The Writings ofHayyim Haika ofAmdura
is to be found in a long section ofthe book /:layyim va-/:lesed. Here
there is a double motivation. One motive is that the self-subordination
ofHis servants makes the divine sovereignty stand out
all the more and this subjection ofour will is only possible ifwe
have in fact a separate will ofour own that may be overcome or
broken for the sake of the Divine Will. Hence it follows that the
independent human will is essential to the establishment of
divine sovereignty. "Another reason why the Holy One blessed
be He created in us a separate will is because He wanted us to
become His servants so that He might be called King; and if
there was only one single will, the quality ofsovereignty would
not be recognized. But since we have in us another will, and
since we nonetheless are prepared to subject ourselves to His
Will, then the quality of sovereignty is made manifest" (67a).
The second motive to be found in this passage tries to deal
with the relationship between the Divine Will and this other
will.
Behold there are in human thought the categories /fokhmah, Binah Da'at
which signify [a representative, respectively] from the right and from the left
and from the center [of the Sefirotic system] for /fokhmah teaches man
continually how to cleave to the Holy One blessed be He, and Binah has
creative power and sometimes works its effects on the body also, which means
things that the body has need of, and Da'at is at the center, i.e., [it operates]
both in thought and act. There is also Ahavah, which is /fesed and comes from
the same side as /fokhmah, and Gevurah, which comes from the side ofBinah, and
Tiferet, which comes from the side ofDa'at and this is both in potency and in
action. There is also .Ne.rah, Hod and resod, the connecting link. And this is three
included in three, the three which belong to the realm ofthought included in
the three which belong to the realm ofpotency. And the three which belong to
the realm ofpotency are included in the three which belong to the realm ofact.
And with us who proceed upward from below it is thus, because we conquer
ourselves and give thanks to God and join ourselves to God. Then the Holy
One, blessed be He, loves us and opposes our opponents and glorifies Himself
with us. And afterwards there falls upon us the "marrowfatnesses" which are
the reasons ofthe commandments and which are also called "three included in
three." And behold it is proper that every man's will should be one with God.
But nevertheless it is necessary to transcend one's nature until one attains this
[state] because man is compounded with his body; therefore did He make with
us a separate will so as not, Heaven forbid, to take the Will of the Creator
[directly] and to join it to the body. Only when one transcends one's nature
and beats down [literally, "smashes"] all the powers ofthe body, is one able to
attain the Will of the Creator so that both He and the indirect effects of His
work should become one. And this is the meaning ofthat saying [T. B. /fagigah
I 2a] "The light which He made use of ... in the days ofthe Creation. And He
The Writings ofHayyim Haika ofAmdura 147
saw that the whole world was not worthy ofit because they werejoined to the
corporeal, therefore He hid it for the righteous in the world to come." The
interpretation is that this refers to one who has come to this state after having
overcome all his [lower] nature and is joined to the Holy One, blessed be
He ....
And behold the sovereignty ofthe Holy One is termed the .Name ofthe Holy
One. And how did He create in us another will? By virtue of the quality of
Binah, which designed the Creation of this world as it was needful, and this is
"that Binah nestling in the calyx," which is as much as to say that the Will of
God is concealed for we have another will, and this latter is the world ofcreated
things, and creation [Beri'ah] has the meaning of observation since He
observed how this world needed to be made. And this is the meaning of the
verse (Isaiah 43: 7), "Every one that is called [by My name, and whom I have
created for My glory, I have formed him, yea, I have made him]," meaning,
whenever a separate will occurs. And calling has the sense ofdesignation, that
is, "by My Name," so that He might be called King. "[And whom I have
created] for My Glory" so that I might be magnified, reverenced and exalted
over the world, and that is, "whom I have created"-at all events the world of
"creation" was necessary. "I have formed it," it was necessary also to form and
to bind in us a vital element from the Holy One blessed be He, because, seeing
that Binah. nestles in the calyx, which is as good as to say that the Will of the
Creator is concealed from us, therefore did the Holy One blessed be He create
in us a Divine element of vitality and by this means are we enabled to join
ourselves [to Him] and to attain the Will of God, and this is why it was
necessary for Him to form [it] in us. And the meaning of the phrase "Yea I
have made him" is "because I wanted also the world ofaction," and ifthe Will
had been a single unit, the grafting would have been in vain. Therefore He
created in us a separate will and on this account He was obliged to form and to
join His vitality to us so that by this means we might be able to attain the Will
of the Creator.
And behold when we reach the Will (ofGod], it may be said that the three
are included in the three and the interpretation ofthis is because one conquers
oneselfand gives thanks (to Him]. Ofa certainty one has not thereby reached
the reason of the Commandments for had one reached the reason one would
not be required to conquer oneselfand to give thanks and to join oneselfto the
Holy One blessed be He; and it is certain that when one needs to join
[oneself]-this indicates that one does not yet attain the reason for the
Commandments. But afterwards one attains Ahavah [love] because on account
ofthe Love ofGod one's own loves are nullified and one is strengthened by this
thing; and because of this He is strengthened because of a certain glory. And
afterwards one attains "the marrowfatnesses" which are the reasons of the
Commandments and that is the "field of apples." Because .Ne[al}, Hod and
resod are termed a field awaiting sowing and apples is the term for Gedulah,
Gevurah, Tiferet. For just as an apple has many colors, red, green, and other
colors, so these three above-mentioned virtues have likewise, for each virtue is
a color in itself. And afterwards they are termed the sacred "marrowfatnesses"
which are separate, and behold .Ne[al}, Hod and resod are termed three men
and this is the meaning ofthat saying ofthe Rabbis "The feet ofa man. They
The Writings ofHayyim Haika ofAmdura
are the habits of a man." And this Ne~a4, Hod, resod, which a man should
accustom himself to attain, they are sureties [or "sweetnesses" by paronomasia],
which is as good as to say that they guarantee to a man whatever he
desires, for by their means he may attain even the marrowfatnesses, and hence
that saying "to the place where one desires to go, thither do they lead him." [T.
B. Sukkah, 53a].
And this is the meaning of the verse in connection with Abraham, "And
behold, three men were standing over against him" (Genesis r8: 2) on which
we may remark, how can standing be used in reference to three men? And this
is why they [Ne~a4, Hod, resod] are called "feet" since they may be easilyjoined
to the body. And this is the meaning of the verse "Send out men for thyself"
(Numbers I3: 2), which means that you send them from before you, which
means that you should not take those men, i.e., Ne~aQ, Hod, resod for yourself,
but you should join them to the Holy One blessed be He. And by this means
"They may spy out the land ofCanaan," which means that you should be able
to loosen, i.e., open the knot from the body and that is Canaan, so that you
might be subordinate [nikhna], and subordinate the body to the Holy One
blessed be He, in subjection to the Will of the Holy One blessed be He"
(67a-67b).
The doctrine ofthe creation ofseparate human wills opposed
to the Will of God naturally has lurking within it weighty
antinomian dangers. But this explosive material is not liable to
be touched offin the quietistic context ofHayyim's teaching. It
is not surprising that everything ofthis kind in his work is merely
verbal, as for instance: "And behold when we are made void of
reality we are joined with the Hidden One and that is the
meaning of the verse 'and He and His substitute [shall be holy]
[Leviticus 27:10, 33], which is as good as to say that when he
should bejoined to Him who is hidden, then His substitute also,
i.e., even our separate will which is called substitute [temurah],
which is opposition to God, shall become holy because all its
affairs shall be directed to the name of Heaven" (sga). One
cannot accuse him of exploiting the antinomian possibilities
contained in his doctrine. In this respect, he falls below his
colleagues. This should not occasion surprise. The explanation
is, as I have already indicated, that quietism is not conducive to
antinomianism. Sin itself, as it were, receives a new dimension in
depth, for it is the realization and fruit of what was already sin
before it was acted out, viz., our individual will itself. Hence it
follows that the essential function.of repentance is not to wipe
out the sin or the blemish the sin has produced in the higher
worlds, as in the case of other .Jewish mystical systems, but its
The Writings ofHayyim Haika ofAmdura 149
essential function is conceived-again in this startlingly quietistic
formula, as the annihilation ofthe will. "Man should see to it
that he destroys a sinful soul, which means that he should kill that
will [i.e. the human will] in which sin resides" (35a). In this
direction and not in the direction ofantinomianism the pattern
of religious quietism is worked out with absolute consistency.
The most striking contradiction to Hayyim's quietistic doctrine
is his theory of the magical capacity of the human being.
The teaching ofhis master, the Great Maggid, evolved a radical
theory as to human power, or rather the specific power of the
Saddik (the distinction matters little in the present instance!,
which consisted in effecting "mutation" of a thaumaturgic
character. This tradition of the magical powers of man is
inherited by Hayyim from the Maggid as a doctrine that was
still potent. What does the pupil make of this doctrine? ~oes he
accept it as it stands? It would be superfluous to emphasize the
essential antinomy between a quietistic and a magical point of
view: the former hands over, as it were, all power and enterprise
to God while the latter places such power in the hands of men.
' .From the religious standpoint there can be no greater opposition,
in fact, than that between quietism and thaumaturgy.
Students ofreligion have truly observed that the exponents of
quietistic mysticism refrained from all petitionary prayer
because of what was felt to be the magical or quasimagical
implications ofsuch activity. The content ofquietistic prayer, on
the other hand, as Heiler defines it in his book on prayer is
merely the "transference ofall volition into the hand ofGod, the
absolute surrender [Hingabe] to His Will and the offering up of
the individual."4
All petition must be removed from the
contents of prayer, and, from the quietistic point of view, it is
irrelevant whether such petition is directed toward favors of a
material or spiritual kind. The remark ofMadame Guyon in her
confession before Bishop Bossuet is well known: she felt unable in
her prayers to make any request at all of God.
There is no evidence in those sayings ofHayyim which have
come down to us to suggest that he drew such radical
conclusions as these regarding the content ofprayer. There is no
admonition in his writing against the use of petitionary
formulae. Even more surprising is the fact that in his teaching he
continues the magical doctrine ofthe Great Maggid. Ofcourse,