Hekhalot literature

Hekhalot literature (sometimes transliterated as Heichalot), from the Hebrew word for "Palaces," relates to visions of entering heaven alive. The genre overlaps with Merkabah mysticism, also called "Chariot literature", which concerns Ezekiel's chariot, so the two are sometimes referred to as the "Books of the Palaces and the Chariot" (ספרות ההיכלות והמרכבה‎). Hekhalot literature is a genre of Jewish esoteric and revelatory texts produced sometime between late antiquity (some believe from Talmudic times or earlier) to the Early Middle Ages.

Many motifs of later Kabbalah are based on the Hekhalot texts, and Hekhalot literature itself is based upon earlier sources, including traditions about heavenly ascents of Enoch found among the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hebrew Bible pseudepigrapha.^[1] Hekhalot itself has many pseudepigraphic texts.^[2]

Texts

Title Page of Hekhalot, Lvov, Poland, 1850

Some of the Hekhalot texts are:^[3]

Hekhalot Zutartey "Lesser Palaces" or "Palaces Minor," which details an ascent of Rabbi Akiva through the seven heavens, seeking revelations regarding the holy name of God
Hekhalot Rabbati "Greater Palaces" or "Palaces Major," which details the ascent of Rabbi Ishmael when he sought to examine the validity of the decree regarding the execution of the Ten Martyrs
Maaseh Merkabah "Account of the Chariot," a collection of hymns recited by the "descenders" into the holy chariot, and heard during their ascent
Merkavah Rabba "Greater Chariot"
3 Enoch or "Book of Palaces"

Other similar texts are:^[4]

Re'uyyot Yehezqel "The Visions of Ezekiel"
Massekhet Hekhalot "The Tractate of the Palaces"
Shi'ur Qomah "Divine Dimensions"
Sefer HaRazim "Book of the Mysteries"
The Sword of Moses
Alphabet of Rabbi Akiva

Dating and genre

Hekhalot literature is post-rabbinical, and not a literature of the rabbis, but since it seeks to stand in continuity with the Rabbinic literature, it is often pseudepigraphical.^[5]

Hekhalot has examples of early alternate history texts.^[2]

References

^ Scholem, Gershom, Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and the Talmudic Tradition, 1965.
^ ^a ^b Elior, Rachel (1993). "Mysticism, Magic, and Angelology: The Perception of Angels in Hekhalot Literature". Jewish Studies Quarterly. 1 (1): 5. ISSN 0944-5706. JSTOR 40753108.
^ Schäfer, Peter (1992). The hidden and manifest God: some major themes in early Jewish mysticism. State University of New York Press. p. 7. ISBN 9780791410448.
^ Don Karr. "Notes on the Study of Merkabah Mysticism and Hekhalot Literature in English" (PDF). Retrieved 21 December 2010.
^ Judaism in late antiquity: Volume 1 - Page 36 Jacob Neusner, Alan Jeffery Avery-Peck, Bruce Chilton - 2001 "The Hekhalot literature is "not a literature of the rabbis, yet it seeks to stand in continuity with the Rabbinic literature" (p. 293); this literature is deeply pseudepigraphical and as such post-rabbinical."