The ''Ma'aseh Merkabah'' ("Work of the Chariot" מעשה מרכבה) is a Hebrew-language

Jewish mystical Academic study of Jewish mysticism, especially since Gershom Scholem's '' Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism'' (1941), distinguishes between different forms of mysticism across different eras of Jewish history. Of these, Kabbalah, which emerged in ...

text dating from the

Gaonic ''Geonim'' ( he, גאונים; ; also transliterated Gaonim, singular Gaon) were the presidents of the two great Babylonian Talmudic Academies of Sura and Pumbedita, in the Abbasid Caliphate, and were the generally accepted spiritual leaders of ...

period which comprises a collection of hymns recited by the "descenders" and heard during their ascent. It is part of the tradition of

Merkabah mysticism Merkabah ( he, מֶרְכָּבָה ''merkāvā'', "chariot") or Merkavah mysticism (lit. Chariot mysticism) is a school of early Jewish mysticism, c. 100 BCE – 1000 CE, centered on visions such as those found in the Book of Ezekiel chapter ...

and the

Hekhalot literature The Hekhalot literature (sometimes transliterated Heichalot) from the Hebrew word for "Palaces", relating to visions of ascents into heavenly palaces. The genre overlaps with ''Merkabah'' or "Chariot" literature, concerning Ezekiel's chariot, so t ...

. The text was first edited by

Gershom Scholem Gershom Scholem () (5 December 1897 – 21 February 1982), was a German-born Israeli philosopher and historian. Widely regarded as the founder of modern academic study of the Kaballah, Scholem was appointed the first professor of Jewish Mystici ...

(1965). An English translation by Janowitz can be found in her ''Poetics of Ascent,'' pages 29–81. The critical edition and translation of the text was published by Michael D. Swartz.

Like most other Hekhalot texts, the Ma'aseh Merkabah revolves around the knowledge of secret names of God used theurgically for mystical ascent. It begins with a conversation between

Rabbi Ishmael Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha Nachmani (Hebrew: רבי ישמעאל בן אלישע), often known as Rabbi Yishmael and sometimes given the title "Ba'al HaBaraita" (Hebrew: בעל הברייתא), was a rabbi of the 1st and 2nd centuries (third gener ...

and

Rabbi Akiva Akiva ben Yosef (Mishnaic Hebrew: ''ʿĂqīvāʾ ben Yōsēf''; – 28 September 135 CE), also known as Rabbi Akiva (), was a leading Jewish scholar and sage, a '' tanna'' of the latter part of the first century and the beginning of the second c ...

, where the latter expounds on the mysteries of the spiritual world, as well as describing the appearance of the heavenly planes. Hymns with long lists of secret names of God are present throughout the text, as well as many angel names including a section listing the various angelic rules of the 7 palaces. Specific ritual instructions are also given at various points in the text, including a technique to invoke the angel of the Presence:

The name of the prince of the Torah is Yofiel, and everyone who seeks him must sit for 40 days in fast, eat his bread with salt, and must not eat unclean food; he must perform 24 immersions, and not look at any kind of coloured garments; his eyes must be cast to the ground. And he must pray with all his strength, direct his heart to his prayer, and seal himself with his own seal, and pronounce 12 utterances: 'You are living God in heaven, engraved as a SPYSṬWS NWMSṬWS 'QNYPWS 'NBY...'

After more formulas, another prayer and ritual is given to protect the practitioner when the angel of the presence (named as PDQRM or PNQRS in the text) descends. This involves the recitation of various divine names over one's body, referred to as "seals", designed to ensure that the mystic does not perish due to the fearsome power of the angel:

Blessed are you YY who created heaven and earth with your wisdom. Your name is forever. ḤY 'WP SYSY PYY'W LW SM BY KYH TNYY the name of Your servant. By the Seven Seals that Rabbi Ishmael sealed on his heart. 'WRYS SSTYY on my feet, 'BG BGG on my heart, 'RYS TYP' on my right arm, 'WRYS TSY Y'H on my left arm...(etc.) Swartz, pg. 238 ff.

The text ends with a series of hymns for further ascent.

References

{{Reflist Jewish grimoires Kabbalah texts Kabbalistic words and phrases Merkabah mysticism he:מעשה מרכבה

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