Texts of Judaism

Zohar: Genesis: Chapter LXXXVIII. Abraham's Initiatory Probation

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This is an excerpt from the Zohar, the foundational text of Jewish Kabbalah, presented as a rabbinic homily by Rabbi Simeon (Shimon bar Yochai) interpreting passages from Genesis, Psalms, and Samuel through an esoteric lens. The central argument is that Abraham's spiritual journey — his "journeys" in Genesis 12 — represents a staged mystical ascent: first a descent involving the shedding of lower, sensual attachments, then a progressive upward movement through "states and stages of the divine life" culminating in initiation into "the Hidden Wisdom" and a state of perfection (*teleiosis*). This Neoplatonic-inflected reading presents biblical narrative not as historical record but as an encoded map of the soul's purification and deification. The second section reinterprets David's plea in Psalm 86 esoterically: David's self-description as "son of thy handmaid" is explained as meaning he was spiritually reborn through the Shekhinah (divine feminine presence), making the Shekhinah his true mother — a distinctively Kabbalistic theological claim. The passage is notable for its confident assertion of a hidden layer of meaning beneath the plain biblical text, and for linking Abraham, David, and the Messiah within a single framework of progressive divine initiation.

Zohar: Genesis: Chapter LXXXVIII. Abraham's Initiatory Probation

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