Customer Reviews

The Three Temples: On the Emergence of Jewish Mysticism

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In this book, Dr. Rachel Elior does a masterful job of reconstructing the origins of early Jewish(Merkavah) mysticism, tracing it to the priestly spirituality that shaped such Biblical books as Ezekiel and Isaiah, then tracking its evolution in Apocalyptic works such as I Enoch, Jubilees and the Testament of Levi, its mutation into a dualistic, secterian priestly mysticism as expressed in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and finally being "rabbinized" through the Hechalot literature of Merkavah mysticism.
Elior makes a compelling argument, collecting the available data and giving it a coherent, reasonable interpretation. The resulting narrative is so neatly done, in fact, that one is left doubtful only in that it seems so logical that it must, on some level, be an oversimplification. History just isn't usually this tidy. That said, any criticism I could offer would only be only peripheral points. Her thesis seems very sound to me and melds well with the data. This is therefore a very important book, one that dramatically advances our understanding of early Jewish mysticism.
It is an important book, but not a great one, for the simple lack of an assertive editor. This 265 page book needed only to be about 175 pages. The constant repetition of ideas, points, and the same illustrative texts, is both tedious and unnecessary. Elior feels compelled to review the same conceptual clusters (four directions, sevens, Shavuot, the solar calendar of weeks divided into 13, priestly-angels)laundry-list like, every few pages. The Rabbinic text Chagigah 2:1 must be cited, en toto, at least four times.
But this stylistic shortcoming should not prevent one form reading this work. Just be prepared to scan a bit in order to get to the pithy parts.

Rachel Elior presents an inspired analysis of the "Bnei Zadok" group at Qumran. Her insights and proofs concerning a different calendar and the significance of certain numbers and concepts in Judaism as they viewed it gave me a whole new understanding of various elements in current Jewish thought and ritual that had never made sense to me before. The roots go deep and hints are all around us, although we may have lost touch with their original meaning. Despite this, the concepts are so deeply rooted that they still persist. I have heard Rachel Elior talk and the book is an excellent introduction to her somewhat radical theories in this area. If you want to get a different perspective I highly recommend this book.

As as an armchair student of Christianity, this book has given me tremendous insights into ancient rituals which on the surface seem like nonsense if one doesn't understand what they represent. Margaret Barker, a Christian scholar, has done an outstanding job in correlating Jewish Temple rituals with early church liturgies. Rachel Elior, a Jewish scholar, goes into detail about the significance of the solar calendar, the cycle of worship and numerical patterns of the older Temple.

Elior traces the Heikhalot literature, the Merkavah tradition, some of the Qumran writings, and apocalyptic writings to a pre-Hasmonean Zadokite priesthood which placed special emphasis on books such as Chronicles, Ezekiel, Enoch, and Jubilees.

Elior identifies the Qumran community as a disenfranchised Zadokite priesthood who were denied access to the Temple by the Hasmoneans. She rejects the notion that they were comprised of a so called Essene sect which was described by Josephus and Philo.

Elior describes how the Temple services emulated and coincided with the services in Heaven with the Temple representing the universe and the Holy of Holies representing Heaven as illustrated in the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice found at Qumran. The solar calendar was established in Heaven where it was taught to Enoch and subsequently passed down to Noah, Melchizedek, Levi, and Moses. Adherence to the solar calendar which set the time for worship and festivals and divine numerical patterns was crucial in preserving the covenantal bond between Heaven and earth

Elior explains how the lunar calendar, a product of human intellect introduced by the Hasmonean priesthood and maintained by the more rationalist elements such as the Pharisees and Rabinnic Judaism, threatened to disrupt the harmony between Heaven and earth. The Zadokites thought of themselves as the guardians of a sacred covenant which was in danger of being broken by the Jerusalem priesthood. Much of this is reflected in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The absence of a physical Temple was a crisis which was resolved by the idea of a Heavenly prototype with the Holy of Holies mystically transformed into the Chariot Throne of Ezekiel's vision. This tradition was carried on by the Qumran community who believed they were a priesthood in exile.

The Pharisees and Rabbinic Judaism, heirs of the rationalist movement, suppressed these ideas by excluding Enoch and Jubilees and claiming prophecy had ended with Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

However, it was the more mystical element of Judaism which inspired the Dead Sea Scrolls and Heikhalot literature. I would add that it was the more mystical element of Judaism which inspired John the Baptist (a prophet from a priestly family) who in turn inspired Jesus and the author of Revelation who undoubtedly had a priestly background.

This book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in a more ancient form of Judaism which spawned the Qumran Community and helped spawn Christianity.

With this book, Rachel Elior has contributed a great deal to the literature of Jewish mysticism. By taking a fresh look at this area in light of the discovery of, and subsequent work on, the Dead Sea Scrolls, she has done much to round out the picture of the development of Jewish mysticism from the time of Solomon all the way to the time of the Mishnah, and even to the present day.

That being said, I felt there were some omissions. I would have liked to have seen more discussion on how Jewish mysticism in general related to mysticism in other religions of the periods discussed. A footnote (no. 76 on pp.77-78) gives a tantalizing taste of Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, and even Gnostic and Mithraic cosmology, but it is up to the reader to do the additional research. But since little cultural and religious development happens in a vacuum, more detail about external influences intertwined as the book moved along through the stages of history would have been valuable. Additionally, within Judaism, an explanation of the impact of the differing views of the Zadokites and Sages on each other would have been welcome. Chapter nine lists in wonderful detail the stark differences between the different traditions religious and world views, but not a whole lot is said about how they affected each other practically in history. How did they deal with each other over time (we only get the ending)? How much did polemics lead to this deep separation (this is discussed, but only sparingly)?

Also, the author really seems to favor the secessionist view. I do not believe the appropriate balance was struck here. Rather there was a real sense that the rabbis were viewed as heavy-handed in the suppression of the secessionist texts. Even if the rabbis were harsh, more discussion is required as to the underlying reasons. They were defending the truth as they saw it, and the canon that comes down to us today is due to their diligence.

Another rather large oversight was that there is absolutely no mention of the non-priestly class. I think it would have been fascinating and informative to know how the lay person interacted with and viewed the priestly class in both traditions. How did ministering to the people affect the priest's role? How did the populace at large view the priests? Were they regarded with the importance they felt they should have? How did all of this affect the trajectory of the traditions? To read the book, one would barely know there was a laity.

As far as the way the book was edited, I would have liked to have seen more subheadings within chapters, shorter paragraphs, and more tables and charts. Some of the material is tough-going and rather dry, especially when there is in depth discussion about the importance of numbers (see most notably chapter two, but it occurs elsewhere also). Gratefully there are a couple of solar calendar charts and a table of dates dealing with Noah's time on the ark, but otherwise these discussions get bogged down in a morass of dates and numbers. I was grateful to have chapter nine broken down into sections for each of fourteen oppositional characteristics between secessionist and rabbinic texts, but there was only one other chapter that was broken up in more manageable pieces (but just two). Granted this is a scholarly work that will be of little interest to most casual readers, but that doesn't mean that it can't be made more accessible by presenting the material in smaller, more accessible sections. Run on paragraphs may be a part of the challenge of translating from another language, and overall the translator seems to have done a great job, but here again accessibility is aided when the concepts come in smaller packages.

In spite of these criticisms, much of value can be culled out of this book by the careful, interested reader. Filling the gaps in the previously widely accepted version of the development of Jewish mysticism provides the biblical scholar, historian, even archeologist, with food for thought when looking at Judaism over the thirteen or so centuries covered in this volume.