For several sections of the Greater Holy Assembly the English stops and Knorr von Rosenroth's Latin stands in its place. Mathers "thought it advisable to retain this piece in the Latin", which would be "equally intelligible in that language to the ordinary student". The line he draws is uneven. The sections just before, listing what in the Woman is uncovered, voice, hair, leg, hand and foot, stay in English; only the passages on the male member and on union go into Latin. The choice has a use he did not intend. Here alone the reader sees the text Mathers was actually translating; everywhere else the Aramaic of the Zohar reaches English through that Latin, unseen.
The Kabbalah Unveiled — S. L. MacGregor Mathers (from Knorr von Rosenroth's Latin) (1887)
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page 103
951. When the countenance of the Female Head is created, one curled lock of hair at the back of Microprosopus hangeth over the head of the Woman.
952. And all hairs red gold are produced in Her head ; yet so that other colours are intermixed therewith.
953. This is that which is written, Cant. vii. 5 :
“ The hair of Thy head like ARGMN, Argaman , purple.”
954. What is Argaman? Colours intermixed with other colours.
KABBALAH.
955- This Tiphereth, Beauty, hath been extended from the heart, and penetrateth it, and passeth through unto the other side, and instituteth the formations from the Countenance of the Woman even unto Her heart ; so that from the parts about the heart it taketh its rise on this side, and in the parts about the heart it terminateth on that side.
956. Moreover, this Tiphereth is extended, and it formeth the internal parts of a Man.
957. And it entereth into and disposeth therein all mercies and aspects of mercies.
958. Also we have learned that in those internal parts are comprehended six hundred thousand Lords of Mercies, and that they are called the Lords of the Internal Parts.
959. Whence it is written, Jer. xxxi. 20: “Therefore My bowels are troubled for him, I will surely have mercy upon him, saith Tetragrammaton.”
960. We have learned that this Tiphereth, Beauty, embraceth Mercies and Judgment, and that Mercy is extended in the Male.
961. And it passeth over and goeth through unto (otherwise, shineth on) the other side, and formeth the internal parts of a Woman on the side of Judgment ; and thus also are Her internal parts disposed.
962. We have learned that the Male hath been conformed on His side (otherwise, from His heart), in 248* members ; of which some are within, some without ; some Mercies, some Judgments.
963. All which pertain unto Judgment, cohere in Judgment around the hinder part, where the Woman is extended; and they coalesce and are extended round about on that side.
964. Also we have learned that five nakednesses can be revealed on that side, which are the five judgments \
* The number of 248 = RChM, Recliem = Mercy + 248; thus conveying this idea in the number.
THE GREATER HOLY ASSEMBLY,
and these five judgments are extended into 248 paths.*
965. And thus have we learned: the voice in the Woman is uncovered ; the hair in the Woman is uncovered; the leg* in the Woman is uncovered ; the hand in the Woman is uncovered ; the foot in the Woman is uncovered.
966. And also, furthermore, concerning these two our companions have not inquired, yet these two have more nakedness.
967. Also, we have learned in the u Book of Concealed Mystery ” that the Male is extended and conformed with His parts, and there is formed in Him forma partis tegendae purae, et illud est membrum purum.
968. Longitudo autem membri hujus est 248 mundorum, et omnes illi pendent in orificio membri hujus, quod dicitur I, Yod,
969. Et cum detegitur Yod, orificium membri ; detegitur Benignitas superna.*
970. And this member is the Benignity, quo nomine
* For five is H, He, the number of the feminine letter in the Tetragrammaton, the number also of the Microcosm or
Lesser World, the symbol or sign of which is the
Pentragram. The 248 paths into which the five judgments are ex- tended are the correlates of those of mercy.
+ This word is ShVQ, Shoq , in the original. Fuerst translates it Leg, especially the part from knee to ankle. So does Gesenius in his Lexicon ; but in his large Hebrew and Chaldee Thesaurus it is, apparently by an oversight, omitted. Zanolini translates it “Armus, Crus,” and adds: “In BRKVTh, Berackoth, fol. 24, ‘ ShVQ A BAShH ORVH, Crura in muliere res pudenda sunt, scilicet crura nuda. Hinc in more positum apud Judaeos est, ut ipsorum mulieres, et pnellae demissis ad talos vestibus verecundiae caussa utantur, ne viros ad libidinem excitent.’ ’* (“ Lexicon Chaldaeo-Rabbioicum,” art. ShVQ.)
X I have thought it advisable to retain this piece in the Latin, as it will be equally intelligible in that language to the ordinary student ; and it is not so well fitted for expression in English. It contains the symbolism of the genitalia.
KABBALAH.
tamen proprie vocatur orificium membri ; neither is it called Benignity until I, Yod , orificii membri, is uncovered.
971. And come, behold, Abraham is not called perfect in that Benignity, until I, Yod , of the member is uncovered ; but when that is uncovered he is called perfect.*