Sefer ha-Bahir 131-134 -- the Matronita and the glory
Sefer ha-Bahir · The Book of Brilliance
ספר הבהיר · קלא-קלד
canonical late 12th c., Provence (ascribed to the 1st c. tanna) Hebrew Anonymous (attributed to Rabbi Nehunya ben ha-Kanah) tr. Hekhal Targum Project (machine-assisted draft; pending scholarly review)
The Bahir’s clearest namings of the Shekhinah, the divine feminine. The glory of the LORD as a Matronita in the king’s chamber, blessed by her sons though unseen (§ 131); the king’s daughter come from afar, a woman of valor from the side of the light (§ 132); the fine plot beside the garden, “not attached though it is all one,” watered by its own channel (§ 133); and glory and heart as one grade under two names, above and below (§ 134).
A provisional scholarly draft, released openly for correction and not yet reviewed by a credentialed editor. The Hebrew is reproduced verbatim from the Hebrew Wikisource transcription; the standard modern English translation (Kaplan, 1979) is under copyright.
ומאי הוי כבוד ה’ זה, משל למה”ד למלך שהיתה לו מטרוניתא בחדרו שכל חיילותיו משתעשעין בה, והיו לה בנים ובאים בכל יום לראות פני המלך ומברכין אותו, אמרו לו אמנו אנה היא, אמר להם לא תוכלו לראותה עתה, אמרו ברוכה תהא בכל מקום שהיא:
And what is this ‘glory of the LORD’? A parable: to what is it comparable? To a king who had a noble lady (matronita) in his chamber, in whom all his hosts delighted; and she had sons who came every day to see the king’s face and to bless him. They said to him: our mother — where is she? He said to them: you cannot see her now. They said: blessed be she, in every place that she is.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
ומאי דכתיב (שם) ממקומו, מכלל דליכא דידע את מקומו, משל לבת מלך שבאה מרחוק ולא ידעו מאין באה, עד שראו שהיא אשת חיל נאה והגונה בכל מעשיה, אמרו זאת ודאי מצד האור נלקחה, כי במעשיה יאיר העולם, שאלו אותה מאין את, אמרה ממקומי אמרו אם כן גדולים אנשי מקומך, ברוכה תהיי ומבורכת מקומה:
And what is [the meaning of] what is written, ‘from His place’ (Ezekiel 3:12)? Implying that none knows His place. A parable: to a king’s daughter (bat melekh) who came from afar, and they did not know whence she had come, until they saw that she was a woman of valor (eshet chayil), fair and fitting in all her deeds. They said: this one was surely taken from the side of the light, for by her deeds the world is illumined. They asked her: whence are you? She said: from my place (mi-mkomi). They said: if so, the people of your place are great; blessed be you, and blessed be her place.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
וכי אין כבוד ה’ זה אחת מצבאותיו, לא גרע, אמאי מברכין ליה, אלא משל למה”ד לאיש שהיה לו גן נאה וחוץ לגן בקרוב ממנו חתיכת שדה נאה עשה בו גינה נאה השקה את הגן בתחלת שקיותו והלכו להם המים על כל הגן אך לא על אותה חתיכה של שדה שהיא אינה דבקה אע”פ שהכל אחד הוא, לפיכך פתח לה מקום והשקה לה לבדה:
And is not this ‘glory of the LORD’ one of His hosts? Is it [then] diminished? Why do they bless it? Rather, a parable: to what is it comparable? To a man who had a fair garden, and outside the garden, near it, a fine piece of field; and he made in it a fine garden-plot. He watered the garden at the beginning of his watering, and the water went over the whole garden, but not over that piece of field, which is not attached [to it] — even though it is all one. Therefore he opened a place for it, and watered it separately.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
אמר רבי רחומאי כבו”ד ול”ב הרי הם אחד, אלא שהכבוד נקרא על שם פעולת מעלה, ולב נקרא על שם פעולת מטה, והיינו כבוד השם והיינו לב השמים:
Rabbi Rechumai said: ‘glory (kavod)’ and ‘heart (lev)’ — behold, they are one; except that the glory is named for the action above, and the heart is named for the action below. And this is ‘the glory of the Name (kevod ha-shem),’ and this is ‘the heart of heaven (lev ha-shamayim).’
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
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This edition sets the verbatim Hebrew beside a fresh English rendering and a critical apparatus: a running commentary on the passage, notes on the controlled vocabulary and the rendering chosen for each term, and cross-references to the lexicon and to related sections. It is a provisional scholarly draft, released openly for correction and not yet reviewed by a credentialed editor.
Controlled terms noted in this passage: shekhinah (rendered as the-feminine-aspect). For each, the apparatus carries the sense set and the reason for the rendering chosen.
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the Matronita and her sons
The ‘glory of the LORD’ is figured as a noble lady (matronita) in the king’s chamber, delighted in by all his hosts; her sons come daily to see the king and bless him, and though they cannot see their mother, they bless her ‘in every place she is.’ Sod: the Matronita is the Shekhinah, the divine queen and mother, hidden yet present; Israel her sons, blessing her though she is unseen — ‘blessed be the glory of the LORD from His place’ (Ezekiel 3:12). One of the Bahir’s clearest namings of the Shekhinah as queen and mother (the term the Zohar will make central).
the king’s daughter from afar
’From His place’ — the place none can know — is read through a daughter who ‘came from afar,’ a ‘woman of valor (eshet chayil)’ by whose deeds the world is lit, ‘taken from the side of the light,’ from a place whose people are great. Sod: the Shekhinah as the king’s daughter (cf. sections 54 and 63), descended from the supernal light; her ‘place’ the hidden source; the eshet chayil of Proverbs 31 read as the divine feminine.
the plot watered separately
Why bless the glory, if it is one of the hosts? A man waters his garden, and the flow reaches all of it — but not a fine plot of field beside it, ‘not attached, though it is all one’; so he opens a channel and waters it separately. Sod: the Shekhinah / Malkhut, though one with the whole, stands slightly apart — the last grade — and must be watered by its own channel, the flow directed to it in particular (cf. the twelve channels, section 113).
glory and heart are one
’Glory (kavod)’ and ‘heart (lev)’ are one grade under two names: ‘glory’ for its action above, ‘heart’ for its action below — ‘the glory of the Name’ and ‘the heart of heaven’ (Deuteronomy 4:11; cf. section 106). Sod: one reality seen from above as glory and from below as the heart — the Shekhinah as the indwelling glory, or the central heart of the tree, named by its two faces.
shekhinah
Selected sense: the-feminine-aspect
Active senses: the-feminine-aspect, divine-presence, malkhut
Rationale: The ‘glory of the LORD’ is figured here as the noble lady (matronita), the king’s daughter, the woman of valor — the divine feminine, the Shekhinah/Malkhut, the queen and mother whose sons (Israel) bless her though unseen. Rendered ‘noble lady / daughter’; the frame hears the Shekhinah.
Lexicon: lexicon/shekhinah
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