Seekers of the Face: Secrets of the Idra Rabba (The Great Assembly) of the Zohar

Cover
Contents
Introduction
	My Path to the Idra and to Writing This Book
	On the Idra in Our Contemporary World
	On Oneness
	Reclaiming the Feminine Divine
	Tools and Supplies for the Journey
	Acknowledgments
	The Structure of This Book
	Some Notes on Translation
PART 1
	Chapter 1: Introduction to the Idra Rabba
		Idra Literature in the Zohar
		The Divine Faces (Partsufim)
		Summary of the Idra Rabba’s Structure
		Interpreters of the Idra
		Critical Idra Scholarship
	Chapter 2: The Language of Divine Faces
		On the Qualities of Face Terminology
			The Face as a Fundamental Human Experience
			The Face as a Living Presence
			The Face as a Conduit and Filter of Light
			The Face as a Tiqqun
		The Face of God in Jewish Tradition
		Jewish Philosophy and the Idra Literature: Between Abstraction and Anthropomorphism
		Arikh Anpin: The Long-Faced, Patient One
		Ze\'eir Anpin: The Small-Faced, Short-Tempered One
		The Divine Body: Male and Female
		The Chain of Divine Faces
	Chapter 3: The Gaze
		\'Attiqa’s Gaze
		The Face’s Healing
		Descriptions of the Gaze
		The Human Gaze
	Chapter 4: Reflections on Ze\'eir Anpin
		Ze\'eir Anpin, the God of Judgment
		Ze\'eir Anpin and Gnosticism: Between Splitting and Healing
		A Prayer for Ze\'eir Anpin’s Life
	Chapter 5: Literature, Mysticism, Praxis
		Divine Secrets and the Literary Plot
		Oral and Written Torah
		Simultaneity and Collapsing Polarities
		Idraic Midrash
		Space, Time, Consciousness, Experience
		The Figure of the Master and the Purpose of the Circle of Companions
		Religious Praxis in the Idra
	Chapter 6: Overarching Themes in the Idra Rabba
		A Mythic Account of the Emergence of the Many-Faced Divine
		The Unfolding of Existence
		Ways of Attenuating the Power of Judgment
		Reading through the Lens of Consciousness: Oneness and the Dual, Male and Female
	Chapter 7: What Is the Idra Rabba Trying to Communicate?
		The Idra Rabba’s Manifesto: A Call to Heal and Renew the Face of Jewish Religion
		The Undifferentiated Divine—The Source of All Things.
		What Else Is the Idra Trying to Say?
PART 2
	Chapter 8: Entering the Idra Rabba
		Sitting on a Single-Based Pillar
		Time to Act for YHVH
		Summoning the Companions
		“Woe If I Reveal! Woe If I Do Not Reveal!”
		Those Who Enter and Emerge
		The Field and the Threshing Floor
		The Adjuration and the Curse
		Time to Act for YHVH—Deepening the Interpretation
		Fear and Love
		Containing the Secret
		Heaven and Earth
		Conclusion
	Chapter 9: The Kings of Edom: The First Appearance
		The Kings of Edom: From Scripture to the Zohar
		Pre-Creation Processes
		The Kings of Edom in the Works of Cordovero and Luria
		The Kings in Sifra di-Tsni\'uta
		First Appearance in the Idra: Engraving and Concealing
	Chapter 10: Arikh Anpin: Origins
		The Ancient of Days
		Skull and Brain
	Chapter 11: Arikh Anpin: Features of the Face
		Regulation and Flow: The Hair and the Path
		The River of Ratson (Will)
		Providence in the Undifferentiated Dimension: Eyes
		Patience: The Nose
		Arikh Anpin: An Overview
	Chapter 12: Arraying Arikh Anpin’s Beard
		The Beard in the Zohar and in the Idra Literature
		Tiqqunim of the Beard: The Opening Passage
		The Power of Mercy: The First Tiqqun
		Bearing Iniquity: The Second Tiqqun
		Flowing Bounty: The Eighth Tiqqun
		Eternal Forgiveness: The Twelfth Tiqqun
		The Greater Perspective: The Thirteenth Tiqqun
		A Summary of the Tiqqunim of the Beard
		The Ceremonial Closing of the Tiqqunim of \'Attiqa
	Chapter 13: The Kings of Edom: The Second Appearance
	Chapter 14: Ze\'eir Anpin Comes into Being
		A Hymn to God in Human Likeness
		The Emergence of Ze\'eir Anpin
		The Formation of Ze\'eir Anpin’s Skull
		Brain
	Chapter 15: Ze\'eir Anpin’s Head and Its Features
		Hairs as Channels of Transmission
		The Pathway: Marking Binary Existence
		The Forehead: A Searchlight of Providential Justice
		Between the Forehead and the Human Figure, Adam
		The Eyes: Divine Providence in the Dual Dimension
		The Nose: The Flaring of Divine Wrath
		\'Attiqa’s Responsibility for Divine Anger
		The Ears: Attentiveness, Discernment, Mechanisms of Delay
	Chapter 16: The Tiqqunim of Ze\'eir Anpin: The Language of Flowing Bounty
		Introduction to the Tiqqunim of the Beard: The Teacher Awakens Consciousness
		Between \'Attiqa’s Beard and Ze\'eir Anpin’s Beard
		Beginning the Tiqqunim of the Beard
		The First Tiqqun
		Judgment in Duality, Blushing Red: A Path, Lips, and Rounded Cheeks in the Third and Fifth Tiqqunim
		The Warrior’s Mercy, Tif\'eret (Beauty): The Ninth Tiqqun
	Chapter 17: The Ancient of Ancients and Ze\'eir Anpin: All Is One
		Complex Unity
		A Figure within a Figure: The Structure of Reality
	Chapter 18: Forming the Male and Female Body
		Sexuality and the Body in the Divine
		The Idra’s Myth of the Male and Female, and Its Sources
		Configuring the Male and Female Body
	Chapter 19: The Kings of Edom: The Third Appearance
	Chapter 20: Separation and Coupling
	Chapter 21: Sweetening Judgment
		The Birth of Cain and Abel, and Their Archetypical Fate
		All is Sweetened: Establishing the World with Seth
		The Aromatized Female
		Sweetening the Powers of Judgment Continues: The Conclusion of the Idra Rabba
	Chapter 22: Emerging from the Idra Rabba
		Ending 1: Concealment and Clarity
		Ending 2: Fear of Revelation and the Deaths of the Companions
		Ending 3: Validating the Assembly
		Ending 4: Legitimizing a Smaller Circle of Companions
		A Comic Interlude
		Ending 5: Amplifying the Figure of Rabbi Shim\'on
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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