Hebrew Literature Part 73

754 Num. xix. 15.

755 Maimonides translates "lattice-work."

756 Or trelliswork.

757 This doctrine of intention has also been adopted into the system of Romanism. The Council of Trent (Session vii. Canon xi.) teaches that "Whoever shall affirm that when ministers perform and confer a sacrament, it is not necessary that they should have at least the intention to do what the Church does; let him be accursed." It follows, that if, for example, in the sacrament of orders, any bishop in any age failed in due intention, all the orders which flowed from him are invalid.

758 Chap. ix. 9; viii. 5.

759 Another rendering is, "in his garment."

760 A log is about half a pint.

761 Before eating ordinary food the hands must be washed once. Before eating consecrated food they must be washed twice.

762 Num. xix. 15.

_ 763 I.e._, from the uncleanness of a dead reptile.

764 And consequently does not purify the place covered by the splinter or stone, which remained unwashed by the first water.

765 Those that were legally clean continue clean, and those legally unclean continue unclean.

766 His hands render unclean what they touch.

767 His hands render sacred things unclean.

_ 768 I.e._, the putting his hands into a house infected with leprosy.

769 Literally "father of uncleanness," such as a corpse or dead reptile, etc.

_ 770 I.e._, uncleanness not containing the principle of uncleanness.

771 An object unclean in the secondary degree cannot make another unclean in the same degree.

772 Num. x. 35, 36. The rabbis count these verses a distinct book of the law.

773 When R. Eleazar, the son of Azariah, was made president of the school in Jamnia.

774 A cab is about three pints.

775 And could not contain water enough to wash one foot.

776 Of an unclean person.

777 It continues as long as its name, and as such cannot become unclean from pressure.

_ 778 I.e._, with Israelites dwelling there.

779 t.i.the for the poor could be eaten anywhere.

780 Second t.i.thes could only be eaten in Jerusalem. Deut. xiv. 22, 23.

781 The sixth year was fixed for the t.i.the to the poor, consequently in countries outside the land of Israel, and not subject to the Sabbatical rest, Israelites should pay the second t.i.the.

782 Mal. iii. 8. It is a.s.sumed that the prophet means the consecrated second t.i.the, and not the unconsecrated t.i.the for the poor.

783 Ps. xxv. 10.

784 Deut. xxiii. 3.

785 Isa. x. 13.

786 Jer. xlix. 6.

787 Amos ix. 14.

788 The ancient Hebrew letters are now called Samaritan. They are still used for writing by the small community of Samaritans who dwell in Nablus, in the Holy Land. The Jews now use the Chaldee characters; and the Talmud therefore errs in calling the old national letters a.s.syrian.

789 Some suppose the writings of Homer are meant; others think that these were books against revealed religion.

790 Exod. v. 2. The name of Pharaoh cannot be considered an insult to Moses, since it precedes the name of G.o.d.

791 Exod. ix. 27. This is merely added to avoid ending with Pharaoh's blasphemy.

792 That is, who had formed part of the Greater Holy a.s.sembly

793 Meaning that the Greater Holy a.s.sembly had been as it were the reflection of the conclave of the Sephiroth above. The word used for "chariot" is not "Mercavah," but "Rethikh."

_ 794 I.e._, the Paradise above.

795 In the original both this and the foregoing section, apparently by an oversight, have the number thirty-three attached to them.

796 Carrying on the simile of the lantern and its rays.

797 The Sephiroth.

798 Which is the number of Th, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which includes the symbology of the cross.

799 That is to say, which will hardly admit even of so vague a definition, seeing it is the Indefinite Absolute in Kether.

800 We must be most careful not to misapprehend the meaning intended to be conveyed in this pa.s.sage. Kether, the Ancient One, Macroprosopus, is not in the more restricted sense of the first Sephira, the AIN, but that that idea links back from Him must be manifest on consideration. Yet even He, the Vast Countenance, is hidden and concealed; how much more, then, the AIN! From Negative to Positive, through Potential Existence, eternally vibrates the Divine Absolute of the Hidden Unity of processional form masked in the Eternal Abyss of the Unknowable, the synthetical hieroglyph of an illimitable pastless futureless Present. To the uttermost bounds of s.p.a.ce rushes the Voice of Ages, unheard save in the concentrated unity of the thought-formulated Abstract, and eternally that Voice formulates a Word which is glyphed in the vast ocean of limitless life.

801 The thirteen conformations of the beard of Macroprosopus.

802 The Trinity completed by the Quaternary.

803 Kether, the first Sephira, from which all the other Sephiroth proceed, namely, those which are summed up in the Tetragrammaton.