Heikhalot Rabbati 19: The Seal-Passage Instructions

Hekhalot Rabbati · Anonymous; narrated by Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha. Composed c. 3rd-7th century CE.

canonical

Heikhalot Rabbati 19: The Seal-Passage Instructions

Hekhalot Rabbati

היכלות רבתי

canonical c. 3rd-7th c. CE Hebrew Anonymous; narrated by Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha. Composed c. 3rd-7th century CE. tr. Hekhal Targum engine (claude-opus-4-7[session]); awaiting editor sign-off

This chunk is the Targum-translated form of heikhalot-rabbati.19.1-3-6. It was drafted by the Hekhal Targum engine on 2026-05-23 using glossary revision heikhalot-merkavah-v0.1 with the merkavah-ascent frame controller(s). The current status is machine-assisted; readers should treat this as a draft pending editor review until the status flips to verified.

Every term in the controlled glossary surfaces a range card in the apparatus, every doctrinally-live ambiguity is preserved with both readings, and the audit trail records the model, the prompt hash, and the retrieval set used for this rendering. The translation is open to interrogation at every step.

אמר ר’ ישמעאל כשאתה בא ועומד על פתח היכל הראשון טול שני חותמות בשתי ידיך אחד של טוטרוסיא”י ה’ ואחד של סורי”א שר הפנים של טוטרוסיא”י ה’ הראה אותו לעומדים לימין ושל סורי”א הראה אותו לעומדים לשמאל מיד בהביא”ל השר שהוא ראש פתח היכל הראשון ופקיד על היכל ראשון ועומד לימין המשקוף וטופהיא”ל שר העומד לשמאל המשקוף עמו מיד תופסין אותך ומשלימין ומזהירין עליך לטגריא”ל השר שהוא ראש פתח היכל השני ועומד מימין המשקוף ומתפיא”ל השר העומד לשמאל המשקוף עמו: והראה אותם שתי חותמות אחד של אדריהרו”ן ה’ ואחד של אוהזיי”א שר הפנים של אדריהרו”ן הראה אותו לעומדים לימין ושל אוהזי”א שר הפנים הראה אותו לעומדין לשמאל מיד תופסין אותך אחד מימינך ואחד משמאלך עד שמוליכין ומוסרין אותך ומשלימין אותך ומזהירין עליך לשבוריא”ל השר שהוא ראש פתח היכל השלישי ועומד לימין המשקוף ורצוציא”ל השר העומד לשמאל עמו: והראה אותם שתי חותמות אחד של צורת”ק ה’ ואחד של דהביורו”ן שר הפנים של צורת”ק ה’ הראה אותו לעומדין לימין ושל דהביורו”ן שר הפנים הראה אותו לעומדין לשמאל מיד תופסין אותך אחד מימינך ואחד משמאלך ומוליכין לפניך שני שרים מלפניך ושני שרים מאחריך ומשלימין אותך עד שמוליכין אותך ומזהירין עליך לפחדיא”ל השר שהוא ראש פתח היכל הרביעי ועומד לימין המשקוף וגבורתיא”ל השר העומד לשמאל המשקוף עמו: מפני ששומרי היכל הששי היו משחיתין ביורדי מרכבה ולא ביורדי מרכבה שלא ברשות והיו מצוין עליהן ומכין אותן ושורפים אותם ומעמידים אחרים במקומיהם ואף אחרים העומדים תחתיהם כך היא מדתם אינם מתיראים ומעלים ללב לומר למה אנו נשרפים וכי מה הנאה יש לנו שאנו משחיתין ביורדי מרכבה ולא ביורדי מרכבה שלא ברשות ועדיין כך היא מדתם של שומרי פתח היכל הששי:

Rabbi Ishmael said: When you come and stand at the gate of the first palace, take two seals in your two hands — one of TWTRWSY’Y YHWH and one of Suria the Prince of the Presence of TWTRWSY’Y YHWH. Show the seal of TWTRWSY’Y YHWH to those standing on the right, and the seal of Suria show to those standing on the left. At once Bahabiel the prince, who is chief of the gate of the first palace and appointed over the first palace, standing at the right of the lintel — and Tofhiel the prince, standing at the left of the lintel together with him — at once they take hold of you and convey you and entrust you, charging concerning you Tigriel the prince, who is chief of the gate of the second palace and stands at the right of the lintel, and Matpiel the prince, standing at the left of the lintel together with him.

And show them two seals: one of ADRYHRWN YHWH and one of Awhazya the Prince of the Presence of ADRYHRWN. Show the seal of ADRYHRWN to those standing on the right, and the seal of Awhazya the Prince of the Presence show to those standing on the left. At once they take hold of you, one at your right and one at your left, until they conduct you and they hand you over and they convey you and they charge concerning you Shabbarriel the prince, who is chief of the gate of the third palace and stands at the right of the lintel, and Ratzutziel the prince, standing at the left together with him.

And show them two seals: one of TZWRTQ YHWH and one of Dhabhyurun the Prince of the Presence of TZWRTQ YHWH. Show the seal of TZWRTQ YHWH to those standing on the right, and the seal of Dhabhyurun the Prince of the Presence show to those standing on the left. At once they take hold of you, one at your right and one at your left, and they conduct before you two princes before you and two princes behind you, and they convey you until they conduct you and they charge concerning you Pahadiel the prince, who is chief of the gate of the fourth palace and stands at the right of the lintel, and Gevuratiel the prince, standing at the left of the lintel together with him.

… For the guardians of the sixth palace were destroying merkavah-descenders and non-merkavah-descenders without authorization, and they were charged concerning them and they used to strike them and burn them and stand others in their places; and yet others standing under them — such is their measure: they are not afraid, and it does not enter their heart to say, ‘Why are we burned? And what pleasure is there for us in our destroying merkavah-descenders and non-merkavah-descenders without authorization?’ Still such is the measure of the guardians of the gate of the sixth palace.

AI-assisted draft, editor review pending
An orientation

The translation above was produced by the Targum engine against the heikhalot-merkavah corpus’s controlled glossary. The active interpretive frame is merkavah-ascent. Each frame controller injects the corpus’s interpretive grammar into the rendering as system context and validates the output against its own rules.

The terms surfaced as range cards in this chunk are: heikhal (rendered as palace), chotam (rendered as seal), shomrei-ha-petach (rendered as guardians-of-the-gate), sar-ha-panim (rendered as prince-of-the-presence), yored-merkavah (rendered as descender-to-the-chariot), havayot (rendered as divine-names). For each, the apparatus carries the active sense set and the rationale for the selected rendering. Hover behavior on the published page exposes the sense alternatives so readers can interrogate the translation choice.

Audit trail: model claude-opus-4-7[session], glossary revision heikhalot-merkavah-v0.1, frame controllers version v1.0, drafted at 2026-05-23T21:21:33Z, prompt hash sha256:41acdf5630f4ec90. This information is queryable per chunk on the published site; the editorial discipline is that any rendering decision can be traced back to the model, the glossary state, and the prompt that produced it.

Apparatus
Tradition
jewish-mysticism
Language
Hebrew
Period
c. 3rd-7th c. CE
Attribution
Anonymous; narrated by Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha. Composed c. 3rd-7th century CE.
Translator
Hekhal Targum engine (claude-opus-4-7[session]); awaiting editor sign-off
License
CC-BY-SA-4.0
Provenance
Generated by the Hekhal Targum engine (model=claude-opus-4-7[session], glossary=heikhalot-merkavah-v0.1, frames=merkavah-ascent, drafted_at=2026-05-23T21:21:33Z). Source: hekhal:source-texts/heikhalot-rabbati-19. Status: machine-assisted. Per Hekhal editorial law, machine-assisted drafts require editor sign-off before flipping to verified.
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Stable URLs are part of the editorial commitment. This address will not change.

Hekhal Editorial. "Heikhalot Rabbati 19: The Seal-Passage Instructions." Hekhal: An Open Reference for Esoteric Tradition. Last modified May 2, 2026. https://hekhal.org/texts/heikhalot-rabbati-19-seal-passage-targum.