used to order them [to stop it], beat them up and burn them up and put other [guardians] to replace them. Yet those who came instead of the first ones behave in the same way, they are not afraid, and they do not tell themselves: Why are we getting burned, what pleasure do we derive from destroying the descenders to the chariot and not the descenders to the chariot without permission. And this is still the characteristic of the guardians of the sixth palace20
ershom Scholem published one of the most important texts of the ancient Jewish mystics as an appendix to his book,
Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism and Talmudic Tradition.1The treatise did not have any title in the manu-
scripts, and Scholem suggested that it may be identified as
Maaseh Merkavah (“The Work of the Chariot”), relying on
medieval quotations. It is an anthology of the hymns and the visions of the “descenders to the chariot,” presented by Rabbi Akibah and Rabbi Ishmael. They differ in the most meaningful way from the religious literature created at that time (third and fourth centuries) in mainstream Judaism, which was characterized by the midrashic format that relied on interpretation of verses and the authority of previ- ous sages as source of authority. Here we find a literature that substitutes individual experience to any traditional authority. At the same time, the authors of these texts devel- oped a unique concept of language, which had meaning- ful impact on subsequent Jewish mysticism.
Rabbi Akibah said:
Who may be able to think about the seven palaces and to envision the heavens above the heavens, and to observe the chambers inside the chambers and to claim: I have seen the chamber of God?
In the first palace there stand four thousands of ten thousands2 chariots of fire, and forty thousands of ten
thousands pyres of fire3are scattered among them.
In the second palace there stand a hundred thou- sands chariots of fire, and forty thousands of ten thou- sands pyres of fire are scattered among them.