[Avodah] Steps/Stages

[Jonathan Baker]

From: "Menachem Posner" <menachemp at juno.com>

>Rabbi S.Z. of Lyadi writes (Likkutei Torah Parshas Masay 88d) that the
>forty two Masaos correspond to Shem Ma”B and the seven Middos which
>comprise of six Middos each (I assume that he is excluding Malchus). He
>further compares it to Ana Bchoach which is made up of seven lines with
>six words in each. 

Ah, the joys of symbolism.  Connection without causality, or even 
commonality of theme.

I'm as interested to learn kabbalah as the next 40-year-old in this
new age, but sometimes, an awful lot of it (as well as gematria, which
is related) seems to be empty symbolism. 

Meaningful symbolism, such as R' Hirsch's, links acts to concepts which
it is reasonable to assume were understood at the time the act was 
mandated, and which are reasonable to attach to the act.  Plain symbolism
points out correspondences without implying that there's some meaning to
the connection.  If the concepts are too far apart, finding a meaning can
seem forced.

The Gemara, for instance, engages in symbolism, but works hard to find
a connection that is meaningful.  For instance:

-  the symbolic foods on Pesach, betzah and zroa, because they correspond
to the chagiga and pesach offerings, better than beets and rice, the Gemara's
first suggestion.

- the three tefillos - the avos, or the korbanos?  the korbanos wins out,
because it can include all the musafim, and we have the verse "compensating
with the bulls of our lips".

The structure of the act copies the structure of that which is symbolized.

So too here: Ana Bekoach was constructed to correspond to the name of 42,
with the acrostic Kroa Satan, etc.  But the 42 stages long predate any 
of our kabbalistic concepts, by at least a thousand years.  Where's the
connection?  Otherwise, it seems too much like empty symbolism.

--
        name: jon baker              web: http://www.panix.com/~jjbaker
     address: jjbaker at panix.com     blog: http://thanbook.blogspot.com