Table of Contents for Seekers of the Face

Seekers of the Face
Secrets of the Idra Rabba (The Great Assembly) of the Zohar
Melila Hellner-Eshed

Part One, Chapter 1: Introduction to the Idra Rabba

What is the Idra Rabba? This chapter covers the place of the Idra Rabba in zoharic literature as well as its reception, history, and scholarship.

Part One, Chapter 2: The Language of Divine Faces

This chapter follows the history of the language of the face of God from the Bible to midrashic and liturgical sources, as well as in psychoanalysis and philosophy.

Part One, Chapter 3: The Gaze

This chapter discusses "the gaze" as healing, in mother-child relationships and in the divine faces. We also look at the restorative power of bathing in the light of God's face.

Part One, Chapter 4: Reflections on Ze'eir Anpin

This chapter looks at Ze'eir Anpin as the God of Judgment, dual consciousness, Ze'eir Anpin and Gnosis, the dynamic between splitting and healing, and the importance of praying for the life of Ze'eir Anpin.

Part One, Chapter 5: Literature, Mysticism, Praxis

This chapter covers the secrets of the Godhead and also narrative, simultaneity, paradoxical language, the idraic midrash, space, time, consciousness, experience, the personality of the teacher and the role of the circle of disciples, as well as religious practice in the Idra.

Part One, Chapter 6: Overarching Themes in the Idra Rabba

This chapter explores four overarching themes that connect the whole Idra Rabba: the mythic account of the emergence of many faces of the Divine; the unfolding of existence; various ways of attenuating the power of Judgment (Din); reading through the lens of consciousness, Oneness, and the dual male and female.

Part One, Chapter 7: What Is the Idra Rabba Trying to Communicate?

This chapter lays out the Zohar as a manifesto calling for the healing of the face of Jewish religion.

Part Two, Chapter 8: Entering the Idra Rabba

The chapter is a close reading of the account of the opening of the Great Gathering.

Part Two, Chapter 9: The Kings of Edom: The First Appearance

This chapter explores the myth of the kings of Edom from the Bible to the Zohar, its place in the Zohar, and its first appearance in the Idra Rabba.

Part Two, Chapter 10: Arikih Anpin: Origins

This chapter looks at the origins of how the Divine attains a face, especially a skull and a brain.

Part Two, Chapter 11: Arikh Anpin: Features of the Face

This chapter delves into the elements of the divine face: hair/regulation of divine flow; forehead/will; eyes/providence; nose/length of breath.

Part Two, Chapter 12: Arraying Arikh Anpin's Beard

This chapter provides an overview of the beard in Zohar and idraic literature as well as the thirteen tiqqunim of the beard.

Part Two, Chapter 13: The Kings of Edom: The Second Appearance

Continuing the exploration of the myth of the Edom, this chapter looks at the themes of balance and lack of balance, and the masculine and feminine.

Part Two, Chapter 14: Ze'eir Anpin Comes into Being

This chapter discusses God in the likeness of Adam (the human being), the emergence of Ze'eir Anpin's skull and brain.

Part Two, Chapter 15: Ze'eir Anpin's Head and Its Features

This chapter is about the parts of the head of Ze'eir Anpin as an expression of dual consciousness: hair/transmission, forehead/judgmental providence, eyes/divine providence in duality, nose/divine wrath, and ears/attentiveness, discernment, and mechanisms of delay.

Part Two, Chapter 16: The Tiqqunim of Ze'eir Anpin: The Language of Flowing Bounty

This chapter is about the beard of Ze'eir Anpin as an expression of divine attributes.

Part Two, Chapter 17: The Ancient of Ancients and Ze'eir Anpin: All Is One

This chapter deals with the complex unity of the divine faces.

Part Two, Chapter 18: Forming the Male and Female Body

This chapter explores the emanation of the divine masculine and feminine bodies, and the sources of the idraic myth of those bodies.

Part Two, Chapter 19: The Kings of Edom: The Third Appearance

This chapter looks at the third appearance of the mythical kings of Edom in the Idra Rabba.

Part Two, Chapter 20: Separation and Coupling

The topic in this chapter is the separation and individuation of masculine and feminine bodies, as well as their first coupling.

Part Two, Chapter 21: Sweetening Judgment

This chapter explores the idraic myth of the birth of Cain and Abel and their archetypal role, the birth of Seth, and finally the ideal coupling of the divine male and female.

Part Two, Chapter 22: Emerging from the Idra Rabba

This chapter looks at the end of the Idra Rabba and its themes of fear of revealing too much, the death of the Companions, validating the Assembly, and amplifying the figure of Rabbi Shimon.

Back to Excerpts + more