{"collection":"Texts of Judaism","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_jud_zdm_zdm056_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_jud_zdm_zdm056_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_jud_zdm_zdm056_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/jud/zdm/zdm056.htm","summary":"This is a passage of kabbalistic biblical exegesis in the style and tradition of the Zohar, the foundational text of Jewish mysticism, featuring the characteristic narrative frame of students encountering a mysteriously wise stranger whose teachings are later validated by Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai.\n\nThe central argument addresses why the Torah uses two different divine names \u2014 YHVH (Jehovah) versus Elohim (Alhim) \u2014 in two different narratives of mass destruction: Sodom and Gomorrah versus the Flood. The stranger argues that YHVH designates God acting in open conjunction with his celestial tribunal of justice, while Elohim refers to the tribunal operating without God's direct presence. Thus the destruction of Sodom was an open, public act of divine-plus-tribunal justice, while the Flood was a hidden, solitary divine act \u2014 God \"seated alone\" \u2014 which is why Elohim alone appears there.\n\nA notably distinctive move is reading Psalm 29:10 (\"the Lord was seated at the time of the flood\") through a parallel to Leviticus 13:46's law of the leper dwelling \"alone outside the camp,\" arguing both uses of *yashav* signal separation and hiddenness. From this theological distinction the text extracts a practical kabbalistic principle: hidden things attract divine blessing, while visible possessions attract the demonic evil eye (Ra-ain). The passage is a useful illustration of how the Zohar uses close philological comparison of divine names to construct a layered metaphysics of divine action.","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"Zohar: Genesis: Chapter XLVII. A Vexata Questio In Biblical Philology","tradition":"Texts of Judaism","translated_text":null,"word_count":595}