Hekhalot Literature

The Hekhalot Corpus

In the same centuries that the geonim were interpreting, codifying, and enforcing rabbinic law, other segments of eastern Jewry were actively engaged in developing a distinctive corpus of mystical writing known as Hekhalot (palaces) texts, so named for the vivid descriptions of the seven heavenly palaces (hekhalot) that they prominently feature. 

Focusing on the heavenly ascents and visionary experiences of a small cast of early rabbinic figures including Rabbi Ishmael and Rabbi Akiba, Hekhalot literature emerged as a distinct body of material during the first Islamic centuries, evidently drawing upon and adapting earlier Jewish mystical and magical traditions. 

Closely related to these works is the seventh- or eighth-century Measure of the Divine Body (Shi‘ur komah), a text that provides a shockingly anthropomorphic description of God’s colossal body, limb by limb. We first hear of these works in the writings of the geonim, but they appear to have been transmitted primarily outside of the rabbinic yeshivot, in social contexts that are difficult to reconstruct.

Hekhalot texts continued to circulate in the Near East, as the many versions found in the Cairo Geniza demonstrate, but they were also brought to Europe, where, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, they served as an important inspiration for the German Pietists (Hasidei Ashkenaz). Viewed with skepticism by the geonim despite featuring rabbinic heroes, the esoteric Hekhalot texts remind us of the diversity that existed even within early medieval Jewish communities oriented around rabbinic teachings.