Chapter
12
The
Kabbalist of Languedoc
The
Kabbalah was first taught by God himself to a select company of angels, who
formed a theosophic school in Paradise. After the Fall the angels most
graciously communicated this heavenly doctrine to the disobedient child of
earth, to furnish the protoplasts with the means of returning to their pristine
nobility and felicity. - Christian Ginsburg
Joshua
Ben Cohen hunched over his writing table, eyes too close to the pages he marked
with Hebrew letters. The window was open
and a sunbeam was visible in the room’s dust.
Outside birds chirped and an invigorating breeze occasionally made
itself known against Joshua’s cheeks.
His hands moved in careful precision, each letter had to be perfect,
that was half of the point. He looked
over at the tattered manuscript next to his parchment to be certain his
transcription was correct, or translation, more accurately … the document in
question was in Arabic which was, of course, unusual. But, the Arabs were making headway on the
ancient science in Toledo, and Joshua was a practical man. Though, the Angels of God had taught his
people the Divine Science of the Kabbalah, it belonged to all men … and the
discoveries of the Arabs were genuine and mystically correct … Joshua couldn’t
believe how much so. The others, of
God’s Chosen, had nothing but contempt for non-Hebrew attempts at their
Mystical paradigm of creation … but did not God create also the Muslim and the
Gentile?
But,
as has been said, Joshua had grown into a practical man in his forty-seven
years of life. Further, one wasn’t even
supposed to begin learning about the Kabbalah until one reached the advanced
age of fifty. Joshua was also
impatient. He could see no reason to
wait to learn the secrets of the manifested reality and its creation. One could not fully understand the holy books
without this powerful key.
His
hair was mostly gray, his beard more so.
His eye brows had become unruly and tangled, his brow generally stayed
in the look of great concentration from being held so for so long and often. He tirelessly continued his work.
The
Arab’s name had been lost by that time, only the year of the work, 777 CE by
our reckoning, provided any reference to its origin. But its truth was self-evident to Joshua, and
that was all that mattered to him. He
had also wondered about the nature of existence before the Crown of Kether
emanated from those Veils that sit beyond the realm of even the Supernals of
the Godhead. The unknown Arab’s was,
well, a godsend to him, and he owed Count Raymond much for his generous gift of
the work.
The
year was 1201 CE, the place a small hamlet just outside the walls of the
Fortress of Toulouse, Protectorate of Raymond VI, a man who had accepted Jews
into the civic life of Toulouse, who cared not for the Pope’s commands in that
matter. Raymond, further allowed the
Cathars to likewise to hold public offices, and live freely and equally with
all in Languedoc. Raymond was not so
much a soldier as a diplomat, and he sought what wisdom he could find amongst
his peoples, and hence The Count and Joshua had become friends, which led
eventually to the Count’s gift of the Arab’s manuscript.
It
was a labor for Joshua to translate the work.
His Arabic wasn’t as good as he would have liked, especially then. He spoke to near fluency: Hebrew, Latin,
French, and of course, his native Occitan. Often it would take him an hour to
painstakingly decipher the Arab’s foreign scrawling. But, it was an obsession to him, and the
difficulty of the project was of no consequence … Joshua would see it done.
The
Veils of Negative Existence detailed the earliest beginnings of creation before
even the Source of Emanations emerged from their pre-cosmic depths, before even
the singularity of Kether.
At first
there was Ain, or Nothingness, totally and complete, which descended into Ain
Soph or the Limitlessness of Infinity, and finally into Ain Soph Aur, the
Limitless Light that permeates all things even before the Beginning. These things fascinated him and held his
intellect and imagination in their thrall.
These words were what his life at become, a passion absolute. It was Joshua’s plan to translate the Arabic
and spend the rest of his days in quiet contemplation of their deeper meanings
in Hebrew, when he wasn’t serving his friend the Count, of course. He could think of no better way to spend a
life than in meditating on these ideas that had so captured his spirit
completely.
copyright 2017 Diana Hignutt
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