Travelling on the Heavenly Road
The Aspect of Travel in Hekhalot and Merkavah Literature
Lisa de Goffau
University of Amsterdam MA Hebrew and Jewish Studies 12-06-2017
Contents
Preface 3
1. Introduction 4
1.1 Research towards Hekhalot and Merkavah literature 4
1.2.1 Methods of research 6
1.2.2 Methodological issues 7
2. Introduction in Travel Literature 8
2.1 The genre of travel literature and its history 8
2.2 Aspects of travel in travel literature 11
2.3 Research methods: a questionnaire 15
3. Aspects of Travel in Hekhalot and Merkavah Literature 17
3.1.1 Hekhalot Zutarti 17
3.1.2 Aspects of travel in Hekhalot Zutarti 18
3.2 Hekhalot Rabbati 28
3.3 Ma‘aseh Merkavah 31
3.4 3 Enoch 34
4. Conclusions 36
Preface
‘The Sages taught: Four entered the orchard and they are as follows: Ben Azzay, Ben Zoma,
the Other (Aḥer) and R. Akiva. And R. Akiva said to them: When you reach the pure marble stones, do not say: Water, water!, because it is said: ‘He who speaks falsehood shall not be established before My eyes (Ps. 101:7).’
Ben Azzay peered and died. About him, scripture says: ‘Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of His pious ones (Ps. 116:15).’ Ben Zoma peered and was wounded. About him, scripture says: ‘Have you found honey? Eat sufficient, lest you become full from it and vomit it (Prv. 25:16).’ Aḥer peered and cut the sprouts. About him, scripture says: ‘Do not let your mouth bring your flesh into sin (Ecc. 5:5).’ R. Akiva went up in peace and came down in peace.’ (Babylonian Talmud, Hagigah 14b)
This peculiar piece of text is a well-known passage from the Talmud and is often cited when discussing Hekhalot and Merkavah literature. I see this text as an appropriate introduction to this research, because this short passage describes many elements and traditions present in Hekhalot and Merkavah literature and gives a vivid image of the topic that I would like to discuss in this research: travel.
What is this story about? What are the main characters doing and where are they going? One thing is very clear: whatever they are doing, is quite dangerous! At least two of the four characters are harmed and the third ‘cut the sprouts’? This phrase is often interpreted as becoming apostate, so also Aḥer does not receive a happy end. But where could the rabbis be going which proves to be so dangerous?
Many scholars discussed the meaning of the word ‘pardes’ which is generally translated as orchard. According to Halperin the term orchard implies a pleasurable park or garden as translated from rabbinic Hebrew. However, it seems impossible that a nice park could hold such dangers as to which the rabbis are exposed in the text. Many scholars, including Davila as proved in chapter 3, will translate the Hebrew word as ‘paradise’. The word ‘paradise’ has been explained in different ways, since the term itself can hold many meanings. ‘Paradise’ in this story has been interpreted as heaven or the throne room where God Himself houses or one of the seven heavenly palaces. However the more metaphorical meaning of ‘paradise’ is the teaching of the Torah and in particular the secret teachings of the Torah. 1 Apparently, the rabbis are involved in something so dangerous or so secret, that only the most wise and pious rabbi, R. Akiva, can complete the task and even advice the other rabbis on a dangerous situation on the road. He ascended and descended in peace and must therefore have survived the journey?
This story, although very suspenseful in my opinion, leaves more questions than it answers. The possibility of a heavenly journey performed by the rabbis speaks strongly to the imagination, but what are they rewarded with when they complete this dangerous journey? What is their motivation to even risk their lives? Is the story speaking of an actual or visual journey in order to see something of the heavens, or is the journey simply a metaphor for something spiritually gained by or changed in the mind of the rabbis? And what does the text mean by citing biblical verses as an explanation for the fates of the rabbis? What is there that we do not know about a journey to heaven?
1. Introduction
1.1 Research towards Hekhalot and Merkavah literature
The past two years I have submerged myself in the study of Hekhalot and Merkavah literature. Although two years is definitely too short to completely grasp the complex and intriguing world of Hekhalot and Merkavah, I can say that I obtained a comprehensive overall impression of the corpus and the research surrounding it. I wish to add that it had long been my wish to study Hekhalot and Merkavah since the moment I heard of this corpus several years ago. This thesis is the final outcome of my journey through Hekhalot and Merkavah literature, although I hope to be able to continue to work and study on this topic.
The academic field that occupies itself with the study of Hekhalot and Merkavah literature is quite extensive, but also accessible since the core of the academic literature forms itself around two main scholars. The research towards this topic has mainly evolved in the 1980’s, although the research started earlier, with the leading scholar G. Scholem who can be named as the main researcher who sparked future interest in Hekhalot and Merkavah literature. Scholem’s most important and famous work is the extensive book Major Trends in
Jewish Mysticism2 from 1941 which forms the outcome of his study in Jewish mystical
literature for a twenty-year period. Scholem elaborates on his idea of the central position of mysticism within Jewish religion and tradition. He argues that mysticism is an inherent outcome of the development within Judaism and praises mysticism as the essence of Judaism. He points to traces of mysticism in rabbinic literature, such as the Talmud and Midrashim and compares Hekhalot and Merkavah literature to these traditions. For Scholem the presence of mysticism in Hekhalot and Merkavah literature is evident and he traces the traditions back to Pharisaic circles placing Hekhalot and Merkavah literature in the second and third century CE in the Palestinian region.
P. Schäfer published his Synopse3, a synoptic edition that presents the Hebrew text
from various manuscripts of the Hekhalot and Merkavah corpus, and a translation with extensive commentary in the 1980’s by which he made the text of the many Hekhalot and Merkavah sources accessible for many scholars, including scholars who do not read Hebrew. In this Übersetzung der Hekhalot-Literatur4 he also presents his ideas about the provenance, dating and place among the rabbinic literature of Hekhalot and Merkavah literature. Schäfer argues for a Babylonian background from the fifth to seventh century CE pulling the Hekhalot and Merkabah texts away from the rabbinic literature cited by Scholem. Schäfer focusses on the adjurations present in the text in his reaction to Scholem: Gershom Scholem
Reconsidered: The Aim and Purpose of Early Jewish Mysticism5 where he questions the place of mysticism in the corpus. Other important scholars who have made important contributions to the study of Hekhalot and Merkavah literature are among others I. Gruenwald6, D. Halperin7, M.D. Swartz8 and J. Davila9, and of course H. Odeberg10 for the research to 3 Enoch. In chapter 3, I will occasionally elaborate on the opinions of especially Scholem and Schäfer when discussing individual texts from the Hekhalot and Merkavah corpus.
2 G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York: Schocken Books, 1941). 3 P. Schäfer, Synopse zur Hekhalot-Literatur (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr Tübingen, 1981).
4 P. Schäfer, Übersetzung der Hekhalot-Literatur. 5 vols. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr Tübingen, 1987.
5 P. Schäfer, Gershom Scholem Reconsidered: The Aim and Purpose of Early Jewish Mysticism (Oxford: The
Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies, 1986).
6 I. Gruenwald, Apocalyptic and Merkabah Mysticism (Leiden: Brill, 1980).
7 Halperin, The Faces of the Chariot and D.J. Halperin, The Merkabah in Rabbinic Literature. Vol. 62 of American Oriental Series. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1980.
8 M. D. Swartz, Mystical Prayer in Ancient Judaism (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr Tübingen, 1992).
9 J.R. Davila, Hekhalot Literature in Translation: Major Texts of Merkavah Mysticism (Leiden: Brill, 2013). 10 H. Odeberg, 3 Enoch or the Hebrew Book of Enoch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1928).
The research towards the Hekhalot and Merkavah corpus is often occupied with major questions about the provenance, dating, classification and place among other Jewish literature of the texts as seen in the works of Schäfer and Scholem, and for example in the book by D. Halperin, The Merkabah in Rabbinic Literature11, wherein he compares mystical traditions in
Hekhalot and Merkavah texts with traditions in Talmudic and other rabbinic texts. Besides philological research, other scholars research linguistic and/or semantical characteristics and questions within the Hekhalot and Merkavah texts, as for example the book by Kuyt12 in which she researches the semantical meaning of the word yeridah in the corpus. In my opinion, these are the two main research ‘branches’, which define the research towards Hekhalot and Merkavah literature. Within this field, the research towards comparing Hekhalot and Merkavah with other Jewish and non-Jewish traditions and texts is the major tool and research goal, which is understandable since it helps to formulate a date and provenance of these texts. The research thereby contains strong rabbinic connotations. This of course is logical in the sense that the rabbinic background of the texts is undeniable and many scholars such as Scholem and Schäfer attribute the texts to a group of rabbinic or priestly writers. However, scholars do not agree on the composition of the corpus, the dating, the topics discussed in the texts and possible origins or author(s) which makes the Hekhalot and Merkavah corpus a difficult corpus to draw general conclusions from.
In my opinion, it seems that relatively new research towards Hekhalot and Merkavah literature mostly builds on established theories and discusses very specific topics within the content of the texts and philological or semantical issues as discussed above. Every research has its own worth to the academic field of course, but I feel the major focus on the philological issues within the texts and comparative research from the perspective of rabbinic traditions, does not shed light on the substantive nature of the Hekhalot and Merkavah texts. In addition, I would like to remark that I am interested in new means of researching this corpus in order to examine the essence of Hekhalot and Merkavah literature. Therefore, I would like to introduce a relatively modern and vastly expending academic field within literature studies to the Hekhalot and Merkavah corpus in order to offer new insights to the means of research of Hekhalot and Merkavah literature. In the last ten years, travel literature has received a large amount of attention, as well in the academic field as from the general public, while it has an extensive literary history taking flight with the first discovery expeditions.
I have examined the academic literature on travel literature in order to understand the current state of research towards the characteristics, methodological issues and history of the genre, and to serve as a secure base for my research towards Hekhalot and Merkavah literature. While reading about travel literature, I have come across multiple characteristics or aspects of travel which are often imbedded in travel literature or travel writing, for example the variety of motives for travelling and eventually the relation between the traveler and the
Other which by a movement through space come in contact with one another.13 These characteristics form the core of travel literature. I would like to examine several of the main characteristics which are inseparable from travel literature and compare them with the Hekhalot and Merkavah corpus. Heavenly journeys form, as it where, the stepping stones in Hekhalot and Merkavah literature and even though they do not display a physical movement through terrestrial space, the person attempting the journey through the palaces and into heaven does experience changes of places and scenery in which he comes in contact with the unfamiliar. Therefore I think certain aspects of travel which are presented in travel literature can be applied in Hekhalot and Merkavah as well, that could not only spark new insights for
11 Halperin, The Merkabah.
12 A. Kuyt, The ‘Descent’ to the Chariot (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr Tübingen, 1995). 13 C. Thompson, Travel Writing (London, New York: Routledge, 2011), 10.
the research itself, but could also offer us new insights in what distinguishes Hekhalot and Merkavah literature as a corpus. I think travel could take a more defining and prominent place in the Hekhalot and Merkavah corpus than often recognized by scholars who view the journey to the heavens as a tool for mystical experiences and traditions. Therefore I expect that an approach from the perspective of travel literature could expose another layer of meaning and information within the Hekhalot and Merkavah texts. In this thesis I will ask myself the following question: ‘Which aspects of travel as presented in travel literature and discussed in modern studies on travel literature can be found in Hekhalot and Merkavah literature and what does this mean for the overall interpretation of the corpus?’
1.2.1 Methods of research
In my research, I will firstly perform an examination into the academic literature concerning travel literature in order to present a comprehensive overview of the history of travel literature and the development of the academic research towards travel literature in chapter 2. As a preparation for the eventual questionnaire in which my research method will take shape, I will discuss several major aspects, characteristics and interpretations of travel in travel literature and possible stylistics motifs and strategies. It is my goal to be as inclusive as possible and discuss the most important aspects that are also evident for the academic research towards travel literature. Although sufficient for this research, it will not be a complete description of travel literature. At the end of chapter 2, I hope I will be able to create a questionnaire which poses the right questions from the perspective of travel literature that can be transferred to Hekhalot and Merkavah texts.
In preparation for chapter 3, I chose four texts from the Hekhalot and Merkavah corpus which could form the representation of the corpus in this research. The corpus of Hekhalot and Merkavah literature consists of several main texts on which scholars agree that these texts form the basic corpus. There are however several additional texts, editions and sources including Hekhalot and Merkavah material to choose from. I have drafted two criteria to which the texts have to adhere: 1) the text must contain a heavenly journey and 2) the content of the text must contain unique and complete substantive passages in relation to the corpus as a whole. According to these criteria I have selected the following texts as my main corpus: Hekhalot Rabbati (§§81-121, §§152-173, §§189-277), Hekhalot Zutarti (§§335-375, §§407-426), Ma‘aseh Merkavah (§§544-596), and 3 Enoch (chapter 1-48). In the preface, I have elaborated on the Pardes story which in my opinion, should also be part of my selection. There are of course many other texts which could be included, such as the Geniza fragments, Merkavah Rabba and Massekhet Hekhalot, but in my opinion these texts show relatively little additional content that is not represented in the four texts I chose.
Chapter 3 will be dominated by the comparison of the chosen texts to the aspects of travel literature through the answering of the questionnaire. Each text will be separately discussed and provided with a small introduction in which I will elaborate on the historical background of the text. I will only perform the questionnaire completely for a single text, since it would be too extensive to repeat this step for every Hekhalot and Merkavah text and it would add little additional information and insights. The three other texts will be individually discussed and compared to the questionnaire, and the outcome and insights gained from the first text. I think the comparisons will expose parallels and differences which will pose new questions to and insights in the Hekhalot and Merkavah texts which I will collect and describe in the final chapter where I hope to be able to draw some conclusions from my findings. All in all, I expect my research to offer an interesting take on literary research within the field of Hekhalot and Merkavah literature and this will hopefully spark new interest for this fascinating corpus in the academic field as well as with the general public.
The Hekhalot and Merkavah corpus has much to offer in my opinion and can be a good example of researching the intriguing world of the unknown as did R. Akiva and R. Ishmael when they entered the heavens.
1.2.2 Methodological issues
A major methodological issue in this research which combines ancient texts with a relative modern genre of literature and modern academic research towards it, is anachronism which is often meticulously avoided in academic literature on this topic which is understandable if one wants to retrace the historical context of the texts. I realise that many historical developments to which important characteristic are tied to, cannot be compared to the contents of the Hekhalot and Merkavah texts. I will take this problem into account when drafting and answering the questionnaire, but I will also partly set this problem aside, since it is my intention to introduce the ancient corpus to a more modern way of thinking and researching in order to reach new possibilities and look with new eyes to the research towards Hekhalot and Merkavah literature. Therefore I will focus less on specific characteristics of travel literature, but all the more on the aspect of travel itself and how this is described and used in travel literature. Therefore I will elaborate on the history of travel literature in the next chapter, since many of the broader aspects of travel literature developed throughout pre-modern and modern history. Thus I hope that the obvious anachronism that will occur, can be forgiven and this research will lead to a broad spectrum of insights in the travel performed in Hekhalot and Merkavah literature.
Secondly, making a selection from the texts from the Hekhalot and Merkavah corpus proved not to be an easy task. As I explained in the previous paragraph, I chose four texts on the basis of two criteria. However I feel my choice needs additional explanation. I researched many texts within the corpus together with their historical and philological background. Many of the research done, involves the comparison of multiple manuscripts, editions and additional passages and traditions in order to retrace the provenance of the texts and their relation to other ancient texts. This is however a path I do not want to tread with this research. Therefore I chose texts which in my opinion represent the wide variety of narrative information the corpus has to offer, as best as possible. I do not wish to add to the existing research on the various manuscripts and editions, although I will elaborate on the research done on this topic for each of the chosen texts in chapter 3.
Thirdly, in this thesis I will quote multiple passages from the Hekhalot and Merkavah texts in order to illustrate the comparisons and parallels I will make. Since this research should be comprehensive and helpful to readers who are not familiar with Hebrew, I will quote the passages in English, although in some cases I will provide the Hebrew text when necessary for the illustration of interesting formulations. I use the Synopse by P. Schäfer14 for the Hebrew sources since this is the most broadly used work for the various manuscripts and Hebrew texts. I use the book Hekhalot Literature in Translation: Major Texts of Merkavah
Mysticism by J. Davila15 as a source for the English translations. His translations are clear and comprehensive, while Davila bases his translation of the manuscripts and Hebrew texts given in the Synopse. Therefore the text and translations will be compatible and provide secure academic handles to enable the reader to research the texts further in the Synopse and
Hekhalot Literature in Translation.
14 Schäfer, Synopse.
2. Introduction in Travel Literature
2.1 The genre of travel literature and its history
Travel is a journey of the body and the soul. In order to achieve a new perspective on the field of Hekhalot and Merkavah literature, I intend to look at the material with new and foremost modern glasses. As noted in the previous chapter, the corpus of Hekhalot and Merkavah literature is difficult to define and to classify. We can however determine some basic characteristics: 1) this corpus offers multiple written texts and 2) these written texts tell one or more stories and experiences. These stories can be incomplete, have no clear beginning or end, and contain difficult and complicated traditions. However, Hekhalot and Merkavah texts contain written accounts of stories and experiences, and therefore I think the corpus can be approached from the field of literary studies. Modern day literature knows dozens of genres and subgenres which gives numerous opportunities for a new perspective on Hekhalot and Merkavah literature. Of course there needs to be some affinity between the chosen genre and the corpus. Therefore I focused on the third characteristic of Hekhalot and Merkavah literature that seems to be inevitable: (heavenly) journeys. Even though it remains a question if an actual journey takes place, the act of travel takes a central place in the corpus. Secondary, the increasing popularity of the genre of travel literature and the attention the genre has received in the academic world the last decade, makes this genre interesting to use in a modern examination of ancient texts. Thus I chose the genre of travel literature to be my guide through the intricate world of Hekhalot and Merkavah literature.
In the second half of the twentieth century, travel stories gained popularity with the general audience partly due to new travel writers who appealed to a broad audience. In reaction to the new additions to the genre, the important British literary journal Granta published multiple issues on travel literature between 1980 and 1990. The underlying development to the increased popularity of travel literature was the newly found mobility and thereby globalisation experienced by especially wealthy people. The second reason for choosing travel literature as my perspective on the corpus, is the increasing interest in the genre from within the academic world. Besides increased (e)migration, globalisation also brought a new form of travel forth: tourism which awakened a new interest in stories from abroad. With the increased popularity of the genre with the readers, the academic world also took interest in travel literature and its rich history and particular aspects. In the case of the academic study on travel literature, the development of post-colonialism and post-colonial studies formed an important factor. With the theory of orientalism introduced by Said, the way in which ‘we’ in the Western world see and describe the ‘rest’ became an important perspective in the established academic studies. Feminism is often treated alongside orientalism in which the often neglected contributions of women in literary and other studies, are discussed. Especially orientalism is a major topic in the studies on travel literature, since a large part of travel stories and writings tell of direct encounters with another world, other people and other cultures.16 Since Hekhalot and Merkavah literature stems from before the colonial period and an actual journey on earth doesn’t take place, I will not discuss orientalism any further in this thesis. And since nothing is known about the author(s) of these texts or about the context in which these texts were written, I will also not include feminism.
Before travel literature gained popularity among scholars and the general public, the genre was looked down upon. Some writers and scholars did not even acknowledge it as a genuine genre and some contemporary scholars and critics argue that travel literature cannot be viewed as a true literary genre on its own. This is partly due to the complicated and hybrid nature of the genre. What is travel literature? C. Thompson gives a definition: a record or
16 Thompson, Travel Writing, 2-4.
product of the encounter between a traveller and the Other which has been established by a movement through space, and of the negotiation between similarity and difference that the journey entailed. Thompson: “All journeys are in this way a confrontation with, or more optimistically a negotiation of, what is sometimes termed alterity.”17 The traveller sets out on a journey in which he moves from one place to the other, often a not yet known place by the traveller. He experiences the changes of scenery, climate, culture and people. In the traveller’s writing he accounts of his experiences, but also includes some of his own cultural and ideological background in his perspective on the new and the Other. Therefore the account will inevitably never be an objective description of people and cultural phenomena, even if the goal of the travel writer is to deliver such an account.
The boundary between fiction and non-fiction is a delicate one in travel literature. Youngs illustrates this by the following quote from Charles Forsdick18: “the generic indeterminacy of the travelogue, a literary form situated somewhere between scientific observation and fiction, while simultaneously problematizing any clear-cut distinction of those two poles.”19 Most writers will embellish their texts in order to add to the tension, suspense, and aesthetics of their story or even to increase the credibility of their accounts. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe is a purely fictional book with no accounts of actual travelling undertaken by the writer, even though the story is likely to be based on real people serving as an inspiration for Daniel Defoe.20 By most Robinson Crusoe is considered travel literature, which indicates the difficulty between fiction and non-fiction in travel writing. The ambiguity of truth in travel literature, is one of the major issues defining this genre. With this ambiguity, ideological, religious and political matters can become entangled in the travel writer’s accounts. The consequences of this should be kept in mind of which orientalism forms a possible example. Thus the cultural (and political!) background of the writer, the popularity with the general audience and the gathering of multiple academic disciplines in the genre induced that travel literature was and is often dismissed as less of a contribution to the academic discourse.21 Even writers were not too keen on the genre showed by the following quote from Jan Morris: “I’ve never thought of myself as a travel writer. The term travel writing seems a bit demeaning.”22
Even though travel literature carries some negative connotations, the genre nevertheless has much to offer and consists of a rich variety of different travel stories casted in a multitude of literary forms. Travel books can consist of poems, novels, travel logs, autobiographies, diaries, essays etc. A written travel story always forms a hybrid between travel literature and one or more other genres depending on the eventual form the travel stories is presented. Therefore it is difficult to draw the line on what is travel literature and what is not, which leads to inclusive and exclusive definitions of travel literature. Paul Fussell wields a strict definition on the type of literary works which can be called travel literature. According to Fussell travel writing applies to the travel book which contains prose narratives sometimes accompanied by additions such as maps or other non-narrative forms of information with the function of illustrating or exemplifying the narrative. He presses the autobiographical character of travel books, since the experiences and descriptions of the author colour the narrative. With his strict definition of travel writing, Fussell also uses a strict definition of travel itself in which he condemns modern day tourism. Also travel in the
17 Thompson, Travel Writing, 9-10.
18 T. Youngs, The Cambridge Introduction to Travel Writing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 1. 19 Ch. Forsdick, “French Representations of Niagara: From Hennepin to Butor,” in American Travel and Empire,
ed. Susan Castillo and David Seed (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2009), 58.
20 Youngs, Cambridge Introduction, 4. 21 Thompson, Travel Writing, 30-33.
Ancient World is not ‘proper travel’ according to him. There has to be a sense of travel for the sake of travel in which a traveller seeks new experiences for himself and defines them by his own perspective, hence the autobiographical aspect in Fussell’s definition: “a sub-species of memoir in which the autobiographical narrative arises from the speaker’s encounter with distant or unfamiliar data, and in which the narrative – unlike that in a novel or a romance – claims literal validity by constant reference to actuality.”23 Just as travel purely for pleasure, tourism, does not imply ‘proper travel’, also travel for exploration, trade or refugees is not travel considered suitable for travel literature. Hence guidebooks designed to help tourists on their way, log books, maps, and relatively older material, such as ships’ logs, letters, tales of pilgrimage, etc. do not meet the definition of travel literature as Fussell poses.
Zweder Von Martels attains a drastically more inclusive definition of travel literature. According to Von Martels both prose works and poetic works can be classified as travel literature and the genre holds a broad variety of branches of literary forms in which accounts of journeys or experiences abroad are told.24 This inclusive definition leads to a vast expanding corpus of travel literature and shows the counterpart of the exclusive definition of Fussell. This research will follow an inclusive definition of travel literature, since the comparison with the corpus of Hekhalot and Merkavah literature demands an open outlook on the possibilities of the travel literature genre. Even though the defining of travel literature seems to be equally troublesome as to Hekhalot and Merkavah literature, the central aspect of travel proves to be of all ages.
It is not my intention to set forth a complete historical overview of travel literature, since I do not have the expertise nor the space in this thesis. Thompson25 or Youngs26 do offer an elaborate chronological overview of travel literature and travel writers on whom I also base my short exposition. However it is useful to gain an overall idea of the most important stages and changes in travel literature trough history in order to fully understand the historical background behind travel and its narrative during which general characteristics of the genre developed. In the next paragraph I will elaborate more on the historical developments of some specific characteristics of travel in travel literature.
There is a range of possibilities in regard to where a history of travel literature should start, because this depends on what is defined as travel literature and what not. In Ancient Egypt we find stories and descriptions of travels in excavated tombs dating from the third century BCE. These are mostly accounts of travel on behalf of the pharaoh or another high official, or of trade. One of the most famous travel stories from Mesopotamia is the story of the immortality seeking Gilgamesh from the second century BCE. In Ancient Greece and Rome it was common to document a journey oversees in so-called periploi (Greece) or
navigationes (Rome). However these accounts of travel seem to include rather documentation
than an actual narrative. The story of Gilgamesh can be qualified as a narrative, but it is likely that this is a purely fictional story. Youngs also questions the status of Biblical stories as travel literature.27 With the rise of Christianity, also pilgrimage developed, taking flight under Constantine in the fifth century CE with the crusades to Jerusalem as the leading role in pilgrimage stories. Written accounts of pilgrimage defined the travel literature in the Middle Ages, later accompanied with knightly quests.
23 P. Fussell, Abroad: British Literary Travelling Between the Wars (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982),
203.
24 Z. Von Martels, eds., Travel Fact and Travel Fiction: Studies on Fiction, Literary Tradition, Scholarly
Discovery and Observation in Travel Writing (Leiden, New York, Köln: E.J. Brill, 1994), xi.
25 Thompson, Travel Writing, 34-61. 26 Youngs, Cambridge Introduction, 19-86. 27 Ibid., 22-23.
The thirteenth to sixteenth century were marked by discovery expeditions and their accounts with the stories of Marco Polo (1254-1324), John Mandeville from whom the story circulated between 1357 and 1371, Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) and Richard Hakluyt (1553-1616) as the most well-known expeditioners. These expeditions had various purposes; foremost the discovery of new land, but also to serve the imperialism of European rulers, to discover and claim trade routes or to bring civilization and Christianity to ‘barbaric’ people. Therefore the written accounts of these journeys are strongly biased and it is often uncertain if the writer actually saw what he described or if it came to him second-hand.
The beginning of the eighteenth century is often marked as the beginning of modern travel literature. Under the influence of expending mobility, the upper class increasingly travelled for pleasure developing an early form of tourism. Parallel to this development, trade and thereby the emergence of colonialism grew to a global level and professionalised into large oversea companies. In the second half of the eighteenth century, Romanticism emerged which also influenced increasing production of travel literature and the tendency to incorporate more and more fiction into travel stories. Famous novelists wrote stories about travels of which Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe is the most well-known. This is also a good example of travel stories which are not based on a specific real journey by the writer. Most of the world had been discovered and described, so the focus shifted from written accounts of discoveries to personal impressions by travellers, real or fictional. Writers became more creative with multiple forms of writing, prose and poetry, and stylistic and aesthetic means in order to make their stories more colourful. At the end of the eighteenth century the Grand Tour became the defining factor for the travel literature of that time. Young men from the upper class undertook journeys through Europe visiting the major cities in search of the historical and artistic highlights and (sexual) experiences as a rite of passage.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century travel became more available for the middle class by which the Grand Tour lost its exclusive status which proved to become its demise. Literacy increased and more travel writers emerged during the aftermath of Romanticism. Tourism became a more common leisure, which sparked the production of guidebooks for tourists. The twentieth century brought other disciplines closer to travel literature, such as anthropology and sociology. But also the arts became an important path leader for travel literature. Today travel literature is still popular although we perceive travel stories separate from guidebooks and itineraries. Travelling is accessible for almost everyone in the Western world, and we use guidebooks beside information presented on the internet for our travels, while the reading of travel stories is a popular time passing in order to escape from our often busy and rushed lives.
2.2 Aspects of travel in travel literature
The genre of travel literature shows to be an elaborate maze of different subgenres, definitions and (sometimes paradoxical) characteristics which have been developed out of its long history, multifunctional and utilitarian nature and overwhelming dimension of the discussed topic: our world and its cultures, religions, civilizations, fantasies etc. As with Hekhalot and Merkavah literature, one major theme is absolute and reoccurring in its texts: travel. Travel in its purest sense could be described as a movement through space, from one place to another. But is it travel to walk from your house to the supermarket? Or drive from your work back home? We clearly do not define this as travel. But what makes travel really travel? Thompson emphasises ‘the encounter between a traveller and the Other which has been established by a movement through space’28 when speaking of travel. The defining factor between ‘real’ travel and movement in your direct environment is the encounter with something new: something
28 Thompson, Travel Writing, 10.
the traveller has not encountered before or does not encounter daily. This definition is not conclusive however. One can think of travels in which the traveller encounters unfamiliar things, people and scenes, but would not so easily qualify as the travel accounted in travel stories, such as travels undertaken by refugees for example, as Thompson admits.29 M. Baine Campbell makes a distinction between the ‘old’ motifs of travelling; home, departure, destination and the liminal space in between, and the new motif of the lived experience of the traveller.30 Even though the descriptions of travel of both scholars do not completely align with each other, one does get the sense that there is something more to travel than simply moving oneself from one place to the other. The traveller undergoes something: he experiences, learns, and sees something which inevitably involves the Other.
The first major aspect of travel which is described in travel literature is the Other. In most academic publications on travel literature, the encounter that takes place while traveling and ultimately becomes the subject of the story, is thoroughly discussed. Especially during the age of discovery expeditions, the encounter with the Other and the description thereof is the basic goal of the travel and its account. New experiences, new people and new sceneries spark the sense of wonder in the traveller which presents itself in a mixture of awe, fascination and even fear. The feeling of wonder is a desirable feeling for any traveller, beside his of hers secondary intentions, and even touches with a sense of the sublime. Maybe it is this particular feeling which separates ‘real’ travel from any other movement?
Since the traveller is exposed to unfamiliar things, describing them in an orderly, clear and (up to a certain level) objective fashion is a severe challenge. Travellers often write they don’t have the proper words in which they can describe what they have seen. “You have to have been there.” In medieval and pre-modern travel writing, travellers often refer or attach their descriptions to something that is familiar in their own culture which will also be relatable to the reader. Parallel to clear and appealing descriptions, these methods of writing also serve to increase the credibility of the writer’s account. Travel accounts often pose epistemological difficulties whereas writers want to be believed for their stories and readers are critical towards their accounts. Writers often embellish their texts to make them more convincing. They can draw credibility from basing their information on authoritarian sources or people who support or refer to their descriptions. In medieval times the Bible, the writings of the Church Fathers and classical philosophers often served as the perspective in which new information was presented. With the dawn of the Renaissance, empirical research and argumentation became the basis for accounts that were considered reliable.
A travel writer may choose to describe his account in first person in order to raise the empirical character of his findings. However some writers refrain from any form of personal and empirical additions in order to seem as objective as possible and trust on elaborate ‘scientific’ and impersonal descriptions of their subjects.31 Besides deliberate and undeliberate attempts to attain accurate and believable accounts of travels, the perspective of the writer influenced by his own cultural background will shine through in his accounts. But the travel writer is not only a vessel for his own cultural and historical context; he will also reveal some of his inner self.
In the first paragraph I have explained some factors as to why travel literature became such a popular genre. An addition to this argumentation could be that travel literature speaks to our inner self, our feelings, our own experiences and our own struggles in life. A journey is often used as a metaphor for inner changes, emotional and mental, in ourselves.32 In life we
29 Thompson, Travel Writing, 10.
30 M. Baine Campbell, “Travel writing and its theory,” in The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing ed. P.
Hulme, T. Youngs (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 263.
31 Thompson, Travel Writing, 62-95. 32 Ibid., 97.
are faced with new experiences and challenges everyday which shape us to who we are. Every time we encounter something new, it alters us in a way and adds to our development. This in itself can be seen as a journey, a journey through life. But when major life changes come on our path, we need to conquer the intense emotions and struggles we are faced with, and this can take a substantial amount of time and effort. This is an emotional journey we need to make before we overcome it and finish the journey as a changed person. A traveller undergoing such a mental process can describe it side by side with his actual travel, but other forms of revealing the self in travel stories are possible. The traveller can describe all the things he encounters on his journey and in order to add to the aesthetical (and sometimes dramatic) effect, he can set out his emotional reaction to it. Adding emotional descriptions is often used to amplify the credibility of the described experiences. The development from ‘telling’ to ‘showing’ is often connected with the Romantic movement and its sentimental approach to travelling, although this was not such a clear turning point in reality. The intertwining of an exterior, physical journey and an internal, emotional journey is an ideal Fussell applauds in, in his eyes ‘real’, travel writing.33
However, travel stories can therefore shift to a more autobiographical work instead of an account of travel. The overlapping genres reveal the fine line between travel literature and not travel literature which depends on the definition abided by. Some writers take it to the extreme in a manner which the work is an autobiography written in the context of an underlying journey which forms the rack whereon the personal expositions are hung. Whereas some writers strive to simulate a more objective sense to their work by arguing their personal impressions, for some writers objectivity shifts to second (or third) place. Pilgrimages are often mentioned when the self in travel literature is discussed. In order to repent their mortal sins, pilgrims undertook the often difficult and dangerous journey to Jerusalem in the name of God. The hardship and violence faced on the road tests the pilgrims for their courage and faith, and ultimately washes their sins away. Thus the objective for these pilgrims is to renew their faith, repent their sins and ultimately secure their way to heaven when they die.34
But what moves pre-modern and modern travellers to step outside the door and document their experiences, physical and emotional? Besides the economic and political reasons for travelling and discovery expeditions, journeys wherein an inner journey also plays a role often have a personal underlying motive. However, most travellers leave with a sense of dissatisfaction with their homeland and previous situation. They have encountered something, momentary or prolonged, that disconnects them from their lives at home and they attempt to search something new elsewhere. According to Porter, most travels take place under influence of a form of desire; the desire to be able to fulfil certain drives that cannot be fulfilled at home. These desires can embody a multitude of possible subjects, but eventually encompasses transgressive impulses in relation to that what is denied at home. For most, sexual transgression, for example as a frequent occurrence in the Grand Tours of young noblemen in the eighteenth century, is a widely known form of transgression, but only one of many possible phenomenologies of the term.35
Concepts of Freudian psychoanalysis are often discussed when treating the topic of inner journeys, also because Freud examined several of his own dreams in which he dreams about a journey to Rome. According to Freudian psychoanalysis, the tension between experiences and objects at home and during travelling can tell us about the desires and dissatisfactions of the traveller. In the experience with the unknown the traveller searches for something familiar, something that sparks in his mind. Freud calls this an unheimlich, or
33 Thompson, Travel Writing, 97. 34 Ibid., 96-129.
35 D. Porter, Haunted Journeys: Desire and Transgression in European Travel Writing (Princeton: Princeton
uncanny experience. The unheimlich is a strange feeling of familiarity with home in something that is new, an experience similar to the déjà vu. According to Freudian psychoanalysis, one can examine the relations the traveller has with his home situation and potential issues. This eventually reveals the true reasons that the traveller took the step outside. It is important to notice that this is not the only theory on the inner journeys of travellers, although some concepts of Freud’s theory are often used to identify themes and motivations in travel literature.36
Instead of an unheimlich experience, other writers give different descriptions of the experience when faced with the Other and their emotional climax. For example, Sara Wheeler describes during her journey through Antarctica, the open, white fields of snow, the barren circumstances and her feeling of freedom in this uninhabited land. All her experiences added up to an emotional epiphany which she describes as a sense of God.37 All in all, every traveller undergoes an emotional connection with what they see and feel and ponder the equation between home and abroad with the self as a mediator, and it’s up to the readers to extract this personal story even if not present on the surface of the text.
As seen above, every traveller has his or her own motivation for travelling, but most journeys start with a desire to discover, overcome or experience something in order to change the inner person itself even though this may not always be the main motif on the surface of the text. The quest is a widespread and deeply imbedded model in travel literature which even sculpted the oldest travel tales. The quest is more than a narrative structure used to tell stories of travel even though it offers structure, motivation and stylistic handholds for writing. The quest is a model for travel itself with a fundamental structure: the main character sets out on a journey and faces several challenges which he is to overcome. He reaches his goal after battling his opponents (real or mental) by which he increases his own worth and, if necessary to the story, returns home. In pre-modern times, pilgrimages and knightly quests formed the blueprint for quests, and even travels in general, for a multitude of motifs and characteristics of travel literature. The main character or protagonist is often portrayed as a hero. He or she is often introduced as a relatively regular person, sometimes royal or not, and is faced with villains, hardship, struggles and violence. The hero often sacrifices something of himself in order to defeat these evils by showing exceptional bravery, cunning, strength and/or battle skills. He or she is often rewarded and aided for their character with company or objects. Characteristic for quests is the representation of the Other in a strongly dualistic form. What the traveller meets or encounters is either friendly and helps the traveller on his path, or is hostile to the traveller. This therefore influences the way in which the Other is represented. The ‘enemy’ can be portrayed in many different ways from dangerous beasts, evil queens, harsh environments or even the hero’s own mind.
After the age of discovery came to an end, the focus of travel stories shifted to the traveller’s mind. The quest became a strong metaphor in which physical journeys touches with inner journeys trough the traveller’s mental developments, but also for pure inner journeys in which the focus lies solely on overcoming mental struggles. In modern travel writing, the quest is often linked to the search for a special experience or epiphany. It is about discovering that what you have been missing at home or at the start in its purest form. Often this is represented by a quest for authenticity or freedom. Travellers want to escape from their day-to-day lives and the pressure, social expectations and oppression (often described by female travellers) that impacts their lives which fits the world of the mostly wealthy men and women in modern Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Travellers search for soothing, eye-opening and mentally activating scenes, encounters and experiences which alters their perspective on their own lives and transforms their priorities.
36 Porter, Haunted Journeys, 1
After a journey filled with hardship and anxious encounters, the reward is peace of mind which some describe as a religious revelation parallel to the spiritual presence felt by Sara Wheeler at the end of her journey.38
As a last remark, I would like to add that there is often a very exclusive sphere surrounding especially modern quests: it is often not deemed possible for the readers to experience the same as the traveller did. The reader was not there on the exact right moment, and even if the reader travelled to the same place another time, the authenticity would have diminished. Even more, the reader does not possess the same qualities, tools, spirit and experiences the ‘hero’ possessed.39 Thus travel is a strong motif that speaks to the human mind in a way that transgresses the borders of our own mind and body, and invites us to step outside our door and explore what lies beyond us. I have only examined some of the basic aspects of travel represented in travel literature and one could tell so much more about every one of the aspects above, but a foundation has been laid for our heavenly journey.
2.3 Research methods: a questionnaire
In the last two paragraphs I have provided an overall exposition on the genre of travel literature and the most evident underlying themes involving travel in general. The quest follows: how can travel literature be laid parallel and compared to the Hekhalot and Merkavah literature from chapter 1? Obviously not every signature aspect of travel literature can be transferred to Hekhalot and Merkavah literature, for example colonialism, orientalism and feminism which would be strongly anachronistic as discussed in chapter one, but also certain aspects that are tied closely to the influence of the author and his contributed context are troublesome if the author is not known. However, I have tried to gather a variety of aspects of travel and their characteristic attestations in travel literature in order to design a solid apparatus that is suitable for comparison with Hekhalot and Merkavah literature, while still offering an inclusive and complete reflection of travel literature.
I have composed a three-part questionnaire with primary, secondary and tertiary questions. This partition offers a more structured approach which turned out necessary since relatively small and basic characteristics in travel stories are tightly attached to bigger and more metaphysical motivations, goals and developments. It might be difficult to determine the goal of a heavenly journey in the first instance, but through smaller details, terminology, descriptions and subtle nuances I hope to obtain a deeper and a more textually rooted representation of travel in Hekhalot and Merkavah literature. I have made my choices for the aspects I want to discuss on a combination of alleged attestations and importance in travel literature, and common ground and sustainability in Hekhalot and Merkavah literature. I have minded myself however, since I have foreknowledge of the literature, to cater my choices pre-emptive on what I expect to find in Hekhalot and Merkavah literature. In the following subparagraphs I will explain the different parts of my questionnaire and argument my choices wherever necessary.
The first part of the questionnaire will encompass primary questions asked to the basics of the texts in order to lay a solid base on which I can build the more difficult and intriguing aspects of travel in the Hekhalot and Merkavah texts. I don’t think these questions need much argumentation as to my choices, since these are basic questions which are commonly posed when starting a literary analysis in travel literature and other genres. The following questions will be of importance:
1.a Who is the main character and traveller? 1.b Who are possible other characters?
1.c Where does the journey go to on a basic level?
38 Youngs, The Cambridge Introduction, 113.
1.d From who’s perspective are the accounts written? 1.e Out of which parts the journey consists?
The secondary questions revolve around the internal aspects of travel and reporting thereof accompanied by possible stylistic characters. These questions will mostly follow the different aspects of travel as discussed in paragraph 2.2. I have however fine-tuned the questions so that they align better with the Hekhalot and Merkavah materials. At first instance I wanted to pay more attention to the possible stylistics characteristics, motifs and strategies a travel writers can use while reporting his or her journey. However, as I became more acquainted with the study of travel literature, the diverse character of the genre became obvious. Travel literature beholds such an amount of subgenres, styles and forms, that there are very few stylistic characteristics that are broadly attested through travel narratives. Therefore I chose to examine possible stylistic elements alongside the secondary questions, since they often support and appear alongside aspects of travel.
2.a Who or what is the Other?
2.b In what way and with what possible stylistic strategies is the Other described? 2.c What terminology is used and how does it affect the story?
2.d Is it the objective of the writer to be as veracious as possible or are there other motifs? 2.e What is the role of the traveller and how much information about him is given?
2.f Does the narrative describe an inner journey? Does the inner journey serve as a metaphor
or is there an actual internal journey described alongside the external journey?
2.g Does the personality of the traveller affect the description of the experiences, sights,
environments, etc.? Showing versus telling?
2.h Are there autobiographical connotations?
2.i Does any sort of transgression take place? How is this described and does it involve
transgression by the traveller himself?
2.j Is there a moment of ultimate experience during or at the end of the journey? what kind of
experience is this; an epiphany, a spiritual or religious moment, an emotional outburst or relief, an unheimlich experience?
2.k After answering the above mentioned questions, is this journey narrated as a quest? How
do the structure and the common motifs of a quest compare to the structure of the story?
2.l Does the traveller have ‘hero’-like qualities?
Finally, the third part of the questionnaire will revolve around fundamental questions to the nature of the text. There may be less tertiary questions than primary or secondary questions, but these last aspects form the closing argument as to the Hekhalot and Merkavah text as a work of travel literature. In order to add to the persistent debate on the purpose, function and overall subject of the Hekhalot and Merkavah texts, these questions do not only focus on the verdict if Hekhalot and Merkavah literature has affinity with travel literature or even can be classified as such, but also on the direction of the texts itself:
3.a What is the motivation of the main character to undertake the journey? 3.b What does the traveller ultimately want to achieve at the end of his journey?
3.c Can this text be classified as travel literature? What are strong shared characteristics
between this text and travel literature? Are there substantial differences?
3.d Is this text mainly defined by travel or are there other aspects strongly present?
In the following chapter, I will discuss the chosen texts from the Hekhalot and Merkavah corpus and walk through the questionnaire, examining the results and providing examples from the texts.
3. Aspects of Travel Literature in Hekhalot and Merkavah Literature
3.1.1 Hekhalot Zutarti
In the previous chapter I examined and described travel literature from multiple perspectives such as its history, its literary and stylistic characteristics, and some of its underlying theories. At the end of the chapter I formulated a questionnaire which will form the framework by which I will analyse and compare typical aspects of travel literature and several Hekhalot and Merkavah texts. As I have explained in the first chapter, I chose four texts from the Hekhalot and Merkavah corpus which I found suitable for this research, and that form the main core of literary contents Hekhalot and Merkavah texts have to offer. In order to reduce the sheer size and maintain the comprehensibility of this research, I will only answer the questionnaire completely for one text where after I will examine the other texts individually pointing out important differences and similarities between the texts and highlight interesting literary features the texts may show. It would be too repetitive to answer each question separately for the four texts and add very little additional insights to the actual research. After researching and interpreting all four texts, I will attempt to answer the third part of the questionnaire for the discussed corpus as a whole and summarize the characteristics of travel literature that in my view relate to Hekhalot and Merkavah literature.
The text I would like to choose as my designated text that will form the starting point of my research is Hekhalot Zutarti. While researching the corpus of Hekhalot and Merkavah literature, I found Hekhalot Zutarti quite intriguing in the sense that it provided a large amount of individual stories and accounts in a rather short amount of text. The characteristic Hekhalot and Merkavah paradigm and models are represented in this text, but often lacks the repetitiveness of these accounts as shown in Hekhalot Rabbati. I realise this may be an uncommon and even controversial choice, but in regard to my research which focusses on the literary interpretation of the contents of the texts rather that the philological discussion, and inclusive amount of literary elements and accounts attested in the text, I believe Hekhalot Zutarti will serve this examination well. Hekhalot Rabbati is a longer and a better represented text from the surviving manuscripts and shows a more thorough and complete redaction than Hekhalot Zutarti40 and is therefore often presented as the first and most important account from the Hekhalot and Merkavah corpus. I will address some of the main editorial and philological issues, but this will not be my focus point in this research. Therefore purely from the view of the contents of the texts, I will start this chapter with Hekhalot Zutarti.
Hekhalot Zutarti (The Book of the Lesser Heavenly Palaces) is a Hebrew and Aramaic text concerning the Seven Heavenly Palaces, the angels and the chariot. The text consists of multiple stories and ascension accounts. Among these accounts, there is also a version of the Pardes story. Hekhalot Zutarti is attested in several manuscripts: N (New York 8128, Jewish Theological Seminary), O (Oxford 1531, Bodleian Library, Michael 9/Neugebauer 1531), M22 (Munich 22, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek), M40 (Munich 40, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) and D (Dropsie 436, Philadelphia).41 Additional and overlapping material can be found among the Geniza fragments. Especially N shows large amounts of additions in its redaction. The redaction of this texts is less complete and less consistent than the redaction of Hekhalot Rabbati. This also coheres to the fact that there are less manuscripts that contain Hekhalot Zutarti material than there are with material from Hekhalot Rabbati. Some scholars however argue that Hekhalot Zutarti contains more original material and is of an earlier date than Hekhalot Rabbati which is often linked to the presence of a version of the Pardes story in Hekhalot Zutarti.42 Morray-Jones dated the text around the 3rd or 4th century on the basis of an
40 Davila, Hekhalot Literature, 188.
41 Schäfer, Übersetzung, 3:X-XI and Davila, Hekhalot Literature, 19. 42 Davila, Hekhalot Literature, 192-193.
examination of the Pardes story and the water test in the sixth palace.43 Schäfer however argues that Hekhalot Zutarti is later than Rabbati and even depends on its text although he does not provide a specific date of the text.44
The name of the text is first referenced to by Hai ben Sherira HaGaon in his 11th century responsum.45 Hai ben Sherira HaGaon was the head of a Babylonian rabbinic academy and provides the first possible attestations of multiple texts from the Hekhalot and Merkavah corpus. He believed these works stemmed from Tannaitic writers and he discusses the Pardes story in his responsum. In contradiction to his remarks on Hekhalot Rabbati, he connects the title of Hekhalot Zutarti to the text we now know today.46 The text seems to be preoccupant with the dangers of the ascent to the throne of God which is illustrated by three ascension stories by R. Akiva, an ascension story by Moses and a story about the failed ascent by an unknown rabbi. There lies emphasis on the terrors faced by the travellers and the terrible appearances of the angels guarding the palaces and the throne. Alongside the several stories, description of angels, seals and names and adjurations, a version of the story of the Four Who Entered the Pardes and a description of the water test in the sixth palace is included. There has been debate about the specific extent of Hekhalot Zutarti and Davila suggest that paragraphs §§335-375 and §§407-42647 cover Hekhalot Zutarti. The ending of both units forms the main topic of the debate, especially fuelled by the additional materials found in manuscript N.48 I chose to follow the inclusive vision of Davila for my research as explained in chapter 1.
3.1.2 Aspects of travel literature in Hekhalot Zutarti
In the following paragraph I will attempt to answer the questionnaire I drafted in chapter 2 from the perspective of Hekhalot Zutarti. Since I will only perform the questionnaire completely for this text, I will also make some remarks that apply to the Hekhalot and Merkavah corpus in general. It is my intention to examine the text from the contents as much as possible and leave already established presumptions about the corpus from my interpretations, although this will prove to be a difficult task.
1.a Who is the main character and traveller?
The main character in Hekhalot Zutarti is somewhat hard to determine in the sense that there is no main character or hero the reader follows throughout a series of events. R. Akiva fulfils the role of the main traveller in three stories who ascends through the palaces, and most accounts are written as spoken by his words (see question 1.d), but also Moses (§336) and an unknown rabbi (§410) make a journey. The unknown rabbi however fails the water test and is decapitated. In the Pardes story (§§338-345) R. Ben Azzay, R. Ben Zoma, R. Akiva and R. Elisha ben Avuyah (‘The Other’) travel to paradise. Hekhalot Zutarti lays less emphasis on the angels guarding the heavens and ministering before God. Anaphi’el (§421) and Suria, the Prince of Presence (§§425-426) are the only angels to speak in this text and their monologues do not cover more than one or two paragraphs.
So who fulfils the role of the main character? In travel literature, the role of main character is usually fulfilled by a traveller. In Hekhalot Zutarti, R. Akiva is the main travelling character and the reader receives the largest amount of information about the journey from his
43 C. Roland and C. Morray-Jones, The Mystery of God: Early Jewish Mysticism and the New Testament
(Leiden: Brill, 2009), 233-247.
44 Schäfer, Übersetzung, 3:XVI-XVII. 45 Ibid., 3:VIII.
46 Davila, Hekhalot Literature, 39. 47 Schäfer, Synopse, 142-157, 172-183. 48 Davila, Hekhalot Literature, 191-192.
