The Shi’ur Qomah () or Dimensions of the Body is a

midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; or ''midrashot' ...

ic text that is part of the

hekhalot literature Hekhalot literature (sometimes transliterated as Heichalot), from the Hebrew word for "Palaces," relates to visions of entering heaven alive. The genre overlaps with Merkabah mysticism, also called "Chariot literature", which concerns Ezekiel's v ...

. It purports to record, in

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

terms, the secret names and precise measurements of God's corporeal limbs and parts. The majority of the text is recorded in the form of sayings or teachings that the angel

Metatron Metatron (Mishnaic Hebrew: ''Meṭāṭrōn''), or Matatron (), is an angel in Judaism, Gnosticism, and Islam. Metatron is mentioned three times in the Talmud, in a few brief passages in the Aggadah, the Targum, and in mystical kabbalah, Kabba ...

revealed to the tanna

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, “Master of the Outside Teaching”), was a rabbi of ...

, who transmitted it to his students and his contemporary,

Rabbi Akiva Akiva ben Joseph (Mishnaic Hebrew: ; – 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. Rabbi Akiva was a leadin ...

. It is also an

exegetical Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretations ...

analysis of

Song of Songs The Song of Songs (), also called the Canticle of Canticles or the Song of Solomon, is a Biblical poetry, biblical poem, one of the five ("scrolls") in the ('writings'), the last section of the Tanakh. Unlike other books in the Hebrew Bible, i ...

5:11-16 and proclaims that anyone who studies it is guaranteed a portion in

the World to Come ''The World to Come'' is a 2020 American drama film directed by Mona Fastvold, from a screenplay by Ron Hansen and Jim Shepard, based upon Shepard's story of the same name. It stars Katherine Waterston, Vanessa Kirby, Christopher Abbott and C ...

Provenance and interpretation

Currently the text exists only in fragmentary form, and scholars have debated how to date it appropriately. Modern academic scholars of Jewish mysticism such as

Gershom Scholem Gershom Scholem (; 5 December 1897 – 21 February 1982) was an Israeli philosopher and historian. Widely regarded as the founder of modern academic study of the Kabbalah, Scholem was appointed the first professor of Jewish mysticism at Hebrew Un ...

think that it is from “either the Tannaitic or the early

Amoraic ''Amoraim'' ( , singular ''Amora'' ; "those who say" or "those who speak over the people", or "spokesmen") refers to Jewish scholars of the period from about 200 to 500 CE, who "said" or "told over" the teachings of the Oral Torah. They were pr ...

period.” However, in the 12th century, the rationalist Jewish philosopher

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

declared the text to be a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

forgery. Maimonides also believed that the text was so heretical and contrary to proper Jewish belief that it should be burned.

Saadia Gaon Saʿadia ben Yosef Gaon (892–942) was a prominent rabbi, Geonim, gaon, Jews, Jewish philosopher, and exegesis, exegete who was active in the Abbasid Caliphate. Saadia is the first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Judeo-Arabic ...

also expressed doubts about the origin of the text, and stated that “since it is not found in either

Mishna The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

, and since we have no way of establishing whether or not it represents the words of Rabbi Ishmael; perhaps someone else pretended to speak in his name.” Nonetheless, in the case that the text were somehow proven to be genuine, Saadia wrote that it would have to be understood in line with his “theory of 'created glory,'" which explains the prophetic

theophanies Theophany () is an encounter with a deity that manifests in an observable and tangible form.. It is often confused with other types of encounters with a deity, but these interactions are not considered theophanies unless the deity reveals itse ...

as visions not of God Himself but of a luminous reatedsubstance.”

Moses Narboni Moses ben Joshua of Narbonne, also known as Moses of Narbonne, mestre Vidal Bellshom, maestro Vidal Blasom, and Moses Narboni, was a medieval Jewish philosopher and physician born in Perpignan in the Kingdom of Majorca at the end of the thirteent ...

also wrote a philosophic work about the text entitled ''Iggeret ʿal-Shiʿur Qomah'' ( "Epistle on Shi’ur Qomah"), wherein he dismisses the blatant anthropomorphisms of Shi'ur Qomah as speaking strictly metaphorically. Rabbi Narboni’s work in the Iggeret is a “meditation on God, Measure of all existing things. It is based on

Abraham ibn Ezra Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra (, often abbreviated as ; ''Ibrāhim al-Mājid ibn Ezra''; also known as Abenezra or simply ibn Ezra, 1089 / 1092 – 27 January 1164 / 23 January 1167)''Jewish Encyclopedia''online; '' Chambers Biographical Dictionar ...

's commentary on

Exodus Exodus or the Exodus may refer to: Religion * Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible * The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan Historical events * Ex ...

, and, with the aid of biblical and rabbinical passages, studies two kinds of knowledge: God's knowledge of his creatures, called knowledge of the Face; and His creatures’ knowledge of God, called knowledge of the Back (an allusion to Exodus 33:23).” A History of Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages.

Colette Sirat Colette Sirat (born in Paris on November 2, 1934) is a French philosopher and paleographer and Director of Studies in medieval Hebrew paleography at the École pratique des hautes études. Life She is the daughter of Abraham (Boumi) Salamon a ...

. Published by Cambridge University Press, 1990. Pg, 334.

References

External links

*{{usurped,
Shi'ur Qomah - שיעור קומה
} Hebrew, p. 75-84.

English Translation

By Joseph Dan Midrashim Kabbalah texts

Provenance and interpretation

See also

References

External links