CHAPTER XIX

CONCERNING THE EIGHTH PART OF THE BEARD OF MACROPROSOPUS.

424. THE eighth conformation. There goeth forth a certain tress of hairs surrounding the beard, and they hang down evenly into the heart. "Arise thou, Eleazar, my son, and expound this conformation."

425. Rabbi Eleazar, his son, arose, and commenced, and said: "All things depend from the influx, even the Book of the Law in the Temple. This have we understood from the 'Book of Concealed Mystery,' and it speaketh thus.

426. "Therefore do not then all things depend from the influx? Also we have learned that the Book of the Law must be holy, and its covering holy, and the Temple holy.

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427. "Also it is written, Isa. vi. 4: 'And they called one unto another and said: Holy, holy, holy!' Behold these three (repetitions of the word 'holy') unto which the Book of the Law correspondeth, for its covering is holy, and the Temple is holy, and the book itself is holy.

428. "And thus the law hath been constructed in triple holiness, in three degrees, in three days, (but) the Schechinah (is) in the three (following) which are the Table, the Ark, and the Temple; and in the same manner it dependeth from the Book of the Law, and that dependeth from the Influx.

429. "Also it is written, Jer. x. 2: 'Be ye not dismayed at the signs (or influences) of the heavens.' Because if they exist in holiness, in the same way they must depend from the Influx.

430. But thus have we read in the "Book of Concealed Mystery" that this venerable holy tress of hair, wherein all the locks of the beard hang down, is called the Influx. Wherefore? Because that all the holinesses of the holinesses of all holinesses depend from that Influx.

431. "And in the Book of the Law, although it is holy, the ten holinesses ¹ do not descend, until it be brought into the Temple. But after that it is brought into the Temple it is called holy with the ten holinesses.

432. "As in the above instance mention is not made of the Temple save when the ten holinesses are associated with it.

433. "Also we have learned that all things depend from

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that Influx which is (symbolised by) that tress of (hair of the beard) from which all (the other) hairs depend.

434. "Why is this called the Influx (or influence)? Because from it depend the influences and the influences of the influences, and from it come forth those which are above and those which are below.

435. "And because it dependeth, and that in it all the things of the universe depend, superiors and inferiors; also in the last place the Book of the Law, which is in the Temple, and is crowned with the ton holinesses, is not excepted hence with the other holinesses. All things depend from it (this conformation, namely).

436. "And he who beholdeth that form, before him are they subjected and inflected (others read: 'all sins are subjected, &c.'), according to that which is written: 'IKBVSh OVThINV, Yekebosh Auonothino, He hath pardoned our iniquities' (or He hath subjected, &c.)."

437. Rabbi Schimeon said unto him: "O my son! blessed be thou by the Holy of the Holy Ones, the One Ancient before all."

Footnotes

160:1 370 = OSh, Aush = formation, action, creation. And the least number of 3 + 70 = 37 = 70 = Malkuth, the decad of the Sephiroth.

160:2 Expressed by the re in return.

161:1 This of course refers to the ten Sephiroth. In the Sepher Yetzirah, SPR ITzIRH, a very ancient and mystical qabalistical book attributed to Abraham the Patriarch, which treats of the creation of the universe through the symbolism of the ten numbers (Sephiroth), and the twenty-two letters, together called the thirty-two paths of wisdom, where the ten numbers are derived into a tetrad and a hexad (the latter consisting of the four cardinal points of the compass, together with height and depth), this phrase is employed: "And in the midst of the hexad is the Holy Temple." This book "Yetzirah" is not included in the present volume.