{"collection":"Texts of Judaism","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_jud_zdm_zdm074_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_jud_zdm_zdm074_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_jud_zdm_zdm074_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/zdm074.htm","summary":"This is a passage of Kabbalistic biblical commentary in the tradition of the Zohar, likely attributed to or inspired by Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai, interpreting the construction of Solomon's Temple and the Tabernacle's golden candlestick (menorah). Its central argument is that scripture's cryptic phrasing \u2014 describing the Temple as \"self-built\" and the candlestick as \"self-made\" \u2014 points to a genuine miraculous agency: divine power descended through the artisans' minds and hands, guiding them in work they could not otherwise have performed or understood. The commentary treats the silence on the building site (no iron tools heard) not as mere piety but as evidence that the workers were channeling an occult force they did not comprehend, executing a divine plan through something like unconscious mediumship. A notable interpretive move is the wordplay on *shelemah* (meaning \"complete\" or \"prepared\"), whose irregular spelling without the *yod* collapses it into the name *Solomon*, suggesting the very language of scripture encodes hidden doctrine. The passage culminates in a claim about divine speech: God's glory manifests by sending a mysterious \"breath of life\" from an unknowable \"thought sphere\" through the larynx \u2014 connecting creation, sacred construction, and the living God into a unified mystical physics of language and power. It is written for an initiated reader already familiar with Kabbalistic hermeneutics, and assumes that these \"deep and occult mysteries\" are accessible only to the very few.","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"Zohar: Genesis: Chapter LXV. The Thaumaturgical Erection of Solomon's Temple","tradition":"Texts of Judaism","translated_text":null,"word_count":546}