Argument

These records were discovered amidst a pile of old documents in a small hut in northern Poland. The pages are covered in the dust of centuries and frequently the text is corrupted. They are believed to be the work of a scribe by the name of Zander Levi; the excerpts relate how, when copying a scroll of Torah, he suddenly was overcome by a divine radiance of light and lost all control of his faculties. As he ascended higher and higher into the realms of God, the earth below him became nothing but a pinprick of light, until he is supposed to have ascended to the heavenly kingdom, where the Great Glory of the Name stood with one-hundred and thirty-seven angels on his right and left, all reciting the "Kedusha" and bowing in fervent ecstasy. There the Holy One (blessed be His Name) revealed to him the errancy of the scribes in the school of Korah, their great sin, and their subsequent fall.

The Words of Zander Levi, Sribe of the Lord

So I began to copy the words of the scroll, and lo my candle had blown out and I was covered in darkness, and my well accustomed hand scratched the Sacred Letter incorrectly, and then I was as one lost, who wanders through the endless hills calling out the name of Lord, but the Lord does not reply, for lo his sheep have wandered through the earth, and they have strayed, and there they are, and one cannot hear the bleating of the sheep.

When! I felt a dull glow overtake me and the unsatisfactory document seemed to pulse with a hidden and inner light, and the words rearranged, and they said, "These are your gods, Israel, that brought you out of Egypt" and, so bright was the light coming from the words, and none more than the light emanating from the Holy Name, blessed be the name, that I was blinded and could not see, and I was as a man walking in the way of the land, and I could see the towers and the verdure of the hills, mounds of green grass and cracked towers, ah so beautiful I can hardly think fo the words to write!

And then! I was climbing through the skies. Now I could see before me a mound of pure gold, and there was smoke coming from the hills, as if they were burning, but it was like the sweetest incense. And I was become an eagle, for it is written "you shall fly on the wings of eagles back to the holy land" and so swift was my flight I was overtaken by the beauty of flying.

And so I ascended into the clouds, and the sun set in the green on the golden dome, and the golden dome flashed to blinding, an eternal pinprick of the little light trapped in the voluminous landscape and illuminating it as even the slightest trickle of the sun breaks a mirror into pieces and foundations of shining. And I weeped tears of the night, tears of darkness that covered the shining splendour only slightly, so that I revealed the heavens and the stars; and the pearl of my heart was growing, and it was the moon.

Now the heavens rippled like a very delicate cloth, like a very fine material, like a mesh, and then then through the mesh I could see the great light, for the great light was hidden, and I could not approach it. So I spoke and I said, "For if I myself have been given the wings of great eagles and the piercing sight of the hawk..." and the heavens opened, and the firmament began to glitter like a gem, and then it was as if a woman were derobing herself and so I was filled with ecstasy when the folds of the garment slid off.

Now I was blinded in vision, and I could not think of flying, or writing, nor did philosophy touch the soft, new-pressed vellum of my vision, and nor could I move or writhe, for I was held like a squirming thing that is suddenly pinched and made still. I was, for all, completely powerless and helpless, and so I began to fall.

At first it was a vague fear, dim palpitations that I felt spread from my inner gut to my heart; and then it was a terror that infected a corpusculent mind. But as the darkness rushed to embrace me the soft and tender caresses of a mother, I felt a warmth and a joy. I realized that darkness was the way through which one can reach the light.

And so I blinded myself, and lo -- I had a new vision. So I shut my eyes, and lo -- I could see. By becoming wicked myself I made mighty, in fallibility I become infallible. I ascended to the reaches of God, a consciousness without an object, a glimmer in darkness, and his vast immensity I could not approach, for it was pinched, but I heard "Lend me the faculties of your sight" and I gave them over to him, and then I had a vague vision. And then I knew, "lend me the faculties of your hearing" and so I lent him the faculties of my hearing, and behold I could hear! And then behold, "Lend me the faculties of your taste, your smell, your touch" so I lent him the faculties of my taste, my smell, my touch, and Lo! I was there. And I could feel, and I was in the garments of my splendour.

Now the prophets have cried, "These are the words..." but I have verily felt them, and on this subject I know that a being revealed is a being hidden, and the eternal love that burns in the celestial garment is the cloth in which we clothe our hearts. Now the sages have uttered, "Be deliberate in judgement..." but I have verily learned that all judgements which are not deliberate are not judgements, and all deliberations that are not judgements are not deliberate, and I have cast aside the utter fallacy of logic.

So I saw by the number of one hundred and thirty seven by the side of his wisdom, by the number of one hundred and thirty seven by the side of his understanding, and in the unifcation of axiom and creation the pure being of his soul, each crying in turn "Alleluyah, Elohai Avraham Elohai Yitzhawk Elohai Yaakov, Ha-el hakadosh..." and I wanted to join my lips in great praise but I heard the saying that said, "For lo I have granted you will see these things, but of them you shall not speak, for you must pass them over in the silence of your heart," and I was bursting with light.

"Might I not speak?" I cried in the inner decadence of my sin! "May I not sparkle and scarlet and gild the whole world in speech of the instant, eternity of words?" And cry was a burst of flame, and I heard the following utterance:

For those who have spoken have not spoken truly
And those who know could not convey
For the sages have uttered utter falsehood
And even the blind have seen wisdom;
Behold, I shall confound their wise men
And they shall speak the wisdom of the fools,
And the fools I shall make blind, and the blind can see
All is glory and the radiance of God. Study my Torah
But not from the hands that delivered it, for here lies the true revelation.

And these are the things that were spoken, by Holy of Holies, blessed be he, and blessed be his name, by the Prophet of Levi in the year of the pogroms, blessed be the Lord:

For they came to Moses and they cried, "Shall we not know...?" And Moses was astounded, and he fell upon his face. Now they cried, "Come, let us make for ourselves a document. Out of the skin of goats shall we make it, and we will press hard the black ink on it, and we will bake it in the ages of time, so that it will not be forgotten, and we will make a Name for ourselves." And Moses was confounded, and he could not speak, and they withheld the glory of the Name of the Lord from Israel. And the Lord saw them, and he said, "Come, let me go down among them" but the Lord came not down, for his heart was distraught. And these are the generations of the elders of Israel, their scholars and their the sages, and the great men and wise.

So I have heard from the mouth of the Lord our God. And if it is not true, it is just; and if it is not just, it is true. For in truth justice lies, and in lies we find justice in truth. Spring exultancies make a flower fling her decadent facade up to the sun, and she drinks strong of the light like a sweet nectar. Like a sweet nectar flowing from the tongue, flowing to the eyes from the mouth of God, like these are his words.