The rich symbolic world of the Zohar has captivated readers for nearly 800 years. Across its thousands of pages, the “traditional” God of Judaism receives a stunningly rich array of new names and symbolic representations, many of which are applied to specific sefirot, to wit: Point, Nothingness, Being, Depths, Sun, Moon, River, Rose, Well and even Who and What. There are dozens more. All of them are significant and important for the mystical experience the Zohar teaches readers to cultivate. Learning to read the Zohar is not simply about learning which symbols pertain to which sefira, though this is important. On a deeper level, experiencing the quality of the symbols and feeling their poetic power is key to developing mystical understanding. A God called Who or Nothing is experienced differently from a God called Mother or Father or King, and so on.
Let us consider two powerful and surprising symbols that appear in the Zohar’s exposition of this week’s parashah, Acharei Mot (this year paired with Kedoshim): This and Time. To begin, here are the biblical verses that the Zohar is expounding: “YHVH said to Moses: Speak to Aaron, your brother, that he not enter at any time (et) into the sanctuary within the curtain, in front of the cover that is on the Ark, lest he die. For in the cloud I shall appear over the cover. With this (zot) shall Aaron enter the sanctuary, with a bull from the herd for a purification offering and a ram for an ascent offering” (Leviticus 16:2–3). The Zohar understands the words time (et) and this (zot, a grammatically feminine word) as symbols for Shekhinah, the final female sefira and the aspect of God in immediate contact with our world. Here is its comment:
Rabbi Shimon said: … the Blessed Holy One came to warn Aaron not to commit the same sin that his sons committed. For this time is well known, so he should not err by joining a different time to the King, as is written: “… that he not enter at any time (literally: with all times) into the sanctuary” (Leviticus 16:2) — meaning … he must not grasp it, bringing it near holiness.
Zohar 3:58b
Infamously, Aaron’s sons Nadav and Avihu offered a “strange fire” on the altar and were summarily struck down (Leviticus 10:1). Because his sons approached the holy incorrectly, the advice to Aaron in this parashah is corrective — telling him (and us) how to approach the holy.
The Zohar’s symbolic assignments are not arbitrary. Shekhinah is This, the feminine demonstrative, because she is the closest sefira and also because she is right here, immediately accessible, constantly present. She is also Time because she (and indeed all phenomenal reality) is always changing.
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By contrast, the “different time” that must not be united with God is Lilith, the demonic female. Unlike Nadav and Avihu, who brought demonic time into the Holy of Holies, Aaron must enter only with Shekhinah, the sacred Time.
Continuing on:
Therefore, a warning to Aaron, that he not enter “with all times” into the sanctuary. But with what shall he enter? WithThis, as we have established: “With this, shall Aaron enter the sanctuary” (Leviticus 16:3).
Zohar 3:58b
Aaron (and we, the readers who, like him, seek to enter the holy) can only do so with full intention focused on This, the right here and right now. Otherwise, he (and we) are entering at the wrong time, in the wrong manner.
It’s not just that timing matters, but that God — specifically the Shekhinah — is time. The idea is a potent one. Consider the following homily which also draws on verses from Acharei Mot:
“It is time to act for YHVH” (Psalms 119:126).There is a time, and then there is a time! “A time to love, and a time to hate”(Ecclesiastes 3:8). There is a time above, for that time is mystery of faith … this is the one whom a person must love. There is another time, who is the mystery of othergods, whom a person must hate and after whom his heart should not be drawn. So, “a time to hate.” Therefore, regarding Aaron it is written: “Speak to Aaron your brother, that he not come at just any time into the holy place” (Leviticus 16:2). When Israel engages in Torah, that Time of faith is arrayed in Her adornments and bedecked to perfection. But when Israel neglects Torah, that time, as it were, is unadorned, imperfect and unillumined — as is written: “It is time to act for YHVH …” for so that time exists, either ascending or descending on account of Israel.
Zohar 2:155b
Time, meaning God, or more specifically Shekhinah, is in our hands. It can be adorned and elevated or wasted and profaned. The idea that God’s fate is in our hands, that Time can be actualized and brought to fullness in YHVH, is astounding, but in a sense also obvious to each one of us in our own way.
Studying the Zohar and learning to experience the world through its eyes is a great gift. Learning that God is Time, is This, is Here — is perhaps one of the greatest gifts of all. Defining mysticism is notoriously difficult, but surely the nowness and hereness of God is central to a mystical apprehension of reality.
One generation before the Zohar, the kabbalistic biblical commentator Nahmanides summarized this idea in his commentary to the very last parashah in the Torah, Vezot Haberakhah (literally: “And This Is the Blessing”): “So also by way of the Truth, vezot, ‘and this,’ is the blessing.” Knowledge of the This-ness of God is the blessing.
She is Time. She is This. She is Here. She is Now. She is This Time Here and Now.
This piece was originally published as part of A Year of Zohar: Kabbalah for Everyone, an original series produced by My Jewish Learning and Sefaria. Sign up for the entire series here.
