Commentaire de citation sur Ézéchiel 1:16

A kabbalistic approach to the words: “I will grant peace in your land, etc.” This was a promise that the foundation of the universe (עולם) (known as the emanation יסוד) will remain connected to the ארץ of which the Torah spoke in Genesis 1,1 when mention of earth first occurs. That verse alluded to the mystical dimension of the ten emanations. It is this kind of “peace” with which the Jewish people residing in the land of Israel will be blessed as a consequence of keeping the laws of the Torah. This is the meaning of Solomon in Kohelet 3,11 גם את העולם נתן בלבם, “He also put the world into their heart.” The heart is another word for the earth in the universe, i.e. it is like a wheel within a wheel (Ezekiel 1,16) and the emanation known as כל suffuses everything, i.e. is בכל. Seeing that the abundance (of G’d’s blessings) emanates from the emanations נצח והוד to earth via the emanation יסוד, and the two emanations נצח והוד symbolise the למודי ה', the learned people who have intimate knowledge of the Lord, the sages (Berachot 64) stated that these Torah scholars help increase the peace which is found on earth. They proved this from a verse in Isaiah 54,13: וכל בניך למודי ה' ורב שלום בניך, “when all your children are imbued with knowledge of the Lord, there will be abundant peace among your children.”

a word spoken with proper basis Heb. אפניו, on its basis. An example of it is (Ps. 88:16): “I bear your terrors, it is settled (אפונה) [in my heart],” based and settled within me. This is not from the root of (Isa. 28: 27f): אפן and גלגל, wheel, for, were it so, it would be vowelized with a “pattach” under the “fe” as in (Ezek. 1:16) “האופנים the wheels.” The vowelization of the short kamatz is inappropriate for it.

According to what Maimonides writes in chapter 10 section 2 of the Moreh, Yaakov first achieved an understanding of the elements which exist and which extend as far heavenwards as the parts of the heaven known as ערבות. This is the meaning of מוצב ארצה וראשו מגיע השמימה, “standing on earth its top extending up until heaven.” The “heaven” meant by the verse is that called ערבות. G’d presides, i.e. “was standing” above that part of heaven. The words מלאכי אל-הים appear to refer to the four basic elements two of which were observed by Yaakov as ascending the ladder whereas the other two were perceived by him as descending. The “light” elements he perceived as ascending, whereas the two “heavy” elements, water and earth, he perceived as descending by comparison. If the dream appears to describe the planets as first descending and then ascending, i.e. when G’d is described as immediately above the heaven, this may be parallel to a vision described by Ezekiel in Ezekiel 1,16. The prophet’s vision also included four phenomena... [I confess that I do not understand the meaning of that prophecy. Maimonides apparently seizes on the word אופנים as being equivalent to גלגלים, the planets. The author supports what he perceives as Maimonides’ understanding of this prophecy. Since I do not understand it myself, I will omit this passage. Ed.]

Like the work of a chariot wheel. [Targum] Yonoson rendered, “as the work of the wheels of a chariot,” a wheel within a wheel crosswise, as it is stated in Yechezkeil in [reference to] the “Heavenly Chariot.”⁵²Yechezkeil 1:16.