Reflection on An Early Hasidic Cosmic Tree - Ilan - MS # 4 from the Wm Gross Collection (028.012.003 = JNUL microfilm F 46241) 

• In Event: Reflections on Hasidic Thought

Abstract

I have entitled the document which is the subject of this talk: "An Early Hasidic Ilan". It is extant in four exemplars, on parchment scrolls. Herein I intend to explain the unique features of the text it contains, and to explore different aspects of the religious and psychological significance of its graphical components, all of which make it stand out as unique,when compared with the standard set of five Lurianic Ilanot, attributed to R Meir Poppers [the final editor of the Lurianic Etz Hayim in the mid 17th century], and later popularized in the published editions of the Ilan haGadol, in Warsaw 1859/1893, and upon 3 of which, the text of this document is based. 
Although as will be demonstrated, this is an indisputably Hasidic-Lurianic literary work of Kabbalistic graphics, the currently presumed irresolvable issues regarding its precise geographical origin, dating and distribution - all of which shall be discussed here, may warrant both 'maximalist' and 'minimalist' assessments as to the various possible resonances this scroll may bear as a specifically 'EARLY' Hasidic creation. This notwithstanding, we intend to reflect on the issues this document raises in terms of what we know concerning the traditions of the Baal Shem Tov's forms of Hasidic contemplation - as recorded in his teachings concerning the nature of language, and of thought and self-situated-ness; as well as on the nature of Devequt and self-effacement-and-identification, and on how such a document can function as an aid to Kavvanot and Yichudim, in considering this a central function of this artifact, which can be used specifically as a map that situates Lurianic contemplative practice. 
Conducting this imaginative hermeneutical exercise may also enable us to gather necessary tools to begin to compare and contrast the possible uses of such a document with the known uses of cosmological and mystical illustrations in other religious systems and contexts.

author

• Menachem Emanuel Kallus, University of Haifa