The Four Rabbinim/Two topics

[Guest guest]

A folk story, told by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, in 'Women Who Run With

The Wolves'.

***********

The Four Rabbinim

 

One night, four rabbinim were visited by an angel who awakened them

and carried them to the Seventh Vault of the Seventh Heaven. There

they beheld the sacred Wheel of Ezekiel.

Somewhere in the descent from Pardes, Paradise, to Earth, one Rabbi,

having seen such splendor, lost his mind and wandered frothing and

foaming until the end of his days. The second Rabbi was extremely

cynical: 'Oh, I just dreamed Ezekiel's Wheel, that was all. Nothing

*really* happened.' The third Rabbi carried on and on about what he

had seen, for he was totally obsessed. He lectured and would not stop

with how it was all constructed and what it all meant... and in this

way he went astray and betrayed his faith. The fourth Rabbi, who was

a poet, took a paper in hand and a reed and sat near a window writing

song after song praising the evening dove, his daughter in her

cradle, and all the stars in the sky. And he lived his life better

than before.

********

In the footnotes, the author explains that her aunt told her the

story, and that in a Talmudic version of the story, the four Rabbis

are taken to Paradise to study the heavenly mysteries, and three of

the four go mad when they gaze upon the Shekhinah, the ancient female

deity. (Her words, paraphrased.)

So, this kind of ties back in, finally, with the Two topics/Lust

thread. <g>

 

gill