Ezekiel's Vision Seen Through the Eyes of a Philosophic Mystic

The stunning vision which Ezekiel reported having seen (Chapter One) gave rise to many interpretations, some attempting to explain the vision itself and some re-interpreting the vision in new and different terms. This article traces such a re-interpretation from the pen of Hoter ben Shelomo, a Jewish fifteenth-century savant from Yemen. Hoter began by rejecting the anthropomorphisms of the vision. This forced him into a symbolic interpretation in which he construed the text as a revelation of the structure of the cosmos as follows: the figure on the Throne, which is electrum from its waist upwards and fire from its waist downwards, represented the Agent Intelligence and the Universal Soul, respectively, yet taken together; the sapphire Throne represented the first Prime-Matter (the substrate of the supernal spheres); the firmament of awesome ice represented the outermost sphere. The Hayyot represented the other supernal spheres; the wings, faces, and facets representing the sum of natural causes the emanate from the spheres while the other parts of the body represented other aspects of the spheres such as their roundness, purity, and perfect motion. Finally, the Wheels represented the (spheres of the) elements. By integrating Ezekiel's vision with other texts, .Hoter was able to interpret the vision as a compl te cosm logy. Cosmology, however, was not enough for a medieval thinker. One had, also, to account for the downward flow of divine energy (or light) as well as for the upward flow of the human soul (or spirit). Hoter thus interpreted the Hebrew word for [the radiance of the] "electrum" to represent the emanation of the Intelligences one from another. And he interpreted the general radiance and fire that surrounded the vision as representing the process by which the forms (neoplatonic Ideas) were "impressed" into matter. As to the upward flow of the human soul, Hoter taught that man must learn about the structure of the cosmos from revelations such as Ezekiel's vision and, then, he must meditate his way up the vision: from the earth to the elements, to the spheres and their characteristics, to the Prime-Matters, to the Universal Soul, and finally to the Agent Intelligence. This last was the limit of human inquiry and meditation. To meditate upon it was to achieve the highest form of knowledge available to man. It was also to have "contact" with the divine mind. In this way Ezekiel's vision was transformed into the mystic's vision; theophany became mystical worship. David R. Blumenthal occupies the Jay and Leslie Cohen Chair of Judaic Studies at Emory University. He is the author of numerous books and articles, and currently is the vice-president of the Association for Jewish Studies. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.112 on Mon, 03 Oct 2016 04:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 418 David R. Blumenthal he first chapter of Ezekiel is one of those classical texts which have evoked much explicative and harmonistic exegesis for it claims to be one of those very rare moments when man was permitted a glimpse of the form and actions of the heavenly beings. Briefly / 1 / the vision contained in chapter one is Ezekiel's description of the Glory of God as it approached him from the North. As it drew closer, the prophet saw it more clearly. The center of the vision was the Throne of sapphire which rested upon a firmament which was the color of dazzling ice. Below the firmament were the Hayyot, each of which had four faces, four wings, and an erect body which was the color of burnished copper. On the Throne sat the "likeness of the figure of a man" which was the color of fire from its hips downward and the color of electrum (one part gold and five parts silver) from its hips upward. Surrounding the entire Glory was a radiance which was the color of the rainbow. For Ezekiel, this vision was a theophany. For the rabbis of the mishnaic period, this vision was but an intimation of the much greater complexity and grandeur of the celestial palaces. For the medievals, such anthropomorphism was an anathema. Thus, the stage was set for exegesis of the harmonistic-integrative type. It was not, however, a simple matter to assign metaphorical meaning to the figures of the Ezekelian vision for they had to be understood in several contexts. First, there was the context of Isaiah's theophany in Chapter 6 (Question 59). Then, there was the context of other passages which used the same vocabulary, e.g., Ex. 24:6 (Question 27), Gen. 28:2 (Question 33), Zech. 4:2 (Question 66), Ps. 68:5 (Question 78), and similar passages. Then, there was the context of the rabbinic understanding of Ezekiel, e.g., the Targum to Ezekiel (Question 61), the PRE (Questions 68, 92), and the midrash (Questions 34, 35, 37, 63, 67, 70, 73). And, to be sure, there was the context of the Maimonidean interpretation of Ezekiel (Questions 36, 62, 73, 74, 76, 90, 95) / 2/. It also made a difference whether one interpreted Ezekiel as a metaphor for prophecy, or for cosmology, or for both (in different places). The decipherment of Hoter ben Shelomo's interpretation of Ezekiel's vision begins with the firmament which was the color of awesome ice. Basing himself on PRE which, in turn, based itself on the common usage of the word "firmament" (Heb., raqiqa) in Genesis 1:6-8 and Ezekiel 1:22-26, Hoter commented / 3/: [As to] his [i.e., the author of PRE] saying, "Which firmament is it that was created on the second [day]? I would say that it was the firmament which is above the head of the Hayyot," this indicates the allencompassing sphere with all its forces and all its forms. In his other cosmological comments, Hoter consistently maintained this interpretation. Thus, he taught /4/: that God first created "water" which was the prime-matter common to all physical reality; that God then separated it into the "upper waters" and the "lower waters,"i.e., into the first prime-matter which was the substrate for the supernal physical beings and the second (or lower) prime-matter which was the substrate of the elements and the sublunar This content downloaded from 207.46.13.112 on Mon, 03 Oct 2016 04:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Ezekiel's Vision 419 physical beings; and that from the upper waters (i.e., from the first primematter) God caused the firmament (i.e., the outermost sphere) to come into being. This last step was accomplished by causing a drop of the upper waters to "gel" (Heb., hugleddh), a term taken from Bereshit Rabba. Hoter then associated this gelling process with Ezekiel's vision by noting that the Targum understood the phrase "as the color of awesome ice" to mean "as the color of [the] awesome gelled-substance" (Aram., ke-'eyn gelid hasin) /5/. In this identification of the firmament of Genesis and Ezekiel with the outermost sphere, Hoter appears to be following Maimonides and it is the exegetical harmonization of the various texts, together with the double prime-matter theory, that makes Hoter's interpretation unique /6/. Having established that the firmament of awesome ice stood for the outermost sphere, Hoter proceeded quite logically to teach that everything above the firmament stood for something above the outermost sphere in the cosmological hierarchy while everything below the firmament stood for something below the outermost sphere in the cosmological hierarchy. For example, he taught /7/: