imakegarb
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Post by imakegarb on May 17, 2006 13:03:08 GMT
Anyone know where I can get a copy? I've been searching high and low and all my usual sources are coming up empty.
A copy in Hebrew and English and with a good commentary would be very, very cool. Yeah, I know, I want a lot and I'm such a spoiled girl already. Really, though, I am looking hard for this. Anyone who points me in the right direction gets a cookie ;D
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Post by Siontific on May 17, 2006 20:20:21 GMT
No thanks, I have to delete hundreds of those off my computer every day!
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imakegarb
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Post by imakegarb on May 17, 2006 21:18:30 GMT
Oooooooh, you're just sooooooooo bad. And I was so hopeful. This really is proving difficult to find and I'm not sure I understand why. I'm told that this text, along with the Sefer Yezirah, form the foundation of Kabbalah. Well Sefer Yezirah I can find. In spades. And I have Kaplan's book, too. But not this one. . . I've found lots of really cool stuff about it. And I did, after a long Google search, find it in Hebrew. I suppose I could try to translate it but my Hebrew is not at all fluent and I've never attempted a task such as that.
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imakegarb
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Post by imakegarb on May 17, 2006 23:34:58 GMT
And my appeal to you just changed to "Does anyone know any Kabbalah scholars?"
I just read this in Don Karr's Notes, on the [url=http://www.digital-brilliance.com/kab/karr/mmhie.pdf ]Study of Merkabah Mysticism and Hekhalot Literature in English[/url].
I'm thinking the Hekhalot Rabbati simply isn't published anywhere in English. The is a chance, I suppose, that Smith's manuscript is still cirulating among scholars but the chances are rather slim. I'm looking into it; I've been emailing a bud of mine at Hebrew Union and she's looking but doesn't seem hopeful. I guess I may have to do my own translation but . . . the idea of doing it on my own, with a text like this, and only elementary Hebrew skills to guide me, takes my breath away.
Any suggestions?
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imakegarb
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Post by imakegarb on May 20, 2006 17:35:43 GMT
K. I've begun translating the hekhalot rabbati. And halfway thru the first verse, I got stuck on a word. The text is available here. Why, oh why, does it have to be unvowelled? This is gonna take a while.
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jmd
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Post by jmd on May 21, 2006 12:58:05 GMT
Great!
Looking forward to it.
Small sections have been included in Scholem and others, and apparently a significant section has been included in Joseph Dan's The Heart and The Fountain: An Anthology of Jewish Mystical Experiences (OUP 2002) - but I have yet to obtain a copy!
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imakegarb
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Post by imakegarb on May 21, 2006 17:13:09 GMT
Yes, I've been looking at these passages, where I can find them. Trouble is, I'm not entirely agreeing with them and . . . Oooooooh, I'm so not qualified to do this.
For instance, here is the first verse of the Hekhalot Rabbati: א אמר ר' ישמעאל מה הפרש שירות שהיה אומר מי שבקש להסתכל בצפיית המרכבה לירד בשלום ולעלות בשלום:
James R. Davila, in his Hekhalot Literature and Shamanism, renders this verse as: |"What are these songs that one recites who seeks to observe the vision of the chariot so as to descend safely and to ascend safely."
OK, me doing it is scary (I'm soooooo not qualified) but I got: "Rabbi Ishmael said, “What (are) the horsemen1 songs we sing2 to seek (and) to behold in a vision the divine chariot, to ascend whole and in peace and descend whole and in peace?”
Here are my footnotes: 1 Best I could do here. The word is äôøù. haperesh. So it’s “the” Peresh. According to Strongs and Englishments, Peresg can mean to scatter or spread out. As a noun (which would make sense of the “ha” placement), it can mean dung (ick). I can’t imagine that’s right. So I’m left with “chariot driver” or horseman. That’s why I chose this word. – May 20, 2006
2 The word, àåîø, omer, usually would be rendered “say” or “said” (most properly, “he said”). However, songs are sung. So I translated this word as “sing” –May 20, 2006
Anyway, I *think* my translation is accurate but (squirm). But seeing what others have written is soooooo very helpful.
Thank you for clueing me in on Joseph Dan's Book. I will seek it ;D
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imakegarb
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Post by imakegarb on May 21, 2006 22:24:51 GMT
K, update to the above. I picked up another lexicon today that has me rethinking äôøù and àåîø so I may be back later on this
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ruffashlar
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Post by ruffashlar on May 31, 2006 13:08:00 GMT
Well. we've all given it a hekhalot of thought, and we're still stumped.
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imakegarb
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Post by imakegarb on May 31, 2006 13:17:58 GMT
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Post by corab on Jun 16, 2006 23:13:55 GMT
Karen,
I've asked around with some scholarly masonic friends of mine; if there is an English translation, they will know of it. I'll keep you posted!
Cora
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imakegarb
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Post by imakegarb on Jun 16, 2006 23:31:18 GMT
I appreciate it but you don't have to. I've been in touch with enough folks, including several scholars, to know no full English translation exists.
However, large bits of it are so translated and published as parts of larger works. I'm busily trying to get my hands on those larger works ;D
Meanwhile, I'm still trying to translate those bits that are not translated and . . . it moves slowly and doggedly forward.
Thanks!!
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