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Merkabah

   Also found in: Wikipedia 0.01 sec.

Merkabah

 or Merkava

Throne or chariot of God, as described by Ezekiel. It became an object of visionary contemplation for Jewish mystics in Palestine in the 1st century AD; in the 7th–11th century, Merkabah mysticism was centered in Babylonia. Merkabah mystics courted ecstatic visions that involved a dangerous ascent through celestial hierarchies to the throne of God. Hostile angels guarded the gates to the seven “heavenly dwellings,” and a successful journey required magical formulas. The Talmud warns that of four men who engaged in Merkabah, only one had a true vision; of the others, one died, one went mad, and one became an apostate.



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Many commentators have traditionally pointed out that ancient Jewish understanding of what Ezekiel beheld was the Merkabah, the Hebrew (literal meaning ) for the Lords chariot-throne.
Those who edited Talmud crossed out fragments containing secret knowledge, but there remained restrictions concerned with impossibility of explaining complicated aspects of teaching: "The laws of incest may not be expounded before three persons, nor the account of the Creation before two, nor the Merkabah before one unless the person is wise and able to understand on his own" (Hagigah 2a).
Among their topics are the construction of the transcendent self, the emergence of the mystical traditions of the Merkabah, the temple within, sexuality and the gender of angels, Jewish and Christian heavenly meal traditions, and divine secrets and divination.
 
 
 
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