The Poetry of Kabbalah: Mystical Verse from the Jewish Tradition

540 Pages·2012·1.892 MB·English

by  Peter Cole (editor), Aminadav Dykman (editor)

The Poetry of Kabbalah

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The Poetry of Kabbalah
Mystical Verse from the Jewish Tradition
TRANSLATED AND ANNOTATED BY
PETER COLE
CO-EDITED AND WITH AN AFTERWORD BY
AMINADAV DYKMAN
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW HAVEN & LONDON
A MARGELLOS
WORLD REPUBLIC OF LETTERS BOOK
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The Margellos World Republic of Letters is dedicated to making literary works
from around the globe available in English through translation. It brings
to the English-speaking world the work of leading poets, novelists, essayists,
philosophers, and playwrights from Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the
Middle East to stimulate international discourse and creative exchange.
Published with assistance from the Louis Stern Memorial Fund.
Copyright © 2012 by Yale University Press
Introduction, translation, and annotation copyright © 2012 by Peter Cole
Afterword copyright © 2012 by Aminadav Dykman
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations,
in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the
U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written
permission from the publishers.
Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational,
business, or promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected]
(U.S. offi ce) or [email protected] (U.K. offi ce).
Set in Electra and Nobel types by Newgen North America.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The poetry of Kabbalah : mystical verse from the Jewish tradition /
translated and annotated by Peter Cole ; co-edited and with an afterword
by Aminadav Dykman.—1st ed.
p. cm.—(The Margellos World Republic of Letters)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-300-16916-4 (alk. paper)
1. Piyutim. 2. Piyutim—History and criticism. 3. Jewish religious
poetry, Hebrew. 4. Mysticism—Poetry. 5. Cabala. I. Cole, Peter.
II. Dykman, Aminadav.
BM670.P5P64 2012
296.4′52—dc23
2011041846
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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CONTENTS
Introduction ix
POEMS OF THE PALACES AND EARLY LITURGICAL HYMNS
Anonymous
Hymn to the Heavens 6
A Measure of Holiness 7
Awe and Adornment 9
Each Day 10
From Whose Beauty the Depths Are Lit 12
To Rise on High 13
Blessed Is the Eye 14
The Priest’s Appearance 20
Windows of Worship 23
Yannai
Angel of Fire 24
From the Sky to the Heavens’ Heavens 25
Eliezer Kallir
King Girded with Might 27
Creatures Four-Square About the Throne 32
Anonymous
Release, Please 34
v
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vi Contents
THE BOOK OF CREATION
from Sefer Yetzirah 42
AL-ANDALUS AND ASHKENAZ
Shelomoh Ibn Gabirol
He Dwells Forever 55
Angels Amassing 59
I Love You 61
from Kingdom’s Crown 62
Yehudah HaLevi
True Life 70
Where Will I Find You 71
Lord, [All My Desire] 73
A Dove in the Distance 75
Yehudah HeHasid
Hymn of Divine Glory 81
THE KABBALAH IN SPAIN
Moshe ben Nahman
Before the World Ever Was 94
Ya’akov HaKohen
Prayers for the Protection and Opening of the Heart 97
The Zohar
On Awakening and Drawing Near 105
Incantation Against Lilith 107
Avraham Abulafi a
from the Book of the Sign 113
Yosef Gikatilla
The Nut Garden 121
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Contents vii
THE SAFED CIRCLE (GALILEAN KABBALAH)
Shelomoh Alkabetz
Hymn to the Sabbath 133
Anonymous
Peace Be upon You 136
Eliezer Azikri
Soul’s Beloved 137
Yitzhak Luria
Hymns for the Three Sabbath Meals 149
Why, My Desire 160
Avraham ben Maimon
Hidden God 162
Yisrael Najara
To the Shekhinah 165
Your Kingdom’s Glory 166
EXTENSIONS EAST AND WEST
Shalem Shabazi
Who Kissed Me 176
The Myrtle’s Scent 177
Shimon Lavi
Bar Yohai 180
Ya’akov Ifargan
In Praise of the Name and Its Mystery 183
JEWISH MUSLIMS/MUSLIM JEWS
Shabbatian Hymns
Meliselda 198
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viii Contents
I Have Found Bliss 199
The Valley of Ishmael 201
On the Extinguishing of the Lights 203
Secret Pleasure 205
On the Destruction of the Law 207
The Ghazal of Goodness 208
ITALIAN KABBALAH
Moshe Zacut
The Light Concealed 218
You Readied a Light 221
Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto
Messiah 228
HASIDIC DEVOTION
Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev
Song of You 236
Shneur Zalman
from the Tanya 238
THE SEEDS OF SECULAR MYSTICISM
Hayyim Nahman Bialik
from The Pool 246
Bring Me in Under Your Wing 249
Notes 251
Afterword, by Aminadav Dykman 435
Poems in Hebrew and Other Languages (cid:1)(cid:2)–(cid:3)
Acknowledgments 447
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INTRODUCTION
the stakes couldn’t be higher: extraction of light from the
container of sound; ascent to the Throne of God and direct
vision of His Glory; the eradication of coarseness and the forces
of darkness; a path to redemption, sometimes through sin; the
achievement of erotic union on high—which is to say, the sacred
marriage of feminine and masculine aspects within the Deity.1
“Great is the power of the poem recited for the sake of heaven,”
writes one late-seventeenth-century North African poet. “It
unites all the [spiritual] qualities like a sacrifi cial offering,
aligns the [heavenly] channels, and gives rise to effulgence in
all worlds—above and below.”2
In this Kabbalistic context, poems not only depict a mysti-
cal process, they produce it.3 Seeking a return to the primor-
dial harmony destroyed with the catastrophe of creation and
Adam’s transgression in Eden, those who compose and utter
the lines of mystical hymns take part in the continual reconfi g-
uration of the cosmos.4 For the letters of the alphabet, or aleph-
bet, are, a medieval Iberian Hebrew work tells us, nothing
less than “the powers of God . . . engraved on the throne. . . .
They are called the angels of the living God.”5 And accord-
ing to late-phase Hasidic Kabbalah, the letters of the Torah are
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