262) HOW TO CATCH A THIEF:

A spindle with a whorl wheel (left) with the distaff (right) for producing thread.

INTRODUCTION:

I have again[1] drawn from the research of Professor Gideon Bohak, a specialist in Jewish magic in Antiquity and the Middle ages, as well as in the textual fragments from the Cairo Geniza. He is a professor in the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at Tel Aviv University.

In this article, we are going to look at one area of Bohak’s work; a fragment which was found in the Cairo Geniza [See Cairo Geniza – 1000 Years of Torah on African Soil] which deals with how to catch a thief. We will look at the surprising origins of this text and briefly examine the relationship between Jewish magic and mysticism.

a) THE GENIZA FRAGMENT:

The object of our investigation is a 12 X 16.5cm single sheet of paper in the Cambridge University Library on a shelf marked Taylor-Schechter K1.115. It is perfectly preserved apart from a small piece missing from the top right-hand corner.

On the recto (front main side of the sheet) is a Latin text transliterated in Hebrew characters (Judeo-Latin). According to the Oriental semi-cursive script it has been dated from around the 12^th or 13^th - century.

On the verso (back side of the sheet) is a short Hebrew blessing followed an Aramaic recipe for Kefitzat haDerech (a shortening of the road, ‘path jumping’ or teleportation). [2]

This is the Latin text in Hebrew characters, followed by a representation in actual Latin:

The Latin text in Hebrew characters.

The same text in Latin.

As can be seen, parts of the transliterated Latin text are missing so it is difficult to completely reconstruct the original Latin which is clearly a form of prayer.

Bohak needed to know more about the provenance of the Judeo-Latin text and he began searching.

b) A SECOND TEXT FROM TOSAFIST LITERATURE:

Through a series of coincidences and great detective work, Bohak and a colleague were able to find a similar transliterated Latin text in another manuscript - which was located in the microfilm collection at the Institute for Hebrew Manuscripts of the National Library in Jerusalem.

What made this new manuscript[3] so interesting was that it was part of a Tosafist work from Ashkenaz (from the German cities of Worms, Mainz and Koln) and also dated from around the 13^th-century.

The text opens with instructions in Hebrew followed by a similar Latin prayer or adjuration in Hebrew characters and then concludes with more Hebrew instructions:

Tosafist work showing similar matching Latin text with Hebrew instructions before and after.

Essentially a spindle rod (a long straight stick) with a whorl stone (a weighted disk to maintain rotational speed) is placed in a Book of Psalms (Psalm 51 in this case) and allowed to rotate freely in mid-air. Certain Latin words in Hebrew characters are then recited three times and if the Book begins to rotate the suspected thief is declared guilty.

Bohak writes:

“The presence of a magical recipe for detecting thieves in a mostly-halakhic collection from the world of the Tosaphists is of great interest, and certainly supports recent claims that there was quite an interest in mysticism and magic even in medieval Ashkenaz, and even among some of its most halakhically-minded rabbis.”

[For more on this, see Mystical Forays of the Tosafists.]

More scholarly research revealed that the Latin prayer was part of what is known as an Ordeal. An Ordeal is technically defined as follows:

“Trial by ordeal was an ancient judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused was determined by subjecting them to a painful, or at least an unpleasant, usually dangerous experience. The test was one of life or death, and the proof of innocence was survival.”[4]

In this case, the Ordeal was not that severe, as it only involved placing a spindle in the Book of Psalms, reciting a Latin prayer and waiting to see if it rotated.

However, what is startling is that the use of a prayer in Latin reveals its origins as a form of Christian Ordeal, which is surprising for a work of the Tosafists.

[Although see Tosafot – Dialectics of the Nations?]

c) A THIRD TEXT FROM THE MARGINS OF SEFER HATERUMAH:

Fascinatingly, Bohak then discovered a third parallel text[5], with a similar transliterated Latin prayer, inserted in the margins of a 14^th-century Ashkenazi Halachik work, Sefer haTerumah, by R. Baruch ben Yitzchak:[6]

The text found inserted in the margins of  Sefer haTerumah.

This time it is Psalm 16 which is referenced. A spindle is similarly to be placed in the Book of Psalms, hanging from a distaff (the rod on which wool is wound before spinning), and a similar Latin prayer, or spell, in Hebrew characters is recited three times. Again the assumption is that if the thief is guilty, the book will spin.

d) THE ORIGINAL FORM OF THE LATIN ORDEAL:

Because parts of the Latin texts were missing, Bohak searched for the original version of this Ordeal. This turned out to be a 12^th-century Christian manuscript:

“To make a judgment with a Psalter [Book of Psalms][7]. Take a piece of wood with a knob, and place it in a Psalter, on this verse ‘Righteous are you, Lord, and right is your judgment’ (Ps. 118.137). Close the Psalter and bind it tight, with the knob protruding outside [towards the top][8]

Then take another piece of wood, with a hole, and place in it the knob of the first piece[9], so that the Psalter hangs upon it and can revolve. And let two people hold the piece of wood, with the Psalter pending in the middle.

And have the suspect stand in front of them. And let one of those holding the Psalter say to the other three times like this, ‘He has that thing.’ And the other shall respond three times, ‘He does not have it.’

Then the priest should say, ‘May Him by whose judgment the heavens and earth are governed be willing to reveal this to us...’”[10]

The Ordeal proceeds to make overt Christian references to Jesus, Mary and the Holy Ghost.

REMOVING THE OVERT CHRISTIAN REFERENCES:

Bohak then explains:

“[T]he Jew(s) who first borrowed this prayer from its Christian users certainly knew enough Latin to omit all the blatantly-Christian elements from the original Latin prayer, and to insert the Hebrew word ploni, ‘so and so,’ in the right place.

 Whether the scribes who wrote down this prayer in Paris 326 [i.e., the Tosafist manuscript] and JTS RABB 1077 [i.e., from the margins of Sefer haTerumah][11] still had some idea of what it meant is hard to say, but the Egyptian Jew who wrote it – without the instructions which originally accompanied it – in his collection of spells and recipes [which was found in the Cairo Geniza][12], probably had no idea whatsoever about the original meaning of all these strange words.

As voces magicae [i.e., magical formulae usually in the form of incomprehensible syllables][13], however, they must have sounded quite impressive.”

THE PAPER TRAIL:

Bohak reconstructs the historical chain of events leading to this Christian prayer practice becoming part the Jewish magical tradition:

It seems that a 12^th-century Jew, probably living in the Rhineland, was aware of a Benedictine Ordeal and decided to adapt it for Jewish use. Essentially, he retained the actual ritual technique but consciously removed all the overt Christian references adding ploni (the reference to an anonymous person) at the appropriate places.

The Tosafist text with the word ploni shown highlighted. 

Additionally, although Bohak does not mention this, the Chassidei Ashkenaz who influenced the Tosafists were known to have borrowed some folk mystical practices from the populace and possibly even from the monks. [See Chasidei Ashkenaz – These are Not Superstitions.]

Nevertheless, in its Judaized form, the Christian Latin Ordeal for catching thieves was circulated in Ashkenazi circles and eventually found its way into Tosafist Halachic manuscripts; and then it moved on to Arabic speaking Cairo where it was again copied and then finally placed into the Cairo Geniza where it lay for centuries until its discovery in the late 1800s.

The Christian Lateran Council of 1215 officially banned all Ordeals and levied heavy penalties on priests who performed such practices. Although this ban went largely unheeded, there was an official condemnation of such practices, yet ironically these texts found their amended way into aspects of the Jewish magic tradition.

AT WHAT POINT DOES MYSTICISM STOP AND MAGIC BEGINS?

While many fields of Jewish endeavour have been well explored, Bohak informs us that the scientific study of Jewish magical texts has been seriously neglected by scholars in the past:

 “[T]he number of unedited and even uncharted primary sources for the study of Jewish magic is staggering, and...these sources must serve as the starting point for any serious study of the Jewish magical tradition....”[14]

Bohak explains why it was that the study of Jewish magic has been neglected:

“Until recently, most scholars in Jewish Studies were quite willing to accept Balaam’s famous claim, ‘There is no divination in Jacob, and no augury in Israel’ (Num. 23.23), and to ignore the existence of a rich and variegated Jewish magical tradition which is continuously documented at least from late antiquity and all the way to the twenty-first century.”

Many have always taken and continue to take Jewish ‘magicians’ (some may prefer a more eloquent nomenclature for the practitioners of this art) very seriously:

“The Jewish magicians and their patrons believed that they possessed the ability to exorcise demons, slay enemies, heal a wide range of ailments, assist in matters of fertility and childbirth, cause a certain person to love or hate another, to send demons or bad dreams upon a person they desired to harm, and to act in a wide variety of other realms.” [15]

[See ‘Kupat Ha’ir’: Ultra-Orthodox Manipulation and African Magic.]

The use and the origins of magic within Jewish traditions are far more widespread than many would care to admit. To what extent Jewish magic overlaps with Jewish mysticism is subject to a fierce debate:

In the search for the point where mysticism stops and magic begins, the student can adopt one of three different approaches.

Bohak writes quite outspokenly:

“The study of Jewish mysticism will make an important step forward when it finally drops both Gershom Scholem’s understanding of Jewish magic as the ugly stepdaughter of Jewish mysticism and Moshe Idel’s view of much of Jewish religion and almost all of Jewish mysticism as suffused with magic, and would become more acquainted with the Jewish magical texts themselves and more accustomed to seeing the Jewish magical tradition as a sister—sometimes an older sister, sometimes a younger sister, and mostly a distant sister—of the Jewish mystical tradition.”

Bohak thus takes the interesting position that Jewish magic is not an ugly offshoot of Jewish mysticism (as per Scholem), nor is it inextricably bound together with mysticism (as per Idel) but, rather, it maintains a somewhat distant relationship to it.

Either way, mysticism still cannot divorce itself entirely from some relationship to magic - and whichever position one takes would remain subjective because the technical boundaries (between theosophical mysticism and theurgical magic) remain ill-defined.

---

[1] See A Window into Pre-Zoharic Mystical Literature  and  Folklore – Alive and Well in a Modern World.

[2] The Latin text on the recto is followed by a space and then a text in Judaeo-Arabic (Arabic in Hebrew characters). This page would have originally been left blank and it is assumed that the Latin and Judeo-Arabic text were added later. The verso is quite standard for Geniza magical texts but the Latin transliteration on the recto is unusual. Because of the various different languages it seems that the texts may have divergent origins. 

[3] Paris BN Heb. 326.

[4] Wikipedia.

[5] JTS Rabb. 1077

[6] Apparently, using margins and blank spaces for additional related or unrelated material was quite a common practice at that time.

[7] Parenthesis mine.

[8] Parenthesis mine.

[9] Or rather, first place the upwards facing knob in the hole which will then act as a kind of bearing and then insert it into the Psalter?

[10] Codex Latinus Monacensis 100, fol. 132–133.

[11] Parentheses mine.

[12] Parenthesis mine.

[13] Parenthesis mine.

[14] Gideon Bohak, Prolegomena to the Study of the Jewish Magical Tradition.

[15] Gideon Bohak, Khamsa Khamsa Khamsa: The Evolution of a Motif in Contemporary Israeli Art.

261) A WINDOW INTO PRE-ZOHARIC MYSTICAL LITERATURE:

The 1921 collection of R. Shlomo Moussaiff's Merkavah texts not meant for public consumption.

HEICHALOT AND MERKAVAH MYSTICISM:

INTRODUCTION:

This purpose of this article is to present a brief overview of the dominant mystical literature that existed prior to the publication of the Zohar in around 1280 - with specific focus on how certain early books were regarded as being ‘dangerous’ if not approached correctly.

[See Mysteries behind the Origins of the Zohar.]

I have drawn extensively from the research of Professor Gideon Bohak,[1] a specialist in Jewish magic in Antiquity and the Middle ages, as well as in the textual fragments from the Cairo Geniza.

Many are somewhat familiar with the Kabbalah of the Zohar (and its system of Sefirot or spheres and Kelipot or unclean husks) but not much is known of the earlier mystical literature which falls into the category of Heichalot (-where one ‘ascends’ to the Heavenly Palaces) and Merkavah (-where one ‘descends’ into the Chariot).

Today, the modern student of mysticism or Chassidut is often presented with a model of Kabbalah that is almost clinical and made to resemble a version of religious ‘quantum physics’ – but the origins of this literature present as a very different style entirely.

NOTE: Some Readers may find certain references from quoted texts to be sexist and possibly offensive. No offence is meant.

ORIGINS OF HEICHALOT AND MERKAVAH MYSTICISM:

There is much scholarly debate as to whether this form of Heichalot and Merkavah mysticism originated in Palestine or Babylonia, let alone as to when it started - but there is concrete evidence it was in existence from around the 5^th or 6^th-century CE.[2]

For the next few centuries the Heichalot and Merkavah mysticism most likely circulated as an oral tradition - but certainly around the 9^th or 10^th-century it became available in manuscript form.

Bohak points out that reports from various Jewish communities at that time show that:

“...the manuscripts in which this literature was transmitted were not seen as standard manuscripts of Hebrew literature, but as special manuscripts, which may only be approached in a state of purity. Failing to observe this rule could lead to great danger...”

The 12^th and 13^th-century Chassidei Ashkenaz were also interested in this Heichalot and Merkavah literature. [See These Are Not Superstitions.]

THE SCROLL OF ACHIMA’ATZ:

An early text which gives some insight into the style and content of Heilchalot and Merkavah literature is the Scroll of Achima’atz, written by Achima’atz ben Paltiel (1017-1060).

The Scroll of Achima’atz, also known as Megillat Yuchasin, was written in rhymed Hebrew prose with extensive vocabulary and takes the form of a chronicle. This thousand-year-old work was discovered by accident in a Spanish library and published in 1895.

According to Achima’atz, his family descended from the captives taken by Titus to Rome after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.

Achima’atz was a chronicler from southern Italy and his writing, often drawing from earlier accounts going back to the 9^th-century, gives one a window into the beliefs and practices of that the time when this particular mystical literature was popular.

Bohak writes that the strange and incredulous events portrayed in the Scroll of Achima’atz:

“...often stretch the modern reader’s credulity far beyond the breaking point.”

Achima’atz describes an ancestor of his, R. Amittai and his three sons who are:

 “...learned persons and poets, educators and teachers to decent pupils...who understand secrets...[and are] adept in the mysteries...well versed in Sefer ha-Yashar [a book on angelology and magic], [and] gazers onto the secret of the Merkavah.”[3]

The Scroll of Achima’atz also informs us that the family had a spiritual heirloom which was preserved for at least four generations, and that was the Sefer haMerkavah.

But a strange fate awaited that book. The fourth-generation custodian of the Sefer haMerkavah was Baruch who was no longer pious or observant. The following event is related in the Scroll and Baruch, due to his negligence, is held to be responsible:

“[I]t happened one day on the eve of the Sabbath... when the day grew dark, and the daylight darkened, and the one who had to light the candle was not there, to light it before the Book of the Chariot [Sefer haMerkavah].”

Apparently, a candle was kindled in the presence of this holy book every Shabbat. On one occasion, it seems that the regular person tasked with kindling the candle was not present, perhaps due to Baruch’s negligence and lack of observance.

“And a certain woman stood there, and she was menstruant, this cursed woman ‒ may she be erased from the book of life, and may she be wiped out from the world to come ‒ and she lit the candle before the Torah [which is what Sefer haMerkavah is referred to[4]] and the wrath of God was upon the family, and many died in that plague, only a few survived out of the many they were.

And there was there an understanding Jew, who realized and understood the event that had happened. He took the book and placed it in a vessel of lead, to sink it in the depths of the sea; and the sea retreated [in fear], for about a mile it receded; and the Jew [walked that mile out to sea and] cast the vessel into the sea, and the sea returned to its place; at once the terrible ordainment was voided and the plague came to an end. 

And the memory of Baruch ceased to exist, his candle faded and was extinguished, for he left behind him none to engage in the One who reanimates, as he had no son, only one daughter.”[5]

The placing of an object, possessed by something perceived to be unclean or evil, also occurs in another section of the Scroll of Achima’atz. One of Achima’atz’s ancestors, R. Shefatiah was said to have exorcised a demon from the king’s daughter. He placed the demon in a vessel and sealed it with lead and also cast it into the ocean.[6]

THE RESPONSUM OF RAV HAI GAON:

Bohak writes:

“The Scroll of Ahimaaz is not the most sober of historical chronicles, and its story about a Hekhalot manuscript that ended up in the Mediterranean Sea may be taken with more than a grain of sea-salt. 

In fact, it would have been easy to dismiss this story as utterly farfetched, were it not for the fact that the main assumptions that lie behind it are reflected in a much more sober text, written at about the same time in a very different Jewish community.”

Bohak is referring to a Teshuva or Responsum from Rav Hai Gaon (939-1038) who was the head of the Academy in Pumbedita (Fallujah) in answer to questions from the rabbis Kairouan (Tunisia), about the use of the Divine Name for practical (magical) benefit.

The original questions and the Responsum have been lost but evidently, the Kairouan rabbis weren’t satisfied with Rav Hai Gaon’s original answer so they wrote to him again. This second letter is extant. The questions and the answers give us a parallel and corroborating insight into the spirituality at that time.

The Kairouan rabbis claimed to have many books containing literature dealing with Divine and other powerful names.

They wrote:

“And we have several books among us, in which are written some of the Names, and some names of angels, and form(s) of seals, and they (i.e.,these books) say, Whoever wants to perform so and so, or to succeed in so and so, should write so and so like this (i.e., as shown in the book), on (material) so and so and should do thus, and the deed will come true for him.

And the elders and the pious people, when they would see these books they would fear them and would not approach them, and say that a certain man performed a deed so and so like that which is written in the books, and the deed did come true, but his own eyes were blinded, and some did not live through the year, and some did not live through the week, since they were not in a state of purity when they recited that Name.”[7]

The letter is pages long and goes on to quote relevant sections of the Babylonian Talmud which deal with similar matters. For some reason, the Heichalot and Merkavah texts are not specifically mentioned by the rabbis of Kairouan.

Rav Hai Gaon’s correspondingly lengthy response informs his questioners that he is well aware of the circulation of these popular magical books advocating such practices but in his view, it is all nonsense. 

However, on his own accord, he proceeds to distinguish between those popular magic books and a second category of what he regards as genuine mystical literature – the books of the Heichalot and Merkavah:

a) In the first category of what he considers to be magical (theurgical) and nonsensical works, he includes Sefer haYashar (on angelology), the Sword of Moshe and Razza Rabba (The Great Secret), including other:

“...fragments and individual passages, which are endless and without number...

many have spent much effort and wasted many years and found no truth in the matter.”

b) In the second category, however, it is clear that Rav Hai Gaon has great regard for what he considers to be genuine mystical (theosophical) Heichalot and Merkavah literature. He even refers to these mystical writings as Mishnayot (Mishnaic literature)[8]:

“[T]here are books and Names and seals and  Hekhalot Rabbata  and  Hekhalot Zeirata, and Sar Torah and other mishnayot, that whoever sees them becomes frightened, and so were our forefathers, and so are we, that we only approach them in purity and fear and trembling.

And we also heard persistent claims that some who have dealt with them perished quickly, and all this because of the sanctity of the Name and the sanctity of the Shekhinot  and of the angels who are around them, and the sanctity of the Merkabah, and that whoever deals with this deed, the angels swarm all around him...”

Thus Rav Hai Gaon disregards the folk magic but has high regard, if not awe, for Heichalot and Merkavah mysticism.

Rav Hai Gaon’s interesting reference to Heichalot literature as Mishnayot is paralleled in the Heichalot texts themselves which often refer to its own teachings as Mishnayot. And since Rav Hai Gaon says ‘whoever sees them’ it is clear that by that stage they were written texts and not oral transmissions.

Bohak points out that essentially Rav Hai Gaon maintains the same position as that portrayed in the Scroll of Achima’atz:

“[W]hat we saw should suffice to convince us that his attitude towards the Hekhalot / Merkabah literature was not that different from that of Ahima’atz and his ancestors.”

THE WARNINGS IN THE HEICHALOT TEXTS THEMSELVES:

Having established that both Achima’atz and Rav Hai Gaon believed that Heichalot and Merkavah texts are dangerous and can only be approached in purity, Bohak shows how these warnings are also prevalent in the actual texts themselves:

According to a Heichalot text fragment found in the Cairo Geniza, dated around the 11^th-century, which would be contemporaneous to both Achima’atz and Rav Hai Gaon, the following practice is prescribed:

 “How does he use it (i.e., one of God’s powerful Names)? He goes and sits in a house by himself, and keeps fasting the whole day, and does not eat the bread of (i.e., made by) a woman, and looks neither at a man nor at a woman, and when he walks in the market he hides his eyes from all creatures, and does not look even at a day-old baby. And he immerses himself (in water) from evening to evening[9], and recites this thing after the evening Shema prayer, each and every day...”

And the text proceeds with a warning that a certain mystical incantation must be recited precisely 111 times otherwise:

 “...his blood is upon his head.”

MORE EVIDENCE FROM THE CAIRO GENIZA:

[See The Cairo Geniza - 1000 Years of Torah on African Soil.]

TORAH SCROLLS:

The textual fragments found in the Cairo Geniza reveal some fascinating clues as to the structure and status of the original Heichalot manuscripts. On inspection, some fragments reveal how they were written in columns of uniform width.

Bohak explains:

“This is an extremely unusual find, since by the ninth and tenth centuries, which is when these manuscripts probably were copied, only Torah-scrolls were written in this archaic format.

Using such a format for Hekhalot literature clearly implied the great sanctity of these texts in the eyes of their copyists and users.” 

MISHNAYOT:

Another unusual characteristic of some of these fragments is how they are neatly divided into chapters and paragraphs. This corroborates Rav Hai Gaon’s reference to Heichalot literature as Mishnayot. Apparently they were also considered to have similar status to Mishnaic texts.

DOWNGRADING TO A ROTULUS AND A NOTEBOOK:

A much later fragment from the Cairo Geniza was discovered, which reveals something of great interest. It is a fragment of Heichalot writing, but this time not resembling a horizontal Torah text.

Rather, it is in the form of a vertical scroll known as a Rotulus and written on paper, not parchment. A Rotulus was cheaper to make and easier to transport because it was rolled from top to bottom.

A Heichalot text appearing in a Rotulus format would indicate a downgrading of its status at that time.

This Rotulus fragment is dated from the 13^th-century and was significantly produced in Cairo.

A PUSH-BACK AGAINST RAMBAM?

Bohak does not suggest this but perhaps this was a result of more rational influences from Rambam (d. 1204) who lived in Cairo at around that time. Rambam had no time for magic and mysticism and did not believe in forces of good and evil (in keeping with the idea that G-d prohibited the eating of the fruit of the tree of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ – so that humans would not create categories of ‘good’ and ‘evil’  – yet the first thing they did was create such realms).

[See The ‘Lost Religion’ of Maimonides.]

Furthermore - and perhaps in keeping with this hypothesis - is the listing of a Heichalot codex in a 12^th-century (inventory) booklist (the latter being common finds in the Cairo Geniza).

In this particular listing, now for the first time, a Heichalot work is simply referred to as a diftar which means a common book!

This again indicates a possible downgrade in Rambam’s Cairo in the status of Heichalot literature from what we saw started out as a Torah, then a Mishna and now just a common diftar.

THE MERKAVAH SHLEIMAH OF 1921:

In 1921, a Bukharan (today the area around Uzbekistan) Jew and collector of manuscripts, by the name of Shlomo Moussaieff, published a series of Heichalot texts from his own collection under the title Merkavah Shleima.

In his introduction, he writes at length about the dangers of this literature if not approached respectfully. But he adds another very interesting stipulation - not to sell the book to people who would use the work to show Jews in a bad light.

He writes:

“[O]ne should sell this book only to Torah disciples and God-fearing persons, and one should guard it and study it in purity, and not approach the holy at all times[10].”

Ironically, the book is now available online here.

---

[1] Gideon Bohak, Dangerous Books; The Hekhalot Texts as Physical Objects.

[2] This is based on the emergence, in Babylonia, of Aramaic incantation bowls which represent the ethos of this literature at that time.

[3] Klar, Megillat Ahimaaz, p. 12.

[4] It is interesting that to this day, some Chassidim do not hesitate to place their signature mystical works on top of a Chumash. And kindling a light before the Torah is also observed today by the ner tamid or eternal light which burns in synagogues in front of the Ark which houses the Torah scrolls.

[5] Klar, Megillat Ahimaaz, p. 30.

[6] This may have been based on an idea in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 64a and Yoma 69b) where the evil inclination, in the time of Zecharia, was described as a fiery lion cub which was caught and also sealed in a lead vessel to prevent its voice being heard when it roared.

[7] S. Emanuel, Newly Discovered Geonic Responsa (Jerusalem and Cleveland: Ofeq Institute, Friedberg Library, 1995), p. 125. 

[8] Rav Hai Gaon writes: “[T]here are two mishnayot which the Tannaim (the rabbis of the Mishnaic period (0-200CE) recite about this, and they are called Hekhalot Rabbati and Hekhalot Zutarti, and this thing is widely known.” 

[9] Literally ‘between the suns’ which is the time between sunset and nightfall.

[10] A play on Lev. 16:2.