{"collection":"Texts of Judaism","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_jud_zdm_zdm105_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_jud_zdm_zdm105_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_jud_zdm_zdm105_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/zdm105.htm","summary":"This is a passage from the Zohar, the central text of Jewish Kabbalah, presented as a record of rabbinic dialogue in which Rabbi Abba and his son Rabbi Jacob engage in esoteric scriptural interpretation. The central argument concerns circumcision as the act that confers righteousness upon Israelites: the rite is presented not as merely ritual compliance but as the mechanism by which individuals enter into mystical covenant with the divine, becoming recipients of the Shekhinah (the divine indwelling presence). A distinctive philological-kabbalistic claim runs throughout \u2014 that the letter He added to Abram's name upon circumcision is the same letter that encodes creation itself, allowing the rabbis to argue that the heavens and earth were created \"through Abraham\" and through the Shekhinah simultaneously, reconciling two interpretive traditions rather than choosing between them. The text also traces the prophet Elijah's mandatory presence at circumcision ceremonies back to a divine oath: because Elijah accused Israel of abandoning the covenant, God decreed he must witness every instance of its observance. A narrative frame encloses the theological content \u2014 Rabbi Abba and his son are traveling, stay at an inn, and are persuaded to remain for their host's newborn son's circumcision, spending the night in communal study. The overall work belongs to the medieval Kabbalistic tradition of finding layered, hidden meaning beneath the plain sense of Torah, using letter-mysticism, Sephirotic theology, and midrashic storytelling to do so.","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"Zohar: Genesis: Chapter XCVI. A Feast of the Circumcision","tradition":"Texts of Judaism","translated_text":null,"word_count":1066}