THE TZOHAR
When the world was first created, God filled the world with a sacred light,
known as the "primordial light." It came into being when God said, "Let there
be light" (Gen.1:3). It was not the light of the sun, for that did not come
into being until the fourth day, when God created the sun and the moon and the
stars. It was a miraculous light by which it was possible for Adam to see from
one end of the world to the other. And what was the source of that light? Some
say that God wrapped Himself in a tallis of light, while others say that it was
cast from the robe of the Shekhinah.
When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, the first thing they lost was that
precious light. Without it, the world seemed dark to them, for the sun shone
like a candle in comparison. But God preserved one small part of that precious
light inside a glowing stone, and the angel Raziel delivered this stone to Adam
after they had been expelled from the Garden of Eden as a token of the world
they left behind. This jewel, known as the Tzohar, sometimes glowed and
sometimes hid its light.
Before his death, Adam gave the Tzohar to his son Seth. By peering into that
jewel, Seth became a great prophet. In this way it was passed down until it
reached Enoch. Enoch peered deeply into the jewel and saw that the flame
burning in it formed itself into Hebrew letters, and by reading those letters
he was able to read the Celestial Torah, which was imprinted in the flame of
that glowing jewel. Enoch grew in his wisdom until he was taken into Paradise
in a chariot and transformed into the angel Metatron, the heavenly scribe and
prince of the treasuries of heaven.
Before departing from this world, Enoch gave the Tzohar to his son, Methuselah.
Methuselah slept in its glowing light, and that is why he lived longer than
anyone else. And Methuselah passed on the jewel to his son Lamech, who gave it
to his son Noah, who brought it with him on the ark. Indeed, the Lord
instructed Noah to do so when he said "Put the Tzohar in the ark" (Gen. 6:16).
Noah hung it on the deck, and for forty days and nights it illuminated the ark.
When the ark landed on Mount Ararat, the first thing Noah did was to plant
grapes, and when they grew ripe, he made wine and became drunk, and at that
moment the Tzohar fell from where it hung in the ark, rolled into the water,
and sank to the bottom of the sea. There it was carried by the currents until
it came to rest in an underwater cave.
Years later, after the waters had subsided, the Child Abraham was born in that
cave. His mother had gone there to give birth to escape King Nimrod's decree
that all newborn boys be put to death. For Nimrod had seen a sign that a child
born at that time would overthrow him. After giving birth, Abraham's mother
began to fear that the presence of the infant would bring the rest of the
family into danger. And with a broken heart she abandoned the infant in the
cave and returned home alone. Then the angel Gabriel descended to the cave and
fed the infant with his thumb, through which milk and honey flowed, and because
he was fed in that miraculous way, the boy began to grow at the rate of a year
every day. And on the third day, while exploring the cave, he found a stone
glowing in one of the crevices of the cave. Then the angel, who knew how
precious it was, put it on a chain and hung it around Abraham's neck.
Thirteen days later Abraham's mother returned to the cave, for she could not
put the fate of her infant out of her mind. She expected to find that the child
was no longer living, but instead she found a grown boy, who said that he was
her child. She refused to believe it at first, but when he showed her the
glowing stone and the sacred light it cast, she came to believe that a miracle
had taken place.
Abraham wore that glowing jewel all the days of his life, and it was said that
whoever was ill and looked into that stone was soon healed. So too did he use
it as an astrolabe to study the stars. Before his death, Abraham gave the
Tzohar to his son Isaac, and Isaac gave it to Jacob at the time he gave him to
stolen blessing. For Isaac had intended to give the glowing stone to Esau, but
Rebecca, who was a seer, knew well that it was destined to belong to Jacob.
Jacob was wearing the Tzohar when he dreamed of the ladder reaching to heaven,
with angels ascending and descending on it. And he, in turn, gave the stone to
his beloved son, Joseph, when he gave him the coat of many colors. Now when he
gave it to him, the stone was dark, and Jacob did not reveal its power, for he
wanted Joseph to discover this for himself. And because Joseph's brothers did
not know how precious the stone was, they did not take it from Joseph when they
stripped him of the coat of many colors and cast him into the dark pit.
Now that pit was an old well, now dry, with snakes and scorpions living at the
bottom. And Joseph, who heard them slithering and creeping in the dry leaves,
shivered in the darkness at the bottom of the pit. All at once a light began to
glow, and Joseph saw that it was coming from the stone he was wearing around
his neck. Just then Joseph looked up and saw that a glowing figure stood before
him. And he was amazed to find that he was no longer in a pit, but in a palace!
That incandescent palace surrounded him in all its glory. Joseph felt as if he
were in a trance, and he said: "Who are you, and what is this place?" And the
glowing figure replied: "I am the angel Gabriel, and this is my palace." "For
as long as you are left in the pit, you will remain in this palace." Then
Gabriel reached out and took Joseph's glowing amulet in one hand, and with his
other hand he drew forth a cloth woven out of the amulet's light. And he
wrapped Joseph in that garment so that he was no longer naked. Then the angel
pointed to a window, and when Joseph looked out of it, he saw the history of
future generations revealed.
For three days and nights Joseph remained in Gabriel's palace, drinking in the
glory of the Torah and the future history of the Children of Israel. At the end
of the third day the amulet suddenly grew dark, and Joseph found himself once
more at the bottom of the well and heard Medianite traders calling out to him
from the top of it. When they checked to see if the well contained water, they
discovered Joseph there. They lowered a bucket for Joseph and pulled him up to
the top. So it was that the Medianites sold Joseph into slavery and to the
destiny that fate held for him, which was to become the Prince of Egypt.
Joseph placed the glowing stone of the Tzohar inside his silver cup, and
discovered that by peering into it he could read the future and interpret
dreams. That is how he interpreted the dreams of the butler and baker, and
later the dreams of Pharaoh that prophesied the seven years of famine. It was
that same cup that Joseph hid in the saddlebags of Benjamin, about which his
servant said, Is this not the cup from which our master drinketh, and with
which be divineth? (Gen. 44:5).
That cup, with the precious jewel in it, was placed inside Joseph's coffin at
the time of his death, and it remained there until Moses recovered Joseph's
coffin with the help of Serah bat Asher. Soon after that Moses was told in a
dream to take out the glowing stone and hang it in the Tabernacle. This he did,
and that is the origin of the Ner Tamid, (The Eternal Light). And that is why,
even to this day, an eternal light burns above every Ark.
Babylon and Ancient Israel: c. Fifth Century
.
|
