Sarx

Continuing his discussion of Communion, Fr Peter hits on one of my favourite verses:

Prov 9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.”

LOVE this verse! Pardon a little Hebrew blogging…

תְּחִלַּת חָכְמָה, יִרְאַת יְהוָה; וְדַעַת קְדֹשִׁים בִּינָה

T’khelat hokhmah, yirat YHVH, v’da’at kedoshim binah.

Fear is “yirah” and it means, literally, terror. It’s not the same word as “terrorism”, however. It refers mostly to a religious taboo. Think of all the pious reasons people refuse to come to communion. But it’s not the interesting part…

Wisdom is “hokhmah” Knowledge is “Daath”, and understanding is “Binah”.

In a very literal translation, the Hebrew says “beginning wisdom, terror YHVH: and knowledge holies understanding.” (Kedoshim is a plural noun – “holies” – not a verb.)

It’s a little choatic and the word order makes no sense. It is missing all the usually prefixes and suffixes that would indicate things like “of” and “the” and “just as”.

English prose wants to take this in a straight line of meaning A B C D. But it is Hebrew Poetry, not English Prose. The verse is better seen as Hebrew poetic parallels:

Begining Hokhmah: fear YHVH / Da’at Holies: Binah

In most modern translations, “holies” is paralleled with “YHVH”. This makes sense: it is rendered as “the All-Holy” or “the Holy One”. “Kedushim” is seen as a rarely-used poetic metaphor for YHVH. Then “Knowlege (of) Holies” is paralleled with “Fear (of) YHVH.” Again, this makes sense.

In math Hokmah : fear YHVH :: Binah : Da’at Holies

Which leaves us with Da’at, knowlege, as a parallel for Yirah, fear and this seems odd: Da’at is usually rendered “knoweldge”. It might seem to say something like “Fear of God” paralleled with “Theology”.

But that’s not what’s there.

Da’at is knowledge. But not like “I know that 2×2=4″ and a checklist of the 12 points of the Creed. Da’at is a mystic’s word. Da’at is from the same root used to say “Adam knew Eve”. It’s the same root used in expressions of sexuality even in some modern Hebrew slang (it could be seen in vulgar ways, even – a replacement for “the F word” – at least as I was taught the language in 1983, but slang changes).

Equally important, Hokhmah is, in traditional Jewish mysticism, seen as a Male aspect of deity’s action in the world – whose Female counterpart is Binah. One is not complete without the other. They are intimately connected, in fact, in Kabbalah’s Tree of Life, they are connected over an invisible section called “Da’at”!

To a mystic this verse reads:

The beginning of Hokhmah is in the Fear YHVH /
Intimate Love (as of Lover and Beloved) of (or better, Union with) the Holy One brings Binah

Imagine the intimacy implied there. Imagine the ecstasy. It’s not about piety or taboo at all. Or rather it is, exactly about those things: fear of God is exactly like the sacrament of the marriage bed.

Fear = Intimate, sexual-level knowledge.

Eros.