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© 2007 John D. Brey.
Unbeknownst to many, the concept of a "crown of thorns" as emblematic of the crowning vision of God is so entrenched in kabbalistic thought that it almost begs us to enter into a discussion of hermeneutics, such as the relationship of the letter to the spirit, in order to understand how Jewish sages are able to tip-toe through the landmines of Christological implication without setting off explosions which could do severe damage to certain otherwise sound truisms?
Every meaningful Jewish professor of kabbalah has shown in one place or other that the Hebrew letter "yod" (pictured as a “thorn”) is not only associated with circumcision . . . specifically as the "sign" or "mark" of circumcision . . . but that the cutting associated with circumcision uncovers the yod, which was previously veiled by the flesh removed in the ritual. The yod was formerly hidden, but now revealed, at the bris milah ceremony. ----- In other words, the uncovering/revealing of the "crown of yod" is the primary purpose of the blood-rite of circumcision. ---- The Jew is supposed to "see," a real representation of God's manifestation when he spies a blood-splattered crown of thorns on the organ of divinity during the circumcision rite.
Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh claims that the "yod" not only represents the crown of divinity, but he relates it to divine "self-limitation," i.e. "tzimtzum." By the reasoning of this brilliant Jewish mystic – Rabbi Ginsburgh -- the "crown of yod" (a crown of thorns) is a sign of divine self-limitation.
Consequently, Jesus limited his response to the course of events as he hung on the cross wearing a bloody crown of thorns. He forfeited the power of his divinity (kenosis) even in response to the torture and death forced on him by his peers. He refused to use His divinity to stop his death, even death by crucifixion, so that he was witnessed undergoing tzimtzum on a symbol of tav, wearing the crown of yod, as the vav of God. [1]
Since Rabbi Ginsburgh tells us that tzimtzum is a word speaking of divine self-limitation (and or "nullification"), nothing in the foregoing is putting anything in the Rabbi’s mouth that hasn’t been there before. I’ve been accused of adding to Rabbi Ginsburgh's statements when I claim that divine self-limitation (tzimtzum) is "marked" by human hands, i.e. tzimtzum is revealed by a man-made mark.
johndbrey@gmail.com
© 2007 John D. Brey.
Unbeknownst to many, the concept of a "crown of thorns" as emblematic of the crowning vision of God is so entrenched in kabbalistic thought that it almost begs us to enter into a discussion of hermeneutics, such as the relationship of the letter to the spirit, in order to understand how Jewish sages are able to tip-toe through the landmines of Christological implication without setting off explosions which could do severe damage to certain otherwise sound truisms?
Every meaningful Jewish professor of kabbalah has shown in one place or other that the Hebrew letter "yod" (pictured as a “thorn”) is not only associated with circumcision . . . specifically as the "sign" or "mark" of circumcision . . . but that the cutting associated with circumcision uncovers the yod, which was previously veiled by the flesh removed in the ritual. The yod was formerly hidden, but now revealed, at the bris milah ceremony. ----- In other words, the uncovering/revealing of the "crown of yod" is the primary purpose of the blood-rite of circumcision. ---- The Jew is supposed to "see," a real representation of God's manifestation when he spies a blood-splattered crown of thorns on the organ of divinity during the circumcision rite.
Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh claims that the "yod" not only represents the crown of divinity, but he relates it to divine "self-limitation," i.e. "tzimtzum." By the reasoning of this brilliant Jewish mystic – Rabbi Ginsburgh -- the "crown of yod" (a crown of thorns) is a sign of divine self-limitation.
Consequently, Jesus limited his response to the course of events as he hung on the cross wearing a bloody crown of thorns. He forfeited the power of his divinity (kenosis) even in response to the torture and death forced on him by his peers. He refused to use His divinity to stop his death, even death by crucifixion, so that he was witnessed undergoing tzimtzum on a symbol of tav, wearing the crown of yod, as the vav of God. [1]
Since Rabbi Ginsburgh tells us that tzimtzum is a word speaking of divine self-limitation (and or "nullification"), nothing in the foregoing is putting anything in the Rabbi’s mouth that hasn’t been there before. I’ve been accused of adding to Rabbi Ginsburgh's statements when I claim that divine self-limitation (tzimtzum) is "marked" by human hands, i.e. tzimtzum is revealed by a man-made mark.
Before
tzimtzum, the power of limitation was hidden, was latent within G-d's Infinite
Essence. Following the tzimtzum, this power of limitation became revealed, and
paradoxically the Infinite Essence of G-d that originally "hid" the
power of limitation now itself became hidden (not in truth, but only from our
limited human perspective) within the point of contracted light.
Rabbi
Ginsburgh makes this statement in a discussion of the Hebrew "yod"
which he says represents both a state of self-limitation and a point of
contracted light which must be comprehended in order to understand and
participate in G-d's plan.
Therefore, if the Hebrew "yod" is indeed the "mark" of divine self-limitation, then the fact that every important Jewish commentator concerning Jewish mysticism claims that the "mark" of circumcision is the Hebrew "yod". . . suggests that the "hiddenness" and "revealing," which Rabbi Ginsburgh discusses (concerning tzimtzum), is intimately associated with the "hiddenness" remedied at the revelation produced during bris milah.
In what to my mind is easily the most important work on kabbalah written since the passing of Scholem (Language, Eros, Being) Professor Elliot R. Wolfson quotes a number of important kabbalist to back up his shocking assertion that:
Therefore, if the Hebrew "yod" is indeed the "mark" of divine self-limitation, then the fact that every important Jewish commentator concerning Jewish mysticism claims that the "mark" of circumcision is the Hebrew "yod". . . suggests that the "hiddenness" and "revealing," which Rabbi Ginsburgh discusses (concerning tzimtzum), is intimately associated with the "hiddenness" remedied at the revelation produced during bris milah.
In what to my mind is easily the most important work on kabbalah written since the passing of Scholem (Language, Eros, Being) Professor Elliot R. Wolfson quotes a number of important kabbalist to back up his shocking assertion that:
To see
the face of Shekhinah is to gaze on the sign of the covenant, the yod inscribed
on the phallus in the act of circumcision, also identified as the corona
exposed when the coverings are removed . . ..
Language, Eros, Being, p. 137.
Language, Eros, Being, p. 137.
According
to Professor Wolfson, the "sign" of the covenant (exposed at the
bris) is not only the corona uncovered in a passionate and bloody rite . . .
but he suggests that the corona is the fleshly emblem [2] of the Hebrew yod,
which Rabbi Ginsburgh explains is the "sign" of divine
self-limitation.
Professor Wolfson is less quick to note that there are in fact two crowns evident after the performance of the circumcision ceremony. There's the newly uncovered corona of the phallus, reflecting light for the first time, almost as though it were a halo around the head of the divine organ, but now there's also the necrotic corona, a thorny crown, the bloody-scar manifesting the unification of "above" and "below" in the mutilated flesh of the organ of the covenant.
Within this concept of "above" and "below," there's the significant fact that the word used for the "sign" or "mark" of circumcision is the Hebrew word "alef-vav-tav”, which actually begins and ends with the two Hebrew letters which are the alpha and omega of the Hebrew alphabet. The middle letter in this word is the vav, which is the sixth letter and represents "man." So that if we think of the alef as the above, and the tav as below, then we have a "man" (vav) as the hypostatic unifyer of the "above" and "below." We have a man standing between God's tzimtuzmatic self-nullification (the alef) and the lower realm represented by the tav (whose original form was a cross).
When we realize that the alef is itself constructed of a vav (representing “man”), circumscribed by two yod (representing a “thorn,” or in this case "thorns") . . . . . . and further . . . that this man –vav-- crowned with thorns -- yod (i.e. the Hebrew alef) . . . is brought before a “cross” (the Hebrew tav was originally the symbol of a cross) ----- we come to realize that in the very word used to speak of the “mark” of circumcision -- the word alef-vav-tav --we have a man crowned with thorns (alef) made manifest by a man (vav) and a cross (tav).
It's often remarked that the cutting (milah) which takes place in circumcision is an etching of the Name of God directly into the flesh of the male Jew's membrum virile. One of the Names of God directly implicated in this liturgical etching is the Name "Shaddai," the very Name directly associated with the original Abrahamic circumcision ritual. "Shaddai" is the Name revealed to Abraham in conjunction with the uncovering function of brit milah.
Within this vein, not only can we deconstruct the Name "Shaddai" (shin dalet yod ---ש ד י ) in a manner which etymologically justifies the idea that it represents the "Lamb of God" (see essay "Shaddai" The Lamb of God), but we're left with the undeniable fact that in the Name "Shaddai" we have a thorn-bush -- ש -- acting as the veil -- ד -- hiding divine self-limitation (tzimtzum) -- י --.
In other words, since Rabbi Ginsburgh tells us that the shin ש is constructed of three vav with three yod on top, we know that pictographically the shin is an emblem of a thorn-bush. Furthermore, the dalet represents a "door" or veil, so that the shin and the dalet, when conjoined, speak of a thorn-bush stationed as the outer, and thus most visible, fore skene, curtain, or door, behind which we find the yod, which is the sign of divine self-limitation.
To limit Himself (tzimtzum), God becomes the Lamb of God, "Shaddai," who is found with his head in a bush of thorns at that time when He experiences His kenotic withdrawl and cessation, the blood of which is the price of entry into His Shabat rest.
Someone unfamiliar with this kind of Hebrew letter symbolism might doubt the identification of the shin with a thorn-bush; they might see the elaboration as a stretch, not withstanding the outright appearance of the letter itself. If they're also opposed to the idea of tzimtzum taking place at Golgotha, justified by the idea of a man (vav) surrounded by thorns (alef), in front of a cross (tav), then they might seek more in the way of authentication for drawing such kerygmatic conclusions.
The doubter might be surprised to know that in point of fact, in the act of mimicing the Righteous Jew (i.e. making himself ritually holy), orthodox liturgy compels the male Jew to dawn the shin bearing head tefillin, and the thorny hand tefillin, so that at such times of high holiness, the male Jew makes his body into a make-shift alef, by placing a thorny black box on his forehead, and hand, so that he resembles an incarnation of the alef. [3]
How ironic that in order to make himself holy in prayer and study, the male Jew (the vav of God) fashions his body into an incarnation of the Hebrew alef by placing two yod bearing signs on his body. He subconsciously places a crown of thorns on his forehead (the shin clearly marks the head tefillin as a thorny head piece) as well as impaling his hand with the same thorny addendum. [4]
In the case of both the head and hand tefillin, a leather strap is used both to attatch the tefillin, but also to speak symbolically of the body being bound by the tefillin. The hand (or arm) tefillin actually winds the leather strap around the arm like a constricting serpent wrapped around the Tree of Life. Symbolically, this anthropomorphic alef pictures the Righteous Jew as the Tree of Life (Yesod) transformed into a thorn-bush in the tzimtzumatic act of self-nullification through which the world will be established, or re-established.
This incarnation of the alef is also a clear man-ifestation of the Lamb of God, Shaddai, since the shin bearing tefillin are held in place by knots tied into the leather straps in such a way as to form both a dalet (the dalet knot) and a yod (the yod knot)[5]. In other words, at the same time the Jewish male transforms his body into an incarnation of the alef, he is simultanously making his body a manifestation of Shaddai (shin-dalet-yod):
Professor Wolfson is less quick to note that there are in fact two crowns evident after the performance of the circumcision ceremony. There's the newly uncovered corona of the phallus, reflecting light for the first time, almost as though it were a halo around the head of the divine organ, but now there's also the necrotic corona, a thorny crown, the bloody-scar manifesting the unification of "above" and "below" in the mutilated flesh of the organ of the covenant.
Within this concept of "above" and "below," there's the significant fact that the word used for the "sign" or "mark" of circumcision is the Hebrew word "alef-vav-tav”, which actually begins and ends with the two Hebrew letters which are the alpha and omega of the Hebrew alphabet. The middle letter in this word is the vav, which is the sixth letter and represents "man." So that if we think of the alef as the above, and the tav as below, then we have a "man" (vav) as the hypostatic unifyer of the "above" and "below." We have a man standing between God's tzimtuzmatic self-nullification (the alef) and the lower realm represented by the tav (whose original form was a cross).
When we realize that the alef is itself constructed of a vav (representing “man”), circumscribed by two yod (representing a “thorn,” or in this case "thorns") . . . . . . and further . . . that this man –vav-- crowned with thorns -- yod (i.e. the Hebrew alef) . . . is brought before a “cross” (the Hebrew tav was originally the symbol of a cross) ----- we come to realize that in the very word used to speak of the “mark” of circumcision -- the word alef-vav-tav --we have a man crowned with thorns (alef) made manifest by a man (vav) and a cross (tav).
It's often remarked that the cutting (milah) which takes place in circumcision is an etching of the Name of God directly into the flesh of the male Jew's membrum virile. One of the Names of God directly implicated in this liturgical etching is the Name "Shaddai," the very Name directly associated with the original Abrahamic circumcision ritual. "Shaddai" is the Name revealed to Abraham in conjunction with the uncovering function of brit milah.
Within this vein, not only can we deconstruct the Name "Shaddai" (shin dalet yod ---ש ד י ) in a manner which etymologically justifies the idea that it represents the "Lamb of God" (see essay "Shaddai" The Lamb of God), but we're left with the undeniable fact that in the Name "Shaddai" we have a thorn-bush -- ש -- acting as the veil -- ד -- hiding divine self-limitation (tzimtzum) -- י --.
In other words, since Rabbi Ginsburgh tells us that the shin ש is constructed of three vav with three yod on top, we know that pictographically the shin is an emblem of a thorn-bush. Furthermore, the dalet represents a "door" or veil, so that the shin and the dalet, when conjoined, speak of a thorn-bush stationed as the outer, and thus most visible, fore skene, curtain, or door, behind which we find the yod, which is the sign of divine self-limitation.
To limit Himself (tzimtzum), God becomes the Lamb of God, "Shaddai," who is found with his head in a bush of thorns at that time when He experiences His kenotic withdrawl and cessation, the blood of which is the price of entry into His Shabat rest.
Someone unfamiliar with this kind of Hebrew letter symbolism might doubt the identification of the shin with a thorn-bush; they might see the elaboration as a stretch, not withstanding the outright appearance of the letter itself. If they're also opposed to the idea of tzimtzum taking place at Golgotha, justified by the idea of a man (vav) surrounded by thorns (alef), in front of a cross (tav), then they might seek more in the way of authentication for drawing such kerygmatic conclusions.
The doubter might be surprised to know that in point of fact, in the act of mimicing the Righteous Jew (i.e. making himself ritually holy), orthodox liturgy compels the male Jew to dawn the shin bearing head tefillin, and the thorny hand tefillin, so that at such times of high holiness, the male Jew makes his body into a make-shift alef, by placing a thorny black box on his forehead, and hand, so that he resembles an incarnation of the alef. [3]
How ironic that in order to make himself holy in prayer and study, the male Jew (the vav of God) fashions his body into an incarnation of the Hebrew alef by placing two yod bearing signs on his body. He subconsciously places a crown of thorns on his forehead (the shin clearly marks the head tefillin as a thorny head piece) as well as impaling his hand with the same thorny addendum. [4]
In the case of both the head and hand tefillin, a leather strap is used both to attatch the tefillin, but also to speak symbolically of the body being bound by the tefillin. The hand (or arm) tefillin actually winds the leather strap around the arm like a constricting serpent wrapped around the Tree of Life. Symbolically, this anthropomorphic alef pictures the Righteous Jew as the Tree of Life (Yesod) transformed into a thorn-bush in the tzimtzumatic act of self-nullification through which the world will be established, or re-established.
This incarnation of the alef is also a clear man-ifestation of the Lamb of God, Shaddai, since the shin bearing tefillin are held in place by knots tied into the leather straps in such a way as to form both a dalet (the dalet knot) and a yod (the yod knot)[5]. In other words, at the same time the Jewish male transforms his body into an incarnation of the alef, he is simultanously making his body a manifestation of Shaddai (shin-dalet-yod):
When
examined from the kabbalistic perspective, anthropomorphism in the canonical
texts of Scripture indicates that human and divine corporeality are entwined in
a mesh of double imaging through the mirror of the text that renders the divine
body human and the human body divine. Phenomenologically speaking, the
lifeworld of of kabbalists revolves about the axis of the embodied text of
textual embodiment.
Elliot R. Wolfson, Language, Eros, Being, p. 246.
Elliot R. Wolfson, Language, Eros, Being, p. 246.
Within
the structure of Professor Wolfson's embodied-text of textual-embodiment, we
have the ironically apropos emblem of the textual-embodiment of Adam Kadmon in
the letters of the tetragrammaton:
According to Sofer Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Berger,"There should be a small kotz [thorn] sticking out of the bottom left corner of the head of the Yud. According to many Poskim, a Yud without this kotz [thorn] is invalid." [6]
The yod [yud] forms the head on Adam Kadmon. So that ironically, his crown is formed by the thorn of the yod. The sacred tetragrammaton wears a crown of thorns. Adam Kadmon (the incarnate tetragrammaton, the Holy One of God, the textual-embodiement of God) wears a crown of thorns. A yod without a thorn is invalid, so that even a textually-embodied Holy One of God not wearing a crown of thorns must be considered a sham according to the rules of STaM. [7]
NOTES:
1. If the Hebrew yod is both the mark uncovered at circumcision, and the symbol of divine self-limitation, then it's extremely important to note that the Hebrew word for the "mark" of circumcision is alef-vav-tav. An alef, which is constructed of a vav impaled by thorns (two yod) is followed by a vav, and then a tav. ---- Since the vav is the sixth letter, and represents "man" . . . and the tav is the last letter, and originally represented a "cross," in the word used for the mark of circumcision, we have a man impaled with thorns (the alef constructed of a vav and two yod) followed by a man (vav) before a cross (tav).
2. On this topic Professor Wolfson makes an important statement in his essay, Interpretation: From Midrashic Trope to Mystical Symbol, where he says:
"One is said to see the Holy One from the sign of the covenant inscribed in one's flesh, the letter yod. As we have seen, in the case of the Zohar the letter yod is not understood simply as a sign of the covenant between God and Israel but is the very sign of the Holy One himself. . . Here we meet a convergence of anthropomorphic and letter symbolism: the physical organ in its essential character is interchangeable with the letter, and the letter with the physical organ."
3. The alef can be pictured as a man (vav) surrounded by thorns (yod). But it can also be seen as a man (vav) with a thorn (or thorns) in his head (the first yod in the alef) as well as with a thorn in his hand (the second yod in the alef). ----- Note #2 applies equally in this case of the convergence between "anthropomorphic and letter symbolism."
4. The Zohar, quoted in Isaiah Tishby's, The Wisdom of the Zohar (vol. 111, p. 1059) says: "And just as he has crowned the Holy One, blessed be He, with the tefillin of the head, and prepared for Him an abode with the mezuzah, and established a throne for Him with the zizit, as they have explained `A throne is established through mercy (hesed)', (Isaiah 16:5), so the Holy One, blessed be He, will establish a throne for his soul, and prepare for it an abode with Him, and crown it with His crown." . . The tefillin is called a "crown"; and this crown has an emblem (a Hebrew pictograph) of a thorn-bush (the letter shin with its three branches bearing three thorns -- yod -- on the end of the three branches).
5. Revelation 22:4.
6. http://www.safrus.com/alephbet.html
7. There are many Hebrew script styles, but the Hebrew script used in sacred writing is called “STaM” (which is an acronym for Sifrei Torah (Torah scrolls), Tefillin (phylacteries), and Mezuzot). . . See note #4 concerning crown of thorns as emblematic of the crown worn by the Holy One of God.
According to Sofer Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Berger,"There should be a small kotz [thorn] sticking out of the bottom left corner of the head of the Yud. According to many Poskim, a Yud without this kotz [thorn] is invalid." [6]
The yod [yud] forms the head on Adam Kadmon. So that ironically, his crown is formed by the thorn of the yod. The sacred tetragrammaton wears a crown of thorns. Adam Kadmon (the incarnate tetragrammaton, the Holy One of God, the textual-embodiement of God) wears a crown of thorns. A yod without a thorn is invalid, so that even a textually-embodied Holy One of God not wearing a crown of thorns must be considered a sham according to the rules of STaM. [7]
NOTES:
1. If the Hebrew yod is both the mark uncovered at circumcision, and the symbol of divine self-limitation, then it's extremely important to note that the Hebrew word for the "mark" of circumcision is alef-vav-tav. An alef, which is constructed of a vav impaled by thorns (two yod) is followed by a vav, and then a tav. ---- Since the vav is the sixth letter, and represents "man" . . . and the tav is the last letter, and originally represented a "cross," in the word used for the mark of circumcision, we have a man impaled with thorns (the alef constructed of a vav and two yod) followed by a man (vav) before a cross (tav).
2. On this topic Professor Wolfson makes an important statement in his essay, Interpretation: From Midrashic Trope to Mystical Symbol, where he says:
"One is said to see the Holy One from the sign of the covenant inscribed in one's flesh, the letter yod. As we have seen, in the case of the Zohar the letter yod is not understood simply as a sign of the covenant between God and Israel but is the very sign of the Holy One himself. . . Here we meet a convergence of anthropomorphic and letter symbolism: the physical organ in its essential character is interchangeable with the letter, and the letter with the physical organ."
3. The alef can be pictured as a man (vav) surrounded by thorns (yod). But it can also be seen as a man (vav) with a thorn (or thorns) in his head (the first yod in the alef) as well as with a thorn in his hand (the second yod in the alef). ----- Note #2 applies equally in this case of the convergence between "anthropomorphic and letter symbolism."
4. The Zohar, quoted in Isaiah Tishby's, The Wisdom of the Zohar (vol. 111, p. 1059) says: "And just as he has crowned the Holy One, blessed be He, with the tefillin of the head, and prepared for Him an abode with the mezuzah, and established a throne for Him with the zizit, as they have explained `A throne is established through mercy (hesed)', (Isaiah 16:5), so the Holy One, blessed be He, will establish a throne for his soul, and prepare for it an abode with Him, and crown it with His crown." . . The tefillin is called a "crown"; and this crown has an emblem (a Hebrew pictograph) of a thorn-bush (the letter shin with its three branches bearing three thorns -- yod -- on the end of the three branches).
5. Revelation 22:4.
6. http://www.safrus.com/alephbet.html
7. There are many Hebrew script styles, but the Hebrew script used in sacred writing is called “STaM” (which is an acronym for Sifrei Torah (Torah scrolls), Tefillin (phylacteries), and Mezuzot). . . See note #4 concerning crown of thorns as emblematic of the crown worn by the Holy One of God.