Metamorphoses of the Hidden Light Motif in Jewish Texts

Abstract:The motif of the Hidden Light ([inline-graphic 01]), which has a home in rabbinic interpretation of the biblical creation-account, underwent some very significant metamorphoses over time.In the Zohar, the older theme of a great light which had been withdrawn and hidden became assimilated to a more universal concept of a primordial light upon which existence itself depends. Such a conception, voiced significantly in Sufi philosophy, flatly negated any possibility of a withdrawal of the Light.Over time, the motif later became assimilated to another motif, the garments-of-Adam, one found already in the Zohar but having much older roots. It was thought that with the sin of the first couple, their soul-like being was removed and in its place they received materially-oriented physical bodies. Their lost state-of-being came to be associated with the Hidden Light, the re-appearance of which would occur only in some future messianic transformation.Hasidism, in turn, tended to identify the Hidden Light as a deeper understanding of the Torah and the sense of a spiritual depth underlying all existence, a possibility in the present. In effect, Hasidism viewed itself as a reclamation of the Hidden Light.