Chasidut sur Ézéchiel 1:11

When the Rambam explains the visions of the Divine Chariot, in the sixth chapter of the third section of the Guide, he explains why Yehezkel revealed more details about his vision of the Divine than did Yeshayahu. There he quotes the Talmud (Hagiga, 13b), “Yeshayahu saw all that had been seen by Yehezkel. Yeshayahu is like a townsman who sees the king, Yehezkel is like a countryman who sees the king.”¹¹¹There it is written: “The townsman, seeing that his neighbors know well how the king rides, simply tells them that he saw the king. But the villager, wishing to tell his friends that which they do not know, relates in detail how the king was riding, describes his followers, and the officers who execute his order and command.” The Rambam writes, “The generation of Yeshayahu did not require the detailed description. It was enough for him to say, ‘I saw God.’ The generation of the Babylonian exile needed to hear all of the details.” This is exactly according to the words of the Zohar (Shemot, 2b) quoted above.¹¹²See chapter 9 on the difference between the visions of Yehezkel and the visions of Yeshayahu. So if all the verses describing the Divine Chariot are only explaining the workings of astronomy, for what reason could Yehezkel have possibly had in thinking that knowledge of astronomy was more useful or of more interest to the exiles in Babylon? From this it clearly follows that the Rambam had possession of a true tradition of the mysteries of the Torah. Here is not the place to dwell on this point. Yet suffice to say that all who study this matter with a clear mind will know that he possessed a true tradition of Kabbalah. The Rambam claimed that there are four planets. The Abarbanel responds to this in saying that everyone knows that there are nine planets. How, the Abarbanel asks, could the prophet Yehezkel have made such a great error? One who studys the Eytz Hayim, in the introduction to the shaar tsiyoor haolamot, shows how the ten are divided into four sections. This is in line with the view of the Rambam. Further, the Guide (Section Two, Ch. 10) hints at the meaning of counting four planets. There you can find an answer to the query of the Abarbanel. Also, in the Pirkei Hatslaha printed in the responsa of the Rambam called, Pe’er haDor, he wrote to his student Rav Yosef Aknin, he explains how the Cherubs on each side of the Ark of the Covenant spread their wings. There he wrote, “just as breath is essential to the life of the heart … so do the Cherubs that jointly spread their wings over the Ark of the Covenant are really two. And know that the sanctuary of your heart is the Ark which holds within it the two Tablets of the Testament.” This exact idea is explained in the Zohar in the section of the Raya Mehemna (Zohar, Pinchas, 235a): For the heart is the seat of judgment, and the four Hayot who are its messengers are the two lungs and the two kidneys. The lungs are the secret of (Yehezkel, 1:11, “and their faces and wings were divided upwards,” reaching up to receive the king … … and the breath of air descends into the heart to cool off its heat, so it does not burn up the body. And when the breath descends, it descends in several directions, like a king and his soldiers. And the lungs receive the breath, which is king over it. This is as it is written (Yehezkel, 1:11), “and their faces and wings were divided upward,” (Shemot, 25:20), “and the wings of the Cherubs shall spread upward.” And in the Tikkunei Zohar (third additional chapter at the end, 140b): Of the lungs it is written (Shemot, 25:20), “and the wings of the Cherubs shall spread upwards, overspreading the covering (of the Ark) with their wings,” this is the covering of the heart.