“As diadems and crowns commune, thus is the
fulfillment of all.”
~Idra Raba
In the Zoha”k, there are frequent appearances of the
root ShL”M (“Full”) on its various abbrevations. In
separate contexts, the word “L’Ashlama” (“to fulfill”)
in the Zohar is associated both with the monthly
Becoming-Full of the Moon, which represents the
renewal of the Davidic Kingdom, with a completion or a
making-full of a privation, with a constant
maintaining and enlivening of the world by the Holy
One (“Ashlim V’Ashkei”, Completes and Waters [the
world]), with formation and rectification of hylic
potencies (“Kum Ashlim Diuknach”, “Rise and complete
thy Image”), so with rectification of Judgements
(“L’Ashlama D’Dinin”) and so with the completion of
the Universal Man male and female (so in the Idratic
corpus) and with the completion of “Shleimuta D’Chola”
(“The fullness of all”), “L’Ashlama D’Chola” (“To make
all full”), in the context of which the meaning of the
term is not too clear, but in this post I will refer
to the fulfillment of the totality as a Pleromization
in which the being-becoming is laden with
messianic-human vitality, and thus attains “Fullness”
or “Completeness” (πλήρωμα), as it is completed with
divine-messianic activity.
Reverse Pleromization:
The Completion of God
In the Zohar 2:88a there appears a description of the
three Shabbat meals:
Rabbi Shim’on said, “If one completes
three meals on Shabbat, a voice issues and proclaims:
Then you will delight יהוה על (al YHVH), above YHVH—one meal,
corresponding to the Atika Kadisha, Holy of all
holies. And I will cause you to ride upon the heights
of the earth—another meal, corresponding to the Holy
Apple Orchard. And I will feed you the inheritance of
your father Ya’acov (Isaiah 58:14)—consummation
completed (“Shleimu D’Ishtaleim”) in Ze’eir Anpin. And
corresponding to Him, one should complete the meals.
In this passage is described the consummation
(“shleimu”) of the completedness of Ze’eir Anpin
through the meal and the joy (“chedvata”) of the
Shabbat. In this context, the completness is not the
completedness of the world or of humanity, but rather
the completeness of God (Ze’eir Anpin, or the
world-in-God) which is applicated by the participation
of the Jew in the third meal of Shabbat and in his
affirmation of the chedvata of the Holy King. The
pleromization here is a reverse-pleromization; hence,
somewhat in contrast with the pleromization as it was
conceived by Teilhard, as the ongoing fulfillment of
the world by God (“The creative union of the world in
God”), be it mutual or one-sided, as the pleromization
here is the ongoing completion of God by humanity, by
the Jew in his keeping of the Mitzvot of the Torah and
in his holy kavanah; which means that the active and
decisive agent in the historical drama is man and not
God, as God is the first passivity (“primum passivum”)
in which the world incarnates itself.
In the continuation of the Zohar’s pt. 2 (daf 116b),
there is another usage of the word “Ashlim” in the
context of the holy avodah:
And thus it has been said (Proverbs
31:29) of other Halachot: “Many women do noble
things”, on your Halacha it has been said: “But you
surpass them all” that you overcame them with power
(“Gevura”), “YHVH is with thee, thou mighty (Gibor)
man of valour”; the Construction of the King (Binyana
D’Malka) was strengthened in you, and He builds His
Construction by your mouth and by your arms, you are
blessed.
Here the completion by the Halacha is of “Binyana
D’Malka”, the construction of the [Holy] King, hence,
the construction of the partzuf of Ze’eir Anpin. The
Halacha is described here as “overcoming” using the
“strength” (Gevura) with which it was granted. The
Gevurot which construct the body and the partzuf and
motivate Him into a dynamic being-enformed are being
generated through the world-humanity Halachic
activity, through which and in which the god is
constructed.
On the Author: Zekroya bar
Mehroya is a Bukharan Jewish “Incel” and an
independent researcher of the Zohar.
