Israel: Heart of the Whole World
by tillerofthesoil
“And look, it is well known that all members of the body absorb everything, while the heart cannot absorb even a thread of a strand of hair!” (Zohar 2:108a).
“There are three rulers above, through whom the blessed Holy One is known, and they are His precious mystery: the מוֹחָא (moḥa), brain, the לִבָּא (libba), heart, and the כַבְדָּא (khavda), liver [מֶלֶך (Melekh), King]. They act the opposite of this world. Above, the brain receives first, and then gives to the heart; the heart receives and gives to the liver, and then the liver gives a portion to all those sources below, every single one fittingly. Below, the liver receives first, and then brings all near the heart, and the heart receives. Once it has received and been invigorated, from the very vigor and delight that it received, it gives to the brain, stimulating it. Then, the liver resumes distributing to all sources of the body” (Zohar 2:152b–153a, cf. ibid. 1:139a [MhN]).
“If Assembly of Israel did not initiate arousal, the one above would not be aroused toward Her. By desire below, all is consummated” (Zohar 1:35a).
“[Rabbi Yehoshu’a son of Levi said:] Scripture says: [Away, away, flee from the land of the north, said YHWH,] for like the four winds of the heavens did I spread you out, said YHWH (Zechariah 2:10). What did He say to them? Should you say that the blessed Holy One said to Israel as follows: I have spread you out to the four winds of the world, if so, why did He say like the four [winds]? He should have said to the four [winds]! Rather, this is what He meant: Just as the world cannot endure without winds, so too the world cannot exist without Israel” (BT Ta’anit 3b, cf. Zohar 2:5b [MhN]).
“Surely we are closer to the supernal King than all other nations! Surely it is so, for the blessed Holy One made Israel the heart of the whole world. So is Israel among the other nations: the heart among the limbs of the body. All inhabitants of the world are the limbs, while Israel is the heart in their midst; and if Israel did not exist in the world, no nations could endure for even a moment—like limbs without a heart. Therefore they are in the middle of the whole world—the heart within the limbs.
Israel conducts herself among the other nations like the heart among the limbs. The heart is tender and weak, yet it is the vitality of all the limbs. None of the limbs knows pain, distress, and agony at all, only the heart, containing vitality and intelligence. [Pain] comes nowhere near the other limbs, since they have no vitality and know nothing. None of the other limbs come near the king—who is intelligence and wisdom located in the brain—only the heart. The other limbs are far from him and know nothing about him. Similarly, Israel is close to the Holy King, whereas the other nations are far from Him [cf. Kuzari 2:25–44; Tanḥuma, Qedoshim 10]….
Israel eats no animal that has not been slaughtered properly or is diseased or defective, or the dirty filth of detestable and creeping things, as do other nations…. For, in fact, the heart—which is tender and weak, yet king and vitality of all the other limbs—takes for its nourishment only the purest and clearest of all blood, so its food is cleanest and most refined of all, whereas the remaining refuse it leaves for all the other limbs. These other limbs do not care about this; rather, they take the refuse and the worst and most foul of all—and they are fittingly strong [cf. Kuzari 2:41].
Consequently, among the other limbs there are blisters, inflammation, rash, and scaly affliction; whereas for the heart, none of these at all. Rather, it is cleanest and purest of all, with no blemish whatsoever. Concerning this it is written: You are wholly beautiful, my love; there is no blemish in you (Song of Songs 4:7).
Rabbi Yose came and kissed his hands. He said, ‘If I have come into the world just to hear this, it is enough!'” (Zohar 3:221a–b, cf. BT Yoma 39a; Zohar 2:125b; 3:41b–42a, 75b).
“The Faithful Shepherd said, ‘Holy Lamp [Rabbi Shim’on son of Yoḥai], it is certain that the stomach takes everything up to six hours and bakes [cf. Zohar 2:125b]. For the gizzard [i.e., the omasum] is a baker. And the lung is a cupbearer. The heart is king, and these two are certainly the baker and the cupbearer who give to the king of the choicest of food and drinks, for he is the head of them all and the choicest of them all. And this is the meaning of what is written: I have gathered my myrrh with my perfume, I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk (Song of Songs 5:1). Eat, friends, and drink, be drunk with loving (ibid.)—the other parts of the body [i.e., the Companions], the armies and camps of the king who distribute food to them by means of the chief baker while drink is by means of the chief cupbearer [i.e., the lung. On the chief baker and the chief cupbearer see Genesis 40, cf. Zohar 1:192a]….
And in the primary composition of the first part [Zohar 3:235b], the Faithful Shepherd [Moses] opened, saying, ‘Woe to those people whose hearts are closed and whose eyes are unseeing, who do not know the organs of their own body and according to what they are arranged. For the trachea is composed of three forces: הֶבֶל (hevel), vapor, לַהַב אֵשׁ (lahav esh), a flash of fire—issuing from the heart and split into seven vapors as said by Qohelet [there are seven iterations of הֶבֶל (hevel) in Ecclesiastes 1:2, see BT Bava Batra 100b]—and air, entering from outside. Water of the lobes of the lung which are attached to the trachea. And from these three—water, air, and fire—Voice is assisted, and each one is split into seven, and they are seven flashes, seven climates, and seven streams [see Zohar 2:30b; 3:10a].
And when the flashes of the heart meet with the rain clouds, which are the wings of the lung, by way of the trachea of the lung, the result is: And His might’s thunder who can grasp? (Job 26:14). For therein the heart understands with Binah, which is in the heart on the left, Gevurah. And Ḥesed is to the right, the water of the wings of the lung, and Ḥokhmah, which is brain, is there [Ḥesed and Gevurah ascend becoming Ḥokhmah and Binah (Sullam)]. And from it comes a garden spring, a garden of fresh water and streams from לְבָנוֹן (Levanon), Lebanon (Song of Songs 4:15)—לִּבּוּנָא (libbuna), whiteness, of the brain that trickles through the trachea of the lung, after the clouds of Binah have ascended to the brain [cf. Zohar 3:135b (IR)].
And the mystery of the matter is in: Who is this coming up from the desert like a pillar of smoke [perfumed with myrrh and frankincense from all the merchant’s powders?] (Song of Songs 3:6). For this is smoke of the arrangement on the altar that rises from the heart to the brain, which cannot be moved from its place by all the breaths of the world. חָכְמָה (Ḥokhmah), Wisdom—כֹּחַ (koaḥ), power, [of] מ״ה (forty-five) [i.e., יוד הא ואו הא (YHWH) numerically equivalent to forty-five]: כֹּחַ (koaḥ), power, in the heart and מָה (mah), What, in the brain. The trachea is Tif’eret and incorporates six sefirot which are the six rungs to the Throne, Mother, so that Ḥokhmah from the brain will rest on the heart, for with it the heart understands. For this reason: קְנֵה חָכְמָה קְנֵה בִינָה (Qeneh Ḥokhmah, qeneh Vinah), Get wisdom, get understanding (Proverbs 4:5). Father descends with Her; Father ascends with Her. And this is a ladder on which two ascend and two descend” (Zohar 3:234b–235a, Ra’aya Meheimna Pineḥas).
All the nations surrounded me.
With the name YHWH I cut them down.
They swarmed round me, oh they surrounded me.
With the name YHWH I cut them down.
They swarmed round me like bees,
burned out like a fire among thorns.
With the name YHWH I cut them down (Psalms 118:10–12).
Many are the wicked’s pains, but he who trusts in YHWH kindness surrounds him (Psalms 32:10).
“בְּרֵאשִׁית (Bereshit), In the beginning (Genesis 1:1)—first saying of all, it includes the Ten Utterances, and it is the בְּרִית אֵשׁ (berit esh), covenant of fire. From the left side it was given, which is Gevurah—red fire. Therefore it says, in a flame of fire (Exodus 3:2). And Moses was from the side of Levi [on the left].
Why was it made known from the bush [see Exodus 3:2–4]? To teach She is caught between the thorns but not consumed because the roses, which are Her children [Assembly of Israel], in the future would be exiled among the nations which are thorns [cf. Rashi, ad loc.]. This is the secret of: For I will make a complete end of all the nations where I have driven you: but I will not make a complete end of you (Jeremiah 46:28)” (Tiqqunei ha-Zohar 27a).
“All things will be fittingly restored, and the impure aspect will be eliminated from the world. This has been affirmed, as is written: I will eliminate the spirit of impurity from earth (Isaiah 25:8). The blessed Holy One will then remain alone, as is written: Idols will utterly vanish (ibid. 2:18), and similarly: YHWH alone will be exalted on that day (ibid., 17)—He alone, as is written: No alien god with Him (Deuteronomy 32:12), for it will be eradicated from the world. Nothing will remain above or below except the blessed Holy One alone and Israel serving Him, a holy people—called ‘holy,’ as is written: Whoever is left in Zion, who remains in Jerusalem, will be called holy (Isaiah 4:3). Then there will be a single world above and below—a single world above, a single world below, a single people serving Him, as is written: Who is like Your people Israel, a single nation on earth? (1 Chronicles 17:21)” (Zohar 1:164a).
“For anyone who denies idolatry is called יְהוּדִי (Yehudi), a Jew, [since he declares the יִחוּדִי (yiḥudi), oneness, of God], as is written, There are certain יְהוּדָאיִן (Yehuda’in), Jewish men [whom you have appointed over the work of the province of Babylonia, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These have paid no heed to you, O king. They do not serve your god, and they do not worship the gold statue that you set up] (Daniel 3:12)” (BT Megillah 13a).
Rabbi Moshe Cordovero maintains that other nations will be purified and integrated into Israel, see Or Yaqar. Cf. Rabbi Avraham bar Ḥiyya, Megillat ha-Megalleh 110, who says: In the time yet to come the entire world will have the status of the land of Israel. The exile itself will become the land of Israel.
“If one wants to become a priest or a Levite he cannot because his father was not a priest or a Levite. However, if one wants to become righteous even if he is a gentile he can do so because it is not a family trait, as it says bless YHWH, those who fear YHWH, bless YHWH (Psalms 135:20)—it does not say the house of those who fear YHWH but those who fear YHWH. It is not a family trait, rather, on their own they chose to fear and love the blessed Holy One. Therefore, the blessed Holy One loves them” (Bemidbar Rabbah 8:2).
“Bear in mind that in everything there is internality and externality. In the world in general, Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, are considered the internality of the world, and the seventy nations are considered the externality of the world. Also, there is internality within Israel themselves, which are the wholehearted servants of the blessed Holy One, and there is externality—those who do not devote themselves to service of the blessed Holy One. Among the nations of the world, there is internality as well, which are the righteous of the nations of the world, and there is externality, which are the crude and the harmful among them.
Additionally, among the servants of the blessed Holy One among the sons of Israel, there is internality, being those rewarded with comprehension of the soul of the internality of Torah and its secrets, and externality, who merely keep the practical part of Torah.
Also, there is internality in every child of Israel—the Israel within—which is the point in the heart, and externality—which is the inner Nations of the World, the body itself. But even the inner Nations of the World in that person are considered converts, since by cleaving to the internality, they become like converts from among the nations of the world, that came and cleaved to the whole of Israel.
When a son of Israel enhances and dignifies his internality, which is the Israel within, over the externality, which are the nations of the world in him, that is, when he dedicates the majority of his efforts to enhance and exalt his internality, to benefit his soul, and gives minor efforts, the mere necessity, to sustain the nations of the world in him, meaning the bodily needs, as is written, ‘Make your Torah permanent and your labor temporary,’ (M Avot 1:15) by so doing, one makes the Children of Israel soar upwards in the internality and externality of the world as well, and the nations of the world, which are the externality, to recognize and acknowledge the value of the Children of Israel.
And if, perish the thought, it is to the contrary, and a son of Israel enhances and appreciates his externality, which is the nations of the world within, more than the inner Israel, as is written, the stranger that is in the midst of you (Deuteronomy 28:43), meaning the externality in him rises and soars, and you yourself, the internality, the Israel within, plunges down. With these actions, one causes the externality of the world in general—the nations of the world—to soar ever higher and overcome Israel, degrading them to the ground, and the Children of Israel, the internality in the world, to plunge deep down” (Ba’al ha-Sullam, Rabbi Yehudah Ashlag, Introduction to the Book of Zohar, 66–67).
“Know that this whole of being is one individual and nothing else. I mean to say that the sphere of the outermost heaven with everything that is within it is undoubtedly one individual” (Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed 1:72, cf. Plato, Timaeus 30b–d).
“Israel amidst the nations is like the heart amidst the organs of the body; it is at one and the same time the most sick and the most healthy of them” (Rabbi Yehudah ha-Levi, Kuzari 2:36, cf. Zohar 3:221b).
“What Europe owes to the Jews? Many things, good and bad, and above all one thing that is of the best and of the worst: the grand style in morality, the terribleness and majesty of infinite demands, infinite meanings” (Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 1886).
Thus said the Master, YHWH: This is Jerusalem, in the midst of the nations I set her, with lands all round her (Ezekiel 5:5, cf. Deuteronomy 17:14).
“Israel is a place from which it is impossible to build an empire. The geography is wrong. The Judean Hills in one direction, the Sinai Desert in the other, block easy access to the surrounding land. The coastal plain is narrow and, in ancient times, open to easy attack from the sea. The cradle of civilization was not there. It was in the alluvial plains of the Tigris-Euphrates valley and the rich, well-watered lands of the lower Nile.
It was in Mesopotamia that the first city states were built, and in Egypt that the greatest and longest lived of ancient empires had its base. So Israel would almost invariably be a small country at the juncture of powerful empires, in a simultaneously strategic and vulnerable location on major trade routes… That is why it is so ironic that Israel should be called an imperialist power. Israel is the only nation to have ruled the land in the past 4000 years that has not been an empire and never sought to become one. Israel has been ruled by many empires: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, the Ptolemies, Seleucids and Romans, the Byzantines, Umayyads, Abbasids, Fatimids, Crusaders, Mamluks and Ottomans. The only non-imperial power to rule the land was and is Israel….
Not that Israel was unpopulated but that the Jews were the only nation to have a national, as opposed to individual claim to the land. At all other times, it existed as, at best, an administrative district within an empire whose base was elsewhere” (Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Future Tense, p. 137–8).
And what occurs to your mind, it shall surely not come about, that you say, ‘We shall be like the nations, like the clans of the lands, to serve wood and stone’ (Ezekiel 20:32).
הַגּוֹיִם (Ha-goyim), the nations (Ezekiel 5:5), בַמְּחוּגָה (va-meḥoogah), with compass (Isaiah 44:13), סֶבֶב (sevev), encircle, the heart of the world, Israel. Each Hebrew word is numerically equivalent (cf. Rabbi Yosef Gikatilla, Ginnat Egoz 48).
Like a rose among thorns, so is my beloved among the maidens (Song of Songs 2:2).
“The heart is thought to be the seat of understanding in biblical physiology, but it is also associated with feelings” (Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses).
The Talmud in Shabbat 61a calls the head “king over all of the limbs.” The Hebrew word מֶלֶך (melekh), king, is interpreted by the Rashbats (Rabbi Simeon ben Tsemah Duran) as an anagram for מוֹחָא (moḥa), brain, לֵב (lev), heart, and כָּבֵד (kaved), liver.
הוּא רֹאֶה וְאֵין נִרְאֶה (Hu ro’eh ve-ayin nir’eh), he sees but is not seen, and שֶׂכֶל הַפּוֹעַל (sekhel ha-po’el), the active intellect, are each numerically equivalent to 541 (Rabbi Avraham Abulafia, Sitre Torah 129b cited in Wolfson, Through a Speculum that Shines, p. 10). The numerical value of מוֹחָא (moḥa), brain, is 55 which can be understood as 54 and 1, i.e., 541. יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisra’el), Israel, too, is numerically equivalent to 541.
“The heart understands: And the [last letter of the word] מוֹחַ (moaḥ), brain, is the first letter of the word חָכמָה (ḥokhmah), wisdom. So too, the last letter of the word לֵב (lev), heart, is the first letter of the word בִּינָה (binah), understanding. And the last letter of the word כָּבֵד (kaved), liver, is the first letter of the word דַעַת (da’at), knowledge. Within these three organs dwell three souls. The vegetative soul dwells in the liver, the animal soul dwells in the heart, and the intellective soul dwells in the brain…. This is the tradition that we received from Rabbi Yehudah ha-Ḥasid of Regensburg” (Rabbi Avraham Abulafia, Ve-Zeh le-Yehudah, translated in Idel, Language, Torah, and Hermenutics in Abraham Abulafia, p. 2).
“Now that many trample these precepts [of bloodletting] under foot, and yet escape serious hurt, one can realize the truth of the psalmist’s saying YHWH preserves the simple (Psalms 116:6)” (BT Shabbat 129b; Yevamot 72a).
“They compare those who practice medicine without scientific knowledge to Moses, who framed laws for the tribe of the Jews, since it is his method in his books to write without offering proofs, saying ‘God commanded, God spoke'” (Galen, On Hippocrates’ Anatomy).
“The heart is a hard flesh, not easily injured. In hardness, tension, general strength, and resistance to injury, the fibers of the heart far surpass all others, for no other instrument performs such continuous, hard work as the heart… The complexity of [the heart’s] fibers… was prepared by Nature to perform a variety of functions… enlarging when it desires to attract what is useful, clasping its contents when it is time to enjoy what has been attracted, and contracting when it desires to expel residues” (Galen, On the Usefulness of the Parts of the Body).
“Galen’s philosophical works were not held in high esteem by the Jews. Maimonides cites them only when they are in accordance with his own views, as, for instance, with regard to the impossibility of proving the eternity of matter (see Guide of the Perplexed 2:15).
… But if in the domain of philosophy Galen’s authority was contested, he reigned supreme in the field of medicine. Maimonides himself helped largely to propagate Galen’s medical works by publishing a summary of sixteen of them, which were, so to speak, canonized by the Alexandrian school and by the Arabs. Maimonides was followed by many other Jewish physicians who paraphrased or translated Galen’s works from Arabic versions (chiefly made by Ḥunain ibn Yitsḥaq) and from the Latin” (Jewish Encyclopedia).
“In the heart are two chambers: in one, blood; in the other, air. The one filled with blood contains the abode of the evil impulse” (Zohar 2:107b).
“There are two chambers and two handles [lit., ears] in the heart” (Tiqqunei ha-Zohar 69, 115b, cf. Zohar 3:109a [RM]; Anatomy).
This account seems to accord with the modern understanding contrary to Galen, who posits two chambers. The heart has four chambers: two atria and two ventricles. The right atrium receives oxygen-poor blood from the body and pumps it to the right ventricle. The right ventricle pumps the oxygen-poor blood to the lungs. The left atrium receives oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and pumps it to the left ventricle. The left ventricle pumps the oxygen-rich blood to the body.
“All organs depend on the heart, and the heart depends on the purse” (JT Terumot 8:4, 46b)—if one has no money for food, the heart, which is the seat of understanding, will not be able to function properly, cf. M Avot 3:21: If there is no flour (i.e., halakhah), there is no Torah; if there is no Torah there is no flour.
“Before we begin explaining, we must tell you that just as parts of the constellation are called ‘eye,’ or ‘ear,’ or ‘hand,’ or ‘foot,’ but are not real eyes, ears, hands, or feet, but only appellations and abstractions, so too you must know that above the constellations there are entities which are called ‘water,’ ‘fire,’ ‘wind,’ and ‘earth,’ and perish the thought that these elements should bear any similarities to ours. Instead, they are awesome heavenly pathways that are called thus because of certain qualities these Names possess, but they are not like the earthly ones… He makes His messengers the winds, His ministers, glowing fire (Psalms 104:4). Don’t ever think that what are being spoken of are actual wind and fire, but their Names reflect the essence of their character” (Rabbi Yosef Gikatilla, Sha’arei Orah, p. 214–215 [Weinstein translation]).
Thank you. I also agree that Israel is the center of the universe in the heavenly economy.
Thank you for your comment chaya1957; Israel then has a vast responsibility.
I think we are just beginning to realize this.
I think the Zohar is saying that humanity is an organic whole which is terribly out of balance. On the material plane of existence close to half of world Jewry is no longer in exile, residing as they do in the state of Israel, and thus the “heart of the whole world” has been re-vitalized. It seems, however, that the “heart of the whole world” is still in a spiritual exile. With proper Zohar study, compassionate righteousness, moral justice, and Ha-Shem’s help, we will hopefully leave exile and usher in the Son of David.
My take is that the physical return is first, and following or concurrent is the spiritual return. Prophecy says all of Israel will return to the land, even if some of us aren’t going willingly. We see the clouds of antisemitism gathering over Europe and Muslim nations like Turkey and Iran that still have Jewish populations. Americans think it can’t happen here. But it will.
I believe the balance tipped in 2012, when more Jews lived in Israel than anywhere else (including the US.)
Dr. Raphael Kellman