The Tree that is an Angel

On a Binitarian Approach Reflected in Sefer HaBahir

Abstract

Research on Sefer HaBahir has been a source of disagreement and debate amongst scholars. One focus of the dispute is the issue of where the book was written (or collated). No doubt part of it was created in Provence, but was it all written there, or perhaps also in Germany, Babylon, or the Land of Israel? Another focus of the dispute is when the book was written. Some researchers maintain that the writing began in the 9th century; others argue that the entire book was produced in the 13th century. Entwined in these first two disputes are two additional questions. The first is whether the book was written by only one author, or whether many hands may have contributed to its current form by writing, editing, collating, adding glosses, or even by loss and censorship. The second question is how the book’s unusual language, replete with contradictions, should be interpreted and explained. Is the phrasing an indication of the author’s lack of education, as some have claimed since as early as the 13th century, or have we simply not yet identified its cultural background? This article, one of a series, argues for the importance of the fact that the book’s text is very fragmentary and displays a great variety of styles and inner contradictions. This has led me to prefer the longer term ‘multi-authored thesis’. Careful literary and textual analysis reveals that the Sefer HaBahir incorporates a variety of very different theologies. One of these is undoubtedly the well-known Kabbalistic theosophy, which first appeared at the turn of the 12th century in Provence and described the ten divine Sefirot. In this article I show that some of the paragraphs of the book reflect a binatarian theology, which speaks about a harmonious division of power and functions between God and another being; unlike dualism, this relationship is not antagonistic. In other articles I will try to show that other theologies, angelological in nature, are included in Sefer HaBahir. An analysis of paragraphs 4, 8, and 14 (and perhaps also 15) discloses various nuances of the idea that Wisdom was God's means to create the world. Paragraph 14 describes an extreme binatarian position, whereas paragraph 4 describes a milder one. According to paragraph 14, Wisdom, which is also the Torah, created the world and will redeem humankind at the end of times; it is the object of prophecy and vision and maybe even prayer and worship. Thus it seems that once God created Wisdom, He recoiled into himself and was not active in this world anymore. Wisdom had taken His place in every aspect. These short paragraphs elucidate Wisdom (Torah) in an abundance of direct and indirect descriptions. Some of them have become very famous in the history of Kabbalah: a pool and a blessing, a tree or a grove of trees, a hewn spring, "The All" (ha-Kol) or the Fullness (ha-maleh), "Who" (mi), and also – a gigantic angel, with whom God shares the secrets of Creation. Paragraph 4 describes Wisdom using a parable about an invisible spring. Once it is hewn out of the rock and revealed, it brings affluence to a somewhat arid place. In this article, I suggest that this parable emerged in the Land of Israel or Syria, where this system of hewn springs had an immense importance for agriculture for thousands of years. In Provence, on the other hand, irrigation has always depended on the river Rhône, its tributaries, and a system of aqueducts which lead water further away, or, since the 12th century, on the use of canals as well. For different reasons, the phenomenon of hewn springs is not relevant to Germany or Babylon. Might this parable about hewn springs reflect the geographical and hydrological situation of the author's habitat? If it does, these paragraphs would have to have been written earlier than the Provencal ones. I will return to this question in my next articles, focusing here on the binatarian theology expressed in these paragraphs, on the literary features of the text, and especially on the poetics of concealment.