As we already discussed, one way to explain how the Name and Hashem can be one, is to posit that the Name is the potential within the One for the subsequent creation. Being a potential, it does not contradict unity. This is how Rabbi Meir Gabbai in chapter 3 approaches this issue. So far, so good. How surprising then is it to find that he goes on to say that there are actually three aspects in the Unity.
To understand what he means we must first digress into the fascinating and obscure topics of pre-Zoharian Kabbala, specifically, the Kabbala of the Geonim. I will start with how the Pardes and Avodas Hakodesh attempted to fit Geonic teachings into the ten-sefirotic perspective, but the truth is that now that we have the actual Kabbalsitic works of Geonim, there is little doubt, at least in my mind, that Geonim received and expressed a very different tradition than that of the Zohar. We will discuss this next time, but when the Kabbalsits who "cut their teeth" on the Zohar encountered the "strange" teachings of the Geonim, they labored it understand them within their own perspective.
You may remember the disagreement about whether the sefirah of Keter is one of the ten sefiros or not. Pardes in Shaar 3 held that it was one of the ten, below and after Ain Sof, and Avodas Hakodesh said that it was not. Instead, Keter was that Name that R. Eliezer posited existed alongside the Hashem before the Beginning, and Emanation began with Chochma and not Keter.
The Geonim, on the other hand, spoke of 13 stations of Emanation. That would be very troublesome to the ten-sefirotic system. Therefore, both Pardes and Avodas Hakodesh took the group of the exra three and moved it away and apart from the Ten. Pardes located after the Ain Sof began to create or emanate ( and thus headed off any challenge to the Oneness of the One) but before the ten sefirot came out, although the three are inextricably connected to Ain Sof, in the same way that sefiros are connected. This group is above but related to Keter and this is where the 13 Tikkunei Dikna in the Keter of the Ari eventually came from. Other early Kabblists located these "extra" three within Tiferes and even Malchus (see here and "An introduction to the Kabbalah" By Mosheh Ḥalamish. p. 96 and p. 125).
Avodas Hakodesh, on the other hand, did something more daring and troubling. He put the three extra levels within the One itself.
Let's first see how Pardes handled the issue. Shaar 11 begins with the presentation of a teshuvah from Rav Hai Gaon. In the words of the Pardes: " ..although his language is long and extended and beyond it's content and requires a long explanation". Nevertheless, a question that was asked to Rav Hai Gaon by Rav Paltai and his chabura: "teach us so master, for we found that our sages speak of 13 measures that Moshe, Our Master, received. And the book of Creation(Sefer Yetzira) of our Father Abraham says that there are ten sefiros. We need to learn from your holy mouth if there are 10 but not 13, or, is it only thirteen and not 10. We need your Torah and we long for your response". Hai Gaon did respond and his explanation according to the Pardes is that there really 10 sefiros but above them, that is above the ten sefiros and above Keter, there are three additional hidden worlds. They're called Ohr Kadmon, Ohr Metsuchtsach and Ohr Tsach (from Tikkunei Zohar#70), called by these names because they're very hidden and mysterious. Their essence is the essence of Ain Sof and the three are intimately a part of the Root of all Roots and are the existence within the Ain Sof of of the possibiity of the three lines in which sefiros will ultimately arrange - Severity(Din), Mercy(Rachamim) and Kindess(Chessed).
Avodas Hakodesh(Ch.3 and end of Ch. 6), on the other hand seems to take the existence of the three aspects to be the Name and Essence to the Root of Roots(Shem V'Etsem leShoresh HaSheroshim) within Ain Sof. They are the highest extent of Avir Kadmon(Primordial Air) from which the ten sefiros ultimatley derive. It seems to me that there is a subtle but crucial difference between this explanation and that of Pardes. Avodas Hakodesh admits of One that is Everything, as we discussed in the previous post in this series. Within the Ain Sof there are things that eventually were emanated to become Everything in this world and those things that were never emanated and "remained" in the Ain Sof. The ones that will eventually emanate were always distinct as a group. One aspect of them is Name, that which we will eventually be able to recognize and call a name, and Essence, or what they actually are. These two are aspects of the Root of all Roots - the domain out of which all these things were to be emanated, before they were emanated.
Christian kabbalists were quick to pounce on these three as a trinitarian doctrine, which they are not, see here for a contemporary response. Della Pica Mirandolla saw here a vindication of Christianity but the Pope did not think so, threatened him with inquisition and Pico renounced this position, among several others. It should suffice to review the Pardes and Avodas Hakodesh explanation to see how much that is not true.
In the next post, we will attempt to unravel what Kabbala of Geonim was actually all about and understand what Hai Gaon may have meant by his response.
Assuming you know about it already, I want to draw your readers' attention to R' Sarug's discussion of Olam HaMalbush, which speaks of the three worlds higher than Adam Kadmon. See statements in Kisvei Ari and Rashash that clearly (with 20/20 hindsight) allude to it as discussed in a new sefer, "Yiraucha Im Shemesh", by an anonymous talmud of R' Itche Meir Morgenstern.
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