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Tree of Souls.

John D. Brey

Well-Known Member
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This is a copy of the image Rabbi Hirsch attaches (Collected Writings III, p. 224) to what he calls the Tree of Souls. -----Long-suffering Jewish participants might remember an argument posited years ago about whether or not Rabbi Hirsch was a closet Christian. . . The text Rabbi Hirsch attaches to the image above justifies everything I've written in the last year, to a degree that would cause severe conflict in the mind of any Jew who formerly thought my writing presented ideas and concepts outside the purview of the teaching associated with the great Rabbi himself.



John
 

John D. Brey

Well-Known Member
fetch


This is a copy of the image Rabbi Hirsch attaches (Collected Writings III, p. 224) to what he calls the Tree of Souls. -----Long-suffering Jewish participants might remember an argument posited years ago about whether or not Rabbi Hirsch was a closet Christian. . . The text Rabbi Hirsch attaches to the image above justifies everything I've written in the last year, to a degree that would cause severe conflict in the mind of any Jew who formerly thought my writing presented ideas and concepts outside the purview of the teaching associated with the great Rabbi himself.



John

I'm actually more interested in the words and concepts Rabbi Hirsch attaches to the image above rather than just the image itself. He produces the image in a discussion of the menorah, which by his stars is directly related to the messianic personage described in Isaiah chapter 11:

If we examine this passage from Isaiah [11] more closely, we will find it consistent with all that we have noted as the construction plan of the menorah, a consistency so striking that we cannot help thinking that this passage is, in fact, an expression in words of the ideas symbolized by the menorah. . . The passage in Isaiah continues: והריחו ביראת ה׳ "and he shall be enlivened by the fear of God." According to all etymological analogies הריחו can only mean to "permeate" a man with a spirit, to fill him with a spirit, or to "spiritualize" him. Thus, the Divine spirit coming to rest upon the "shoot from the stock" of Yishai [Jesse] is described in terms of the sevenfold fullness of its many aspects, and one of these seven aspects is singled out as the root of, and the medium for, all this spiritualization.​

Rabbi Hirsch focuses on the root of, and the medium for, all the spiritualization associated with the messianic man described in Isaiah chapter 11. Rabbi Hirsch is patently aware that the root of the spiritualization is directly related to the fact that this messianic figure is said to come from the "root" and is thus a "shoot" from the "root-stock" of Jesse.


John
 

John D. Brey

Well-Known Member
I'm actually more interested in the words and concepts Rabbi Hirsch attaches to the image above rather than just the image itself. He produces the image in a discussion of the menorah, which by his stars is directly related to the messianic personage described in Isaiah chapter 11:

If we examine this passage from Isaiah [11] more closely, we will find it consistent with all that we have noted as the construction plan of the menorah, a consistency so striking that we cannot help thinking that this passage is, in fact, an expression in words of the ideas symbolized by the menorah. . . The passage in Isaiah continues: והריחו ביראת ה׳ "and he shall be enlivened by the fear of God." According to all etymological analogies הריחו can only mean to "permeate" a man with a spirit, to fill him with a spirit, or to "spiritualize" him. Thus, the Divine spirit coming to rest upon the "shoot from the stock" of Yishai [Jesse] is described in terms of the sevenfold fullness of its many aspects, and one of these seven aspects is singled out as the root of, and the medium for, all this spiritualization.​

Rabbi Hirsch focuses on the root of, and the medium for, all the spiritualization associated with the messianic man described in Isaiah chapter 11. Rabbi Hirsch is patently aware that the root of the spiritualization is directly related to the fact that this messianic figure is said to come from the "root" and is thus a "shoot" from the "root-stock" of Jesse.


John

Rabbi Hirsch focuses special emphasis on the fact that the "shoot" (חוטר hoter) coming out of the "root" (גזע geza) of Jesse (Yishai) is the source for the spiritualization of the messianic–figure revealed in Isaiah chapter 11 (Rabbi Hirsch associates all this with the mezuzah). ----- On the image above, the foundational word is geza גזע, which is the Hebrew word for "root," while the first word sprouting out of the root (on the image above) is hoter חוטר, which is the word for a basal-shoot growing out of a root apart from sexual mixing of genes.

To understand the import of Rabbi Hirsch's image, and what it represents in his mind, with emphasis on the words geza ("root") and hoter ("sprout"), it's necessary to understand what Rabbi Hirsch has to say about these concepts in his Chumash at Genesis chapter one. -----The Hirsch Chumash addresses the concept of a "shoot" coming forth from a "root" in regards to the original trees in the Garden and the laws against their cross-fertilization as a means of propagation:

All plant substances and energies operate within specific and fixed limits; the form of each plant crystallizes into a specific and predetermined form. This great law, which is made manifest to us in the plant world, governs everything ----from the cedar to the hyssop; it rules in the minute fibers and seedlings, even as in giant trees that reach toward the skies. All-pervading and all-embracing, this law allows each individual plant species to develop only within the limits set for it. This law, which echoes from every blade of grass as well as from the tallest cedar, proclaims" "למינו!" "According to its species!"

Hirsch Chumash, Genesis 1:11-13.​

Cross species fertilization, mixing of species, destroys the sanctity and perfection of God's original design. Rabbi Hirsch points out that attempts to improve fruit by cross-breeding merely denigrates the species of trees. Fruit farmers practice fruit tree reproduction almost exclusively from vegetative-propagation which uses the root of a fruit tree to produce "sprouts" without mixing the genes of the original tree through sexual means. In almost all cases, sexual mixing produces an inferior fruit.

These concepts are important since according to Rabbi Hirsch, the messianic-personage spoken of in Isaiah chapter 11 is said to be produced not through the mixing of species and genes associated with sexual propagation, but is being said to "sprout" (חוטר) from the "root" (גזע) of Jesse. -----Messiah, the first "born" example of the original endowment given to Adam prior to Genesis 2:21, isn't produced like the rest of the human race, through sexual propagation, but sprouts from the original root of Adam, even as a basal-shoot sprouts asexually from the root of a tree cut down to the ground:

We should stress here once again that the menorah must never be made from מן הגרוטאות, scrap metal. This specification may well convey the message that the inclinations of man, which are to be bearers of the Divine spirit, must be those original unadulterated gifts with which man was endowed at the time of his creation, but not elements acquired from sources, artificially grafted onto his personality.

Collected Writings III, p. 225.​

The "inclinations of man," the one who will bear the Divine spirit (Isaiah 11), must not be the "evil inclinations" acquired by Adam when an artificially grafted means of propagation was added onto his person and personality in Genesis 2:21. Adam was originally incapable of producing the evil inclination. The evil inclination is in fact an element acquired subsequent to his Divine endowment, and is thus an adulteration of God's original design. -----The first-fruit of this adulteration of God's original design, the desecration of the body of Adam described in Genesis 2:21 (where he's equipped for sexual propagation), is the ******* Cain, who's most definitely not the first-fruit endowed with the original gifts of the Divine spirit. On the contrary, the messianic figure developed in Isaiah chapter 11, is not produced through the scrap-metal that's the alloyed human flesh of Jew (Adam) and Gentile (Eve), the mixing of which produces the hybrid ******* Cain, who's the product of the mixing of the genes of two independent species, Jew and Gentile. Messiah is the firstborn of the original root of the human race (prelapse Adam) prior to any sexual mixing of the genes of that original, unadulterated, Human.

If Adam had not sinned the world would have entered the Messianic state on the first Sabbath after creation, with no historical process whatever. . . Adam---- who at first was a cosmic, spiritual, supernal being, a soul which contained all souls ---fell from his station, whereupon the divine light in his soul was dispersed.

Professor Gershom Scholem, The Messianic Idea in Judaism, p. 46.

As we have said, though G-d commanded Adam to procreate on the day He created him (the sixth day of the primordial week), the intention was that he should wait until Shabbat in order to fulfill this commandment. Had he done so, he and Eve would have given birth, on the very first Shabbat, to Mashiach.124

124. Rabbi Yitzchak Luria teaches that the word Adam (אדם) is an acronym for Adam (אדם), David (דוד) Mashiach ( משיח, Sefer HaGilgulim 62; Torah Or 46d). Had Adam and Eve not sinned, Adam would have retained his true identity as Adam, Eve would have manifested the level of King David, and their son would have been Mashiach.
Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, The Mystery of Marriage, p. 356.

If not for Adam's sin, all mankind would have had the status of Israel. . . To some degree, circumcision restored Abraham and his descendants to the status of Adam before his sin.

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Handbook of Jewish Thought, p. 39, 47.


John
 
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Tumah

Veteran Member
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This is a copy of the image Rabbi Hirsch attaches (Collected Writings III, p. 224) to what he calls the Tree of Souls. -----Long-suffering Jewish participants might remember an argument posited years ago about whether or not Rabbi Hirsch was a closet Christian. . . The text Rabbi Hirsch attaches to the image above justifies everything I've written in the last year, to a degree that would cause severe conflict in the mind of any Jew who formerly thought my writing presented ideas and concepts outside the purview of the teaching associated with the great Rabbi himself.



John
Actually this is the image:

sAv38Ps.png


Which as you can see, depicts a menorah. What he's done is divide the couplets described in Isa. 11:2 (wisdom and understanding, council and strength, knowledge and fear of G-d) with the word "spirit" attached to each one (ie. spirit of wisdom and understanding, spirit of council and strength), creating a seven branched menorah that has the messiah as it's base. He did this based on Zech. 4:2 which describes a menorah and 4:6 which describes G-d's Spirit as executor.

So he's clearly not trying to depict a cross and he's also (as a man who dedicated his life to preserving Orthodox Jewry at a time where liberal streams held sway) not a closet Christian.
 

John D. Brey

Well-Known Member
Actually this is the image:

Which as you can see, depicts a menorah. What he's done is divide the couplets described in Isa. 11:2 (wisdom and understanding, council and strength, knowledge and fear of G-d) with the word "spirit" attached to each one (ie. spirit of wisdom and understanding, spirit of council and strength), creating a seven branched menorah that has the messiah as it's base. He did this based on Zech. 4:2 which describes a menorah and 4:6 which describes G-d's Spirit as executor.

So he's clearly not trying to depict a cross and he's also (as a man who dedicated his life to preserving Orthodox Jewry at a time where liberal streams held sway) not a closet Christian.

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Rabbi Hirsch is not only equating Messiah with the menorah (as tree of life), but with Adam Kadmon, represented by the Sefirotic tree of life.

The important sefirot so far as Rabbi Hirsch's tree is concerned are 1, 2, 3, 8, and 10. The left and right side of Adam Kadmon are represented by hokmah and binah. -----Rabbi Hirsch has these the same place they're found on the Sefirotic Tree. Keter, is "crown" or "head" or "ein sof" and Rabbi Hirsch abbreviates "God," the head, the crown, with the dalet ד׳. (Which is an abbreviation for "God.")

More important is malkut (10) and yesod (8). Malkut (10) is "kingdom" or the source/root for the kingdom, and yesod (8) is the means by which the kingdom procreates. Yesod is the mystery of the yod ( י–סוד), the yod being the mark of circumcision.

On his tree of life, the menorah, Rabbi Hirsch has malkut as geza גזע, the root of a tree, and yesod as hoter חוטר, a basal-shoot growing out of a root after the trunk has been cut down to size.



John
 
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John D. Brey

Well-Known Member
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Rabbi Hirsch is not only equating Messiah with the menorah (as tree of life), but with Adam Kadmon, represented by the Sefirotic tree of life.

The important sefirot so far as Rabbi Hirsch's tree is concerned are 1, 2, 3, 8, and 10. The left and right side of Adam Kadmon are represented by hokmah and binah. -----Rabbi Hirsch has these the same place they're found on the Sefirotic Tree. Keter, is "crown" or "head" or "ein sof" and Rabbi Hirsch abbreviates "God," the head, the crown, with the dalet ד׳. (Which is an abbreviation for "God.")

More important is malkut (10) and yesod (8). Malkut (10) is "kingdom" or the source/root for the kingdom, and yesod (8) is the means by which the kingdom procreates. Yesod is the mystery of the yod ( י–סוד), the yod being the mark of circumcision.

On his tree of life, the menorah, Rabbi Hirsch has malkut as geza גזע, the root of a tree, and yesod as hoter חוטר, a basal-shoot growing out of a root after the trunk has been cut down to size.



John

1614 גֶּזַע (gě·zǎʿ): n.masc.; ≡ Str 1503; TWOT 339a—1. LN 3.47–3.59 root-stock, stump, i.e., the part of a cut-off tree or plant in the dirt, from which new stock will grow (Job 14:8+); 2. LN 3.47–3.59 shoot sprouting from a root-stock stump (Isa 40:24+); 3. LN 13.104–13.163 source, formally, root-stock, i.e., the figurative extension of a person as a genealogical source, implying a renewal or resumption of a dynastic reign (Isa 11:1+)

Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.​

The word's meaning has multiple nuances. -----But Rabbi Hirsch is using the context of Isaiah 10:33-11:1,2. The nation of Israel (fancied a forest associated with a great Lebanon tree), and the temple itself (the Lebanon tree) are razed to the ground leaving only a stump. But Isaiah 11:1 says that out of the stump a hoter חטר will sprout. The following passage of Isaiah makes it clear that this "hoter" (basal-shoot) is none other than Messisah. -----Which makes Rabbi Hirsch comparing it to the menorah extremely revelatory.

2643 חֹטֶר (ḥō·ṭěr): n.masc.; ≡ Str 2415; TWOT 643a—1. . . . 2. LN 10.14–10.48 shoot, twig, i.e., new growth sprouting from a root-stock stump, as a figurative extension for a progeny from a particular lineage (Isa 11:1+), see also domain LN 3.47–3.59

Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.​

Israel is razed to the ground (twice), the temple is razed to the ground (twice). But Isaiah says fear not. Messiah will grow out of the root-stock (geza) of the Lebanon as a basal-shoot grows out of the original root of a tree that's been razed to the ground.

If you cast your gaze to the upper right hand image of Rabbi Hirsch discussion of this menorah (shown below), you'll see highlighted text on the page adjacent to the image. What he says on this page (adjacent to the image of the menorah) lets us peer into what Rabbi Hirsch is so excited about that he includes this image in the written text of his writing (something very rare concerning his writing).


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The text in the upper right hand corner says:

We should stress here once again that the menorah must never be made from מן הגרוטאות, scrap metal. This specification may well convey the message that the inclinations of man, which are to be bearers of the Divine spirit, must be those original unadulterated gifts with which man was endowed at the time of his creation, but not elements acquired from sources, artificially grafted onto his personality.

Collected Writings III, p. 225.​

The fact of not using scrap metal implies that the inclinations of the spiritual man, Messiah, are not the evil-inclination associated with the grafting, artificially, of a new means of producing offspring that was not part of the original plan of God, which original plan was that all "mankind" would be a genet, genetic facsimiles of Adam, and not a Duke's mixture produced through sexual mixing. The prohibition of Jews interbreeding with non-Jews is based not on racial profiling, or racisim, but on the fact that the Jew represent the original man, such that brit milah represents the removal of the artificial means of procreation grafted onto Adam to produce the evil-inclination which, because of the nature of his birth, Messiah won't possess. The "scrap-metal" spoken of by Rabbi Hirsch is the brass-alloy from which the serpent was manufactured and grafted on to Moses' Messianic-rod, Nehushtan. The serpent represents the foreskin, which represents uncircumcision, which is wonderfully set in its original context, the Garden, in Sanhedrin 38b.

With all that in mind, it would only require just one more image to look like a mind-reader . . . reading a very valuable mind . . . the mind of Rabbi Hirsch concerning his treatment of the menorah:
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The image in the lower right hand corner is Masaccio's Trinity. -----It's one of the most important Christian images ever produced. It was produced in the fifteenth century, long before Rabbi Hirsch's statements, but was clearly known (or one of its spawn was known) by Rabbi Hirsch. It shows the cross of Messiah growing out of the skeleton of Adam, which is directly beneath the cross. Messiah is fancied a sprout, growing out of the bones of Adam, as though Messiah, unlike Cain, is a basal-shoot, a sprout, growing out of the root of the original man.

A fruit farmer would have bells and whistles going off at this point since he knows that if it were possible for a man to "sprout" out of the original root of the original man, without sexual mixing (shatnez), then this man, could be a facsimile of Adam prior to the adulterated grafting of the very rod, shoot, through which Cain was produced as scrap metal, through the mixing of the genes of two independent organisms. If Messiah could truly sprout out of the bones of Adam, without sexual mixing, then he could be the "firstborn of creation" as God intended everyone to be born, even though millions of humans may have been produced through adulteration of the tree grafted onto the original root of the first man.

If Adam had not sinned the world would have entered the Messianic state on the first Sabbath after creation, with no historical process whatever. . . Adam---- who at first was a cosmic, spiritual, supernal being, a soul which contained all souls ---fell from his station, whereupon the divine light in his soul was dispersed.

Professor Gershom Scholem, The Messianic Idea in Judaism, p. 46.

As we have said, though G-d commanded Adam to procreate on the day He created him (the sixth day of the primordial week), the intention was that he should wait until Shabbat in order to fulfill this commandment. Had he done so, he and Eve would have given birth, on the very first Shabbat, to Mashiach.124

Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, The Mystery of Marriage, p. 356.

If not for Adam's sin, all mankind would have had the status of Israel. . . To some degree, circumcision restored Abraham and his descendants to the status of Adam before his sin.

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Handbook of Jewish Thought, p. 39, 47.​

Thankfully, meiosis and polar-body provides a scientific basis for how the pre-lapse DNA of Adam is protected and secured so that if indeed a "sprout" hoter חטר could grow out of the post-meiotic, pre-fertilization root of Adam (geza גזע the female ovum) then that human would not only be the firstborn of creation, but Messiah, who, Messiah, isn't even subject to death.

If a person were familiar with the nature of the Sefirotic Tree (Adam Kadmon), and Rabbi Hirsch's menorah (which he associates with Messiah -- who is Adam Kadmon), they could see that Masaccio's Trinity is an exact and complete exegesis of both the Sefirotic Tree, and Rabbi Hirsch's image (and statements) about the nature of the menorah, as the emblematic image of Messiah. ----- Unfortunately the nature of the Sefirotic Tree is mostly unknown, as Rabbi Hirsch's menorah is mostly unknown, as the nature of the Cross is mostly unknown, to Jews and Gentiles, Christians and Jews, such that the revelation of these things, far from drawing God-fearers together in a great feast of revelation, instead reveals the yawning chasm (and the literal yawning) created by television, sex, rug-rats, and all those multifarious things considered so much more important and real than the Word of God.



John
 

John D. Brey

Well-Known Member
[B said:
Metalmaid][/B]

Shoresh is root; geza is trunk. Anaf is branch. Tzemach is a plant that grows.
Learn some Hebrew.

The verse being discussed is Isaiah 11:1, וְיָצָ֥א חֹ֖טֶר מִגֵּ֣זַע יִשָׁ֑י וְנֵ֖צֶר מִשָּׁרָשָׁ֥יו יִפְרֶֽה׃. -----And as I stated, words are more nuanced than some people suppose. The Jewish Publication Society translate: "But a shoot [hoter] shall grow out of the stump [geza] of Jesse, a twig shall sprout from his stock [sores]." -----They translate geza as "stump," and sores as "stock," while Judaica Press (producers of Judaica Books of the Prophets) translate: "A shoot [hoter] shall spring forth from the stem [geza] of Jesse." ----- Judaica Press translates geza as "stem," and go so far as to explain the meaning of geza ("stem") as it's used in the passage:

When a tree is cut down, only the stump remains, and twigs spring up around it. Since Israel was exiled, and the kingdom ceased to exist, it was as though the tree was cut down. The prophet, therefore, announces that there is still hope for the House of David, and that from it's roots and its stump, a now shoot will spring, a new king over Israel.​

In Isaiah 10:33-34 (which pre-seeds 11:1) Israel and the temple are being compared to a genet, a basal-colony, an arboretum. -----Though the founding Lebanon, and the forest which grows from it, have been cut down to the ground prior to the arrival of Messiah, the prophet says fear not; that even though the tree and its arboretum are cut down to the ground, nevertheless basal-shoots will spring, vegetatively, from the root, the stem, the stock:

A clonal colony or genet is a group of genetically identical individuals, such as plants, fungi, or bacteria, that have grown in a given location, all originating vegetatively, not sexually, from a single ancestor. . . Above ground, these plants appear to be distinct individuals, but underground they remain interconnected and are all clones of the same plant.

Wikipedia.​

Israel is supposed to be like Adam prior to Genesis 2:21. They're supposed to, if Rabbi Hirsch can be believed, possess "those original unadulterated gifts with which man was endowed at the time of his creation, but not elements acquired from sources, artificially grafted onto his person. . .."

The Talmud, and midrashim, claim the penis is artificially grafted onto the original, unadulterated human, Adam (who was originally gender-less), to produce a sexually, rather than vegetatively procreating, species of mankind. Abraham is told to symbolically remove the adulterated flesh (the flesh of adultery) so that, per Rabbi Kaplan, Abraham and his offspring can reinstated the original covenant between God and mankind, which is to produce a genet, a clonal colony, a basal-colony, vegetatively, not sexually. The removal of the offending flesh (brit milah) is the whole point of the "sign" of the covenant. Abraham's offspring are supposed to be a vegetatively procreating clonal colony.

And of course the foregoing segues into the question about the soul, or better the Tree of Souls, which is what this thread had hoped to be about in the first place. According to the same Talmud,and the same midrashim, at the point of circumcision, a Jew receives not the soul associated with his sexual conception which occurred in the dead of night. On the contrary, the Jew receives a soul that was created prior to the sin of Adam and stored in the Treasury of Souls, the Guf, a coffin, bones, a skeleton, to be distributed the moment a person has the offending flesh that produces an animal soul, a goy soul, removed from his body. A Jew trades his animal soul, his goy soul, for one of the souls deposited in Adam before the casting down of the world (Genesis 2:21), so that two human species are made to exist side by side. Those whose soul was in Adam from the very beginning, and merely needs to be separated, through vegetative (non-sexual) means, and those souls who don't exist until they're created sexually in the dead of night.

Through Milah it would be possible to return to the level of Adam and Eve before the sin. In other words, mankind would again have direct access to the spiritual dimension.

Rabbi Kaplan, Inner Space, p. 166.

The Israelites were thus totally sanctified to God, and became virtually a separate species.

Rabbi Kaplan, Handbook of Jewish Thought, p. 54.

Grafting of trees and matings of animals in the sense of the כלאים-law would constitute a wanton interference by man with the God-given laws of nature. . . "Each to its own species!" Each to its own task! Each group of men, and especially the Jew, must remain true to his own kind and species.

Rabbi Samson Hirsch, Collected Writings III, p. 174.


John
 

John D. Brey

Well-Known Member
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This is a copy of the image Rabbi Hirsch attaches (Collected Writings III, p. 224) to what he calls the Tree of Souls. -----Long-suffering Jewish participants might remember an argument posited years ago about whether or not Rabbi Hirsch was a closet Christian. . . The text Rabbi Hirsch attaches to the image above justifies everything I've written in the last year, to a degree that would cause severe conflict in the mind of any Jew who formerly thought my writing presented ideas and concepts outside the purview of the teaching associated with the great Rabbi himself.



John


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The image found in Rabbi Hirsch's Collected Writings (far left), is here juxtaposed over Masaccio's Trinity. -----In context, Rabbi Hirsch is comparing the image on the left to the Personage found in Isaiah chapter 11. The Personage found in Isaiah chapter 11 is Messiah. Someone will think it easy enough to transpose the Jewish image of Messiah over the Christian image of messiah, for little more than ****s and giggles. Except that the Jewish image on the far left (Rabbi Hirsch's own image) is constructed not of flesh and blood, per the Christian image, but of words:

The finally definitive move for the Rabbis was to transfer all Logos and Sophia talk to the Torah alone, thus effectively accomplishing two powerful discursive moves at once: consolidating their own power as the sole religious virtuosi and leaders of "the Jews," and protecting one version of monotheistic thinking from the problematic of division within the godhead. For the Rabbis, Torah supersedes Logos, just as for John [the apostle], Logos supersedes Torah. Or, to put it into more fully johaninine terms, if for John the Logos Incarnate in Jesus replaces the Logos revealed in the Book, for the Rabbis the Logos Incarnate in the Book displaces the Logos that subsists anywhere else but in the Book.

Rabbi Daniel Boyarin, Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, Berkeley, Border Lines.​

Rabbi Hirsch's image of Messiah is textual. The Christian image of Messiah is incarnate, flesh and blood. But the text of Rabbi Hirsch's image, when interpreted, perfectly parallels the Christian image in flesh and blood. The foundational word in Rabbi Hirsch's messianic image, גזע (geza), means "root," as in the root spoken of as the source for Messiah in Isaiah chapter 11. The second word in Rabbi Hirsch's messianic image, חוטר (hoter), means sprout, as in the "sprout" growing from the "root" found in Isaiah chapter 11. The words repeated above חוטר (hoter, "sprout") in Rabbi Hirsch's image, רוח (ruach), which forms the torso of Messiah, means "spirit."

Rabbi Hirsch is clear that Messiah is the man who will be uniquely endued with God's Spirit. Messiah will be a spiritual man, such that his torso is made up of spirit רוח (more on this later). Finally, the words on either end of the cross member are חכמה (hokmah) and בינה (binah) which literally make up the right and left hand of Adam Kadmon (the spiritual man) on the Jewish sefirotic tree. Lastly, the enlarged dalet ד found at the head of Rabbi Hirsch's image is the letter used to speak of "God" in his Fatherly role as creator and overseer of his creation. ----Ironically Masaccio's Trinity had the Father precisely where Rabbi Hirsch does on his own emblem of Messiah. The Father is the "head" of Messiah. And Messiah is the Father's organ of regeneration, his Yesod, the tool he would use, were it intact, to father his offspring.


John
 

John D. Brey

Well-Known Member
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The image found in Rabbi Hirsch's Collected Writings (far left), is here juxtaposed over Masaccio's Trinity. -----In context, Rabbi Hirsch is comparing the image on the left to the Personage found in Isaiah chapter 11. The Personage found in Isaiah chapter 11 is Messiah. Someone will think it easy enough to transpose the Jewish image of Messiah over the Christian image of messiah, for little more than ****s and giggles. Except that the Jewish image on the far left (Rabbi Hirsch's own image) is constructed not of flesh and blood, per the Christian image, but of words:

The finally definitive move for the Rabbis was to transfer all Logos and Sophia talk to the Torah alone, thus effectively accomplishing two powerful discursive moves at once: consolidating their own power as the sole religious virtuosi and leaders of "the Jews," and protecting one version of monotheistic thinking from the problematic of division within the godhead. For the Rabbis, Torah supersedes Logos, just as for John [the apostle], Logos supersedes Torah. Or, to put it into more fully johaninine terms, if for John the Logos Incarnate in Jesus replaces the Logos revealed in the Book, for the Rabbis the Logos Incarnate in the Book displaces the Logos that subsists anywhere else but in the Book.

Rabbi Daniel Boyarin, Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, Berkeley, Border Lines.​

Rabbi Hirsch's image of Messiah is textual. The Christian image of Messiah is incarnate, flesh and blood. But the text of Rabbi Hirsch's image, when interpreted, perfectly parallels the Christian image in flesh and blood. The foundational word in Rabbi Hirsch's messianic image, גזע (geza), means "root," as in the root spoken of as the source for Messiah in Isaiah chapter 11. The second word in Rabbi Hirsch's messianic image, חוטר (hoter), means sprout, as in the "sprout" growing from the "root" found in Isaiah chapter 11. The words repeated above חוטר (hoter, "sprout") in Rabbi Hirsch's image, רוח (ruach), which forms the torso of Messiah, means "spirit."

Rabbi Hirsch is clear that Messiah is the man who will be uniquely endued with God's Spirit. Messiah will be a spiritual man, such that his torso is made up of spirit רוח (more on this later). Finally, the words on either end of the cross member are חכמה (hokmah) and בינה (binah) which literally make up the right and left hand of Adam Kadmon (the spiritual man) on the Jewish sefirotic tree. Lastly, the enlarged dalet ד found at the head of Rabbi Hirsch's image is the letter used to speak of "God" in his Fatherly role as creator and overseer of his creation. ----Ironically Masaccio's Trinity had the Father precisely where Rabbi Hirsch does on his own emblem of Messiah. The Father is the "head" of Messiah. And Messiah is the Father's organ of regeneration, his Yesod, the tool he would use, were it intact, to father his offspring.


John



I was only recently made aware how uniquely comprehensive Rabbi Hirsch's treatment of the Menorah is. There's very little good commentary on the symbolism of the Menorah such that Collected Writings III is literally a treasure-trove for anyone interested in the symbolism and meaning of the Menorah.

This only makes Rabbi Hirsch's treatment of the Menorah even more baffling since his personal rendition of the Menorah, which he relates to a "tree," resembles the very tree the Christian messiah was hung on. The reason this is baffling is that not only does Rabbi Hirsch point out, point blank, that his tree-rendering manifests messiah (he relates his image directly to Isaiah 11:1), but everything he says about his messianic-tree appears to have come directly from images hanging in the cathedrals throughout Europe.

A common visual trope in these cathedral paintings is Adam's skull beneath the tree where the Christian messiah is hanging. The Christian messiah is supposed to, get this, "sprout" out of the original root of the human race (Adam) who, though he (Adam) is dead, still retains the possibility of producing a sprout, a new tree, out of what to all appearances is a dead stump, a skeleton, or a skull (gulgolet/golgotha).



Though it's very small in this image Adam's skull is situated (as it is in many medieval crucifixion themes) at the foot of the cross. Now look again at Rabbi Hirsch's messianic-tree. At the same place all the Christian painting have Adam's skull (as the root-stock the cross grows from), Rabbi Hirsch writes גזע (root-stock, sire, dead stump). ----- Rabbi Hirsch's messianic-tree, which looks strikingly like the Christian's messianic-tree, "shoots" (as a vegetative sprout חוטר) right out of the same darned dead-stump, root-stock of the human race, that all the Christian paintings show the cross growing out of?

We should stress here once again that the menorah must never be made from מן הגרוטאות, scrap metal. This specification may well convey the message that the inclinations of man, which are to be bearers of the Divine spirit, must be those original unadulterated gifts with which man was endowed at the time of his creation, but not elements acquired from sources, artificially grafted onto his personality.

Collected Writings III, p. 225.

This is written right next to Rabbi Hirsch's messianic-tree rendering. His messianic-tree must be made from pure gold to convey the message that the inclinations of this particular man, endowed with divine spirit, must be those "original" and "unadulterated" inclinations with which man was originally endowed at the time of his creation, but not elements artificially grafted onto his person (Gen. 2:21). The messianic-personage, found in Isaiah chapter 11, doesn't possess the "evil" inclination that came about through the first adultery. He has the original, spiritual, inclination, that Adam had prior to committing adultery, when he mixed his original nature with a different species creating the very Fall requiring a "shoot" to grow out of the original unadulterated root-stock.

If not for Adam's sin, all mankind would have had the status of Israel. . . To some degree, circumcision restored Abraham and his descendants to the status of Adam before his sin.

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Handbook of Jewish Thought, p. 39, 47.​

Ironically, Rabbi Hirsch's messianic-tree has an enlarged dalet ד at the top precisely where a plaque was affixed to the Christian cross. The enlarged dalet is a symbol for "God," who is Israel's true King. The plaque affixed to the top of the cross reads ישו הנצרי מלכא דיהודי as best I can make out the Hebrew on Chagall's famous White Crucifixion.


John
 

John D. Brey

Well-Known Member


I was only recently made aware how uniquely comprehensive Rabbi Hirsch's treatment of the Menorah is. There's very little good commentary on the symbolism of the Menorah such that Collected Writings III is literally a treasure-trove for anyone interested in the symbolism and meaning of the Menorah.

This only makes Rabbi Hirsch's treatment of the Menorah even more baffling since his personal rendition of the Menorah, which he relates to a "tree," resembles the very tree the Christian messiah was hung on. The reason this is baffling is that not only does Rabbi Hirsch point out, point blank, that his tree-rendering manifests messiah (he relates his image directly to Isaiah 11:1), but everything he says about his messianic-tree appears to have come directly from images hanging in the cathedrals throughout Europe.

A common visual trope in these cathedral paintings is Adam's skull beneath the tree where the Christian messiah is hanging. The Christian messiah is supposed to, get this, "sprout" out of the original root of the human race (Adam) who, though he (Adam) is dead, still retains the possibility of producing a sprout, a new tree, out of what to all appearances is a dead stump, a skeleton, or a skull (gulgolet/golgotha).



Though it's very small in this image Adam's skull is situated (as it is in many medieval crucifixion themes) at the foot of the cross. Now look again at Rabbi Hirsch's messianic-tree. At the same place all the Christian painting have Adam's skull (as the root-stock the cross grows from), Rabbi Hirsch writes גזע (root-stock, sire, dead stump). ----- Rabbi Hirsch's messianic-tree, which looks strikingly like the Christian's messianic-tree, "shoots" (as a vegetative sprout חוטר) right out of the same darned dead-stump, root-stock of the human race, that all the Christian paintings show the cross growing out of?

We should stress here once again that the menorah must never be made from מן הגרוטאות, scrap metal. This specification may well convey the message that the inclinations of man, which are to be bearers of the Divine spirit, must be those original unadulterated gifts with which man was endowed at the time of his creation, but not elements acquired from sources, artificially grafted onto his personality.

Collected Writings III, p. 225.

This is written right next to Rabbi Hirsch's messianic-tree rendering. His messianic-tree must be made from pure gold to convey the message that the inclinations of this particular man, endowed with divine spirit, must be those "original" and "unadulterated" inclinations with which man was originally endowed at the time of his creation, but not elements artificially grafted onto his person (Gen. 2:21). The messianic-personage, found in Isaiah chapter 11, doesn't possess the "evil" inclination that came about through the first adultery. He has the original, spiritual, inclination, that Adam had prior to committing adultery, when he mixed his original nature with a different species creating the very Fall requiring a "shoot" to grow out of the original unadulterated root-stock.

If not for Adam's sin, all mankind would have had the status of Israel. . . To some degree, circumcision restored Abraham and his descendants to the status of Adam before his sin.

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Handbook of Jewish Thought, p. 39, 47.​

Ironically, Rabbi Hirsch's messianic-tree has an enlarged dalet ד at the top precisely where a plaque was affixed to the Christian cross. The enlarged dalet is a symbol for "God," who is Israel's true King. The plaque affixed to the top of the cross reads ישו הנצרי מלכא דיהודי as best I can make out the Hebrew on Chagall's famous White Crucifixion.


John

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A partisan protestor could to this point poo poo Rabbi Hirsch channeling Medieval crucifixion themes much as Professor Green implies much of Jewish mysticism is patently the channeling of Christian themes by the Jewish sages. -----And yet Rabbi Hirsch comparing his messianic-tree, which looks strikingly similar to a cross, to a "chalice" where the wine of everlasting life is stored seems like it would convince even the most hardened or stiff-necked Jew that either Rabbi Hirsch was a closet-Christian, or that even one of the greatest Jewish scholars of all time couldn't help trying to rip off a symbol or two from their Christian peers? On the page adjacent to his cross rendition Rabbi Hirsch says this about the design of his messianic branch:

The symbolic significance of גביע is also quite clear. The term denotes "chalice," or "flower cup." The use of this term in Jeremiah 35,5 ("and I set before the house of he Rehabites cups full of wine, and goblets") seems to indicate that גביע refers not to the drinking cup but to a larger vessel in which the wine was brought to the table and from which it was then poured into כוסות---goblets. . . Hence, גביע would be that receptacle in which the entire amount of the liquid available for drinking is received, accumulated and held together. . . Accordingly, it is used as a metaphor denoting man's destiny apportioned to him by God.

Collected Writings III.

Throughout Medieval crucifixion themes the cross grows out of Adam's skull (gulgolet/Golgotha) like a branch sprouting out of prelapse Adam's bone marrow rather than his sexual seed. This messianic-sprout therein becomes the "chalice" containing prelapse Adam's DNA, the "redeeming blood," the drinking of which leads to immortality. Not only is Rabbi Hirsch's messianic-cross the spitting image of the Christian messianic-tree, but just like the Christian images, Rabbi Hirsch claims his messianic-sprout (Isaiah 11:1) is in fact a "chalice" containing fluid apportioned for all his (messiah's) offspring. Those born the first time from sexual seed will receive a new soul, a second soul, not from the testes of prelapse sexual reproduction, but from the Tree of Souls so perfectly rendered visually and literarily by brother Sampson R. Hirsch.


John
 

John D. Brey

Well-Known Member
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A partisan protestor could to this point poo poo Rabbi Hirsch channeling Medieval crucifixion themes much as Professor Green implies much of Jewish mysticism is patently the channeling of Christian themes by the Jewish sages. -----And yet Rabbi Hirsch comparing his messianic-tree, which looks strikingly similar to a cross, to a "chalice" where the wine of everlasting life is stored seems like it would convince even the most hardened or stiff-necked Jew that either Rabbi Hirsch was a closet-Christian, or that even one of the greatest Jewish scholars of all time couldn't help trying to rip off a symbol or two from their Christian peers? On the page adjacent to his cross rendition Rabbi Hirsch says this about the design of his messianic branch:

The symbolic significance of גביע is also quite clear. The term denotes "chalice," or "flower cup." The use of this term in Jeremiah 35,5 ("and I set before the house of he Rehabites cups full of wine, and goblets") seems to indicate that גביע refers not to the drinking cup but to a larger vessel in which the wine was brought to the table and from which it was then poured into כוסות---goblets. . . Hence, גביע would be that receptacle in which the entire amount of the liquid available for drinking is received, accumulated and held together. . . Accordingly, it is used as a metaphor denoting man's destiny apportioned to him by God.

Collected Writings III.

Throughout Medieval crucifixion themes the cross grows out of Adam's skull (gulgolet/Golgotha) like a branch sprouting out of prelapse Adam's bone marrow rather than his sexual seed. This messianic-sprout therein becomes the "chalice" containing prelapse Adam's DNA, the "redeeming blood," the drinking of which leads to immortality. Not only is Rabbi Hirsch's messianic-cross the spitting image of the Christian messianic-tree, but just like the Christian images, Rabbi Hirsch claims his messianic-sprout (Isaiah 11:1) is in fact a "chalice" containing fluid apportioned for all his (messiah's) offspring. Those born the first time from sexual seed will receive a new soul, a second soul, not from the testes of prelapse sexual reproduction, but from the Tree of Souls so perfectly rendered visually and literarily by brother Sampson R. Hirsch.


John

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Movie buffs might remember that in Spielberg's, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Professor Indiana Jones tells the university president that tradition implies the Ark of the Covenant is hidden in the "Well of Souls." -----Rabbi Hirsch actually helps us makes sense of equating the Ark of the Covenant with the "Well of Souls," or the Tree of Souls, when he makes one of his most important and unacknowledged exegetical maneuvers. -----In his Chumash, Rabbi Hirsch claims that strict and careful exegesis implies that when God establishes his "covenant" with Abraham, he's not establishing a new covenant, but merely renewing the original covenant between God and Adam, as it existed before Genesis 2:21, which (Gen. 2:21) leads to the additional flesh Professor Wolfson labels the advent of the "reign of the phallus." Theology buffs will note that the sign God establishes for this renewal of the pre-Genesis 2:21 covenant is the symbolic removal of the offending flesh (brit milah).

As noted earlier in the thread, Christian iconography paints Adam's skull beneath the cross:




Unremarked on to a degree that seems incredible we find that throughout Medieval crucifixion paintings a skull and crossbones is found at the foot of the cross. Brother Samson Hirsch helps us make sense of this imagery when he links Isaiah 11:1, speaking of the nature and arrival of messiah, with a tree sprouting out of the roots of the unadulterated first man: man as he was originally created, i.e., before he's fitted for sexual reproduction. -----Rabbi Hirsch interprets imagery that's confounded for centuries. The root גזע from which the messianic Branch "sprouts" חוטר, is the bone-marrow of Adam, where his original, unadulterated, DNA, remains, like the root of prelapse-humanity hidden beneath ground, awaiting the day a Tree of Souls grows out of Adam's still viable root גזע.

Tradition implies that the during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, the Babylonians built a wall around Jerusalem so no one or thing could leave or enter the city. Jews dug tunnels beneath the city to move around without the observation of their captors. According to tradition the Ark of the Covenant was hidden in one of these tunnels which was summarily sealed up so that the Babylonians couldn't acquire the Ark. The Ark landed directly beneath Golgotha which ironically is the Hebrew word for "skull."

Rabbi Hirsch's implication that the covenant established with Abraham is the original covenant established with the original man suggests that the Ark of the covenant is the coffin of the original covenant, i.e., the resting place of the bones of Adam, such that the prelapse DNA in those bones is stored in the golden sarcophagus that was carried through the desert exodus with Israel just like the sarcophagus of Joseph. -----Martin Buber claims the word for "Ark" is the same word used for the "coffin" carrying Joseph's bones. Therefore, the Ark of the Covenant should, by Rabbi Hirsch's stars, be called the "Ark of the Original Covenant": the resting place of Adam's bones, specifically the marrow, the unadulterated DNA of the original human.

The only other connotation, aside from the Ark of the Testimony, in which the term ארון occurs are those of coffin in Genesis 50, 26 and treasure chest to receive the monetary donations for the Sanctuary in II Kings 12, 10 and II Chronicles 24, 8. . . The coffin receives the remains; the chest receives the donations for the Sanctuary . . ..

Collected Writings III.

When, after his adultery, the adulteration of his flesh (Gen. 2:21), Adam is exiled from the mountain of God, Eden, to wander through the desert ruled over by the "reign of the phallus" (Wolfson), two angels are station on the coffin to guard and protect the precious contents inside. Indeed, the marrow of Adam's bones is the final resting place of the original DNA of the human race, the immortal DNA created for man by God. The angels on the coffin of the original covenant must protect that DNA until a "branch," a vegetative sprout, growing out of the root in the coffin, sprouts to become the Tree of Life, the Tree of Souls, rising up out of the "Well of Souls" hidden beneath Golgotha.

Speaking of the "sprout" חוטר growing out of this Well of Souls, Rabbi Hirsch claims that since Isaiah relates messiah to just such a sprout, "we must turn to botany in our study of this system" (Collected Writings III, p. 227). In botany, a חוטר is a vegetative sprout born from the roots גזע rather than through sexual-reproduction. In botany, no prized creation is ever subjected to sexual reproductive mutiny or mutation. Sex destroys perfection. The first man was perfect. Only the basest vineyard owner would allow his prized Tree (from which he intends to produce an arboretum of identically perfect branches) to be mixed sexually -----thereby creating a ******* line so that such a vineyard owner would thereafter be consigned to raising Cain.


John
 

John D. Brey

Well-Known Member
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Movie buffs might remember that in Spielberg's, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Professor Indiana Jones tells the university president that tradition implies the Ark of the Covenant is hidden in the "Well of Souls." -----Rabbi Hirsch actually helps us makes sense of equating the Ark of the Covenant with the "Well of Souls," or the Tree of Souls, when he makes one of his most important and unacknowledged exegetical maneuvers. -----In his Chumash, Rabbi Hirsch claims that strict and careful exegesis implies that when God establishes his "covenant" with Abraham, he's not establishing a new covenant, but merely renewing the original covenant between God and Adam, as it existed before Genesis 2:21, which (Gen. 2:21) leads to the additional flesh Professor Wolfson labels the advent of the "reign of the phallus." Theology buffs will note that the sign God establishes for this renewal of the pre-Genesis 2:21 covenant is the symbolic removal of the offending flesh (brit milah).

As noted earlier in the thread, Christian iconography paints Adam's skull beneath the cross:




Unremarked on to a degree that seems incredible we find that throughout Medieval crucifixion paintings a skull and crossbones is found at the foot of the cross. Brother Samson Hirsch helps us make sense of this imagery when he links Isaiah 11:1, speaking of the nature and arrival of messiah, with a tree sprouting out of the roots of the unadulterated first man: man as he was originally created, i.e., before he's fitted for sexual reproduction. -----Rabbi Hirsch interprets imagery that's confounded for centuries. The root גזע from which the messianic Branch "sprouts" חוטר, is the bone-marrow of Adam, where his original, unadulterated, DNA, remains, like the root of prelapse-humanity hidden beneath ground, awaiting the day a Tree of Souls grows out of Adam's still viable root גזע.

Tradition implies that the during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, the Babylonians built a wall around Jerusalem so no one or thing could leave or enter the city. Jews dug tunnels beneath the city to move around without the observation of their captors. According to tradition the Ark of the Covenant was hidden in one of these tunnels which was summarily sealed up so that the Babylonians couldn't acquire the Ark. The Ark landed directly beneath Golgotha which ironically is the Hebrew word for "skull."

Rabbi Hirsch's implication that the covenant established with Abraham is the original covenant established with the original man suggests that the Ark of the covenant is the coffin of the original covenant, i.e., the resting place of the bones of Adam, such that the prelapse DNA in those bones is stored in the golden sarcophagus that was carried through the desert exodus with Israel just like the sarcophagus of Joseph. -----Martin Buber claims the word for "Ark" is the same word used for the "coffin" carrying Joseph's bones. Therefore, the Ark of the Covenant should, by Rabbi Hirsch's stars, be called the "Ark of the Original Covenant": the resting place of Adam's bones, specifically the marrow, the unadulterated DNA of the original human.

The only other connotation, aside from the Ark of the Testimony, in which the term ארון occurs are those of coffin in Genesis 50, 26 and treasure chest to receive the monetary donations for the Sanctuary in II Kings 12, 10 and II Chronicles 24, 8. . . The coffin receives the remains; the chest receives the donations for the Sanctuary . . ..

Collected Writings III.

When, after his adultery, the adulteration of his flesh (Gen. 2:21), Adam is exiled from the mountain of God, Eden, to wander through the desert ruled over by the "reign of the phallus" (Wolfson), two angels are station on the coffin to guard and protect the precious contents inside. Indeed, the marrow of Adam's bones is the final resting place of the original DNA of the human race, the immortal DNA created for man by God. The angels on the coffin of the original covenant must protect that DNA until a "branch," a vegetative sprout, growing out of the root in the coffin, sprouts to become the Tree of Life, the Tree of Souls, rising up out of the "Well of Souls" hidden beneath Golgotha.

Speaking of the "sprout" חוטר growing out of this Well of Souls, Rabbi Hirsch claims that since Isaiah relates messiah to just such a sprout, "we must turn to botany in our study of this system" (Collected Writings III, p. 227). In botany, a חוטר is a vegetative sprout born from the roots גזע rather than through sexual-reproduction. In botany, no prized creation is ever subjected to sexual reproductive mutiny or mutation. Sex destroys perfection. The first man was perfect. Only the basest vineyard owner would allow his prized Tree (from which he intends to produce an arboretum of identically perfect branches) to be mixed sexually -----thereby creating a ******* line so that such a vineyard owner would thereafter be consigned to raising Cain.


John


Art historians have investigated these moral and religious meanings of Masaccio's skeleton since it was rediscovered by Ugo Procacci in 1951, after being hidden by an altar for almost four hundred years. On the most literal level, the skeleton belongs to Adam and refers to the tradition according to which the Crucifixion took place on the site of Adam's tomb . . ..

Rona Goffen, Distinguished Professor of Art History at Rutger's University, Masaccio's Trinity, p. 119.​

Adam's tomb is the Ark of the Covenant such that in his channeling of Christian motifs Rabbi Hirsch gets his wires tangled up a bit. He claims the shel rosh, the head tefillin, is the "ark of the covenant in miniature," when in truth, it's the skull that wears the shel rosh that represents the ark of the covenant. The shel rosh is something else entirely. Something Rabbi Hirsch has had many opportunities to discuss. As have we. Such as in the thread The Baffling Bloody Ban.

Rabbi Hirsch stumbles onto some pretty egregious problems that leaves egg on the face of the sages if only someone with a comprehensive approach to theology addresses Rabbi Hirsch's troubles. We did. In, The Baffling Bloody Ban, thread. To all the yawns and ad hominem received in the current thread.

But where theology is taken as comprehensive and consistent, the problem Rabbi Hirsch encountered in relationship to the shel rosh, raises it's head (so to say) in this very thread. -----In fact, Rabbi Hirsch's problem with the ban on blood, when examined in the proper light, untangles his tangled wires concerning his calling the shel rosh (head tefillin) the "ark of the covenant in miniature," when in fact the Jewish skull, gulgolet, wearing the shel rosh is the ark of the covenant in miniature. The shel rosh is actually, and clearly, the "chalice" Rabbi Hirsch associates with the Branch growing out of the rootstock גזע of humanity in his discussion of the Menorah he fancies as a messianic-tree growing out of the root-stock of humanity.

Instead, the very material from which a Sefer Torah, tefillin and mezuzah is prepared and upon which its passages are written should comply with the order that God addressed to Ezekiel (3, 1,3): "Eat this scroll!" "Nourish your body with this scroll and fill your inner parts with it." In other words, Let the Teaching of God enter your mouth! The Torah in its entirety and in its individual parts is not intended for you as a means of external, physical protection but as spiritual nourishment to be absorbed within you. The Torah has achieved its purpose only if its contents and the ideas to be conveyed by its symbols have been absorbed into our flesh and blood, giving strength and nourishment to our minds and emotions.

Rabbi Samson R. Hirsch, Collected Writings III, p. 153 (emphasis mine).​

There's a giant glaring bloody problem with Rabbi Hirsch's statement. He points out that the shel rosh represents a kosher animal and is made out of the hide of a kosher animal such that symbolically, the point of the shel rosh is that you're supposed to absorb the scrolls, which are the soul of the shel rosh, into your inner persons: "The Torah has achieved its purpose only if its contents and the ideas to be conveyed by its symbols have been absorbed into our flesh and blood, giving strength and nourishment to our minds and emotions."

But this is tantamount to transgressing the ban on drinking the blood of an animal whether it's kosher or not. Not even a kosher animal's blood can be drank and yet everything Rabbi Hirsch says about the shel rosh implies that its blood is the soul of the Torah?

Ok. Back to Rabbi Hirsch getting tangled up about whether the skull (gulgoleth/Golgotha) is the ark of the covenant in miniature, or the shel rosh is? Back to our Christian iconography, where Adam's skull is in the Ark of the Covenant, with the rest of his bones, while a "sprout" חוטר springs out of the dead root of Adam, the geza גזע, to become messiah (Isaiah 11:1-2; Collected Writings III, p. 223-225).

Do you see what's happening here that causes Rabbi Hirsch to purposefully confuse himself that he not go where no Jew can go without being excised from modern Jewish sensibilities? The kosher animal whose blood is the Torah is Messiah. In other words, the shel rosh (head tefillin), manufactured to represent a kosher animal represents a particular kosher animal: Shaddai: the Lamb of God. Think how peculiar this line of thought is to poor Rabbi Hirsch. He realizes the shel rosh represents a kosher animal. He knows Shaddai is spelled out on the kosher hide hiding the Torah inside, and he knows the Torah inside is the very blood of the kosher animal a.k.a. "Shaddai."

Rabbi Hirsch can't bring himself to acknowledge that Shaddai, the Lamb of God, is the fruit of the Tree of Life, the chalice where the wine of immortality is stored, for those who are destined to receive an immortal soul from the Tree of Souls growing out of Adam's bone marrow, representative of his prelapse DNA. -----Rabbi Hirsch draws the outline for every word of this. -----He even draw the outline of the cross where Shaddai, the Lamb of God, is hung. -----He even makes the rootstock of humanity, Adam, גזע, the skull that the hoter חוטר (vegetative sprout) grows out of. Rabbi Hirsch presents, confirms, and wallows, in all of this, such that he's either a closet-Christian, or merely couldn't help himself from channeling all those images he secretly spied in the German cathedrals and in the Christian Gospels neither of which were kosher for him to peer into.


John
 
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