Acts of Interpretation by Naomi Janowitz

Author:Naomi Janowitz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: De Gruyter
Published: 2022-05-23T08:02:17.548000+00:00

Human and Angelic Choruses Sing Together

Liturgy that describes the heavenly world conveys important information about that world. The Songs employ specialized and hard-to-translate vocabulary for the angelic forces, as well as the seven heavenly temples with their seven priesthoods and seven chief priests and the innermost part of the temple. Having this intimate knowledge of the heavenly world no doubt increased the stature of the human priests. As stated by Alexander, “[t]he role of the celestial angel-priests validates the role of the terrestrial human priests, who are engaged in a comprehensive imitatio angelorum” (Alexander 2006, 16). The central question is the nature of this imitation of the angelic world when it becomes a ritual practice. Based on the preliminary publication of some of the Songs fragments by John Strugnell, Morton Smith argued that they were remnants of an ascent text (1981).17 Carol Newsom similarly posited that the central vision of the celestial high priest in the seventh hymn is not simply a description of the heavens. Instead, the Songs present a step-by-step ascent by the individual reciting the text, culminating in a vision of the highest level of the heavenly temple and its cult (Newsom 1985, 59 – 72).18 Reiterating a theme constant since the discovery of the text, Philip Alexander also posits that the blessing recited by humans in Song 6 “implies some sort of mystical ‘ascent’ to the heavenly temple” (2006, 28).

The question is how to sort descriptions of praise from uses of praise. Bilha Nitzan, for example, distinguishes between two types of praise. In the first, “the praises invoked from all the cosmos express in harmony the magnificence and majesty of God, the creator of the whole universe” (Nitzan 1994, 166). These descriptions repeat biblical models of praise directed at the deity for the sake of praise, or wrapped up with prayer requests. This type of praise makes no claims about an angelic cult or about human participation in that angelic world. The second type, which she characterizes as a “mystical” type that includes the Songs, leads humans to an “experience of mystic communion” (Nitzan 1994, 166). Something about the text seems not simply to describe the cult but to point to human participation in the cult. The lines of demarcation between description and participation remain murky and open to debate.19 Nitzan has located a point of contrast, but the specific classifications remain in debate.

Esther Chazon accepts Nitzan’s model but offers some modifications. Chazon distinguishes among (1) the general, biblical model of praise choruses familiar from Nitzan’s first category, (2) two distinct choruses (angelic and human), and (3) one chorus that specifically joins humans and angels (2003). Chazon’s Type 1 repeats Nitzan’s first category, a familiar Biblical trope with Psalm 148 as the paradigm for this type of liturgy (2003, 37). Distinguishing Chazon’s second and third types in the Songs is much more difficult: the identities and number of the members of the choruses are often obscure. Chazon’s first example of Type 2 (two choruses) reads: “[We] the sons of your covenant shall praise … with all troops of [light]” (Daily Prayers [4Q503]).

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