Pardès (Cabal)
See also: Pardès
The Pardès , literally " the orchard " , which will give then the Paradis , indicates, in the tradition of the Jewish Kabbale, a place where the student of the Torah can reach a state of bliss. This term is drawn from a philosophical anecdote and mystic who finds an explanation in the By of Rimonim of the Rav Moshe Cordovero . This one takes the image of four rabbis ( Elisha Ben Abouya , Shimon Ben Azzaï , Shimon Ben Zoma and Rabbi Akiva ) penetrating a orchard but of which " niveaux" respective of penetration of the direction of the Writings are not equivalent. References to this “incident” are found in the Talmud (Haguiga 14b, where Ben Azaï and Ben Zoma do not have the title of Rabbi), the Zohar (I, 26b) and the Tikkounei Zohar (Tikun 40).
However, in the Cabal - Mystical tradition and esoteric of the Judaism - the student of the Law (the Torah ) progresses in conscience as he studies in-depth the Writings. The Pardès into famous thus, in coloured manner, the intellectual and spiritual advance.
Kabbalistic explanation
In the terminology of the Kabbale, which considers in particular the mystical Sens of each letter components the words of the Torah, the Pardès is composed of four letters ( PRDS ) inviting, each one, to consider a degree of reading as well Writings as work of divine the.
If the Pardès seems a physical place (the word itself meaning orchard ), the place where the four wise ones enter resembles an orchard little, according to the Talmud. Thus, the text does not say which the four wise ones rose but that Pardès had appeared to them as if they had risen. Thus, the interpretation given of Pardès is that it is not a physical but spiritual place which can be penetrated only while passing from the state of consciousness to another higher. Here, the Rabbi used the Kabbale like means of rising.
It is thus about the reserved domain of esoteric Knowledge of the Torah. The four letters of this word - EP , reish , daleth and sameck - are each one the initial one of a Hebrew term which indicates the four levels of study of the Writings:
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PESHAT , i.e. the literal direction of the text which treats only sensitive world;
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REMEZ , i.e. the allusion/insinuation which consists of a higher level of the study;
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DERASH , i.e. the illustrated interpretation , which is the parabola, the legend, the proverb;
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SOD , i.e. the Secrecy , which consists of the level esoteric dealing of the metaphysics and the revelation of supernatural realities, secret and mysterious.
Consequently, Pardès is a concept making it possible to refer to the four levels of possible comprehension of the Torah ( the Law ) and to the four branches of the teaching of the Torah (i.e. respectively: the Miqra (verses), the Mishna (teaching legal), the Talmud (elaborate lesson of Mishna) and the Cabal (esoteric explanation of the Torah)).
These four levels of the study of the Torah correspond, in the mystical logic of the Cabal, on the four levels of the heart (Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah and Hayah). Thus, the voyage towards the Torah is a voyage in oneself, outside world of the physique towards the interior world of spirituality. To enter the world of the Torah is a process to enter Pardès which is a process of revealing of the message of the Torah. This gives the means of rising lower worlds towards the higher worlds. The discovery of Sod ( the Secrecy ) is thus anything else only the most intimate discovery of the sound oneself but also, in the cosmogony of the Kabbale, of the correction (Tikkoun) of the creation.
Point of view
The esoterist Virya adopts a more specific point of view on the history known as of the " Four which penetrated in the Paradise (Pardès) ".
Quotation: “ This text wants to say to us that before reaching Sod a graduated preparation is necessary. It should be known that to penetrate Sod all the psychological problems of the human nature must be regulated definitively. One can regard PESHAT and REMEZ as a psychotherapy, DERASH being a kind of esoteric psychoanalysis. Akiva could penetrate Sod of Pardés because it was H' ackam - Wise -, it had carried out the 7° degrees of the mystical speculation, number which is also the Guématrie (numerical value) of the SOD (60 6 4 = 70). On the term BY, H' ayim Vital precise: " the direction of the Writing is literal, analogical and mystical. That one will be obliged réincarner as long as it will not have achieved all this tache." Thus, Pardès does not represent only levels of studies but of conscience, it is the way which carries out towards the realization To be it divine ” (Virya)
See too
- Four famous directions of the Writing
- Midrashim
External bonds
For more details, accompanied by the extracts of the texts of the tradition of the Cabal treating of the question of Pardès, one can in particular consult the Kabbale site on Line.